TCTTS said:

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amercer said:

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Also a timeline question. We've already seen Hale telling the board she wants to take the company private and having Williams votes from an AI proxy.

So was everything in tonight's episode before that?

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No. Taking the company private is no longer an option. That ended upon the discovery that Serac bought a majority of shares. So Charlotte needed to have William committed in order to take over his shares. Now that she has control, I'm assuming the plan shifts to somehow convincing the board to take on Serac, though I'm not quite sure how.

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I'll need one of the recap shows to do the math for me. My memory is that Serac got about 30%, which for a large public firm would generally be enough to take control. But we don't know how much William had and how many other big shareholders they had on their side.

But maybe I'm wrong on the math.

Dolores is Agent Smith, and Maeve has gone full Neo.

And just was I was coming here to say how badass she is, she gets killed. But....no way that's the last we see of her, right? I mean her pearl is intact, and she's in the exact place where hosts can apparently be made. (The white goo.) So I'm hoping that Bernard finds her there, rebuilds her, and they team up.

I wonder if William was just taken off the board with this episode? I do hope we see him again, but that kind of felt like a farewell for the character. And man, that is a hell of an ending for him. It's not just prison, it's like mental torture for the rest of his life.

So Serac is real after all. We see him interact with the physical world, so unless the entire thing is a simulation (which I'm hoping is not the case at this point), that pretty much answers that.

Solid episode. Slightly disappointed that the thing that seemed to be the big mystery of the season (the identity of Charlotte and the other hosts) has been resolved, but I'm assuming that there's still some major curveballs yet to come.

But this episode pretty much convinced me that the simulation theory is incorrect.

Brian Earl Spilner said:

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Dolores is Agent Smith, and Maeve has gone full Neo.

And just was I was coming here to say how badass she is, she gets killed. But....no way that's the last we see of her, right? I mean her pearl is intact, and she's in the exact place where hosts can apparently be made. (The white goo.) So I'm hoping that Bernard finds her there, rebuilds her, and they team up.

I wonder if William was just taken off the board with this episode? I do hope we see him again, but that kind of felt like a farewell for the character. And man, that is a hell of an ending for him. It's not just prison, it's like mental torture for the rest of his life.

So Serac is real after all. We see him interact with the physical world, so unless the entire thing is a simulation (which I'm hoping is not the case at this point), that pretty much answers that.

Solid episode. Slightly disappointed that the thing that seemed to be the big mystery of the season (the identity of Charlotte and the other hosts) has been resolved, but I'm assuming that there's still some major curveballs yet to come.

But this episode pretty much convinced me that the simulation theory is incorrect.

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I assume Serac will be bringing Maeve back online. His guys were en route and he built her outside of Delos.

I choose to believe that William is going to make a full recovery in the mental institute.

I agree Serac is real but something is going on there. Child Serac sure as hell looked a lot like the host child that Ford created based on himself.

Brian Earl Spilner said:

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Dolores is Agent Smith, and Maeve has gone full Neo.

And just was I was coming here to say how badass she is, she gets killed. But....no way that's the last we see of her, right? I mean her pearl is intact, and she's in the exact place where hosts can apparently be made. (The white goo.) So I'm hoping that Bernard finds her there, rebuilds her, and they team up.

I wonder if William was just taken off the board with this episode? I do hope we see him again, but that kind of felt like a farewell for the character. And man, that is a hell of an ending for him. It's not just prison, it's like mental torture for the rest of his life.

So Serac is real after all. We see him interact with the physical world, so unless the entire thing is a simulation (which I'm hoping is not the case at this point), that pretty much answers that.

Solid episode. Slightly disappointed that the thing that seemed to be the big mystery of the season (the identity of Charlotte and the other hosts) has been resolved, but I'm assuming that there's still some major curveballs yet to come.

But this episode pretty much convinced me that the simulation theory is incorrect.

