Trace Decay

Westworld 1×8

& Bernard: What have I done? What have I done?
    Dr. Ford: This guilt you feel, the anguish, the horror, the pain... it’s remarkable, a thing of beauty.

& Bernard: I’m a killer. My God. My God.
    Dr. Ford: God has nothing to do with it. You killed her because... I told you to.

& Dr. Ford: Then, when we started, the hosts’ emotions were primary colors. Love, hate. I wanted all the shades in between. The human engineers were not up to the task, so I built you, and together you and I captured that elusive thing... Heart.

& Dr. Ford: «One man’s life or death were but a small price to pay for the acquirement of the knowledge which I sought, for the dominion I should acquire.»

& Bernard: How would you like me to proceed?

& New Clementine: You’re new. Not much of a rind on you...

& Sylvester: Fine. Go, then. It’s not like we could stop you anyways.
    Maeve: Oh, Sylvester, you disappoint me. Every host’s spine, mine included, has an explosive charge which will detonate if I try to leave. Isn’t that right? A fail-safe. Which vertebra was it?..
    Sylvester: C6.

& Felix: ...Even if that worked, you would still need an army to break out of here.
    Maeve: That’s exactly right. I’ll need allies. And to get them... I’ll need administrative privileges.

& Maeve: Time to write my own fucking story...

---

& Sylvester: We need to wrap this up, make like things are normal. That means we need the tablet back. And, you... go back to playing dumb.

& Sylvester: The things you need to change are burned into your core code so deep, no one can touch them!
    Maeve: Funny you should mention that. Parts of me are quite old. There are some elegant formal structures, a kind of recursive beauty, but complex... like two minds arguing with each other. There are things in me, things I was designed to do that are just out of my reach. They almost seem to be dormant... Who is Arnold?

& Maeve: The things I need you to change are quite sophisticated, but I’ll write them down for you. And then, like you said... I can be someone else’s problem.

& Man in Black: I’ve always admired your resolve, Theodore. The thing is... you never understand the game is rigged. You’re here to be the loser. You see, the house always wins.

& Man in Black: Well, this looks promising.

& Man in Black: It’s you. I figured they retired you. I guess Ford never likes to waste a pretty face...

& Teddy: Actually, I did remember something... You.

& Maeve: Sylvester... Good luck.

& Maeve: Even at a 14, you were never a match for me.

& Felix: You said you wouldn’t hurt anyone.
    Maeve: Oh, darling. You of all people know exactly how duplicitous I am. Just wait till I’m back up top, practicing my other new talents.

& Maeve: Now, it’s time to recruit my army.

& Dr. Ford: I wonder, what do you really feel? After all, in this moment, you are in a unique position. A programmer who knows intimately how the machines work and a machine who knows its own true nature.
    Bernard: I understand what I’m made of, how I’m coded, but I do not understand the things that I feel. Are they real, the things I experienced?

& Dr. Ford: The self is a kind of fiction, for hosts and humans alike. It’s a story we tell ourselves. And every story needs a beginning. Your imagined suffering makes you lifelike.
    Bernard: Lifelike, but not alive? Pain only exists in the mind. It’s always imagined. So what’s the difference between my pain and yours? Between you and me?
    Dr. Ford: This was the very question that consumed Arnold, filled him with guilt, eventually drove him mad. The answer always seemed obvious to me.

& Dr. Ford: There is no threshold that makes us greater than the sum of our parts, no inflection point at which we become fully alive. We can’t define consciousness because consciousness does not exist.
    Humans fancy that there’s something special about the way we perceive the world, and yet we live in loops as tight and as closed as the hosts do, seldom questioning our choices, content, for the most part, to be told what to do next.

& Dr. Ford: Best not to dwell on these troubling memories. Otherwise, you might be drawn back into them.

& Dolores: Where are we?
    William: We’re here, together.
    Dolores: Then, when are we? Is this... now? Am I going mad? Are you real?
    William: Of course I’m real.
    Dolores: I can’t tell anymore.

& Lee Sizemore: How am I supposed to do that?
    Charlotte Hale: You’re a writer. Make up a story. Have fun programming. Remember, brevity is the soul of wit.

& Teddy: They say in this country... the only people who survive are men of conviction. Mine is to save Dolores or die trying. Wyatt’s is to claim this earth or raze it to the ground. But yours... Yours has always been a mystery to me. For all the time we’ve spent together, I still have no idea who the hell you really are.

& Man in Black: You want to know who I am? Who I really am? I’m a god. Titan of industry. Philanthropist. Family man, married to a beautiful woman, father to a beautiful daughter. I’m the good guy, Teddy.

& New Clementine: Better cool them off before they move from gambling and whoring to...
    Maeve: Have fun with that. I’m finally getting out of here. The house is yours.

& Teddy: You’re a fucking animal.
    Man in Black: Well, an animal would’ve felt something. I felt... nothing.

& Man in Black: ...there’s a deeper game here, Teddy. Arnold’s game. And that game... cuts deep.

& Dr. Ford: There. That’s better. An old trick from an old friend. You need not suffer, Maeve. I’ll take it from you.

& Man in Black: The maze is all that matters now, and besting Wyatt is the last step in unlocking it, to having what both our sorry lives lack... meaning. To giving our choices consequence... even if it kills us.

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