Major spoilers from Sunday night's (November 13) "Westworld," "Tromp L'Oeil," lie ahead.



Odds are that everyone this morning will be talking about the big reveal at the end of last night’s “Westworld,” which changed the game in a big way and confirmed a long-held popular fan theory. But I want to share the moment that stuck with me the hardest — and it had nothing to do with Bernard.

While traveling through the countryside in “Tromp L’Oeil” towards the beginning of the episode William (Jimmi Simpson) and Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) had an interesting conversation about what they were both doing so far away from home. Dolores was trying to escape a world that didn't make sense to her anymore, but didn't understand why William was coming along with her.

“What is it you’re looking for?” she asked.

His response should seem familiar, because it’s more than likely the reason that all of us are watching “Westworld” in the first place.

“The only thing I had when I was a kid were books,” he said. “I used to live in them, used to go to sleep dreaming I’d wake up inside one because they have meaning. This place, this was like I woke up in one of those stories. I guess I just want to find out what it means.”

“I don’t want to be in a story,” Dolores shot back, almost bitterly. “All I want is to not look forward or back. I just want to be in the moment I’m in."

It’s a powerful scene for many reasons. It juxtaposed the freedom that William takes for granted with Dolores’ quest for self-awareness, and alluded to the way that fictional male protagonists often search for meaning in the form of a beautiful woman who exists only to help them find that meaning. After all, that is what Dolores would be doing if she were still functioning in her regular narrative loop, and even if it’s just on some subconscious level, she must know that somewhere deep down in her programming.

