Westworld: The Park's True Purpose Revealed

The latest episode of Westworld revealed a twist about the park's purpose, with a frightening parallel to modern day events.

Last Sunday's episode "Reunion" showed the story of how Delos Incorporated came to own and fully run Westworld. While flashbacks in Season 1 established that Logan (the son of Delos owner James Delos) made an investment in the park, last night's episode explained how William transformed the park into something a bit more sinister.

During the episode, William takes James Delos to Westworld to convince him of the park's potential. While James is impressed with the technology, he points out that the park is bleeding money and won't survive for more than two or three years. Delos doesn't feel that the park is worth additional investment, but William notes that while the park was fake, the guests who live out their fantasies there are real. William's plan is to collect the guests' experiences at the park and use it to enhance Delos's marketing. Basically, the park is there so that Delos can see what people "truly" want and adjust their business plans accordingly.

We saw in the premiere episode that Delos had at least one "off the network" base in the park, in which hosts were mined for their data by sinister looking drone hosts. And now we know that William (aka the Man in Black) was responsible for those ideas and that he even built a larger site somewhere in the park related to his hidden operation.

Last night's episode also has parallels to current events. Facebook is currently embroiled in a major scandal after it was discovered that a political data firm collected private data on millions of users without their consent. It also came out that Twitter also sold user data to Cambridge Analytica back in 2015.

Delos's data collection operation might also explain some of William's transformation into the Man in Black. We found out last season that William's wife Juliet had possibly committed suicide a year before his latest trip to the park (in which the hosts eventually rebelled) and that his daughter blamed William for her death. If Juliet somehow got her hands on the Delos collected data and saw what William did at the park, it would explain why she was terrified of him as William's daughter Emily claimed. William seems to want to return to where this data is - as he feels that he was unfairly judged for some reason.

The data could also be the key to Dolores's planned attack on the "real world." She mentioned several times knowing about a secret weapon that she could use against the humans, and we saw in last night's episode that William showed Dolores the location of what was probably his hidden data collection center. If Dolores could somehow gather that data, she'd have a ton of leverage to use against the influential and rich people who regularly visit the park.

We'll see how Delos's use of the park influences the rest of the season. Westworld airs at 9 PM on Sundays on HBO.