@jev5555 It is clear that Hosts are allowed to shoot at Guests, if Guests take them down a narrative path to want it. MiB told Teddy to draw first. Delores also drew on Harris, pulling out her dead daddy's pistol from his holster. I mean, why even have guns and draw on Hosts if you don't want to have a Western shootout? Harris even says, "I didn't pay all this money because I wanted it easy. I want you to fight." Ep 2 explains it even more. Episode 2 debunks this. There is a scene where Security is watching Harris and one questioned whether they should stop him after slaughtering the Hangmen posse, and the other said, "No, he can do whatever he wants." implying he's a VIP, big spender, just like how Harris referred to himself all throughout Ep 1. Maybe there is some huge plot-twist coming. But right now, his character was referred to as a Guest .
And 10 seconds later he said he was born there. Could have been figuratively speaking but we have also seen that the lower level characters are being written as incompetent morons. Also, all the guests are VIP big spenders.
Ed Harris is that one Fallout player who pours hundreds if not thousands of hours into the game trying out every single storyline as a "good" character, a full "evil" character and explores every nook and cranny of the game until s/he unlocks all easter eggs and achievements. Keep waiting for the figurative Achievement unlocks to appear under his name.
2 episodes in now. Overall: 9/10 Management: It's interesting that in both the movie and the show that management is 100% aware of the potential problems and have already started to address them. They don't keep us in the dark. This is in stark contrast to most movies or shows where an outsider or perceived outsider is trying to warn them like in the original Jurassic Park. The owner of course is very cerebral, interesting, and is complex enough to either be the issue or the hero. Hard to say which. But I see him as hero. Like. Don't know the end game for management which is a big reveal... Hope it's not military, but has a scientific end and maybe even good willed. Characters and Plot: Original. Interesting. Fun. The birth of consciousness is good fare. Think there are a lot of directions to go with the plot. Ensemble cast is great with sprawling opportunities and depth. Lot' of self reflection as you move along with them. I liked all of them really, including the Christian Slater look a like. The Cinematography is top notch. Love the deep themes of who you really are, the boundaries of science, evolution of man and machine, and the overall cerebral nature of the show. How long can they go: They've developed a nice set of mysteries, interactions ( Host to Host, Guest to Host, Host to Management, guest to Management, Host to world, World to Host ) and directions, but you wonder first how long can they go with these plots without losing interest or being forced into epic events, and will they be able to tie them off, the ultimate challenge in a series. It will be hard to decommission the main characters. So far, saving them is your classic science mistake, and works. Questions: I'm not sure why the characters repeat each day. It helped to get the point across that they have loops, and things are changing, but you would think their loops and arcs would be a couple of weeks at least so that the guests have a story arc. I'm in.
My guess is that so much damage is done daily to the hosts by the guests that they require constant repair. We also learned in this episode that they are dealing with only a limited number of hosts that can be active at one time. I think that number is 2,000. If each of the 1400 guests kills just 1 host, 600 hosts remain. Kind of kills your storylines over a week. Plus if they need to make a change (like Mr. Abernathy) they can do it seamlessly without the hosts noticing because the hosts program loop restarts.
Since I work in risk management, the first thing that popped into my head is what if a guest kills another guest? Knives, rocks, shivs, sexual assault. Also why would you ever bring your kid to a place like this.
