Or just awed on a purely platonic/functional level. You don't need to like dicks to be impressed by one.

Because drama depends only on apparent stakes; what is dramatic is the character reactions to the situation they believe themselves to be in. If Westworld is essentially a LARP, then the willing suspension of disbelief works for the newcomers as well as it would for a gamer. Besides, there are plenty of horrible…

I was under the impression that that was internal monologue with the Arnold voice.

Show, don't tell.

I like her cynicism, which contrasts with so much earnestness coming off of most of the people around her. She's hypocritical enough to steal a kiss from a host in analysis mode and yet blackmail a tech who had sex with one while it was being stored, and yet it's played as a wry self-awareness; she knows to look for…

The weak point in the episode was Felix's work partner. "You'll never be anything but a butcher!!!". Like anyone would say that irl. That was far too over the top.

If people actually paid attention to the show, they wouldn't spout this nonsense.

My impression is that Delores has figured out how to "fake" being in analysis mode in order to conceal information about her internal conflicts over experiencing sentience, and that quite possibly she's been faking it ever since the first time we've seen her in analysis mode.

Signs, i.e. next week's preview, points to [SPOILERS].
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It looks like Maeve gets shit to get real next episode, like whoa.

My thing is, even if it is there the reviewer is missing the actual implication, because the racial subtext is diegetic. Everything in the park is created, intended, and so every detail is an expression of the creator's conscious and subconscious desires and categories. Ford overtly criticizes the new narrative as…

Read up? I watched the Lost and BSG finales. You know, not vicariously, but in person. My own opinions on those shows (their endings weren't religious so much as the lion's share of metatextual content of both shows through their entire runs, so I don't know why you're pointing at the endings) are that they explored…

Which is a distinct if probably related metric. As a child of the 80's, Stranger Things was a real head-trip and one I personally enjoyed even though the source material of that period from which it drew obvious inspiration are not among my favorites.

Yep. It would also, just on a meta-narrative end, be kind of a silly and expected twist for this sort of tale. "Let's wonder who among the humans is a secret robot!" BSG started getting a bit silly right around when they were chasing their tail about which putatively human characters would be the final five hidden…

Arnold gave Dolores consciousness via an approximation of religion, which is interesting, but in the year 2016 it's flat-out stupid to go the religion route in sci-fi.

Indeed, action verbs are for addle-pated losers.

But I get the impression that the loops generally run even if no guest happens to intercede. It is not clear what happens to Teddy, Dolores, and the gang if no newcomer happens to participate in their quest/storyline.

Right. There was a portion near the end where Dolores says her scripted lines as though she were talking to Teddy as they approach her father's house, only Teddy is not there (having been diverted onto Ford's new plotline tracking Wyatt's gang). That's the reason why she was vulnerable even though no guest seems to…

Indeed. He's either a really boring dude in real life, or for even more frisson, some sort of modern sainted universally-well-thought-of guy. Whatever happened 30 years ago during the incident at the park changed him, and he became invested in the Man in Black over his real life.

But it shouldn't. After all, it knows that whether or not it exists, some ASI would definitely be taking care of the relevant list, as that was what they all were at first created to do.