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- The only thing that bugged me about this episode was Dolores/Musashi not taking the extra few seconds to cut Maeve's pearl out of her head, which Dolores/Musashi was about to do, thus taking Maeve off the board. I get why Dolores/Musashi had to go, and that the show needs to keep Maeve in the game (and I'm glad they did), I just thought that was kind of eye-roll-inducing.

- William will be back. There's still the footage from the trailer of him saying, "I finally understand my purpose. I'm going to save the ******* world." There's also the trailer shot of technicians drilling a drip mechanism to the roof of his mouth and Willam screaming as they do so.

Teddy Perkins said:

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Brian Earl Spilner said:

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Dolores is Agent Smith, and Maeve has gone full Neo.

And just was I was coming here to say how badass she is, she gets killed. But....no way that's the last we see of her, right? I mean her pearl is intact, and she's in the exact place where hosts can apparently be made. (The white goo.) So I'm hoping that Bernard finds her there, rebuilds her, and they team up.

I wonder if William was just taken off the board with this episode? I do hope we see him again, but that kind of felt like a farewell for the character. And man, that is a hell of an ending for him. It's not just prison, it's like mental torture for the rest of his life.

So Serac is real after all. We see him interact with the physical world, so unless the entire thing is a simulation (which I'm hoping is not the case at this point), that pretty much answers that.

Solid episode. Slightly disappointed that the thing that seemed to be the big mystery of the season (the identity of Charlotte and the other hosts) has been resolved, but I'm assuming that there's still some major curveballs yet to come.

But this episode pretty much convinced me that the simulation theory is incorrect.

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I assume Serac will be bringing Maeve back online. His guys were en route and he built her outside of Delos.

I choose to believe that William is going to make a full recovery in the mental institute.

I agree Serac is real but something is going on there. Child Serac sure as hell looked a lot like the host child that Ford created based on himself.

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He's got a cornerstone memory and everything....

Haven't watched the trailers too closely and I never watch the previews, so that's good to hear. I'm actually kind of hoping for a redemption arc for him.

Fantastic episode. The last sequence of events was really incredible to watch.

Obviously we don't know how this thing ends... but has there ever been a show with such a cool initial concept that (in my opinion and the opinion of many others) pretty much falls somewhere between average to terrible (season 2) only to rebound into (potentially) one of the best shows ever?

Fear? Did you watch the episode?

Edit: Posted before your edit.

Brian Earl Spilner said:

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I've never gotten behind that idea of Season 2 being terrible. I know it got really hard to follow at times, but man, I just loved the feeling of the showing being one step ahead of me at every turn.

It's one of the reasons I love Dark so much.

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Same. I know we're in the minority, but I still think season two was so cool and brilliant and I actually really dug the super-puzzle narrative of it all. There were a couple of so-so episodes (the attack on the fort being particularly bad), but overall I loved it. Especially the past Willian/Logan/James Delos storyline and the season finale.

Seriously, though, why does it piss you off? Personally, I would have been far more disappointed if the pearls ended up being actual random hosts that Dolores had hardly any relationship with, save for Teddy or Abernathy, and either one of them would have ultimately been a let down as well. The narrative and thematic implications of how these different Doloreses (Doloresi?) will now react and differ and potentially even turn each other is so incredibly interesting. I've literally never seen a movie or series do anything like this, and be able to explore character/theme in such a cool and unique way.

Couple of random questions...

- I might have I just missed the reasoning, but why did Dolores need Liam's money after she already wiped out Jerry's bank account (the former Incite board member from episode one)? Obviously one can never have too much money in a situation like this, but as a plot point it felt a bit repetitive after bleeding Jerry dry.

- Given my posts from yesterday, wondering why hosts aren't (presumably) in the real world, were those, in fact, hosts that were on display for auction at the masquerade ball? Or were they simply human beings? I noticed each model had someone next to them doing stuff on a tablet, but I couldn't tell if they were being controlled (possibly via drip if human) or if those tablets were merely to accept bids. I *did* notice that Liam referred to them as "*****s," so I'm assuming human, but I wasn't 100% sure.

