It's mainly Dolores' story that I'm most confused by with the little visions she keeps having :laugh: It was cool to see the flashback from the park's early days again but this time to find out it was from Dolores' PoV (and I never even noticed Maeve in the background of that scene the first time around).

After the Host who greeted William showed up in the park and the Man in Black recognised her, I was back on board with the William = MiB theory but I'm still not sure if they're gonna do it. I had read a theory that her scenes with William were indeed taking place 30 years ago (during an earlier awakening she had due to the influence of Arnold) and those brief shots of her alone are actually her present-day.

I do think there are at least two separate timelines at play. I'm still convinced the Dolores / Bernard scenes are in the past and "Bernard" in those scenes is actually Arnold and the two different Westworld logos seen throughout the show is another hint. But then, the logo that seems to be the older one is seen when William arrives, and if the logos are significant then that definitely places his story in the past so he could be the Man in Black after all. UNLESS there's a huge swerve and the logo we think is the modern day one is actually the past one and vice versa.

MY HEAD D: :joker:

On a less mind melting note, I like Talulah Riley (Angela, the Host who greeted Wiliam) so I'm liking her role turning out to be a little bigger than expected. Her being revealed as a Wyatt follower was a cool twist.

Maeve remains amazing :love: When she was literally dictating the story around her :flutter: Cracked up at Armistice noticing the Sheriff tip his hat to her and shooting him anyway :laugh2:

As heartbreaking as Clementine being replaced is, I couldn't help but love the meta aspect of a character in a story noticing one of the the roles has been recast :laugh:

who was shooting from the other outrigger during the time travel in Season 5 :idc:

I half agree with you about them knowing how they were going to end it. I think they were planning on ending it with them being in purgatory and having all died in the crash but I think they diverted from that because for one everyone figured it out pretty quick and also because they wanted to drag it out alot longer then they'd planned because it got so successful.

One thing that annoyed me was that Temple stuff, what was that all about? And why of all people bring Sayid back from the dead?

yeah I didn't love how it got more mystical and fantasy at the end and the stuff with the Temple water and Sayid and Claire going evil with this "sickness" and why the Man in Black couldn't attack the Temple was never clear tbh :laugh:

I preferred the more science fiction aspects with The Dharma Initiative so yeah I do think it went a little off track by the final season but it's still my favourite show ever :laugh:

But the scene in the Pilot with Locke explaining backgammon and his speech about "two players, one is light, one is dark" was really nice foreshadowing of Jacob and the Man in Black, I certainly don't think they knew exactly what they were gonna do with that at the time but they have said they at least knew those two sides were going to be represented by two people eventually and I believe that much.

I agree that it was probably their plan from the beginning for it to be purgatory but in my opinion, it was obvious from near the beginning (after everyone figured it out) that to keep the suspense they not only decided to steer people away from that conclusion... but actually decided NOT to go in that direction, instead genuinely writing it as science fiction rather than pseudo-religion. And I think while it was on that track, it was actually a better show going in a better direction. Then they couldn't figure out how to conclude it so they THEN said "let's just do the Purgatory thing"... which, tbqfh, after several seasons going in another direction, no longer made much sense at all.

They should either have stuck with the changed direction... or just accepted in the first place that people had figured out the "purgatory" angle and kept with it, exploring the nature of purgatory and what it all means. Who would move on, is it possible to find a way back, the personal journies experienced there, etc...

like people saying "Oh they were dead all along" when the finale quite clearly pointed out that they weren't at all. I think there are genuine, valid issues with the show (as you and Niamh have addressed) that sometimes get lost (lol) among a lot of generic moaning about things that aren't actually true because criticising the Lost ending has become a very popular thing to do. Like I zone out as soon as someone says "the Island was Purgatory" or "literally nothing was answered". :worry: