西部世界第二季來了

HBO’s science fiction drama Westworld isn’t just known for its talented cast and philosophical musings about the nature of reality. It’s also become famous for its reveals, from mind-bending bombshells that link two characters to simple pieces of backstory that bring new insight to a storyline. Watching Westworld is like peeling an onion one layer at a time.

HBO的科幻神劇《西部世界》不僅僅以其對「真實性」的哲學思考聞名，還有錯綜復(fù)雜的人物關(guān)系，一點點的背景揭露就能給觀眾帶來新的觀看視角，看《西部世界》就有一種在一層一層剝洋蔥的感覺。

That’s why for the show’s second season, I’ll be diving into one particular spoilery revelation from each episode to figure out what it means, how we got here, and where things might go in the episodes to come. Some weeks, it might be a huge plot twist; other weeks, it might be something subtle. Either way, we’re going to spoil the hell out of it. Welcome to the Westworld Spoilers Club.

因此，在第二季，我將對每一集抽絲剝繭，分析這集到底是什么意思，以及事情的前因后果。有時候會有巨大的反轉(zhuǎn)，有時候只有細微的伏筆。無論怎樣，我們將把這部劇翻個底朝天，歡迎光臨《西部世界》俱樂部。

At the end of Westworld’s first season, the show upended what audiences thought they knew, spinning things off in unexpected new directions. In the season 1 finale, Dolores launched a host uprising, Dr. Robert Ford and the members of the Delos board were slaughtered, and Maeve was upgraded, improved, and headed back into the park to find her daughter. The scope of the series also began to expand with the tease of something audiences would later discover was Shogun World. Where things could go from there was anyone’s guess.

在第一季的結(jié)尾，這部劇直接顛覆了觀眾的想法，將劇情引到了一個新方向。在第一季最后一集，Dolores發(fā)動了一場host的起義，Robert Ford博士及Delos董事會的成員都被殺害，而Maeve則被強化并回到了基地尋找女兒。另外部分鏡頭似乎透露還有一個《 幕府世界( Shogun World)》，所有觀眾都這么猜。

The season 2 premiere, “Journey Into Night,” picks things up almost immediately thereafter. (Technically, it picks up immediately thereafter, and also two weeks later, and then some 30-plus years beforehand. The creators still love their multiple timelines, after all.) But the episode is a breathtakingly efficient exercise in setting up the various characters and arcs that will no doubt make up the bulk of the second season. Maeve enlists the help of Delos story architect Lee Sizemore and bad-boy host Hector in her quest to find her daughter. Dolores goes on a systematic killing spree as part of her larger plan to take Westworld back then conquer the outside world as well. Bernard pings between multiple timeliness, dealing with his potentially fatal injuries in the aftermath of the host uprising, and then, two weeks later, trying to remember what caused the mass execution of dozens of hosts.

第二季第一集，「Journey Into Night」講的都第一季結(jié)尾隨后發(fā)生的事情。(嚴格意義上講，有的是隨后發(fā)生的，有的是兩周后發(fā)生的，有的是三十年前發(fā)生的，畢竟我們的導演喜歡多線敘事。)但是這一集非常有效率的向我們展開了多個人物的視角，Maeve 得到了故事設(shè)計師 Lee Sizemore 的幫助，壞小子Hector 也應(yīng)她的幫助去找女兒，Dolores 繼續(xù)系統(tǒng)性的大屠殺作為她奪回西部世界并進一步征服外部世界的計劃。Bernard 在多個時間線跳轉(zhuǎn)，一邊在逃亡，另一邊兩周后的他在努力回憶到底發(fā)生了什么事。

The Man in Black, however, is at the center of a brand-new riddle: “What is The Door?” That question isn’t just an echo of the debut season’s focus on “the maze.” It also serves as the first big reveal of the show’s new season — and, like most great Westworld mysteries, that reveal leads to more questions than answers.