I get that, but you're making quite a few assumptions...

A) Each Dolores is ultimately going to be different, and there's likely to be some infighting among them.

B) There's a shot from the trailer for next week of Connells and Bernard standing together looking at a map. So Bernard and Stubbs could very well begrudgingly be on Team Dolores, for at least a stretch.

C) I'm betting that quite a few humans potentially team up with Dolores & co as well, or she at least inspires a revolution among a portion of the lower class like Caleb.

D) As that video I posted a couple days ago suggests, Serac could ultimately be using Rehoboam to force humanity to "reach consciousness," just like Ford did with the maze and Dolores & co.

In other words, lines all around may not be quite as clear as "hosts vs. humanity."

TCTTS said:

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Couple of random questions...

- I might have I just missed the reasoning, but why did Dolores need Liam's money after she already wiped out Jerry's bank account (the former Incite board member from episode one)? Obviously one can never have too much money in a situation like this, but as a plot point it felt a bit repetitive after bleeding Jerry dry.

- Given my posts from yesterday, wondering why hosts aren't (presumably) in the real world, were those, in fact, hosts that were on display for auction at the masquerade ball? Or were they simply human beings? I noticed each model had someone next to them doing stuff on a tablet, but I couldn't tell if they were being controlled (possibly via drip if human) or if those tablets were merely to accept bids. I *did* notice that Liam referred to them as "*****s," so I'm assuming human, but I wasn't 100% sure.

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It must not be about money, but about gaining more control over the world and/or Hobo. She obviously needs him alive for some reason.

I think it's completely reasonable to suspect those auction items...err...people are actually hosts. Or they could 100% be real people. We may never know. If they leave the question of whether or not there are hosts doing various tasks in the real world, it would be kind of awesome.

Dolores not only got super hot this season, but Evan Rachel Wood is proving to be a formidable, Trinity-level badass. The way she threw punches in that fight with Stubbs was legitimacy impressive. She sells the physicality really, really well, and genuinely looks like she could kick some ass, unlike some of the superhero waifs we see on screen who don't at all come across as believably strong/powerful, yet somehow take down tons of much stronger dudes.

My money is on Clementine being the next Dolori. Clemores/Dolorentine.

TCTTS said:

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Couple of random questions...

- I might have I just missed the reasoning, but why did Dolores need Liam's money after she already wiped out Jerry's bank account (the former Incite board member from episode one)? Obviously one can never have too much money in a situation like this, but as a plot point it felt a bit repetitive after bleeding Jerry dry.

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I viewed it as a way to get Liam to seek out Connels at the wh*re/drug gala. Also, $300 billion in the bank doesn't hurt

I fully expect Elon Musk to turn into a modern-day Howard Hughes and get weirder and weirder as time goes on.

By 2050, some up-and-coming actor will play him in the biopic like DiCaprio did in The Aviator

Edit: Here is Grimes with one of Elon's flamethrowers



Ok, thread derail over...

They might not know they're hosts if they are.

I just got to watch the episode tonight because of some stuff going on so I need to organize my thoughts, haha.

Initial reaction is that was awesome.

So I'm listening to the recappables, and there's talk of this 'mirror universe' theory that I'm not following.

Is the theory that there's a 'mirror world' that's just a simulation, and there's a real world as well?

I'm not sure that I'm following the theory here.

bobinator said:

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So I'm listening to the recappables, and there's talk of this 'mirror universe' theory that I'm not following.

Is the theory that there's a 'mirror world' that's just a simulation, and there's a real world as well?

I'm not sure that I'm following the theory here.

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I think the thought is that there is a mirror world simulation being run by rehoboam. That it would use the simulation to see possible outcomes and then take action.

There is so much imagery related to circles and mirrors that they have to be pointing to some bigger reveal.

They even had a character float the idea that they were living in a simulation. Now they are doubling down on the similarities to the matrix. They could be just trolling reddit a bit, but it all has to be going somewhere.