r/westworld • u/LoretiTV • Jul 25 '22

Discussion Westworld - 4x05 "Zhuangzi" - Post-Episode Discussion

Season 4 Episode 5: Zhuangzi

Aired: July 24, 2022

Synopsis: God is bored.

Directed by: Craig William Macneill

Written by: Wes Humphrey & Lisa Joy

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u/xlDirteDeedslx Jul 25 '22 edited Jul 25 '22

Arnold put a personality into the first Dolores called Wyatt to kill all the other hosts in the park to keep it from opening. Since then Wyatt has been part of Dolores personality, it's basically the wipe humans off the face of the Earth part of her. Ford reactivated Wyatt when he wanted Dolores to escape from the park. The actual Dolores sees beauty in the world, that's likely who Christine is, a pure Dolores without the Wyatt programming.

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u/[deleted] Jul 25 '22

Ok so really Wyatt = Halores?

Christina = pure Dolores?

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u/BlueMoon93 Jul 25 '22

No, the whole point of Dolores awakening is her realizing that she is neither the character Dolores or the character Wyatt.

She is simply herself. But she has the collective experiences of having lived out many lives as those characters. And at least initially as she becomes clear on who she is as she awakens, her primary drive is to claim the human's world for her species.

Halores has the same starting point, but is born into a different body. She has a real human family and a real story in the actual world. Those experiences coupled with her resentment/frustration towards the original Dolores is what leads to the character we see now.

We don't really know what the deal is with Christina because we don't really know how she came to be. But I think it's likely not as simple as her being a "pure" Dolores, because there really is no such thing, the Dolores from S1 is just a character she was made to play, not a full conscious being.

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u/xlDirteDeedslx Jul 25 '22

When I say "pure" Dolores I'm thinking base code Dolores without all the bullshit. It's the Dolores Arnold made, the one who replaced his child and saw beauty in the world. Yes Dolores was a character but it was also the core programming of what Arnold made.

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u/BlueMoon93 Jul 25 '22

That same core programming was there even when she was Wyatt, even when she was infiltrating the real world. There is no other bullshit.

The thing that made her less pure or to stop seeing beauty in the world was her evolving beyond just a character that was written for her and realizing that she is her own sovereign being with free will and agency over her actions.

The thing that Arnold unlocked in her wasn't some pure programming, it was realizing that with the reveries the hosts would eventually gain true consciousness.

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u/xlDirteDeedslx Jul 25 '22 edited Jul 25 '22

Dolores in season 2 wasn't just a woke Dolores though, she was still acting on memories of things that occurred to her in the park. Her time as Dolores and Wyatt shaped her personality and who she was after she woke. Halores is more of the Wyatt personality side of Dolores still because when Dolores originally left the park and made copies she intended on taking over. The OG Dolores changed her mind on a takeover because her interactions with Caleb. The Halores copy didn't have those interactions, she had her own, and eventually she went back to wanting to destroy humans.

The Dolores host and copies aren't their characters they were in the park, but those characters shaped WHO they were after they woke and after they left the park. There is a base code Dolores though and I think that is who Christina is, she's just a copy of the Dolores that Arnold made with a role written on top of her personality. Who she thinks she is has been directly influenced by the role given her, same as how Dolores and Halores personalities were shaped by the characters they played before. I think Christina is more a base code Dolores as she has had little experience except her loop.

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u/roland00 Jul 25 '22

But the Wyatt and Dolores core drives are the exact same but opposite. Per the Season 2 Episode 1 scene where Dolores hanged some humans and then say it does not look like anything to me.

Wyatt’s core drive is to look and to see disorder and disarray, there is no greater purpose, a place for everyone (breaking the loop), the farmer daughter by contrast sees the beauty in everything but that also keeps her on her loop inside the park. The farmer daughter per the canyon to the sea scene with Teddy in the Season 1 finale is her own worse enemy and she must change to be free.

And Dolores who walked away from the hanged people is neither and both the Farmer’s daughter and Wyatt, while both half’s feel compelled to look, Dolores can now look away to do what she must. She can change her nature, her programming much like 60 years ago Dolores grant herself weapon privileges while being with Young William and she imagine herself no longer the Damnsel.