btw: great write up! Isn't it just the retention of memories, or access to data of past events. Dont think this is a sentient sci-fi plot, at least not yet. They are becoming computers who are processing cause and effect from reverie code, more like animal survival response vs human consciousness. I would think time-variance of narrative is doable from a game-coding standpoint ... unless of course, like @jev5555 points out, someone is damaged and needs to be repaired. Here's what we know: There are daily loops if the Host loop is not extended by a Guest. Whores can be taken on weekend adventures. T The group of Guests who knew Teddy mentioned going on longer adventures with him as a "guide." Here's some slight speculation: The guy with the eye-patch can take you on a treasure hunt, possibly longer than a day. The Deputies looking for volunteers to hunt the bandits could possibly a multi-day loop. You can try to bed the "girl nex dorr" -- Delores -- but it will take more than a day to loosen her up. You can't just grab her p***y. But she might invite you for dinner to meet her parents and instead of going out to paint again the next morning, meet you for breakfast and shopping. So, these are daily loops with variable time frames. The known long plays We know from the show that the Narrative writers had to adjust the timeframe of the Saloon heist, "up it from a week to a day" or something like that. Maybe those bandits just wait around, so the heist doesn't happen every day, or maybe they crisscross other narratives (like the sheriff murder) and won't actually do the heist until/unless achievements are met. The Epic new story/narrative that Hopkins shot down seems like it needs way more than a day to be Epic. Harris is certainly taking Hosts on long tangents. He's figured out that the game is much bigger than others have figured out. So, I'm pretty satisfied that we have different timeframes for when a loop resets. The story is focusing on showing us the daily repeating characters is all. Certainly, the saloon heist isn't a daily event. And the Narrative writers want to create Big, Epic events with climax endings.
when Harris was shot at and didn't die, at first I thought this was virtual reality. It isn't though, he's flesh and bone just like everybody else , not superhuman. So why could he not be killed? There is only one explanation. The hosts have been programmed into thinking they have a gun or are trying to kill (more realistic than not making them aggressive at all) while they are not able to. A gun they think they are holding could be a fake one or a simple stick. I think that was the significance of uncovering the gun at the end of the last episode. The only reason it would stand out from the countless guns the hosts carry is if it didn't have "rules" or if it was actually real.
Yes, I think that might be a real gun ... or equally important, a gun with real bullets. This in contrast to the guns in the display from which you pick that "only kill what you are allowed to kill" per the explanation of the sexy Host at the start of the adventure.
A few more thoughts...after reading through the thread. Chaos: It seems that everyone who has come into contact with the man in black is infected. Given that he has been there 30 years, that would seem irrelevant, as who wouldn't he have been in contact with. But would keep my eye on that. It might be that his new found desire for the introduction of chaos/virus is the arching theme. Not sure what makes it chaotic from a host perspective, but it feels like he is working outside of the normal parameters for sure. Not unlike Neo. Or unlike agent Smith. Not unlike frog dna. That once chaos is introduced into the environment, this time not by nature, but by humans, anything can happen to the host machines or in the park. Utopia: The other thought was that the host world was benevolent, decent, and a sort of utopia, where nobody really dies and everything is good from the host perspective. However, the humans have introduced so much hate, violence, and general harm that the hosts now either have to protect the humans from themselves ( ie, I, robot code ) or that humans are so evil that they infect the good hosts. This seems more likely to me as it hinges on the bigger idea that humans are faulty, and the robots are wholesome, and that the park is designed to figure out who you really are, and who WE really are, per the owner. Meet the maker: It could also be that the man in black is simply trying to meet his maker. His quest feels both like a distraction to the main plot, and the main plot itself. It's a bit confusing, but I almost feel like his character too will be redemptive. It's very possible that he is Yule Brenner, but instead of a gunslinger, he's on a quest to find out what he is.
Possibly. That is more in line with the movie. I wasn't even sure what reverie code was until I looked it up, lol. but I think there is more happening here with regard to consciousness given the whole idea of code and mistakes, and evolution, and with the distinct lines they draw with the morality of the hosts and humans, but have now started to blur. The hosts world seem under attack. Thanks. I think I understand the loops now.
The Saloon Heist bandits are pure evil, though. And they kill many Hosts. The new Epic Story that Hopkins didn't like included Cannibals. The madame w**** has "nightmares" of Indians. The breakdown of their Utopian world doesn't seem just done by Guests. It's reveries of all the evil put into the narratives by human writers.
The Fly: Think is a reflection of the host now being annoyed by organic life, and at the same time that means the host is becoming more like a human. ( not unlike Aaron Rodgers. )
Dude, are you in DFW? There is a string of these paintings on Davis Blvd through Keller and North Richland hills. My favorite is Captain Gus McCrae as I am an avowed lover of all things lonesome dove. If they had a lonesome dove theme park with androids, I would be all in--best story line there is.
I really enjoyed the first episode but I think the 2nd one might have been even better since the world was established. I'll all in on the series.....
