This Reddit Theory Might Explain 'Westworld' Season 4 Episode 1's Bad Writing
HBO just premiered the latest episode of its biggest sci-fi series, and it looks like fans are having trouble with some of the episode's writing. But could these poorly-written lines be included on purpose?
Dolores, played by Evan Rachel Wood, died in the season 3 finale, so fans were rightly stunned to see her again in season 4. Even though the plot of the latest installment unfolds seven years after the events of season 3, viewers still didn't know what to expect when Wood's character appeared as Christina, a video game writer, stalked by a scary man who believes she is the cause of all his sorrows in life. When he finally confronts her, a strange dialogue ensues, and fans have a lot to hate about this scene.
Christine writes for video games and shares with a mysterious stalker, who moments earlier admits to be a casual gamer, that she specializes in writing NPCs (non-game characters), to what the man replies – what are NPCs? People on Reddit were rightly displeased by this out-of-character remark, claiming that every gamer who has played any game at least once knows exactly who NPCs are.
However, some 'Westworld ' fans believe that Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy would not have made such a glaring mistake, arguing that all that dialogue was bad by design. An interesting theory was born out of this, and it looks like everything fans will see in season 4 may be a simulation rather than real life. Mind-boggling, right?
"I was criticizing the writing of this scene but now I'm wondering if it's bad on purpose because HE was a poorly written NPC if Dolores really is in a game world. Just like the original hosts didn't know they were hosts, the word wouldn't have even made sense. That's the only way his lines make any sense. Everyone that's ever played a single video game knows what an NPC is. And no one thinks they're "Cannon fodder", game players know how important good NPC's are." – @deloslabinc.