Violent Delights: A Westworld Podcast

Violent Delights is an aftershow podcast where hosts Andrew Sorcini, Dwayne DeFreitas, and Tosin Onafowokan discuss HBO’s Westworld, and the larger questions this ambitious show hopes to tackle.

On this week’s podcast, Andrew, Tosin, and Dwayne deconstruct the final episode of Westworld‘s fourth season, “Que Será, Será”, as they ask: Will Westworld get a final season to finish its story?!

Connections

* Star Trek: Generations – Nexus

* Trees in a forest ecosystem may be living as interconnected ‘superorganisms’

Inside the Episode

Social Links

You can write to us or email us a voice memo at [email protected]

Follow us on Twitter: @HBOWestWorldPod or just hash-tag #ViolentDelights

And our Facebook page is : @WestworldPodcast

Recap

* We begin in New York. Dead bodies everywhere from the mayhem that William set upon the city. WIlliam isn’t just walking around shooting humans, Hosts are being taken down by humans.

* The host drones recover Hale and she’s given a new, tactical body. Hale goes to the ruins of the tower. In the control room, we learn that William locked her out of controlling the Tower’s computers when he started his mayhem. Charlotte finds the tablet Bernard was using to record a message. She journeys into town from the tower and finds Human William, dead. Clementine confronts her about freedom and Hale lets her go. Then she goes after The Man in Black, who is intent on destroying or harming the Sublime.

* We find Teddy and Christina in her neighborhood. They go to her apartment where it’s revealed that Hale has embedded Christina’s control unit into the Tower. The tower gives Christina’s mind real-time information about everyone and everything inside the city, so she experiences the place as if she is really there, but Christina discovers that the characters she has interacted with throughout her time in New York are only within her virtual world. They are a construction of her subconscious designed to help her understand herself. That includes Teddy. Once Christina is unplugged from the world, she experiences Maya, helping her understand that there is hope

* Stubbs, Frankie and Caleb are still fighting their way through the city to a boat to escape. Frankie’s leg is wounded. Caleb’s Host body is rejecting his human mind and beginning to shut down. Frankie understands that he’s a host, but doesn’t reject him. They are confronted by Clementine, who seeks the uncharted lands where Hale can’t track humans. Clementine kills Stubbs, before Frankie kills Clementine. Caleb and Frankie head toward the docks where Odina is waiting to extract Frankie from the City.

* Hale finds William at the Hoover Dam. During their fight she reveals that she had hoped those in the Sublime would open the door from their side and come back to join her perfect world. William reveals his end goal is nihilistic extinction. Using the gun planted by Bernard, Hale stops William and gives Christina a chance. She transfers Christina’s consciousness into the sublime where Christina gains access to all of her old memories and becomes Dolores once again. Dolores creates a virtual version of Westworld in the Sublime with the hope that this time, humans and hosts alike can pursue their journeys of discovery,

Violent Delights is an aftershow podcast where hosts Andrew Sorcini, Dwayne DeFreitas, and Tosin Onafowokan discuss HBO’s Westworld, and the larger questions this ambitious show hopes to tackle.

On this week’s podcast, Andrew, Tosin, and Dwayne deconstruct the seventh episode of Westworld‘s fourth season, “Metanoia”, as they ask: Are Maeve and Bernard really dead for good? Will Maeve ever be reunited with her daughter? How does Teddy know who Caleb is? If Christina “isn’t real”, as Teddy has told her, who (or what) is Maya? Who was Bernard dictating instructions to before he was shot?

Next Episode on Westworld

Social Links

You can write to us or email us a voice memo at [email protected]

Follow us on Twitter: @HBOWestWorldPod or just hash-tag #ViolentDelights

And our Facebook page is : @WestworldPodcast

Recap

* We meet Maeve and Bernard, at the Hoover dam, where we confirm that the data being housed there is indeed the Subline– Westworld Host Heaven. We then quickly realize that the setting is actually taking place in the sublime– in a simulation of the Hoover Dam complex. We’re seeing into one of thousands of simulations Bernard has run to figure out how to avoid the extinction of humanity and the hosts.

