So the first episode really confused the hell outta me when it first started. They were interrogating Dolores without much context. It only got weirder when I noticed she was naked. However, it wasn’t made a big deal, as if it was normal. Dolores wakes up in her room and goes upon her day in the wild west. A huge difference from the tiny glimpse we saw. At the town she meets a man named Teddy. He is referred to as a newcomer. They seem to know each other and proceed to spend time with each other. So far nothing it out of the ordinary until they get to Dolores’ house. They hear gunshots so Teddy goes to investigate. Dolores’ father is on the ground at gunpoint. He is then put down by the bandits. What really sickened was when they talked about the wife. One is disappointed about “not getting to have fun with her” to which the other states that’s she probably still warm so it won’t make much of a difference. The sudden necrophilia is out of nowhere, but I guess isn’t uncommon in that “time period.”
When the head honcho appears, he seems to be invincible, not taking any damage from Teddy’s gun. He also states that he’s been visiting Dolores for about 30 years, but she doesn’t remember. He then kills Teddy and drags Dolores away. It is then heavily implied that he rapes her and has been doing so for a very long time. The man’s god mode aside, I find it strange that Dolores can’t seem to remember any of it, until the truth is revealed. Dolores, as well as the settlers of the land, labelled hosts are creations of a company that has made over 100 different “scenarios” for people, labelled guests, to indulge their desires in, no matter how dark. Rape, kill, rob, all of it is allowed. They follow specific routines with minor improvisation. If they are “killed,” they merely reset for the next cycle. They also lose any and all memories of the previous cycles. Business as usual. They are also unable to harm any of the actual people, explaining the “god mode.” The real situation kind of excuses all the cruel actions done so far.
The system isn’t perfect however. They update the hosts with better body language and dialogue. There lies the problem though, the most recent update is causing problems in some of the hosts. It starts off small with the sheriff blanking out and fidgeting. Then it really escalates when one of the hosts kills off an entire saloon, save the guest couple cowering in fear. This causes trouble in the real world. There has not been a problem in the system for 30 years, to which someone says that it is long overdue for one anyways. Over 100 hosts are infected with the bug and are pulled out to be fixed.
Another thing I wanna bring up is the cold storage. All the hosts are kept there when not being used. They just stand there, in the nude mind you, lined up and deactivated. It’s just weird how normal it is for these people to see human-like figures just….there.
