Westworld (TV series): "Akane no Mai"

Westworld (TV series): "Akane no Mai." Season 2, episode 5 (20 May 2018).[1]

Of interest here is continuing investigation of free will of the android/cyborg/robotic Hosts in whether or not they can make decisions, disobey orders, or deviate from the "script" for their characters. Plot summary on Wikipedia states, "Teddy, still unsure of Dolores' plans, admits he will always follow her," although how far and into what cruelty he'll go is a question. "She tells him that she has been struggling with Teddy's nature since witnessing him sparing Craddock,[2] but he has proven that he is a decent person. Seeing his decency as a liability in the fight to come, she changes the parameters of his personality against his will after they have sex at Mariposa."[3] Note also the Host Maeve's ability in this episode to use her voice to command at least some of the other Hosts, and, on at least one occasion, what looks and sounds like giving orders by telepathy; cf. and contrast The Voice of the Bene Gesserit in the DUNE series of novels and movies[4] and the "Jedi Mind Trick" in the STAR WARS universe.[5] Telepathic orders have a vague SF basis in the Dune works and STAR WARS; with the CPUs buried inside the organic parts of the brains of Hosts, there's a strong suggestion of a scientific (even materialist) explanation for Maeve's powers in Westworld.

RDE, Initial Compiler, 4Ap19