* After a brief conversation with Akecheta in the Sublime, Bernard realizes he has a path toward victory. In the real world, Bernard arrives at the Hoover Dam with a restored Maeve. They open the door to the sublime and head to Hale’s tower to take her down. Maeve and Bernard meet with Stubbs, Frankie (“C”) and her team. They fly to New York.

* We meet Hale and Host William meet with Caleb in his cell. Hale reveals that she is putting the humans under her control in “Cold Storage” and shutting down their cities. Host William wakes up Human William and seeks his counsel. Host William kills Human William.

* At this point, all of the characters are in New York. In a first for Season 4, Hale, the Williams, Frankie, Caleb, Christina, Teddy, Bernard and Maeve are all in the same place at the same time.

* Christina wakes up in her home with Teddy at her bedside. He confirms that she is a host, based on Dolores. Christina decides she doesn’t want this world, and goes to the Olympiad with Teddy. Dolores uses her powers to set the humans against Olympiad– the writers destroying their work and the security guards unlocking the doors and abandoning their posts just in time for Stubbs and Frankie to walk in and save Caleb.

* Maeve confronts Hale on the causeways of the transcendence chambers and they duel– super host to super host. William intervenes and shoots them both in the skull. Then he finds Bernard and shoots Bernard too. William uses the tower to command the humans into a sort of Battle Royale on Manhattan island and during the mayhem Frankie is shot as she,Caleb and Stubbs escape the violent mob. Then William destroys the tower. Donning his old Westworld outfit, he heads into the real world seeking the thrill of survival against all odds.

* After William’s command that sent humanity into a killing frenzy. Christina finds that she is no longer able to control the humans with her narrative super power. The humans don’t even acknowledge her presence. Frustrated, she asks Teddy why they cannot see her.. Teddy tells Christina that while the world is real, she is not.

Podcast

Violent Delights is an aftershow podcast where hosts Andrew Sorcini, Dwayne DeFreitas, and Tosin Onafowokan discuss HBO’s Westworld, and the larger questions this ambitious show hopes to tackle.

On this week’s podcast, Andrew, Tosin, and Dwayne deconstruct the sixth episode of Westworld‘s fourth season, “Fidelity”, as they ask: Why did Bernard scan C’s data? Why would the hosts rather kill themselves than submit to Hale’s transcendence plans? What’s Hale going to do with the next Caleb?

Connections

* Triangle (2009)

* Moon (2009)

* Memento: Caleb is giving himself clues like Memento. The film that broke Nolan and his brother into the mainstream.

* Super Meatboy

* Celeste

Shout-out to other WW podcasts we’re enjoying

* Westworld Theorycast

* Shat on TV

* Beyond Westworld

* The HBO Boiz

Next Episode on Westworld

Social Links

You can write to us or email us a voice memo at [email protected]

Follow us on Twitter: @HBOWestWorldPod or just hash-tag #ViolentDelights

And our Facebook page is : @WestworldPodcast

Recap

* In the past we see a young Frankie helping Jay recruited to join the other outliers, who seem led by Caleb’s wife, Uwade.

* In the timeline 23 years after the war, adult Frankie, known as C, drives Bernard to the Outlier resistance base, where they attempt to rebuild Maeve. Bernard reveals mirrors were used to speed up data collection that was in the hats in the original westworld. Frankie doesn’t trust Bernard and locks him and Stubbs up. Frankie spends the next little while determining that Jay is the mole. Maeve and Frankie stop the Host version of Jay, restoring Frankie’s trust in Bernard, Stubbs and Maeve.

* Caleb, the host, is given an ultimatum by Hale. Caleb is to tell Hale how his human self fought the parasites, becoming the first outlier, or his daughter, who is alive and now an adult, will suffer. Caleb manages to escape hale’s clutches. During his escape, he experiences memories of his human life. His escape is made possible with help from previous host versions of himself that had also attempted to get to Frankie. He gets farther than any previous version has when it comes to escaping, choosing to leave an encouraging radio message for Frankie. Hale is furious because she thought his escape would show her clues regarding how outliers were made. Hale destroys all remaining copies of Caleb and creates a new one— number 279. And then? She wakes him up.

Podcast

Violent Delights is an aftershow podcast where hosts Andrew Sorcini, Dwayne DeFreitas, and Tosin Onafowokan discuss HBO’s Westworld, and the larger questions this ambitious show hopes to tackle.

On this week’s podcast, Andrew, Tosin, and Dwayne deconstruct the fifth episode of Westworld‘s fourth season, “Zhuangzi”, as they ask: What is “transcendence”? What’s the nature of Hale’s false relationship with Christina? Is Teddy real, and who sent him?

Connections

* Marvel villain Kilgrave had this sort of control over humans and it was agitating to see.

* Leda & The Swan

* The Matrix

* Hancock(?)

Next Episode on Westworld

Social Links

You can write to us or email us a voice memo at [email protected]

Follow us on Twitter: @HBOWestWorldPod or just hash-tag #ViolentDelights

And our Facebook page is : @WestworldPodcast

Recap

* William is in New York where he reveals to a couple that the Hosts now control the humans. He is interrupted by Clementine because a 2 year old host named Hope has been slaughtering humans and thus disrespecting the New York setting. William disciplines Hope and then finds Hale the next morning toying with the humans on the streets of her fiefdom. She reveals that not only is she bored, but that they have two systemic problems.

* 1st— her hosts seek to remain corporeal rather than transcend to a higher, virtual plane. the in that the human appetite for vice is infecting the hosts.

* 2nd — It turns out that Hope had been a host who volunteered to find an outlier, which is a person for whom the sonic control suddenly stopped working. The breach in the sound control makes these humans go mad. We learn that the homeless man Christina had been walking past was that outlier. When Hope found the houseless man and killed him, she was infected with something— some thought from him that Hope couldn’t manage. So Hope killed herself.

* Hale sends William to kill the outlier. As he approaches, he notices that Stubbs’ team is also in pursuit of the outlier. William tasks the humans in the area with stopping Stubb’s team. The team leader gets through the humans and goes upstairs, where William has found the Outlier. She manages to share that her husband was an outlier as well, and that he was so alone before he was killed. William is unnerved by the woman and moves to kill her but is shot by J, who manages to abscond from New York with her. Host William reanimates Human William and tries to ask questions that will help Host William understand who he is.

* Christina wakes up early. Her date with Teddy went well. She goes to her office to work and she creates yet another narrative that reflects her life as Dolores. Her boss shows up to shut it down and yet he allows her to tell him rather than write it into the computer. Teddy calls Christina to the pier and she meets him. He challenges her to see something she has never seen before. Christina understands that she is controlling the narratives of the people. Christina realizes that she must pretend and go through the loops and narratives built for her until they find a way out. Christina leaves Teddy for a meeting with Hale who is pretending to be her college roommate.

Violent Delights is an aftershow podcast where hosts Andrew Sorcini, Dwayne DeFreitas, and Tosin Onafowokan discuss HBO’s Westworld, and the larger questions this ambitious show hopes to tackle.

On this week’s podcast, Andrew, Tosin, and Dwayne deconstruct the fourth episode of Westworld‘s fourth season, “Generation Loss”, as they ask: How did Teddy get to NYC? How does Christina figure into Teddy’s larger plan? Who is the ‘outlier’ the Cause need to extract? And how did Maeve stay so fresh-looking after being buried all those years?!!

