I am loving the performances in Westworld. Evan Rachel Wood's Delores is fantastic! And Thandie Newton is also knocking it out of the park. Jeffrey Wright. Anthony Hopkins doing his reliably creepy creepiness. I don't know the woman playing the QA head, but she's great as well. So many good performances. For that reason, more than for the story itself, I've been really enjoying the show. The story itself has yet to really grab me. I'm finding it a little bit pretentious, like it's taking itself way too seriously.

I concur on the acting. The three you note in particular stand out. Of those three, Jeffrey Wright was the known quantity. I knew he could do this kind of performance. But Thandie, and especially Evan Rachel Wood have been revelations.

I think Westworld is pinging me just the way it is you, Hec. The nature of humanity and identity and self stuff, and the quality of the acting is astonishing, especially Evan Rachel Wood and Thandie Newton, and oh yeah, that Hopkins guy just thrown in for shiggles. (I also love Bernard, can't wait for more of his scenes.)

They've hooked me. Every time someone says "Analysis:", I sit forward on the couch.

There is a ton of gore, sexual violence and disregard for (mostly robot) life in general, so I can see how it would be too disturbing for some, but it hits those Blade Runner keys for me.

I have ordered a set of the Outlander wines. I wish it were Claire/Jamie/Bree/Roger, but maybe they'll partner with a distillery for S4.

I am terribly excited about Westworld, but so far I have only managed to catch the first episode, due to school and work, and now my quick trip to LA. I hope to catch up soon.

I'm loving Westworld for the reasons Hec mentioned.

The implication of this theory is that William (nice guy with Delores) is Man in Black (Ed Harris) thirty some years ago.

I ran across this fan theory so I had to rewatch all the episodes with that theory in mind. It works, except if that's the case the show is trying to deceive us with editing that implies it's all one timeline.

Oh, and that there is no labyrinth per se, but that it's Delores' path as she loops through time and multiple memory wipes trying to put her own story together.

I don't think I buy this. Why is the maze such a big part of Native culture then? (That was shown in the preview for next Sunday's episode.

How 'bout them Westworlds, huh? (That episode rocked pretty hard, imo.)

Pretty great episode!

So that reveal on Bernard was what I anticipated (somewhat) and Dolores also implied that she was into "a bit of a timeslip" - so I think the multiple time loops is definitely what's going on.

Also, I was watching with my friend Rio and when Ford had that little speech about repetition and variation she googled it and she came up with this classic philosophical book, Difference and Repetition by Gilles Deleuze: [link]

Check out a couple of key quotes especially in relation to the lives of the hosts, but it's much concerned with memory, patterns, individuation of self...

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Passive synthesis is exemplified by habit. Habit incarnates the past (and gestures to the future) in the present by transforming the weight of experience into an urgency. Habit creates a multitude of "larval selves," each of which functions like a small ego with desires and satisfactions. In Freudian discourse, this is the domain of bound excitations associated with the pleasure principle.

2. Active synthesis[edit]

The second level of time is organized by the active force of memory, which introduces discontinuity into the passage of time by sustaining relationships between more distant events. A discussion of destiny makes clear how memory transforms time and enacts a more profound form of repetition:

Destiny never consists in step-by-step deterministic relations between presents which succeed one another according to the order of a represented time. Rather, it implies between successive presents non-localisable connections, actions at a distance, systems of replay, resonance and echoes, objective chances, signs, signals, and roles which transcend spatial locations and temporal successions. (83)

Relative to the passive synthesis of habit, memory is virtual and vertical. It deals with events in their depth and structure rather than in their contiguity in time. Where passive syntheses created a field of 'me's,' active synthesis is performed by 'I.' In the Freudian register, this synthesis describes the displaced energy of Eros, which becomes a searching and problematizing force rather than a simple stimulus to gratification.

This show is reminding me more and more of BSG with every passing second.

All of this has happened before, and all of it will happen again.