For me, season one of HBO’s Westworld was a spiritual tour de force. I came away episode after episode shocked and awed and just certain the writers were esoteric masters weaving a very deep plot with all kinds of hidden esoteric wisdom. Even the music score seemed to be selected carefully to hide hidden deeper meaning. I dug into every episode in detail, dissecting scene after scene for deeper meaning and was excited for where the show was going – but then came season two.
Season two was disappointing to say the least. There were far less hidden esoteric gems which I chalked up at the time to me just maybe being ignorant of some other religious traditions. Oh, and there were Samurai too, which some really liked but left me feeling like it was just a ploy to have some new cool looking customers to show off. Unfortunately, the more I searched for the deeper meaning of season two the more I came away thinking there really wasn’t a lot there. It was more show than substance. Season three however, I read was going to be a return to season one’s deeper roots and I could have been more excited. So the question is, did it deliver in episode one?
SPOILERS AHEAD
So the answer to the million dollar question is – absolutely not. Season three is proving to me very early on that my hopes for Westworld are very likely dead. To be fair, episode one did have a few POSSIBLE hidden gems I will discuss below but for the most part it just feels like it is not going to be deep at all. But hey, we will have cool new special effects and (I’ve been told) some bad-ass explosions and stuff. You know, the typical kind of marvel-esque eye candy that fills 12 screen theaters with 7 screens showing the same movie. Only problem is, Westworld isn’t likely to be half as entertaining as a marvel movie after you remove all the deep thought provoking esoteric-ism.
Maybe I’m being to harsh on a single episode but after the disappointment of season two and the start of season three now under my belt I’m beginning to wonder if there really was any deeper meaning to season one? Did I just make all that up? Could this show really be written by the same writers?
Possible Deeper Meanings and Esoteric Gems
To be fair, there were a few moments in this episode that leave me having a GLIMMER of hope. For starters there is the opening credits which depicts an eagle which appears to become a phoenix (both esoteric birds). There also appears to be an all-seeing eye hidden in the credits as well and in previews to episode two. The symbolism may be a reference to the United States of America as there are many who believe there has been a long secret esoteric plan to eventually destroy America from within and give rise to a new nation reborn from her ashes (symbolized by the phoenix).
There are some interesting biblical type references in the show too which likely are intended. For example, people put wafers on their tongues before going to bed which seem almost identical to the catholic Eucharist ceremony of the wafer on the tongue. Even the episodes title, Parce Domine is a Roman Catholic chant that means something like , “Lord spare your people and be not angry”. Having said that, both of these things felt to me like it was added just to look religious and appear to have deeper meaning but I wasn’t convinced it was anything more than an attempt to look deeper than it is.
Now perhaps the most interesting thing to me was that the computer AI is apparently named Rehoboam and there COULD be a lot of things hidden there. This is a big name in the history of Israel and getting into the whole split of Israel and Judah into two kingdoms would be VERY interesting to me. This is perhaps the biggest glimmer of hope that I’ll have something worth blogging about going forward.
There were a few little phrases said here in there which were meant I’m sure to make it sound deep but felt flat to me. Things like “we are the authors of our own stories now” and “you are witnessing the origin of a new species” or better yet the hint that the “real world” may also be a simulation and how crazy would it be if they put a simulation inside anther simulation. Or maybe the thought that they built the world to be a game then rigged it to make sure they always won. There were even some social commentary pieces that seems to just be political like the line “robots don’t kill people, people kill people.” Groan!
One part of the show I didn’t understand was about a part of our brain that is supposed to be responsible for our having “evolved” a belief in God. I couldn’t quite hear the term well enough to know how to spell it or I would have looked it up and see if it’s a real thing. Whatever it is, it’s an inch and a half long and sits along side your left eye I think according the show. I’m curious enough to dig into that more.
There was also a strange moment where a car sped away and the camera SEEMED to focus on the license plate number 6577. Seeing that I had a distinct feeling the number meant something and we were supposed to pick up on it. So basically yeah, there are some thing I’m going to dig into and see if the show can redeem itself in my high expectations.
For now, I’m planning to continue blogging about Westworld and hope that after I start digging into the show more this week and looking up some of those hidden hints that I will suddenly find lots of things to look for next episode. In the meantime, I’d love to hear YOUR thoughts.
First off as a self pro calmed seahawk fan, how did you not mention Marshawn Lynch good size role in the first episode. I took the bird more as a kid icarus as it was put together but its wings melted as it got closer to the circle or the sun in the intro. I thought the Pespi type sign on the building they flew by was funny then I saw it again in the background kind of blurred out. The black and white map they went to a few times looks like women’s egg in the womb and the points of interest looked like sperm hitting it to me. There were a few people wearing “doctors” mask which is not uncommon and I blew it off. But when I saw the plague doctor painting on the door to the night club, which was only on the screen for a second or so I thought they may have been saying something. The guy all drugged up in the night club was talking about shadow people. Another interesting thing. At the end she told the “the bodyguard” the real gods have shown up and they are pissed. It was an ok episode.
As to Icarus, I couldn’t agree more and I have been writing up a lengthy deep dive on episode one that I hope to post tonight or tomorrow which includes a lot of that Icarus interpretation. After starting to review the episode at a deeper level I’m now realizing there is a lot more to it than I thought so I’m getting more intrigued again as I start trying to see the big picture that I think is being hinted at. As to Marshawn, I felt his role wasn’t particularly noteworthy. He had one speaking line and it wasn’t anything that really offered something worthy of comment. Ok, I lied, his shirt was pretty funny. 🙂 Thanks for reading and leaving a comment. The hard part about having a busy life is I can’t write up all my thoughts before half the internet beats me to it and then my ideas seem unoriginal.