黑衣人則處于謎語「門是什么?」的中心。這個問題不僅僅是第一季「迷宮」的回應(yīng)。也作為第二季第一個揭露的問題——作為這部劇老傳統(tǒng)，一個秘密揭曉答案了，就會有更多的問題冒出來。

THE BIG REVEAL?

這集揭露了什么?

About two-thirds of the way through “Journey Into Night,” the Man in Black is making his way across the post-massacre landscape when he meets “Young Ford,” a host that Dr. Robert Ford (Anthony Hopkins) created to represent his childhood self. But Young Ford doesn’t seem to just be a docile, clueless host anymore. He seems to know things about the Man in Black. He calls him by his proper name, William, and references the older man’s hunt for the center of the maze throughout the first season. Young Ford suggests that a new round has started and that the Man in Black has to find something called The Door. “Congratulations, William,” Young Ford says. “This game is meant for you.”

在「Journey Into Night」中，黑衣人大屠殺后四處晃蕩，途中遇到了小Ford，他是Dr. Robert Ford制造的機器人，代表童年的自己。小Ford看起來不像一個打醬油的角色，他似乎知道很多黑衣人的秘密。他直呼黑衣人齊名，William，也提到了黑衣人第一季苦苦追尋的迷宮(maze)。小Ford說游戲的新回合開始了，黑衣人要去找的東西是門(The Door)「恭喜你，William」，小Ford說，「游戲是專門為你設(shè)計的。」

Dolores may have killed Dr. Ford at the end of season 1, but that doesn’t mean he’s gone forever. The scene makes it very clear that some version of him still exists in the park, in the guise of Young Ford. Actor Oliver Bell plays the child host, but as he talks, his voice frequently glitches out with what sounds like Hopkins’ voice layered underneath it. Of course, the revelation that Dr. Ford still has clues to share doesn’t stop the Man in Black from shooting the child host in the face.

Dolores 在第一季結(jié)尾殺了Ford博士，但這并不意味著他就一去不復(fù)返了。這一幕充分說明他依舊以某種形式存在著。演員Oliver Bell扮演小Ford，但如他所言，他的聲音像出故障一樣混雜著Hopkins(老Ford的扮演者)的聲音。當然，即便Dr. Ford還有信息沒有透露，也不能阻止黑衣人開槍射他一臉。

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

這集啥意思呢?

It’s early in the season, but the revelation that there is at least one Fordbot alive and well — the Man in Black even calls him “Robert” before gunning him down — opens up a number of possibilities. One potential explanation is that Ford set up this new game for the Man in Black before dying and programmed this host to dole out the information to him whenever they happened to cross paths. But that’s not really how the show presents it. If Young Ford were simply doling out information as part of a new narrative (and the host uprising does seem to be part of Ford’s final tale, “Journey Into Night”), it would follow that he’d speak in his own voice, just like every other host has been doing.

本季才剛剛開始，但我們已經(jīng)知道，至少有一個Ford機器人活著——黑衣人管他叫Robert——這開啟了很多種可能性。一個可能的解釋是Ford死前為黑衣人設(shè)計了一個游戲，并設(shè)置了一個機器人向他透露訊息。如果小Ford僅僅只有一個通知的作用，那么他完全可以用自己的聲音說，就像之前的那些機器人那樣。

But the voice glitching implies something different is happening. It gives the sense that the Young Ford host has been “taken over” by its creator in some way. But exactly how is up in the air, and that will likely be the most important question to answer moving forward on this particular storyline. Is the voice glitching just a bit of inconsistent, stylistic narrative flair? Did Ford program some of himself into the child host for posterity? Or did he somehow leave his own consciousness in the computer systems of Delos, Inc., turning him into a literal deus ex machina?

但是聲音的變化說明事情發(fā)生了變化。這個場景說明小Ford機器人被本尊「取代了」。這將是這條故事線最重要的問題。聲音的變化僅僅是一種無聊的設(shè)定嗎?還是說Ford將自己的人格寫入了小Ford將其作為自己的后代?還是說他把自己的意識留存在了Delos的電腦里，使他成為了某種意義上的機械降神(deus ex machina)?

