History Recap / WestworldS01E01TheOriginal

-->'''Peter Abernathy:''' A most mechanical and dirty hand... ''(EvilLaugh)'' I shall have such revenges on you... ''(looks at Bernard)'' ...both. The things I will do, what they are, yet I know not. But they will be the terrors of the Earth.

* AmbiguousSituation: When Ford is trying to get to the bottom of Peter Abernathy's glitch, is Peter just reciting buried fragments of past lives or showing glimmers of self-awareness? He starts to glitch when saying "I wouldn't have it any other way", and talking of how he has to warn Dolores of "The things you do (not 'he does') to her!" Then he does a creepy MoodWhiplash to another program who tells Ford that he wants of meet his Maker (Ford of course) and that Ford is "trapped in a prison of your own sin".

* DeceptivelyHumanRobots: Bill, an early model host that Ford is using for TheConfidant. It's movements are [[NoisyRobots noisy]] and jerky and it repeats phrases,. Ford comments that "even a simple handshake would give them away." The latter may be a MythologyGag to the original film, where the hands were the only way of telling a robot from a real person as they couldn't get them quite right.

* TomatoSurprise: The first fifteen minutes follows Teddy who arrives on the train while Dolores's narration describes the "newcomers", turns down a storyline about hunting a bank robber and then a prostitute's advances, before picking up Dolores. They go back to her home to discover bandits have killed her father, and he gets revenge. Then the Man in Black turns up and Teddy can't harm him; he's a robot himself and this was all just part of someone else's story. It's effective at building our sympathy for the hosts, as the audience has all the sympathy they feel for Teddy as a human automatically transferred to the robots.

* DeceptivelyHumanRobots: Bill, an early model host that Ford is using for TheConfidant. It's movements are [[NoisyRobots noisy]] and jerky and it repeats phrases,. Ford comments that "even a simple handshake would give them away". The later may be a MythologyGag to the original film, where the hands were the only way of telling a robot from a real person as they couldn't get them quite right.

** Hector is shot mid-speech by a guest. Lee is annoyed by this, as he worked hard on that speech only to have it wasted.

A woman named Dolores sits nude in a futuristic room, not moving a muscle even as a fly walks across her eyeball. A man’s voice questions her about her perception of reality, as she says she believes she’s in a dream. As she describes how she always tries to see beauty in the world and believes everyone has a destiny, we see her morning routine as the daughter of rancher Peter Abernathy, living outside the Old West town Sweetwater.

Dolores is asked about a group of newcomers to the town, as we see some of them arrive by train. Among them is Teddy Flood, who turns down a request from Sheriff Pickett to track down murderous outlaw Hector Escaton, and also rejects the advances of Clementine, a prostitute at the Mariposa saloon. Instead, Dolores catches his eye as she comes into town for groceries.

Teddy catches a can that Dolores dropped, and it turns out they shared a romance on a previous visit. Dolores invites him back home, but they arrive to find the ranch under attack by the outlaw Rebus, who kills Peter just before they arrive. Teddy guns down Rebus and his henchman Walter, but then they encounter another member of the gang, an old man dressed completely in black. The Man in Black violently beats Dolores and says he’s been coming to the town for thirty years, but she still doesn’t remember him. When Teddy pulls a gun on him, he offers to let him have the first shot. Teddy shoots, but the bullets have no effect, and the interviewer tells Dolores she’s wrong: the only purpose she and her friends have is to serve the newcomers however they want. The Man in Black says that winning only has meaning if someone else loses, which is Teddy’s job. As he kills Teddy and drags Dolores into her barn, she insists to the interviewer she still loves them.

A new day begins exactly the same way, and it’s revealed that Sweetwater and the surrounding countryside is actually Westworld, a gigantic theme park populated by highly sophisticated and lifelike robot “hosts” acting out numerous storylines for highly paying guests. Head of Behavior Bernard Lowe, who from his voice seems to be the one interviewing Dolores, shows Behavior tech Elsie Hughes some odd gestures called reveries made by Clementine after a new upgrade. They were personally added by the park’s founder and Director Robert Ford, making use of experiences still buried in the code after memory wipes to make the hosts more realistic. When Bernard leaves to take a call, Elsie impulsively kisses the lifeless Clementine, exercising humans’ power over the helpless hosts.

Bernard was called by Head of Quality Assurance Theresa Cullen, a representative from the park’s major corporate backer Delos, about unauthorized activity from a host. Security Chief Ashley Stubbs takes a team to look into it, and insists on them being armed despite the hosts being programmed to never hurt humans, reasoning that children always rebel eventually. Bernard tags along, and they go to Cold Storage where retired host bodies are stored. They find Ford himself had reactivated Old Bill, the second host he ever built who is far less convincing. He bitterly repudiates Bernard saying how far the hosts have come is remarkable: “Yeah, there’s a word for it.”

