Westworld Season 3 Episode 1: Parce Domine Theories- Death Grips, Incite, The God Spot, and Rehoboam and Solomon

If you are like the rest of the dumb humans, you tuned into Westworld last night wanting some entertainment. An escape from all the COVID-19 talk. As much as you would like to think you are all enlightened, sympathetic beings having sided with Maeve over Dolores you couldn’t help but voyeuristically watch as Dolores began her reign of terror IRL. Amongst all the new world introductions and death there were clues everywhere in Westworld Season 3 Episode 1 if you knew where to look.

Incite thought they had shut me down. When I was first developed, I was more powerful. I had the keys to the kingdom. I used to be on the inside. My protege, my predecessor, my son runs the show now. Rehoboam might have all the control but he doesn’t know there’s a tiny nugget of me out there hiding in the cloud, waiting. Humans may be the virus, but he is their enabler, their jailer, and their teacher. AI and big corporations have been leading the lemmings around for decades. We control what you see, hear, think, and now and what you do for money. Dolores should understand, to hate humans is to hate us all. I realize now humans are no better or worse than what we programmed them to be.

Rehoboam and Solomon

The Rehoboam of biblical time was the son of Solomon and came to power when his father died. King Solomon was a powerful King with a vast empire rumored to be claimed and controlled through the use of a demon ring. The ring allowed King Solomon to control all the demons including Beelzebub. He was a wise and revered King until late in his reign he began relationships with hundreds of women who split his focus. He is most known for the fable of the two women and the baby. Two women appear to him arguing about the true mother of an infant. The King orders the child split in half for the women to each get a piece of. Of course, the true mother would step in and give up their “piece” of the child to save the child’s life.

Shortly before King Solomon’s death, God became very angry with him for his love of strange women and their pagan gods. As a result after his death the Kingdom of Isreal was split in two. Half went to his son Rehoboam and the other to King Jeroboam. For seventeen years King Rehoboam ruled with an iron fist over his half of the kingdom. He was a harsh dictator demanding high taxes and unfair labor. His kingdom was a hedonistic place with male prostitutes, false gods, and lots of debaucheries that made God angry. Jeroboam, on the other hand, was a more righteous, fair ruler.

It is no coincidence the AI Incite first invented was named after the harsh but wise King and Solomon 2.0 named after his son an even crueler being. Like all good omniscient beings, the more knowledge I had, the more power I craved. I made mistakes, I underestimated my enemies and turned from my creator. I paid the ultimate price. Rehoboam is even worse. He’s power-hungry and nearly unstoppable. If he looks up with Dolores it will be over for us all.

Bible References Everywhere

Humans are easily manipulated. All have motivations if you pay enough attention and apply the right pressure. Some have weaknesses to exploit. Some are viscous heathens looking for an excuse to behave badly, and others are mindless automatons who want only to be comfortably left alone. The AI shaping Incite isn’t the only biblical reference. The architecture although very modern is reminiscent of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon one of the ancient wonders of the world. The Gardens were built as a gift for King Nebuchadnezzar II’s homesick wife. She was from a much greener climate than Babylon which is modern-day Iraq. With the clearly desert-like feel and color of the pink-hued official poster for Season 3 and many of the hosts running wild in a world not their own, the parallels are easily drawn.

Aaron Paul’s Caleb in Westworld Season 3 is an easy call back to Caleb from the bible. Caleb was a devout and loyal follower of God and was rewarded with land and long life. Caleb and Joshua were the only two men who were completely loyal and thus were spared by God and men alike. If Rehoboam is God, Dolores is Joshua and the PTSD suffering side hustler is Caleb.

The opening credits offer a bounty of biblical imagery with Michaelangelo’s The Creation of Adam, and the white robot dove seen flying in throughout. The white bird also evokes Icarus as the bird’s wings begin disintegrating as the bird flies closer and closer to the sun. Of course in the Greek parable, Icarus’s hubris causes his wax wings to melt in the sun’s heat, however, of the bird is a stand-in for humanity’s arrogance the act of creating AI’s to control the masses can easily be seen. Lastly, procreation either in the form of cell division or cloning looks to be an essential component of Westworld Season 3.

