(SPOILERS!!!) So MIBH was...?
The Man in the Black Hat was a host all along?
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The post-credits scene was meant to be in the far-future
The MIB on the beach at the end was the real William
Could you elaborate on this a bit, please? We see William wounded in an elevator, then he comes out wearing the same dirty clothes, still wounded (?) and he is somehow in the far future?
shareI don't know. There is something fishy going on.
Earlier, we see MiB getting up from where he shot his own hand off. Then he got into the lift and went down. But, we never see him reappear from the elevator until the end credits.
I thought that MiB would meet Bernard on the elevator when Bernard was going up, but there was surprisingly nobody on the elevator when the doors opened for Bernard. The shots set up the expectation that MiB is in the elevator, and based on timeline, he should be in the elevator, but he never comes out.
I can only speculate about what is going on:
He says "my park" emphatically, which may be a hint. Both Westworld and the supposed "outside world" is a simulation. Westworld is a simulation within the simulation. The whole thing was created in order to test and give memories to MiB. MiB may not be a host, and may instead be a biological clone who is being given the same exact memories as the original MiB through "his park".
The clone MiB behaved in the exact same manner as the original MiB up until the moment he entered the elevator, at which point he deviated from what the original MiB did, this is what caused the end of the simulation and meeting with his daughter. The lack of fidelity ended that iteration of the simulation.
This makes sense, because if the original MiB had entered the elevator, then he would have met Bernard on the elevator, which didn't happen.
What the original MiB did and how he ended up on the beach remains to be seen.
Right, my take on it as well
We see William in the elevator - but they make a point of showing Bernard entering the SAME elevator, but it's empty
This is "Westworld" shorthand for "different time periods."
The William that gets up from the ground and heads to the elevator is in the far future.
The "present day" William was probably rescued by a QA team clearing the path for Bernard, Strand, Costa & "Halelores" to enter the Forge.
He seems to have black out before going down to the Forge so he must have saw the dead Delos personnels in the control room with Hale and Bernard missing
shareHe blacked out ... but NEVER went down into the Forge.
Lisa Joy has basically confirmed this:
http://www.thisisinsider.com/westworld-finale-post-credits-scene-explained-2018-6
The William who wakes up and goes down in the elevator is the same far-future version of William we see after the credits.
Interestingly, they're telling us that Emily is indeed a host in that final scene ... but William is not. He's "something different."
Maybe in the far, far future, hosts are trying to reconstruct biological humans to use for their own purposes. Innovation, maybe ... or just their own entertainment.
I think you misunderstood what I wrote.
Thinking of it in terms of past/future is incorrect. All of it might be taking place in the future in a simulation.
The simulation is iterative and every time MiB makes an 'incorrect' decision, that particular iteration ends and a new one begins.
We (the audience) don't know which iteration we are seeing. Except we can be sure of one thing, that is that in whatever iteration we are seeing, MiB is doing the correct intended action. When MiB entered the elevator that is the first incorrect action we have seen. He probably did many other incorrect actions throughout the course of the show leading to repeated ends of simulations, but those endings were not shown to the audience, the audience is only shown the simulation iterations in which MiB performed the correct action.
I'll give a hypothetical example: Imagine that in one iteration, when the drops of water fall from the chandelier from the dead simulated wife's overflowing bathtub, MiB calls a plumber instead of immediately running up the stairs to discover his wife. This (his calling the plumber instead of running up) would be an incorrect action/decision and would have triggered an end of simulation leading to him seeing his daughter in the future and his daughter saying: we are testing for fidelity. That iteration of the simulation would be over. But, we (the audience) did not see the incorrect decision of him calling the plumber, because up until we are shown the incorrect decision of him entering the elevator, all actions that we are seeing are the correct actions. The millions of incorrect decisions and millions of ends of simulations are kept from our view.
When MiB gets up and enters the elevator, that is the first 'incorrect' action the audience is shown. He was never supposed to get up and enter the elevator.
When we see him in the beach later, we are seeing a different iteration of the simulation wherein MiB did perform the correct action and which did not trigger end of simulation (i.e he did not enter the elevator).
It's difficult to explain. I'm not sure I made myself clear.
Interesting... All these flashbacks and flashforwards are driving me crazy.
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