Popular Culture Review 32.1
water , provide similar opportunities to Douglass for an understanding of her condition and a recognition of her place in the world . They also allow her to achieve agency as she transitions from a passive to active role in her story . When Dolores moves through the park with her human love interest William ( played by Jimmi Simpson ), for example , viewers see this progression clearly . Their journey begins with an exhausted Dolores collapsing in William ’ s arms , and he continues that caretaking role until they reach Pariah , a lawless town , where even Dolores is free to reinvent herself as a pants and pistol-wearing outlaw . Her transformation to masculinized hero is not complete until a pivotal confrontation with the Confederados : she kills four of them , saving herself and William . In this climatic confrontation , the camera pans from Dolores ’ s gun up to her face , mirroring the “ rise ” readers see in Douglass ’ s confrontation with Covey . William asks , “ How did you do that ?” She replies , “ You said people come here to change the story of their lives . I imagined a story where I didn ’ t have to be the damsel ” (“ Contrapasso ” 46:00-46:20 ). And she certainly does not . Instead , Nolan and Joy imagine a story of Dolores becoming an articulate hero by dispatching several ex-Confederate soldiers , members of a militia who still believe in an ideology this world ignores .
As the season progresses , viewers learn that scenes with Dolores follow two separate timelines , spaced thirty years apart . Her progression to freedom — or in Westworld ’ s terms , consciousness — takes much longer than Douglass ’ s . But by the conclusion of the present timeline , Dolores confronts the Man in Black ( played by Ed Harris ), a guest who has consistently beaten and sexually assaulted her . Mirroring his
and berates her for not doing anything about June ’ s enslaved position . It ’ s telling that this critique isn ’ t directly levied against any of the white men and women of Gilead by June in this season .
10