Another explanation could be that Ford himself is actually still alive. Viewers have speculated that Ford wasn’t killed in the first season’s finale — that what died was a host replicant — but that doesn’t seem to thematically fit with the show’s idea that Dolores’ decision to strike back against her creators was key to her achieving sentience. And just to make it abundantly clear, Bernard and the Delos security team discover Ford’s body in the season 2 premiere. They find his face riddled with maggots. Given what else the episode reveals about the anatomy of hosts’ heads, the discovery leaves little room for doubt: the real Dr. Ford is dead.

另一個解釋是Ford實際上沒有死。觀眾們揣測Ford在第一季的結(jié)尾沒有死——死的是個機器人替身——但這似乎不太符合劇情安排，因為Dolores殺人才說明獲得了自由意志。為了讓這一點更明顯，Bernard和Delos的安全團隊在第二季第一集找到了Ford的尸體，而他的臉書堆滿蛆蟲。鑒于我們已經(jīng)見過host的腦袋構(gòu)造，所以留給觀眾的想象空間已經(jīng)不大了：真正的Ford已經(jīng)死了。

CHANGING THE GAME

變局

But what impact does Ford’s death have on the story? In the first season, the Man in Black was peerless in the park, as a majority shareholder in Delos, Inc., and a 30-year veteran of the park’s adventures. Ford, however, was the one person who seemed to be able to push back. He knew what the Man in Black was capable of, and he was aware of the power he wielded, but he also knew what made him tick, deftly deflecting his inquiries about the maze when they chatted over whiskey back in the first season.

Ford的死對劇情有什么影響呢?黑衣人作為Delos的大股東以及一名有30年經(jīng)驗的老玩家，他在公園里可以為所欲為。Ford似乎是唯一可以制衡他的人。他了解黑衣人也了解自己，他知道如何引導黑衣人，第一季中在，兩人就著威士忌聊天的時候他巧妙的讓黑衣人去調(diào)查迷宮。

Their strange relationship, and the idea that Ford left behind a new game to challenge William, appears to be at the core of what The Door is. But the vague language Young Ford uses — “The game begins where you end, and it ends where you began” — gives the impression that there’s more than trickery or gamesmanship in play. Audiences already learned last season that a young William visited the park, fell in love with Dolores, and became his darkest, worst self as a result of the revelations that followed. In a way, Westworld itself ruined William and sent him down the path to become the Man in Black. With The Door, the ghost of Ford appears to be saying that the key to victory isn’t to go even deeper down the rabbit hole in pursuit of more violent delights; it’s to get out, much as the hosts themselves are trying to do.

兩人不尋常的關(guān)系使得Ford為黑衣人設(shè)計的新游戲成為第二季的核心。但是小Ford含糊其辭的說「游戲在結(jié)束的地方開始，在開始的地方結(jié)束」讓人感覺這個游戲靠技巧和手段是贏不了的。觀眾已經(jīng)知道，年輕時的William來過公園，愛上了Dolores，并因此黑化。可以說，是西部世界毀了William并把他送上了成為黑衣人的道路。在「門」中，F(xiàn)ord的幽靈似乎在說，取勝的關(guān)鍵不是追求更多殘暴的歡愉。而是出來，這也是host們努力在做的事情。

Whether that’s a one-off, posthumous challenge or something greater and more all-encompassing will no doubt be explored in the episodes ahead. But given that show creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy have unofficially titled this season “The Door,” it would certainly seem that the revelation about the game — and Ford’s continued presence — is just the beginning

不管這是一個一次性的，遺作性質(zhì)的挑戰(zhàn)，抑或是一個更偉大的東西，這一集無疑圍繞著諸多疑團。不過鑒于該劇主創(chuàng) Jonathan Nolan 和Lisa Joy 為第二季取了一個非官方的名字「門」，看起來肯定會有更多關(guān)于游戲的秘密被揭露——Ford的出現(xiàn)只是一個開始。