Dolores' Visions May Be The Key To 'Westworld'

Westworld is proving to be one hell of a puzzle and we're only four episodes into the HBO series. One of the most intriguing elements of the story has to be Dolores and her evolving psyche. Sure, she is technically a robot, but it is beginning to seem more and more likely that she will soon blur the lines between host and human. In the past few episodes, we've seen Dolores having visions on Westworld that could be memories or something even deeper. And because they are almost certainly pieces of a bigger puzzle — or perhaps, a maze — it's important to look at these visions and try to understand what exactly she was remembering or seeing.

It can sometimes be difficult to grasp the timeline of Westworld , especially since there may be more than one unfolding. It's often unclear if Dolores's visions are happening elsewhere right now or if they have happened to her in the past and Bernard is simply calling them forward. There's also the question of whether these are visions that Dolores has actually experiences, or if they are artificial narratives uploaded by Ford or someone else.

Whatever exactly they are, these images are extremely important. It's obvious that she is a vital piece of Westworld and the maze within it, especially since Lawrence's daughter, who has insight into the maze, appears in many of the visions. Here's a breakdown of what Dolores has been seeing or remembering on Westworld and what it could mean for her future.

The Wolf

In the series' second episode, Dolores suddenly had a vision in which she looked down the town center and saw that everyone is laying dead around her. Then a wolf walked through the bodies, sniffing them as it passed. It was a quick vision, and when she came out of it, she was standing in front of the brothel. When Maeve asked her to step aside, Dolores looked at her and repeated the line that her former father told her before he malfunctioned: "These violent delights have violent ends." Soon after that, Maeve started questioning her own reality.

So what does this all mean? Reddit user Spire88 pointed out that a wolf can symbolize a "strong connection with your instincts or intuition. High intelligence." This could be a sign that Dolores has taken herself into a completely different realm of cognitive abilities. Is she seeing the "incident" from 30 years ago that everyone has kept mentioning? Ford has said that every animal in the park is a host, except for flies, so is the wolf a host? Who sent it to walk through the aftermath of these deaths if so? We don't have any of those answers yet, but if this is a memory, I'd almost guarantee it's a glimpse at the big critical failure.

The Church

The fourth episode is titled "Dissonance Theory," which is significant because in psychology, cognitive dissonance is what happens when you have conflicting thoughts, or when your own actions don't line up with your beliefs or thoughts. This relates to the episode because Dolores finds herself in a border town where she comes across Lawrence's daughter drawing the familiar maze pattern in the dirt. When she asks the young girl where she is from, she responds, "Same as you." Suddenly, there is a voice (that sounds like Bernard) that says, "Remember." That's when we get another flash of visions. We see a church with a graveyard (seemingly with the same black steeple that Ford saw in the previous episode), Lawrence's daughter in a fancy dress, and then the church door.

Once Dolores comes out of this vision, a sheriff appears, likely to escort her back to her own narrative, and when he grabs her arm, she launches into another series of visions. We see that church again, then Dolores entering the church, the building's exterior, Lawrence's daughter, the church graveyard, and finally, Dolores kneeling in front of a tombstone that says "Dolores" with intermittent flashes of her holding a gun. What the hell is going on? Well, Reddit user BoobTubeBuddies theorizes that the church is where Dolores shot and killed Arnold, the cofounder of the park who also died mysteriously there and seemingly created the maze.

The Moon

Once Dolores is safely with William in the same episode, she looks up at the moon and is suddenly triggered into yet another series of visions. The moon becomes a spotlight and we see Dolores' house, where people in hazmat suits are tending to her dead body and what looks like the body of her father. This is a little more self-explanatory, as Dolores is likely remembering a time when she died in the park, but this particular death could end up holding significance.

Clearly, there is a lot to unpack with these flashes that Dolores has been having and even though we don't know where or when they're taking place, you should definitely keep an eye on them. I have a feeling that Dolores is the key to some of Westworld's biggest mysteries.

Images: John P. Johnson/HBO, HBO (3)