Westworld - 'Dissonance Theory'

These guys.

Cue-up the player piano; it's time for Westworld episode 4: 'Dissonance Theory'.

So, there's a theory going around that events in Westworld are not being shown to us in chronological order, and in particular that the sinister Man in Black is actually the much older William. This would give William some sort of actual purpose, and also explain why Dolores is apparently back in William's camp in the morning after apparently fleeing the scene of a guest murder(1). We've also never seen the staff react to William's actions, as far as I can remember.

But anyway: Logan refuses to turn aside from their bandit hunt to take Dolores home, now that William has talked him into it, and they shoot up some bandits and capture their leader. On the way back, however, the bandit drops the name of his boss, prompting Logan to shoot their bounty hunter host. Apparently they have stumbled on an Easter egg, leading to one of the biggest narratives in the park. Dolores is none too keen, but follows. Her behaviour throughout - not just coming with them, but referring to her dead family and offering to help out in the raid - suggest that she is at a point after her opening discussion with Bernard, relating to the shooting and in which he guides her towards the Maze, but I'm not entirely sure on that.

This gal.

Meanwhile, the Man in Black follows his clue trail to look for a snake, finding it in the form of an extensive tattoo worn by a ruthless bandit named Armistice (the gunwoman from Hector's assault on the town.) To learn the story of the tattoo, he single-handedly rescues Hector from prison using a pack of exploding cigars and she tells him that the tattoo is the story of her revenge on the men who murdered her family. She has only one more life to take to complete the story, the head of the snake; a man named Wyatt. The Man in Black later finds Teddy dying, tied to a tree, so he's definitely contemporary with that.

In staffsville, Operations boots Engineering off the investigation into the glitching bots and Bernard points out that the carving of Orion has too many stars in its belt. Ops head Theresa confronts Ford over the risks of his grand new narrative, and he assures her that all will be well with a grandiose display of his power over Westworld and his reach over his employees by taking her to dinner in the exact spot her parents brought her years before, before causing hundreds of hosts to simultaneously freeze, then walk away as massive machines begin carving up the land.

These two.

Finally, Hector makes another assault on town, this being a regular event. Repeating the basic framework, the series replaces a couple of henchmen with guests and swaps out Paint it Black for the Habanera suite from Bizet's Carmen(2). More to the point, Hector is interrupted by Maeve, who offers the combination of her safe in exchange for his understanding of the native religion, in particular a figure of myth that she sees in her dreams: A staff member in a biohazard suit. Then she has him dig shrapnel from the place where she remembers being shot and kisses him as the posse blasts them both through the door, since 'I'm not mad, and none of this matters.'

As some of the hosts begin to piece things together, props for the black woman(3) doing so intellectually while her white and well-to-do counterpart connects more emotionally to the matter. I suspect that I'm going to find the non-linear theory distracting going forward, but we have some definite information on the Man in Black at least. We know that he isn't Arnold, but someone very famous in the real world as a philanthropist whose foundation saves lives. We learn nothing more because he threatens to kill the guest who mentions this for breaking in on his vacation. Logan is still a douche and William a cipher, although we get a tidbit when we learn that the family business into which William is lately married is considering acquiring an interest in Westworld.

Whether the theory is correct or not, it proves that Westworld is a series that is getting people to think, even if only the kind of people who discuss narrative linearity on the internet.

(1) Unless that was a host, which is entirely possible. Pulling the trigger might be the critical thing, and presumably the guns shouldn't kill guests at all, including the ones that guests use, given how deliberately difficult it is to tell guest from host. Man, I'd love to read some of the theories on this, but the US is an episode ahead of me and theories are one thing, spoilers another.
(2) It's a less awesome scene, but then it's supposed to be. Slaughter has already become routine.
(3) As a note, it's interesting to reflect on the fact that her backstory spiel talks about a voice in her head telling her what she shouldn't do, and that Arnold installed in some hosts a system where a 'voice of god' would prompt them in an attempt to kickstart cognition.