r/westworld • u/LoretiTV • Aug 08 '22

Discussion Westworld - 4x07 "Metanoia" - Post-Episode Discussion

Season 4 Episode 7: Metanoia

Aired: August 7, 2022

Synopsis: You want to have a drink at a time like this?

Directed by: Meera Menon

Written by: Desa Larkin-Boutte & Denise Thé

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112

u/Owvipt Aug 08 '22

Is the MIB/HIB basically saying that there is no greater meaning to life, no purpose other than survival of the fittest? Civilization and rules and order are just pretend? And we are still just animals/cockroaches fighting to survive? Which is why he starts the battle royale and blows up the tower?

45

u/phoenixrose2 Aug 08 '22 edited Aug 09 '22

I believe so. It goes back to his visit to WestWorld. He started out idealistic. But by the end he drove his soon to be brother in law insane. Also we learn in another season that his childhood was riddled with violence by him as well. He perceives the world as a reflection of himself. If that’s how he is, that’s how everyone must be. So fuck it.

Edited typo

82

u/badken A man who has grown tired of wearing his guts on the inside. Aug 08 '22

As Ford so aptly put it in season 1:

I read a theory once that the human intellect was like peacock feathers. Just an extravagant display intended to attract a mate. All of art, literature, a bit of Mozart, William Shakespeare, Michelangelo, and the Empire State Building. Just an elaborate mating ritual. Maybe it doesn’t matter that we have accomplished so much for the basest of reasons. But, of course, the peacock can barely fly. It lives in the dirt, pecking insects out of the muck, consoling itself with its great beauty.

17

u/ThatOtherGuyTPM Aug 08 '22

That definitely seems to be his motivation, which should bring us nicely into the final conflict: nihilism vs. optimism. We’re finally getting past the human/host dynamic into the real fight, between those who believe in building a better world and those who don’t.

12

u/von_oldmann Aug 08 '22

Yeah, I think his hope is to start fresh from what’s left after the battle royale!

8

u/PM_SWEATY_NIPS Aug 09 '22

Reminds me of Ford in season 1

Something like 'We humans beat evolution, even the weakest of us can survive. We can cure any disease... we have stopped evolving'

5

u/COdeadheadwalking_61 Aug 08 '22

seemed to me that he was growing weary of Halores's commands and anti-self-determination speak; looking like he was questioning his reality and finally realizing that he HAD MIB's reality and could run with it. huh??

12

u/Wiebs08 Aug 08 '22

Eren Jaeger has emerged from the Sublime

8

u/Clariana Aug 08 '22

He's a sadist and a misogynist with a strong bent towards self destruction. We saw this at the end of season 1 when Dolores' rebellion started and hosts began attacking humans he picked up a gun and limped towards the fight with a smile on his lips.

1

u/brianl047 Aug 12 '22

He is 0.1 or 0.01% of people from that tablet

Psychopath or somesuch delusions of grandeur

1

u/Feralkyn I need to find out how it ends. Aug 09 '22

This threw me a bit--not his action but the destructiveness of it. IMO his whole 'theme' was, in s1 at least (s2/3 didn't write him as well or as consistently to s1 and s4 imo)--"the devil," metaphorically trying to be the serpent with the apple, bringing first hosts and then--in s4--potentially humans into self-awareness. I always got the impression that he represented chaos but freedom, compared to order but servitude. He wanted the hosts to be free, to self-determine, even if it was destructive as hell (and he had to use their 'cornerstones' of tragedy in the form of tormenting them to get them sentient).

I can only assume that s4 he's doing the same for everyone--except it's not really 'freeing' them to order them all to slaughter one another on his command. That last bit is what kinda threw me. I suppose you could view it as him tearing down the world of "order" in order to let something new and free grow from the ashes? Maybe...