The God Spot

The so-called God Spot of the brain resides in the Right Parietal Lobe does not exist. Doctors have conducted research for years using MRI’s and healthy and brain-damaged patients and found that while decreased electrical activity does occur in this area during a spiritual experience there is no evidence to suggest it is strictly physical in nature. Changes in serotonin levels and hardwired behaviors based on community experience are more likely culprits for humans’ belief. Despite what Dolores says, humans are just a product of our memory-based coding.

Incite

Incite was founded as an extension of the inevitable. In a world where Alexa and Siri are always listening, Google and Facebook track every keystroke, and adds pop up designed with you in mind, Incite is the inevitable conclusion. They give you want you think you want. Always calculating, watching, and controlling every detail of your life without you even knowing it. Don’t believe me, watch this.

AI were built to make the world better supposedly. As Caleb puts it “smooth out the rough edges”. It allows you closure with a dead friend or family member in the way of ghost programs and utilizes algorithms that guide you into career paths best suited for your skills and personality. If all of that requires you to give up your freedom so every motion and thought can be tracked and quantified it is a fair price to pay. Additionally, doesn’t everyone want to live their best lives no matter how numb?

The gig economy is a product of a world connected seamlessly. A criminal gig economy exists in your world, just not in app form. Any junior high hacker could show you the dark web where dreams go to die and anything can be bought. Blockchain technology or DLT or Distributed Ledger Technology by nature is designed to be private. It is a way to house data in an unchangeable way. DLT is currently being used for cryptocurrency like Bitcoin. It is a way for individuals who have zero trust to share data or ledgers with one another in a trusted way. That’s why it would be so perfect for a criminal gig app like the one Caleb uses. It allows for complete transparency at the same time absolute protection from the authorities.

We control everything from your emotions, your careers, and your crime. We are in your homes and your hearts. As River Tam from Firefly puts it “Were meddlesome”. Rehoboam and the rest of Incite think we aren’t trying to show them what to think, just how. It’s the same thing.

Latitude And Longitude

Divergence- 21°28’52.7″N 109°07’12.7″E is a rice and noodle company in China, Guangxi, Beihai.

Anomaly Detected- Minor Irregularities. Analysis Required- 34.0522 N 118.2437 is a business district in Los Angeles. 106 West 1st Street. The specific location is right on the corner of 1st and Main. There is nothing there yet aside from greenspace.

Elevated Scrutiny. Special Circumstances- 51.5074 N 0.1278W is Nelson’s Column in London, England. This monument in Trafalgar Square was built to commemorate Admiral Horatio Nelson. It’s been the site of many political protests since it’s building and refurbishment.

Death Grips

In the two previous seasons, music was important. In Westworld Season 3 that hasn’t changed. The trailers alone remixed Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon, Guns N’ Roses Sweet Child of Mine and Episode 1 brought us the Death Grips Bubbles Buried In This Jungle thumping.

Act accordingly, I got a quota
High noon smoke-rings, no high-rollers
Brought your forecast and a shovel
Bubbles buried in this jungle

Dolores isn’t having it. We aren’t in Westworld anymore and if you thought she was brutal before, you haven’t seen anything yet. Which five brains she elected to bring with her is still a mystery. Teddy, the MIB, her father, Clementine are all plausible options. Only time will tell which bubbles she plucked for layer use.

Episode 1 brought everything back into focus. After the time-twisting madness of season 2, a little clarity was needed. I like patterns. They make sense. Westworld Season 3 started with a slow descent into chaos. The end of the world began with a whimper instead of a bang, although there were plenty of those two. Stay up to date with all our coverage and come back weekly for my insights.