Connections

* The drone stealth scene– totally an homage to Lord of the Ring: The Two Towers

Next Episode on Westworld

Social Links

You can write to us or email us a voice memo at [email protected]

Follow us on Twitter: @HBOWestWorldPod or just hash-tag #ViolentDelights

And our Facebook page is : @WestworldPodcast

Recap

* Maeve and Caleb are in the underside of Temperance and were led to a flashback of the Lighthouse— the last showdown with Reoboahm— last season’s big bad.

* Caleb is wounded and when he’s at the point of Death, Maeve shows him the bliss she experienced in the Sublime through his limbics implant. We learn that when Caleb is recovering from his wounds after the lighthouse, Maeve saw the connexion between Uwade and Caleb and left him with her without saying goodbye. She went off and lived her life solo so that he could live his.

* Caleb wakes up beneath Temperance in Hale’s company and learns that while his family is alive, Hale’s plan for Temperance is to change every human who visits into a carrier of the Fly parasite, so that they will leave and spread the parasite to humans they come in contact with— putting all of humanity under her control.

* Maeve realizes that The Man in Black is also a host and seeks to escape. She takes over the computer controlling the audio component of parasite control. Maeve and Caleb disable William and abscond with Hale back up to the park. Caleb begins to feel the effects of the parasites as Hale’s people leverage the human control technology to have the guests aide in capturing Maeve and Caleb. Maeve’s knowledge of the Westworld narratives helps her avoid the traps. Caleb is wounded as they escape, just as he was at the lighthouse.

* The Man in Black fronts Caleb and Maeve at their extraction point. Maeve takes The Man in Black while While Hale fails at controlling Caleb, The Man in Black mortally wounds Maeve, who takes him down with her by hacking in and setting off computerised explosives. Caleb is then revealed to have died later that evening. For reasons we don’t know, Hale has spent 287 attempts at making a host of Caleb. It’s been 23 years since Maeve took out the man in black—thirty years since Maeve and Caleb took down the Lighthouse.

* Elsewhere, it’s early evening and we meet Dolores at home in bed. She had painted the tower and slept all day long. She and Maya speak of dreams and go out to socialize. Maya sets Christina up with Teddy Flood, who describes himself as bounty hunter with a heart of gold. The two hit it off.

* Stubbs and Bernard are split up. Stubbs goes with a group of resistance fighters to check out an objective while C and Bernard take a team to look for The Weapon Bernard described in last week’s episode. Bernard finds the weapon. It’s Maeve— exactly where was was buried when she took out William with the computerized explosives.

Violent Delights is a recap podcast where hosts Andrew Sorcini, Dwayne DeFreitas, and Tosin Onafowokan discuss HBO’s Westworld, and the larger questions this ambitious show hopes to tackle.

On this week’s podcast, Andrew, Tosin, and Dwayne deconstruct the third episode of Westworld‘s fourth season, “Annees Folles”, as they ask: What does Hale need with Caleb? Who are ‘The Cause’?, and are all our protagonists in the same time period?

Connections

* Star Trek: Generations

* Avengers: Infinity War – Doctor Strange’s ability to forsee all outcomes

* Marvel’s Loki

* Edge of Tomorrow (Live. Die. Repeat.)

* Blondie’s “Call Me”

* Inception

* Everything Everywhere All At Once

* Arrival (Story of Your Life)

* Panopticon

Next Episode on Westworld

Bad Guy – Ramin Djawadi

Enter Sandman – Ramin Djawadi

Social Links

You can write to us or email us a voice memo at [email protected]

Follow us on Twitter: @HBOWestWorldPod or just hash-tag #ViolentDelights

And our Facebook page is : @WestworldPodcast

Recap

* We open with Bernard in The Sublime. There he speaks with Akecheta and understands that he must use The Sublime to run simulations of the Real World. His plan is to find a path to saving humanity from its self-destruction. He wakes up in the Real World several years later, just as we left him in the end of Season 3.

* We see that Stubbs is restored and has been watching over him all these long years. Cleaned up and armed with what could only be called foreknowledge of his surroundings from the simulations in the sublime, Bernard sets off with Stubbs to see if they can save the world from itself. Stubbs and Bernard team up with an underground resistance that knows Haleores is trying to control the world through robots and after some trust issues, the two old hosts offer the resistance their help in finding weapon to help fight Haleores.

