It’s already clear that Westworld has captivated audiences in ways we haven’t seen before. The minds behind the HBO show have hooked into something in all of us that keeps us coming back for more and they’ve done it in a very interesting way by positing dozens of questions and never really getting around to answering them.
The super-cut champs over at Burger Fiction are back again with their cut of mysterious questions asked throughout the first season of Westworld. Going back to the beginning, it strikes me as odd how what we know now that the season is over answers (to some degree) questions asked in some of the very first scenes of the very first episodes. The cryptic nature of how questions are asked, the connection to Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland stories, and even the nature of how they’re are answered with more questions is something I find rather ingenious.
To me, it seems the show’s creators were deliberate in having characters ask so many things. I don’t believe it was to necessarily answer them all but, instead, to train us to constantly ask our own. While watching a world where hosts don’t know they’re robots and question the world around them, we as the audience began to question what we’ve learned and witnessed along the way. Ostensibly, Westworld bled out into our world having us question the “reality” of the show itself and the story we were watching.
While other super popular shows like Game Of Thrones, The Walking Dead, and Better Call Saul seem to build up to shocking reveals that can change the entire course of their respective shows leaving us breathless now knowing for sure what happened or what’s going to happen, Westworld’s shocking reveals cause us to immediately ask more questions and doubt what we just saw.
A show that revolved around questions of reality has turned its audience into detectives questioning the same. I think a big part of why so many people love Westworld is that every answer we’re given doesn’t satisfy us like most television does but, instead, fuels our desire to continue to poke and prod at what could be.
What are you favorite Westworld theories? Will we ever get an answer of why the maze is tattooed under people’s scalps? Can you get a day pass? What are the parking lots like? Let’s discuss in the comments below!
Image: Burger Fiction/Westworld HBO
