Last season was hit or miss at times, but I'm still looking forward to season 3.

Season 2 had some interesting ideas and themes running throughout it. Unfortunately, they just didn't make the journey along the way all that entertaining like it was in season 1.

Didn't realize Chip Gaines was going to be in this season

FightinTexasAg15 said:

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Marshawn's shirt that changed according to his emotion was pretty cool

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His shirt needed to have "beast mode" light up before he beat that guy down.

I mean, that was awesome. The settings were fantastic, the amount of action was a good change of pace, and the story for this season was setup at a nice clip. Nazi-Germany-World looked cool too, although I doubt we spend much time there.

I'm glad game of thrones budget went to something good. The show looked amazing

oragator said:

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Took a Me a while to place it, but Liam was Jim Harper from the News Room.

Meantime, looking forward to the season after tonight. Aaron Paul was great.

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Thank you for saving me the trouble of having to remember that.

That was awesome

TCTTS said:

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That was AWESOME. So dizzying. So badass. And the production design was incredible. It's been a while since we've had a proper, big budget, futuristic setting in a movie or show and this was everything I could ask for. So much insanely cool tech.

A few other thoughts...

- Dolores was nails (and yes, incredibly hot). First time I've ever truly rooted for her. Such a great "retool" in that sense, and I love the mission she's on. She's like a weapon now, especially in that opening scene, just toying with that guy.

- What little we saw of Bernard was great. Analyzing himself just like he analyzed Dolores. And then unleashing himself on those guys. Going back to Westworld with him should be fun.

- Notice we see an overhead shot of Caleb (Aaron Paul) waking up three times throughout the episode, just like we saw Dolores do three times in the pilot. It's the humans who are now stuck in "loops."

I definitely need to rewatch this episode, as I know there's so much I missed, but damn it's great to have this show back. What a start.

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This episode looked REALLY expensive. Are they able to do those types of shots and CGI for cheaper than it looks now?

I think it's a bit cheaper, yeah, but HBO is sparing no expense. With Game of Thrones off the slate, this is their big genre show now.

"The question becomes... who the Hale is she?"

Great behind-the-scenes featurette at the end of the episode...

Speaking of, now that they're officially acknowledging it, I've read in a couple of reviews that in the first four episodes critics have seen so far, we still don't know which brain pearl is in the new Charlotte body. It seems that's a mystery they're going to milk, so prepare your expectations accordingly.

That said, I love that one of the brain pearls (ID unknown) is used to mimic someone else in the real world: Conells (Tommy Flanagan). I guess I was expecting Dolores to match most of the brain pearls to their actual, remade bodies, but this is so much more fun. Though, I need the volume higher on my rewatch, because I could hardly understand a thing Conells said.

And here's the new "In the Weeks Ahead" trailer, which looks insanely cool...

Since Charlotte was pushing for Delos to go private to hide where they get future funding, guess that funding will be from Incite to store the data from the Forge in their sphere.

That's a good guess. I couldn't quite tell. Seems like that board was part of a larger parent company, and that Delos was only one part of it? Was the empty chair supposed to be the Incite algorithm? I can't remember the name they kept calling it. Or was the empty chair meant for Vincent Cassel's character?

That's what was confusing. I thought Charlotte took his spot. But yeah that makes sense that he would still be represented in some way.

I love this show so damn much...

Quote:

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It can be surmised that Solomon was a system that used advanced AI to analyze the patterns of history and chart a course for the future in order to combat would-be catastrophes and bring peace to humankind. But at what cost...? Did humanity sacrifice its free will and turn its decisions over to a machine in order to avoid strife? More importantly, what happened to Solomon? Why is Incite's system now called Rehoboam? The answer lies in its name: in Hebrew tradition, Rehoboam was the son and successor of King Solomon, who ruled after him from 931-913 BCE.

While King Solomon was famed for being immensely wealthy and wise and for forging the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah into one United Monarchy, King Rehoboam is more infamous for presiding over his father's fractured empire after the 10 tribes of Israel rebelled and won their independence, leaving Rehoboam to rule only over the Kingdom of Judah. (Jeroboam, who would go on to rule the Kingdom of Israel, was originally the slave in charge of all of King Solomon's forced labor; it was Rehoboam's harsh treatment of these slaves that led to Jeroboam's insurrection and the rebellion of Israel.)

