HBO debuted its new mini-series, The Young Pope on Sunday night and subsequently followed it up with a second episode the very next day. After watching both episodes, I definitely have some questions regarding certain components of the plot.
1. Is The Young Pope connected to Westworld in any way?
I sure hope so as it would make for such a great twist. In the original movie, which the Westworld tv show is roughly based on, there were three parks in total: Westworld, Medievalworld, and Romanworld. Makes sense doesn't it? Actually, for the rest of the article let's just all be under the assumption that the two shows are connected and let this be your spoiler alert if you haven't seen either shows yet.
2. Is Lenny Belardo, Pope Pius XIII, a human or a robot host?
He's so lifelike you can't really tell, though that is the case with every robot in Westworld. He's mean, seemingly vindictive, and takes pleasure in feeling God-like, utilizing all the perks of being the Pope. However, he did turn down a whole tables-worth of food for breakfast and insist someone brought him a cherry coke zero as a substitute. That's just too weird to not be attributed to him possibly being a robot. I don't really recall a host in Westworld ever eating actual food either...
3. If he is a host, did Arnold build him?
Okay so we've pretty much established Lenny is a robot, or at least odd enough to be. Who built him though? Was it Arnold? Did he make Lenny the Dolores of this different park? Or was it Ford all along? Regardless, expect everyone to start bugging out and glitching by episode five at the latest.
4. When did this take place in relation to Billy's, Logan's, and the Man in Black's storylines?
To be fair, while in the future, we don't really know exactly when the events of young William and Logan and old William take place. So I guess there's no real way to answer this correctly. But there are IPads and IPhones in The Young Pope, so it's most likely present day. This would make sense, as Pius had said that the most important electronic dance group was Daft Punk. However, he also said that JD Salinger was the most important author in the last twenty years. That's strange for two reasons. For one, Salinger died in 2010 and wrote his most famous piece in 1951. Dude should probably read some newer stuff; which brings us to weird reason number two. How in the world did he not give JK Rowling that distinction? It's honestly such an egregious plot hole and historical inconsistency that I can't look past it.
