‘Westworld’ on HBO: 5 Things You Might Have Missed in Season 3 Episode 1 “Parce Domine”

While naming a super computer that can predict the future of everyone on the planet “INCITE” sounds a lot like the super computer that can predict the future of everyone on the planet in the MCU (which is Project Insight), Westworld really got name-nerdy with REHOBOAM.

In Westworld, Rehoboam is the super computer that Liam Dempsey Jr.’s father spent his life building. It analyzes the data of everyone on the planet and predicts their paths. It controls traffic, stock markets, and probably could have foreseen a flu-like pandemic that would cripple the world! (Just saying!) It also cripples the chances for those who seem destined for failure, like Aaron Paul’s PTSD-rattled, petty crime-doing construction worker we meet this episode.

So Rehoboam tracks everyone’s data and makes predictions for Incite. Not only that, but Westworld is using Rehoboam’s data to help orient the viewers geographically this season. The first time HBO let us see the way Incite tracks everyone was in Westworld‘s Season 3 Date Announce trailer (which doubled as a quick tutorial in some major events that have happened in Westworld‘s timeline).

This teaser also revealed that the very first super computer Incite used was called “Solomon,” after the wise Biblical king. Rehoboam is the second computer that Incite’s founder built.

So who is Rehoboam in the Bible? Rehoboam was Solomon’s son and successor. He was not as wise as his father, though. Rehoboam came to power at a time when Israel was united, but rebellions popped up and by the time of his death, only the kingdom of Judah remained under his control.

Rehoboam’s name reflects Liam’s own lack of worthiness as his father’s successor and it teases that a rebellion is very much afoot.

While everyone was buzzing about Marshawn Lynch joining the cast of Westworld, last night’s premiere revealed that he’s not the only new face in the HBO series. A lot of the action centered on Dolores’s new beau, Liam Dempsey Jr.

As we already detailed, Liam Sr. masterminded the concept and technology behind Incite and built both Solomon and Rehoboam. Liam Jr. struggles to feel like he can live up to his father’s legacy, making him an easy target for Dolores to “honey trap” him as “Laura Essman.”

Liam is played by John Gallagher Jr. Gallagher got his big break in the original Broadway production of Spring Awakening and then appeared in Aaron Sorkin’s HBO series, The Newsroom. Gallagher has also appeared in High Maintenance, Modern Love, and a certain movie about people quarantining themselves during a time of catastrophe, 10 Cloverfield Lane.

But he’s not the only familiar face in Westworld Season 3…

About halfway through the Westworld Season 3 premiere, we know that something’s not quite right with Incite. That’s because we watch Dolores spy on her would-be boyfriend Liam as he takes a tense private meeting with a mysterious woman played by Pom Klementieff.

Pom Klementieff is a French actress best known for her work playing Mantis in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. She was introduced in Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 and appeared in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. She also played the video game avatar of Yahya Abdul-Mateen II in the Black Mirror episode “Striking Vipers.”

Though we don’t know much about Klementieff’s character in Westworld, it is clear that she represents a powerful figure with control over Incite. This figure has Liam under his thumb and is aware that someone — *cough* Dolores *cough* — is causing trouble.

Yeah, yeah, that GIF’s a spoiler. Anyway, from the moment we meet Aaron Paul’s Caleb, we see him getting calls from an army pal named Francis. Even though he avoids them, he does occasionally pick up and it’s understood that his therapist wants him to take Francis’s calls.

Later in the episode, it’s revealed that the real Francis died in combat. The Francis that Caleb is speaking to is an automated AI service designed to help him cope with his grief and PTSD. By the episode’s end, Caleb is done with Francis, insisting he wants something “real.”

Francis is played by actor Scott Mescudi, better known as rapper Kid Cudi. However Mescudi is no stranger to the screen. He’s starred in everything from HBO’s How To Make it in America to an episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

At the end of Westworld Season 3 Episode 1 “Parce Domine,” Dolores and Caleb finally meet. While it seems like Caleb is doing Dolores a solid by catching her as she faints, the specific way they meet might have some awful ramifications for the future.

In a recent Westworld featurette actors Evan Rachel Wood and Aaron Paul discussed their characters’ first meeting and straight up revealed that Wood was instructed to swoon into Paul’s arms the exact same way that she fell into Jimmi Simpson’s arms in Westworld Season 1.

You remember Jimmi Simpson’s William right? A sweet world-weary man who falls hard for Dolores the moment she falls in his arms? He’s the guy whose heart soon calcifies under Westworld’s influence and he becomes Ed Harris’s The Man in Black?

Wood said the visual rhyming of the scene was supposed to signal to the audience, “Oh, something’s about to happen with these two people.” Whatever could that something be?

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