From this context, it can be assumed that Rehoboam is the successor to Solomon, the next evolution in the system's development although the period of peace that Solomon presided over has been fractured and Rehoboam has inherited a more unstable world, thanks to Dolores. Will Dolores - the Jereboam in this analogy -successfully lead humanity, slaves to Incite's system, in a revolt against the rule of Rehoboam?

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https://www.bustle.com/p/what-is-rehoboam-on-westworld-incites-system-can-be-explained-by-the-bible-22621390

Re: the circuit tabs a couple characters popped into their mouths...

Quote:

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First, it was leeches and blood-letting. Then, it was pill popping and mood-stabilizing. Put away the blunt instrument and choose precision backed by insight into what makes you, youand happy. Incite's revolutionary tab technology taps into the olfactory nerve for direct access to your limbic system. Once placed in the mouth, these fully dissolvable limbic tabs transmit a digital code to the brain, which is immediately translated into electrical impulses.

Safe and 100% effective, these impulses generate a precise and specifically tailored sensation without any negative side effects. All it takes is a small, painless metal implant that is carefully contoured to the roof of your mouth, which pairs instantly to Incite's ID8 app. Each fully customizable experience goes far beyond the simple upper / downer dichotomy of the early 2000s, allowing you to leave your cares behind with a Mellow Sunset or skyrocket your work ethic with a Soaring Eagle.

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https://inciteinc.com/#medical

Very reminiscent of Body-of-Christ/communion crackers, btw.

(Yes, I'm currently working my way through reddit, in case that wasn't apparent.)

TCTTS said:

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Another thing covered in this video is Nolan addressing the Rico app. The blockchain explanation helps, but I'm still confused as to what's keeping a bunch of undercover cops from downloading the app and just busting a sh*t ton of criminals? I like the imagination of it, but it doesn't seem even remotely practical, unless there's something I'm missing?

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Ok, so it looks like the idea is that Incite even controls crime in the future. As Nolan says, we can never get rid of crime, so it seems Incite "plans" it via the Rico app, or something along those lines. Still seems a little shaky, but interesting nonetheless.

There also seems to be something to Caleb's line about already having been shot in the head. Combine that with his mother saying he wasn't her son (something I completely missed), along with the whole "program" mentioned by Caleb/his therapist, and there looks to be a lot more to him than meets the eye.

Damn it.

A warning for anyone else perusing the Westworld reddit over the course of the season... as valuable and as fun as it is for explanations and deeper meaning stuff, I forget that a handful of those guys are inevitably going to "solve" the season in advance, considering the sheer number of commenters/guesses. Case in point, I just read a paragraph from a guy taking an educated guess as to how the main storyline will likely play out, in the broadest terms, and based on the context clues he provides, I don't see how he's wrong. He keeps it short and sweet enough that there's still plenty of room for surprise, detail, and error - and again, it's just a guess - but there's no way he didn't just figure out at least *a* revelation this season, based on a couple of now-obvious scenes this episode.

Granted, I don't think it's anything anyone here won't guess in the next couple of days/weeks, since we're all fairly smart/observant and that's what this thread is for. It's also not *that* big of a deal. We're not talking an "I'm your father"/He-was-dead-the-whole-time level spoiler or anything like that. I'm just saying, proceed with caution over there even though someone here will inevitably figure it out, and I don't think it'll ruin all that much when they do. Heck, I could see it even being like an episode four revelation as opposed to a season finale revelation. Who knows...

TCTTS said:

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Another thing covered in this video is Nolan addressing the Rico app. The blockchain explanation helps, but I'm still confused as to what's keeping a bunch of undercover cops from downloading the app and just busting a sh*t ton of criminals? I like the imagination of it, but it doesn't seem even remotely practical, unless there's something I'm missing?

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I had a similar thought but maybe as such apps were developed a legal precedent for entrapment was established or maybe the points system that is running everything sees a benefit in monetized crime.

Link?