The ending of the “Westworld” season premiere is giving us chills

We’ve been talking about the Westworld premiere a lot, mainly because it’s totally bonkers and we’re full of questions we need to shout into the void, but one thing we HAVEN’T talked about is THE ENDING OF THE PILOT BECAUSE HOLY WOWWWWWW WAS IT A LOT.

To recap, Westworld is set in a “theme park” peopled by robots aka “hosts” who are there for the pleasure and entertainment of the rich patrons who enter. The initial conflict presented is that after a recent update to the hosts to make them more lifelike, they’re starting to glitch. Although their memories are wiped after every day, some of them are starting to remember their “past lives” and are gaining something resembling sentience, which poses the obvious problems that always come from AI.

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The real turning point doesn’t happen until the very last beat of the pilot, though. A core configuration of the hosts is that they are not capable of harming any of the guests, or any properly living thing. Right?

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Right. So when the oldest Hemsworth brother (aka, head of security, Ashley Stubbs) is questioning Dolores at the beginning/end of the pilot, he asks her if she has ever hurt a living being to prove to a colleague that despite being the oldest host in the park, Dolores is still functioning properly. Dolores says no. She also tells them that she has never lied to them. (Which already seems like a lie — like, her dad DEFINITELY said more than “these violent delights have violent ends” in that scene, RIGHT?!)

All of this to say the most significant moment of the pilot is the last beat when Dolores decidedly CRUSHES a fly when it lands on her.

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After watching that fly buzz around scenes for the whole episode, landing on Dolores and at another point Teddy and being generally ignored, Dolores’s decision to kill the fly totally signifies a change in her. She’s going off her programming, and we’re EXCITED and NERVOUS to see where this goes.

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