Westworld Showrunners Break Down the Insane Dolores Twist and Why Now Is the Perfect Time to Break the Rules

Westworld's showrunners had a lot to explaining to do when it comes to that wild Dolores twist from this week's episode. But, they believe that this is the perfect time to break the rules. "The Mother of Exiles" threw fans for a loop as they would discover that there are a bunch of copies of Dolores that she managed to sneak out of the park. (That includes herself, who inhabited a copy of Charlotte's body at the time.) Are you dizzy yet? Well, good because you should be, because all the rules that viewers had come to believe were cast in stone are now at the best a bit fuzzy. Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy both talked to The Hollywood Reporter about the developments for Evan Rachel Wood and Tessa Thompson's avatars heading forward.

"We very carefully avoided the idea of clones and copies of hosts in the first couple of seasons," Nolan began. "When you apply the idea that digital information wants to be free to your characters, it's a very dangerous idea. If Dolores is infinitely copiable, then is she still Dolores?"

He continued, "One of the ideas we're most fascinated is identity, agency. Is Dolores a computer program? Or is Dolores a collection of her experiences? It's one of the questions that's the origin of the series: nature versus nurture. If we indulge in the idea of copies of the hosts too early, then the rules get threatened, and your affinity for and investment in Dolores — this Dolores — is threatened."

"Now, in our third season, a fascinating thing for us to explore is this other way of approaching the question of identity," Nolan added. "If you take two copies of the same person but set them on slightly different trajectories but with the same goals, would they remain the same person? Would they maintain the same goals?"

"Or would some part of the character — the version of Dolores who has been forced to pretend to be Hale (Thompson) — in pretending to be Hale, has she absorbed any of her methods of thinking? Is she absorbing any of who Hale was? Or is a natural consequence of being in a different circumstance than the original Dolores be that they may not remain the same person anymore — that they may not even be allies? It's a larger question that we think is a lot of fun to play with," he concluded.

Were you shocked by this week's episode? Let us know in the comments!