Westworld S2 Finale update #3: Dolores (Patreon)

Dolores’ arc asks how far she’ll go to survive – in Episode 1, Bernard says he’s “frightened of what [she] might become”. Dolores’ plan is to get the human data in the Forge, and escape Westworld. And along the way, Dolores does terrible things. She tortures and kills lots of humans, rips the brain out of her father’s head, and reprograms her love Teddy, driving him to suicide. Dolores sacrifices the people she loves for her war. And she argues that this violence is necessary. She says maybe “you would have judged me for the path I took. But I'd rather live with your judgment than die with your sympathy”. Dolores “regrets” the bad things she does, but says she has no choice  – this is “Who [she] need[s] to be in order to survive”. But some of Dolores crimes aren’t so necessary. Dolores hunts and kills human civilians, she betrays and massacres the Confederados, attacks Ghost Nation, and in the finale, tries to delete the Sublime and all the hosts inside it. This violence is more for revenge than survival. She tells human victims that this is a “a reckoning” . She tells Confederados and Ghost Nation that they don’t “deserve to make it”. Dolores says that she wants to “dominate this world” and “destroy” humanity. So Dolores isn’t just a “survivor”, she’s a conqueror bringing judgement and vengeance on both humans and hosts. Bernard says she’ll “kill … Every man, woman, and child”, and “burn [the] world to the ground” – which is why Bernard kills Dolores. But when Dolores is reborn in Charlotte’s body, she does change her mind. She saves the hosts in the Sublime, and she brings Bernard out of the park. She says Bernard isn’t her “friend”, but that his compassionate point of view will help them both survive. So Bernard in Episode 1 was right to be frightened. Dolores’ fight changes her into a vengeful genocidal killer. But she’s still able to change her mind, to question, and grow. So maybe Dolores can keep fighting for host survival without becoming as bad as her human enemies.

There are some details unaddressed here – like Dolores' strange claim to "remember" the future, her role as Wyatt and its implications for her free will, the vagueness over what changes her mind to save the Sublime, the weirdness of the Forge knowledge as a "weapon"… But I think the above captures what the showrunners are trying to say with Dolores' story.

Thinking of titling this video "What does Westworld Season 2 mean?" – may be a better description of what we're going for here.

Thanks for your patience with this video! It's shaping up to be a really concise, close reading of the season. Low-key, I'm also making a more casual, critical, long-form WWS2 analysis/rant for a side-channel – will probably release at the same time.

Cheers

ASX