Does it Matter that Westworld isn’t Surprising?
Westworld’s finest episode was filled with thrills and emotional payoffs, but no true surprises.
Westworld’s first season played a long game that finally paid off in the finale. Answers were revealed while leaving more than enough room for season 2, but none of it surprising for those that had been paying attention. That goes double for those that actively hunted out its secrets, like fans over at the show’s Subreddit.
For those that had been hanging on for twists, perhaps disappointment was inevitable. When a show becomes this big, everyone has something to say about where the plot is going. Magazines track it week to week, fans obsess, and writers and procures are hounded for clues. That’s just the way it goes. It’s be practically impossible to keep true secrets anymore in television, but obsessing about what’s going to happen next is part of the fun. You can’t, however, have it both ways.
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The finale was meticulously plotted and believably pulled from everything that came before. Watching Ford’s master plan play out was more thrilling than having twists and turns just for the sake of having them. Plus, we still don’t know the smaller details about his narrative; we’ve only been shown the wider picture.
There were so many puzzles laid out across the first season that it felt like it was impossible for it to all come together. But as Lisa Joy and Jonathon Nolan said, that were never interested in crafting a story with no answers in sight. The joy of watching Westworld is akin to the joy gained from finishing an actual jigsaw puzzle. As long as people continue to pay so much attention it, surprises are going to be difficult-to-impossible to pull off. As long as putting the pieces together continues to be this satisfying, that’s not going to matter all that much.
Next: The best reveal in the Westworld finale.
Westworld has proved that it can be truly great even while being pleasantly predictable. and we have no problem with that.