She’s able to use her flash-forwards to help in communicating with the Chinese general and with the heptapods at the end, but only because she already knows the language. She can’t use her future-knowledge of the language to accelerate her original acquisition of the language because she doesn’t have access to flash-forwards until she’s already acquired the language.

And she makes the choice to have Hannah out of free will, not because she has to. Otherwise this isn’t a story about choice, it’s about predestination and the blind whims of fate, which is never narratively satisfying.

So wait, is Dormammu lupus?

The two-post-credit-scene thing is becoming more and more standard: Usually one of the two is a sort of coda for the film you just watched (like dancing Groot) and the other sets up the next movie in the MCU cycle. I thought it was interesting that here, they didn’t do the coda — they set up Thor: Ragnarok with the mid-credit scene and Doctor Strange 2 with the post-credits. (Presumably.)

But I think Mordo’s shift really comes during the movie, where he flat-out tells Strange off and rage-quits their Order. The post-credits scene just shows he’s willing to be a fanatical jerk about it.

We’re just being honest about where our heads are right now about the show. That doesn’t keep us from appreciating other people who make good arguments for their own perspectives.

I have my doubts about this show, but I love this comment (and I rec’d it), and I love that so many people are calling for patience and faith and letting the season play out. That feels so rare these days, and in all seriousness, it’s inspiring to me to see people arguing, not "Stop thinking about this, just turn your brain off and enjoy it," but "Let’s see where this is going before judging it." Kudos to all y’all.

Well, part of what we’re wondering here is whether we should continue, so yes, we’ve thought about it — but to some degree, it’s literally our job, so that’s a counterbalancing factor.

What, in your view, is the "actual point" of the show? I don’t think there’s just one.

I love that people are engaging with Question Club by answering the questions. I hope they keep this up.

I kind of want to see more of Lee Sizemore! Specifically I want to see him fight back against Ford’s casual dismissal of his art, and I want to see him carry on with his weaselly attempts to play behind-the-scenes politician for his own gain. He’s an ass, but he’s part of what seems to be a demonstrably real storyline among actual people, and the show could use more of that.

My biggest counterpoint here is The 4400, a show I loved that introduced a huge mystery in the first episode, then gave the audience the answer to that mystery by episode six, then continued for three more seasons with no loss of energy or momentum. Because there was a big central mystery, but the show did not revolve around withholding information from viewers in hopes that they would come back endlessly, hoping for resolution: It used the answer to that mystery to set up an elaborate and compelling plot.

I don’t mind if a show wants to have mysteries, but I want something besides "Will we ever answer this question? … mayyyyybe" to keep me coming back. In this case, I’m not entirely getting it.

I’m happy to learn they have five seasons all planned out. That means each episode does exactly what it is meant to do.

Well… I hate to say this, but that’s not true. Daniel Knauf had a seven-year plan for his HBO series Carnivale. (I loved that series, and I miss it, but boy, was it frustrating at times.) But it was a big-picture plan, and it involved the broad movements of the show, and it didn’t mean the individual episodes were tight and purposeful. In fact, the show’s biggest problem was that it felt baggy and repetitive in places, like it was stretching out the narrative in order to not get to its destination too quickly. Its audience lost patience and fell away, and HBO cancelled the show after two seasons. If Westworld continues to spend so much time on mysterious, vague, go-nowhere conversations and loses its core audience, the same thing could happen here. Having a macro plan doesn’t necessarily mean having a micro plan, and neither one is a promise that the series will get its full theoretical run.