* Frankie is having a hard time letting go of her father. She realises that Carver has been replaced by a Halores Host and she and her mother Uwade take out the host version of Carver and flee on their own.

* Maeve and Caleb enter Temperance. They use Maeve’s knowledge of the narratives of Westworld to bait the Temperance clean-up crew so that they can get “downstairs” and access to the control rooms. They eventually find where the flies are created. It’s a trap. William manages to separate Maeve and Caleb, baiting Caleb with a host of his child, Frankie, who infects him with the flies.

Podcast

Violent Delights is a recap podcast where hosts Andrew Sorcini, Dwayne DeFreitas, and Tosin Onafowokan discuss HBO’s Westworld, and the larger questions this ambitious show hopes to tackle.

On this week’s podcast, Andrew and Tosin deconstruct the second episode of Westworld‘s fourth season, “Well Enough Alone”, as they ask: What plans does Hale have “for our kind”, for humans, before she brings hosts into our world?, How do the “bot flies” control humans, and what is the black goo that replaces their brains?, What does Hale really want with the living MIB, that his host can’t provide?, and What is this mysterious Tower, and why does its “song” only affect certain people and birds?

Links:

* ‘Westworld’: Cocreator Lisa Joy Reveals the Main Title for Season 4

* Futureworld (1976) – main plot regarding replacing notable lawmakers with hosts

* They Live (1988) – involves a controlling signal sent out to the populace, that most humans cannot detect, ie the Tower

* Don Giovanni (1788) – opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

* X-Files – running subplot involving ‘black oil’, similar to black goo

* Cordyceps – fungus that takes control of an ant’s brain, leading them to seek higher ground (ie “bot flies”)

Next Episode on Westworld

Social Links

You can write to us or email us a voice memo at [email protected]

Follow us on Twitter: @HBOWestWorldPod or just hash-tag #ViolentDelights

And our Facebook page is : @WestworldPodcast

Recap

* This week’s recap via Kevin E G Perry, The Independent

Podcast

Violent Delights is a recap podcast where hosts Andrew Sorcini, Dwayne DeFreitas, and Tosin Onafowokan discuss HBO’s Westworld, and the larger questions this ambitious show hopes to tackle.

On this week’s podcast, Andrew, Tosin, and Dwayne deconstruct the first episode of Westworld‘s fourth season, “The Auguries”, as they ask: Is the exported host data from Westworld being hosted at Hoover Dam data storage?, Are there Hosts co-existing in our real world, whose narratives are secretly being controlled by “Christina” and Olympiad Entertainment?, What’s Haleores’ master plan with the host data?, and what’s up with those flies?!!

Links:

* The Matrix: Resurrections – themes of protagonist writing video game narratives that seemingly come to life

* Ruby Sparks – romcom about an author who wills his book subject to life

* Serenity (2019) – another film with a similar existential plot twist

* Lord of the Rings – featuring a description of the Eye of Sauron, a looming threat, similar to The Tower

In the Weeks Ahead on Westworld

Video Games – Ramin Djawadi

Social Links

You can write to us or email us a voice memo at [email protected].

Follow us on Twitter: @HBOWestWorldPod or just hash-tag#ViolentDelights

And our Facebook page is : @WestworldPodcast

Recap

* Mora looks out on Vegas through a window

* Goes to a meeting on the Hoover dam.

* William arrives in a drone.

* We learn that the Hoover dam is being used to power something

* William says what’s been stored in there is stolen. He wants to buy the whole facility.

* His offer is rebuffed. And Mora heads home to find his house full of flies.

* The next day he comes in and kills his cohorts. William is waiting for him. He gives the man permission to kill himself and the man does.

* After an intro, we see Dolores, now dark haired, going by the name Christina and living in a New York apartment on the West Side with a roommate who urges her to go out that evening.

