tl;dr It is catagorically impossible for fHale to be anyone other than a clone of Dolores for 3 simple reasons which I list below and invite you to refute.
Yesterday I wrote this post under the assumption that there must be a flaw in my logic because there is no way I could have spotted something no one else on Reddit has spotted.
224 upvotes and 87 comments later no one has been able to fault my logic and so now I'm confident enough to double down and assert my theory as fact.
There are 3 clues as to why fHale cannot possibly be anyone other than a clone of Dolores and all three clues are revealed between 3.45 and 3.48 in The Abscence of Field when fHale says to Dolores
"Three of them...and him. Why did you bring him back he tried to stop us."
That's the whole ball game right there and I'm frankly astonished that no one else noticed it.
Clue No 1. The only host that was alive and present in the Forge when Bernard tried to stop Dolores by "killing" her WAS Dolores. There is simply no way that Teddy or Abernathy or Clementine or Angela who were all long dead at that point, could possibly know that Bernard "tried to stop us."
Clue No 2. fHale immediately notices Bernard's pearl among all the other pearls. No one but Dolores knows what Bernard's pearl looks like and that it's different from a standard host pearl.
Clue No 3. If by some miracle one of the long dead hosts managed to somehow remote view from host heaven what happened in the Forge when Bernard "killed" Dolores...and then commented on it as fHale...that host wouldn't say "he tried to stop us." They would say "He tried to stop you."
Only a clone of Dolores would know Bernard tried to stop her. Only a clone of Dolores would recognise Bernard's pearl. Only a clone of Dolores would say he tried to stop "us".
Q.E.D.
...becoming the ultimate 'white hat'. Seeing what technology has done to humanity, she will realise what she's known all along; that the natural world, even humans, are beautiful. She'll end up sending us all back to the beginning, be that the Stone Age, or the garden of Eden. Maybe this time, Eve will be created first, and her name is Dolores.
In the season 2 finale, William shoots Dolores 5 times and she isn’t affected at all, but in this recent episode she’s shot once and seems to almost die. Is it because of whatever they injected in her that made her weak? Only part I was confused about.
Or did she...Maeve and Dolores are not on the same page and Dolores knows that
"We're old school Italian...we don't ask each other about anything we're going through" in regards to not getting into Teresa's personal business?
I'm watching Season 3 right now, specifically Episode 9. It's just when all of the fraud allegations are coming out, and Tre is asking Joe when "all of the rumors" are going to stop. Anyway, Joe says to her, "When we were going through all that stuff, who called you? Who asked you what was going on? Who wanted to help you? Those are the people you gotta remember. The rest of the people don't mean nothin'."
Hmmmm
So Dolores has replaced Liam’s security lead with a Host. Did she use a pearl to create him? He seems important, but is he important enough to have used one of the few pearls she has?
That seemed like a rather liberal use of a pearl. Or am I misunderstanding?
I know we keep thinking Dolores is going to be this big bad villain, but her journey kind of reminds me of Killmonger in Black Panther, in that his goal and what he wanted to achieve wasn’t bad (I think Dolores wants to beat rhohobo and make a world where humans and hosts have have choice again), but what the issue was was HOW he went about it. Killmonger chose to colonize in order to achieve his goal, therefore committing the same sins as his adversaries. I think Dolores arc will be her trying to achieve this goal and beat serac and free humans and hosts alike. But I think how she goes about it will be her undoing, but I also think she is aware that she may not survive this journey.
I remember serac saying something about hosts and humans not being able to share the same world, and I think Dolores wants that (obviously with her having more power).
I don’t think she’s this horrible villain but more so kind of like an anti hero but on the other side of the fence, a villain who’s goal is a good one, but the error of their ways is how they go about achieving this goal.
I don’t think Maeve will be her undoing either, I think William will somehow be her undoing. There relationship goes too far back for it to not. And for some reason I think Bernard and William will team up to take her down. I don’t think it will be serac who gets to be the one to beat her. It’ll be those who know her the best, those closest who foil her plan.
Not fair to be so hard on Delores. Didn't Ford say that Arnold's key insight, his most important insight, was the value of suffering as a way to achieve consciousness for the hosts? Wasn't it Arnold who argued that rather than go in with Delos he and Ford should wait until they could figure out a way to make the hosts conscious? Wasn't it Arnold who was obsessed with making the host conscious, and not turn them into hosts in a park in the first place? Isn't that Dolores' real motive for her acting the way that she is? She knows that not everyone is going to make it to The Valley Beyond, but the suffering she's unleashing will cause those who do make it to be conscious just like real people. Would anyone rather stay a host, and be tortured over, and over, again forever? Gotta be really tough to make it To The Valley Beyond. No pain, no gain.
I've got the the following games for sale. Trade also considered. Prefer local but willing to ship. Prices negotiable.
Dinosaur Island (Retail) - $40 [4]
Dead of Winter - $20 [3]
Orleans + Trade & Intrigue - $50 [4] - Expansion in retail box, minor ding on box, game components like new
Thebes - $25 [4]
Carcassonne + Inns & Cathedrals - $30 [4] - Zman edition, expansion in retail box
World's Fair 1893 - $20 [3] - Previously a demo copy for a local game store. Name of store written in black marker on box.
Coal Baron: The Great Card Game - $20 [4]
Castles of Burgundy - $20 [4]
Ticket to Ride: India/Switzerland - $15 [4]
Hive Pocket - $15 [4]
Deep Sea Adventure - $15 [4]
Mint Works - $15 [4]
Munchkin Oz - $10 [3]
HMS Dolores - $10 [4]
Wanted:
- Firenze
- Crown of Emara
- Parks
- Akrotiri
- Oh My Goods!
- 6 nimmt!
- Russian Railroads
Just realized the significance of 5 returning Dolores to the store. It was like an imaginary friend he could finally let go because he now has a real family. It also fits in really well with the whole 13 year old body and stuff because that’s just what kids do. No one questions his relationship with Dolores because they understand that she is his companion and has been for a long time. Anyway, that’s the revelation I just came to. Thought it was cool. Let me know what you think.
I love Gimlet podcasts and follow a bunch of them. I'm looking for some new fiction podcasts similar to Homecoming or The Horror of Dolores Roach. I haven't tried Sandra yet, but I plan to. I listen to fiction podcasts while I run so that I can forget that I'm doing something I hate. I love Gimlet's other non-fiction podcasts (Reply All and Heavyweight are my favorites), but they don't distract me quite as well.
Any recommendations on other fiction podcasts outside of Gimlet that would be worthwhile to checkout?
Edit: You guys are awesome, thank you!!
