WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Season 3, Episode 2 of Westworld, "The Winter Line," which aired Sunday on HBO.
In the first two seasons of Westworld, viewers saw that the humans used tablets to monitor and control the robotic hosts. In the past few years, folded tablets have been used multiple times to run diagnostics on the hosts, debug them to figure out what is wrong with them and even alter their code. What's more, these tablets were also used to shut the hosts down, should the need ever arise. But now, Season 3 has taken the action out of the Western-inspired theme park and into the real world.
As fans have followed Dolores, Bernard and Maeve as they go about interacting with the outside world, they've seen the rise of a different means of controlling the hosts in trigger switches with a simple button. These buttons have the ability to turn the hosts on and off. So, let's breakdown these new control buttons, and why the series discarded the tablets after two seasons.
The first control button used in Westworld was in the Season 3 premiere. When fans caught up with Bernard, they saw the pacifist host run diagnostics on himself to figure out if Dolores had left any bad code in him. With this button, Bernard was able to turn part of himself on and off -- essentially, he can even turn off his nice side, and transform into a focused killing machine should the need arise.
Now, another one of these triggers was used in the series' latest episode, "The Winter Line." At the end of the episode, Maeve wakes up in the home of Engerraund Serac, the man behind the tech company Incite and the powerful artificial intelligence machine, Rehoboam. Serac attempts to recruit Maeve to his side, something that would put her in the crossfire of Dolores, who has made it her mission to weaponize Rehoaboam somehow. However, Maeve isn't exactly one for being controlled, so she quickly turns on Serac. But before she can kill him, he turns her off with the press of a button.
Therefore, it now appears there is a new technology in use in Westworld's third season. The control button isn't as technical as the tablets, but it does serve a basic and fundamental function. It doesn't go in-depth like the table does, but it still allows someone to control a host. So why the change? Well, it's possible that, as the action on the series has changed location, there was a need for something a little more portable and tactile to use than a folded tablet.
Now, any character can carry one of these switches in their pocket, and use it at the most opportune time -- even on the run. The introduction of these control buttons changes the action of Westworld for the better, and it signals that the game has changed. As of this moment, there is a much more direct threat to the hosts. What's more, anyone can use these buttons -- not just expert coders. If the hosts can be turned off or controlled at the press of a button, they face an entirely new challenge they must overcome should they earn what they so desperately want: their freedom.
Airing Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on HBO, Westworld stars returning cast members Evan Rachel Wood, Thandie Newton, Ed Harris, Jeffrey Wright, Tessa Thompson, Luke Hemsworth, Simon Quarterman and Rodrigo Santoro, joined by series newcomers Aaron Paul, Vincent Cassel, Lena Waithe, Scott Mescudi, Marshawn Lynch, John Gallagher Jr., Michael Ealy and Tommy Flanagan.