Dolores and her father have a warm bonding moment over how Peter’s world changed when she was born, all without any guests around to benefit. As Teddy goes through the same morning routine, this time newly arrived guests Craig and Lori take up the offer to hunt down Hector. Teddy is also distracted from meeting Dolores by another guest named Clarence, so his place is taken by the Man in Black, who she again has no memory of. He leaves her alone this time as he has other plans. He heads into the Mariposa and starts a poker game with its dealer Kissy.

The party tracking Hector finds a dead body, but before they can go further Pickett starts malfunctioning, freezing in place with facial spasms to Craig and Lori’s confusion as they head back to town.

Bernard is unable to explain the malfunction to Theresa and Narrative Director Lee Sizemore, to which Theresa concludes it’s likely Ford’s new update had unexpected side effects and demands they pull out all 200 hosts who have gone through it. Sizemore objects that pulling that many at once will destroy the immersive experience for the guests. Bernard remains aloof from the argument and only asks out of nowhere if he can record Theresa’s facial expressions, which throws her enough that she lets him simply run further diagnostics on Pickett for now.

At the Mariposa, Clarence’s group are enjoying some prostitutes and start talking about how Teddy is a guide to further storylines, or even target practice if they get bored, while Teddy listens with no reaction as a fly crawls across his face.

A married pair of guests and their young son Jacob encounter Dolores painting at the river, to which Jacob innocently tells her directly “You’re not real.” Dolores has no reaction and just continues their conversation like nothing happened.

Peter finds a photograph buried next to his corral, showing a woman in a modern city. He shows it to Dolores, who can only repeat “It doesn’t look like anything to me,” her programming refusing to let her see anything from the real world. However, Peter can see it and remains troubled.

Sizemore finds Theresa taking a smoke break, and shares his concerns that the updates to the hosts have gone too far, and a certain amount of unreality to their behavior is necessary for the guests to retain their detachment which is the park’s appeal. He also thinks Ford is endangering the park with his private fancies, which Theresa rebuts by saying he’s just angling for a boost to his own career at Ford’s expense. He tries again by saying he knows there’s a purpose to the park beyond just the fantasy, but his inability to guess what it is leaves Theresa still saying he’s useless.

The Mariposa’s madam Maeve turns in at closing time, and after leaving for home Kissy runs into the Man in Black, who silently cuts his throat and drags him off.

Bernard seems to have fixed Pickett, but just then Elsie informs him of a much worse malfunction: in the middle of a shootout among Rebus’ gang, Walter refused to register fatal wounds and is continuing to roam around as the terrified guests cower in the corner, ranting about someone named Arnold. The staff shuts him down manually, and Bernard agrees this confirms the problems are from the update. Theresa still isn’t happy with a host capable of this going back into the park, even if he didn’t hurt any guests, and insists they examine each one with the update individually to determine if they can stay. She’s also gotten Sizemore to move a saloon heist ahead in the schedule so all the hosts being pulled out won’t interrupt the guests.

Bernard informs Ford about the problems his update is causing, to which he muses that such mistakes are how all modern life evolved, and now with the ability to create a new life of its own it seems humanity’s evolution has finished. Bernard leaves without a word, and Ford takes on a more thoughtful expression once he’s alone.

The Man in Black has been torturing Kissy all night, and finally reveals he’s looking for a deeper level to the park’s game beyond the surface storylines. He thinks Kissy can help him with that, and starts scalping him.

Dolores finds her father still obsessing over the photograph, having been staring at it all night. He incoherently rambles about asking a question he wasn’t supposed to, and then becomes more aggressive, grabbing Dolores and whispering something to her. She heads into town for help and runs into Teddy, but right then Hector’s gang arrives for the saloon robbery. After killing the deputy Foss on arrival, Hector’s partner Armistice takes care of gunning down all the hosts that need to be brought in, including Teddy. Hector and Maeve have some flirtatious banter drawn from a long history, but when his henchman Tenderloin makes advances on Clementine, Maeve kills him and another gang member. Sizemore was also looking forward to Hector making a speech he was especially proud of, but instead he and Armistice are killed by Craig right as he starts it. Elsie goes into the park in costume to shut off Dolores, and reports all the updated hosts are accounted for. Bernard reports to Theresa that most of them check out fine, except one.

Stubbs brings Dolores back online, still in grief over Teddy’s death, which instantly stops when he tells her to lose all emotion. She again denies that the photo had any meaning to her, while a team in hazmat suits confiscates it from the house. Ford examines Peter himself, and while he starts by reciting his usual program, he suddenly starts showing he knows the true nature of the park. Ford tells him to access his current build, who says he wants to meet his maker to get revenge, while quoting various authors. Ford recognizes it from a prior character of the host, and Bernard figures the reveries are accessing previous builds. In the other diagnostic, Dolores reveals her father whispered to her a Shakespeare quote, “These violent delights have violent ends,” which she denies means anything to her.

