Westworld Season 1 was all about the puzzle. What’s in the center of the maze? Who is a secret robot? How is there a third Hemsworth brother? William grew up to be something terrifying: Ed Harris. More specifically he grew up to be the ultimate black hat – an ultra-capable game-obsessed survivor who is as familiar with the Westworld landscape as he is the back of his own, scarred hand. It was an undeniable stroke of genius for season one to present the story of William in the past and present simultaneously. It was both sleek and braggadocios timeframe smudging storytelling and a legitimate way to drive into the dark heart of one of the show’s most important characters. The answer is yes, as it turns out. Westworld seems to be operating under a fundamentally sound principle: the more great actors on your show, the better. If that means we must maintain a flashback format to incorporate two great actors, then so be it. Thankfully, Westworld Season 2 is doing something worthwhile and fascinating with both the Jimmi Simpson and Ed Harris versions of William. At different points of our lives, we are all somehow both fundamentally different and fundamentally the same. It’s one of the grand ironies and mysteries of life and it’s one that the engineers at Westworld have to confront all the time. The hosts maintain the same bodies, given a patched bullethole here or there, but their code changes. Humans aren’t that dissimilar. Our “coding” changes based on the experiences we take in. “Reunion” catches up with Young William in the past, shortly after his first experience at Westworld. His adventure with Dolores has hardened him, made him realize some fundamental truths about the human condition – his human condition. His time in the park was so profound and transformative that once he’s gotten over the shock, he fully realizes the park’s value. Still, his heavily Scottish-accented father-in-law does not. So William spells it out for him. “You’re right,” he says. “This place is a fantasy. None of this is real. Except for one thing – the guests. Half of your budget goes to marketing because you don’t know what they want but they do. This is the only place in the world where you get to see people for who they really are. If you don’t see the business in that, you’re not the businessman I thought you were.” That’s right: Westworld is Facebook. Young William is Mark Zuckerberg. This is why it pays such dividends for the show to keep Young William around in flashback because revelations like this change the show in powerful, intuitive ways. Westworld, the park, has never been about the hosts. It’s about the guests. It’s a place where thousands of incredibly rich people visit to have their deepest, darkest desires exposed. William knows this because he had his deepest, darkest desires exposed: the desire to be a hero, even though you know you’re a natural villain. “You know who loves staring at their own reflection? Everybody,” he says. He’s right. The massive success of Westworld will go on to prove that. The irony, of course, is that no one likes his or her own reflection more than William. That’s why the “Old William” portions of “Reunion” are crucial. This Ed Harris version of William has come close to self-actualizing. He’s accepted his role as the boogeyman. The problem is that while he was so self-assured about the purpose of the park as a youth, he still feels like there is something missing in his own life. “I’m gonna level with you, Lars,” William tells Lars after rescuing his old host bandit friend for the umpteenth time. You’re not a bandit. You’re a two-bit tour guide. For the first time you got yourself a real revolution. That’s why your place exists. They wanted a place away from God … a place where they could sin in peace. But we were watching them. Of course judgement wasn’t the point. We had something else in mind entirely.” William knows that Westworld was a place to be a hideaway from God because he helped design and pitch it like that. After he’s spent decades testing his mettle and will inside the park, however, he wants God to come back. He wants rules to the game so he can more properly be judged. Ford making this whole thing real finally gives him that opportunity. That’s how Young William and Old William are two sides of the same coin. The same men with the same desires but with an entirely different set of life experiences to guide them.
