Introspection amidst violence (Westworld season 3 spoilers)

*** THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR SEASON 3, IF YOU ARE NOT CAUGHT UP AND WANT TO AVOID SPOILERS, CONSIDER YOURSELVES WARNED ***

Sorry, I had to, it’s too topical. 

Okay, so previously on “Jess gets pretentious about Westworld,” I contemplated the show’s treatment of the dichotomy of chaos versus control. The most recent episode, S3E6, feels like a filler, meant to push the plot along and establish the conditions for characters’ future actions. Interestingly, as the episode that follows a data leak causing people to panic, one would have expected more chaos than the episode actually provides. With just one brief mention of social upheaval, the episode leaves the topic of human in-fighting to focus, instead, on the introspection of two key characters: William and Maeve. In both cases, the characters talk to some version of themselves; William is in a “group therapy” session with his former selves, while Maeve talks through various strategic points with a Dolores simulation in an attempt to get ahead of her enemy. 

It’s interesting that the show puts introspection immediately after the instigation of violence, and I read this as a comment on human instinct, how we might look into the depth of our own being once chaos falls, either as a defense/denial mechanism to escape the outside world or as a response to the often thought-provoking nature of violence and extreme change. In both cases, however, William and Maeve are violence even within their own simulations, ruling out the likelihood that introspection occurs out of escapism. So then, the provocation of self-reflection. Although it’s difficult to comment on this without seeing more episodes and knowing the actual result of this self-reflection, the fact that reflection exists and produces epiphanies suggests that amongst external chaos, information-processing and planning can still occur on the individual level. In processing the chaos of our internal selves, we can still come up with some kind of order. Perhaps that is the only thing we can hold onto in moments of crisis: our own introspection, the ability to find order within oneself. 

Additionally, I had also read this episode as somewhat of an allegory on writing and creativity. I’m not sure about how others write, but for me, it plays out mostly as a conversation with myself. And I tend to dismiss the legitimacy of these conversations, since I feel like they are useless without the input of alternative perspectives. They are, to put it weirdly, not real… Arguably, chaos deals mainly in alternative perspectives and conflict, while control works on authority talking to and reaffirming itself. Are some of the anxieties surrounding control therefore linked to the fear that it isn’t real? That when we live under complete order, there is a sense of artifice? Does that mean reality and truth are inherently chaotic, and that the markers of reality is that there are breaks in expectation? The more I ask these questions, the more I feel like the Matrix has already answered most of them. My final question then is maybe why do we feel this way? What is it in our mainstream ideology that teaches us chaos is real? 🤔