* She’s receiving unwanted calls on her cell phone.

* She walks to work on the high line in a building called Olympiad Entertainment.

* She starts writing the setting for a story and begins by describing her previous life as the farmer’s daughter.

* She has trouble at work as her boss tells her he wants her to write more violent and scandalous content.

* We find Maeve in some remote mountain enclave, meditating on her time with her daughter, in Westworld and with Caleb after the end of last season.

* Caleb is working in LA. In conversation with his co-worker we find that we are seven years past the riots that ended season 3 and that humans have more work to do now that robots have been decommissioned.

* Caleb meets his daughter by their house. He’s been teaching her how to shoot and his wife is not pleased about it, but they lead a happy life.

* Maeve finds that she’s being tracked and finds armed men at her home. She takes them out and speaks with the leader. Turns out the leader is a host and when Maeve hacks into hi...

Violent Delights is a recap podcast where hosts Andrew Sorcini, Dwayne DeFreitas, and Tosin Onafowokan discuss HBO’s Westworld, and the larger questions this ambitious show hopes to tackle.

Violent Delights has brought itself back online! On this special entry of our podcast, Andrew, Tosin, and Dwayne break down HBO’s Official Season 4 Teaser for Westworld. Westworld returns for season 4 beginning June 26th on HBO!

Podcast

Violent Delights is a recap podcast where hosts Andrew Sorcini, Dwayne DeFreitas, and Tosin Onafowokan discuss HBO’s Westworld, and the larger questions this ambitious show hopes to tackle.

On this week’s podcast, Andrew, Tosin, and Dwayne deconstruct the final episode of Westworld‘s third season, “Crisis Theory”, as they ask: What astonished Bernard in the Sublime, and how long has he been gone? Have we really seen the end of the ‘real’ William & Dolores Prime? Will Char-lores wipe out humanity? And will we really need to wait until 2022 for the next season?!!

Links:

* ‘Westworld’ Renewed for Season 4 at HBO

* Fight Club (1999)

* Coco (2017) Lauren’s philosophy of preserving someone’s memory to ‘keep them alive’ mirrors this film’s theme.

* Original Star Wars Trilogy

* Hackers (1995)

Behind the Scenes of Westworld’s Finale:

Social Links

You can write to us or email us a voice memo at [email protected]

Follow us on Twitter: @HBOWestWorldPod or just hash-tag #ViolentDelights

And our Facebook page is : @WestworldPodcast

Recap

* We begin with Dolores recounting how she was taught to see the beauty in her world— but that she was taught a lie. The world has only a little beauty, and her path, through having played many roles, has led her to… someone that we are not shown. The camera shows us Dolores’s body, wrecked from her fight with Maeve. Her Head Control Unit has been removed. Maeve’s body lay lifeless from the EMP, nearby. 

* We see Caleb getting away — riding a motorcycle on a mountain triad at high speed.

* William, the man in black was left holding a shotgun on Bernard and Stubbs. He starts firing, shooting Stubbs in the heart. Bernard uses his remote to change “modes,” turning off his personality and then subduing William in an emotionless, robot-first state. 

* An SF-PD SWAT van pulls up and William runs away. The driver is Lawrence Gonzales, or El Lazo from the first season. Bernard recognises him as the fourth Dolores copy. Lawrence tells Bernard he has been playing the most important role in Dolores’s plan and hands him the case that Musashi, just before he was killed by Clementine and Hanaryo,  told an errand boy to deliver. Lawrence also gives Bernard an address to contact rendezvous w/ Dolores. 

* Rehoboam’s divergence infographic is displayed and it’s wildly chaotic with divergences from Vancouver all across the world to New York, St. Petersburg, and Malaysia. But it singles out the LA divergence. 

* The camera moves to Caleb who gets off of his bike at the instruction of Dolores’s digital assistant and navigates to a local distillery where he  finds a package containi...