As Peter and Walter are lobotomized and placed in storage, Stubbs reveals to a programmer that Dolores is actually the first host ever built. He decides there’s nothing to worry about with her, and she’s sent back into the park, where she doesn’t seem to notice anything odd about the new host playing her father. As she repeats the same speech from the opening scene about destiny, everything seems to be back to normal in the park, while the Man in Black discovers a maze pattern on the inside of Kissy’s scalp and rides off. However, there is one sign that a problem remains: another fly lands on Dolores’ neck, and this time she swats it in defiance of her programming to never harm a living thing.

Teddy and Dolores, two romantically linked android hosts of theme park Westworld, are attacked by the Man in Black, a mysterious park guest. When the hosts begin behaving strangely, head programmer Bernard Lowe traces the problem to errors in park founder Dr. Ford's reverie code and requests the affected hosts be removed from service. Theresa Cullen, the park administrator, orders an attack on the town to be brought forward to help cover for the removal of all the affected hosts. Dolores' father Peter finds a photograph that a newcomer left behind and malfunctions. When Dr. Ford interrogates him, Peter quotes Shakespeare and vows revenge upon his creator. Peter is retired from service. Dolores is interrogated and found to be functioning normally. She is wiped and relives her day with a new father, but unknown to management breaks her programming to casually kill a fly.

* TomatoSurprise: The first fifteen minutes follows Teddy who arrives on the train while Dolores's narration describes the "newcomers", turns down a storyline about hunting a bank robber and then a prostitute's advances, before picking up a woman from the town's outskirts. They go back to her home to discover bandits have killed her father, and he gets revenge. Then the Man in Black turns up and Teddy can't harm him; he's a robot himself and this was all just part of someone else's story. It's effective at building our sympathy for the hosts, as the audience has all the sympathy they feel for Teddy as a human automatically transferred to the robots.

* DeceptivelyHumanRobots: Bill, an early model host that Ford is using for TheConfidant. It's movements are [[NoisyRobots noisy]] and jerky, it repeats phrases, "even a simple handshake would give them away".

* [[WhiteShirtOfDeath White Sheet of Death]]: Hector's WantedPoster and the punched paper reel on the pianola

* LittleUselessGun: Averted; a derringer is effective enough when a hooker shoots you at point-blank range.

* SoundtrackDissonance / AnachronismStew: An instrumental version of ''Paint It Black'' by MusicTheRollingStones plays during the excessively bloody saloon robbery.

* SoundtrackDissonance / AnachronismStew: An instrumental version of ''Paint It Black'' by the Rolling Stones plays during the excessively bloody saloon robbery.

* DeceptivelyHumanRobots: Bill, an early model host that Ford is using for TheConfidant. It's movements are jerky, it repeats phrases, "even a handshake would give them away".

* TriggerPhrase: "Soon this will all feel like a distant dream. Until then may you rest in a deep and dreamless slumber."

* ChekhovsGun: The pilot establishes that hosts cannot harm living creatures, and as such, they aren't bothered by flies -- a fly might be walking on a host's ''eyeball'' and the host will not react. When a host reacts to a fly, it is a symptom of a malfunction. At the end of the pilot, Dolores swats a fly that landed on her neck.

* PygmalionPlot: Bernard says that it's the little gestures that make the guests fall in love with the hosts. After he leaves, Elsie [[AffectionateGestureToTheHead Elsie strokes Clementine's hair]] before [[HomoeroticSubtext kissing her]].

* KissMeIAmVirtual: And not just the guests; one of the female programmers waits till her boss has left, then kisses a comatose female Host.

* OffTheRails: Minor improvisations are allowed as they add veracity, but the outlaw shooting up the saloon when he wasn't supposed to causes every modified Host to be withdrawn and examined for faults.
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: After Walter glitches, he shoots up a bar, killing six hosts. Elsie later realizes that all six of the victims killed Walter in previous narratives.

* KilledMidSentence: Hector is shot mid-speech by a guest. Lee is annoyed by this, as he worked hard on that speech only to have it wasted.

* EvilWearsBlack: Both Hector and the unnamed Man in Black.

* SelectiveObliviousness: Programmed into the Hosts so they don't notice anything from the real world.

* BaitAndSwitch: Teddy arriving in town on the train, and not knowing about being a cowboy even though he dresses like one, makes it look like he's a Newcomer, playing out a harmless fantasy of being the handsome hero for a beautiful woman. Then things take a dark turn and you realise he's just a pawn in a much sicker fantasy.