The 'Westworld' Answers We've Had All Along

By Genevieve Burgess | Westworld | June 24, 2018 |

By Genevieve Burgess | Westworld | June 24, 2018 |

The second season of ‘Westworld’ comes to a close tonight and we’re all waiting to learn a lot of answers. But have we had some answers all along? In a show this meticulously planned, it’s possible that there have been clues for where things were going. Well, there’s definitely clues planted in computer code and image text and websites with secret passwords, but I’m lazy and I’m talking about much more obvious clues that don’t require me to take several course hours in computer science to find. Clues like names! Let’s see what a minor interest in name meanings and a quick spin through Google can tell us.

Dolores - From Latin and Spanish for “Our Lady of Sorrows” which is a little softer than “deathbringer” as she was referred to last week, but still a pretty big hint. Although Our Lady of Sorrows traditionally refers to sorrows the Virgin Mary experienced in her life. These are commonly depicted in artwork as seven long knives or daggers piercing her heart. Spoiler alert?

Maeve - There’s two common meanings for this Irish name, “the cause of great joy” or “she who intoxicates” but where it gets really interesting is the history of the name. Maeve was a great warrior queen from Connacht and a star of the Irish epic legend “The Cattle Raid of Cooley.” She was a formidable queen, working her way through several husbands, and started a war entirely because her husband owned a better bull than she did and she wanted to one up him. Considering the weaving in of the concept of a Judas steer from the first season, this may actually be relevant.

Delos - Most of the guy names are pretty dull; William means helmet, Robert means strong, Bernard means brave bear, etc. But Delos is the island that is allegedly the birth site of the twin gods Apollo and Artemis after their mother, Leto, requested its sanctuary for the birth since Hera was pursuing her. In some version of the myth Delos is only able to offer her sanctuary because it is not fixed in place and floats free on the ocean. Hera could pursue Leto across all the lands of the world, but Delos wasn’t officially land, making it a kind of in-between space that seems to mirror the role the parks play in their world. Frankly, I had assumed the company was named for the myth, it seems to be in the original movie, so the fact that they decided to make it someone’s name is interesting.

It might seem like there’s not a lot there, but given the level of planning that went into Westworld I wouldn’t assume any of this is an accident. Maybe it’s not as cool as converting text string to hex codes to get a password to watch a glitchy 30 second video no one else can, but I’ll take it.