The White Church is a location in Westworld. is located in the former beta-testing town of Escalante in the Unclaimed Territories.
Inside Escalante's church there is an entrance to the Remote Diagnostic Facility (RDF) where Dolores Abernathy would meet with Arnold Weber. During a couple of memories, we see Dolores enter the church while other hosts, including Angela and Armistice are seated in the pews and are talking feverishly to no one in particular. The entrance to the RDF is through a confessional. After Dolores is seated, an elevator takes her down to the RDF. Within the facility is a room where Dolores and Arnold had clandestine meetings when he was still alive.
The church and Escalante are located within the Unclaimed Territories section of the park. Before Ford began geoengineering part of the park for his new storyline, areas of sand dunes and desert were indicated on the topological map as being inside the Unclaimed Territories.
| “ | Some say a quaint town full of friendly people existed in these parts, but there is no evidence to support those claims. Nothing to see here but sand. | ” |
–An old description of the Unclaimed Territories, from the interactive map | ||
Season One[]
"Chestnut"[]
Ford takes a walk in the Unclaimed Territories to look at the site of the buried town (Escalante). The Little Boy accompanies Ford on his walk. This host version of a young Robert Ford calls it, "nowhere land". Ford asks the boy if he can hear the bell of a "white church" after pointing to the church's buried steeple.
At the end of this episode, Dr. Robert Ford takes a walk with Bernard in the park. Ford calls Bernard, "Mr. Lowe", and speaks of the new storyline that he’s been writing (without any input from the Narrative department). He shows Bernard the exposed framework of a buried church steeple.
"Dissonance Theory"[]
Dolores 'sees' the church and its graveyard (flashes of her own memories) when she is at the fountain in the village square of Las Mudas.
"Contrapasso"[]
Dolores is in the graveyard near Pariah , alone and with no horse. She hears whispers, and then she hears Arnold's voice say, "Find me." Dolores hears herself reply, "Show me how." Dolores' lips are not shown moving when "Show me how" is said. Dolores also 'sees' a memory flash of the Escalante church. William says that he heard Dolores speaking, so she must have said, "Show me how" when she was there with him in the graveyard. Thirty years later, she must have been remembering saying this, and that is why her lips do not move during this memory.
Later in Pariah, Dolores looks at a man in a casket and she hears whispers again. She again 'sees' memories of the church and the massacre at Escalante before William asks her if she's alright.
The next day at the meeting with El Lazo, Dolores again hears whispers and 'sees' Escalante and its church.
"Trace Decay"[]
William and Dolores arrive at the location of Escalante in the Unclaimed Territories. Dolores is also there 34 years prior to the events of episode one. She remembers being in the Escalante during the time prior to the park opening. In her memory, she walks through the town in her blue dress, hears the church bell ring, and stops near the church with Lawrence's Daughter right before the massacre starts. She also remembers seeing the confessional inside the church.
"The Well-Tempered Clavier"[]
The church has a concealed entrance to a Remote Diagnostic Facility (RDF), just as the cottage in Sector 17 has an entrance to another RDF. When Dolores met Arnold for their clandestine sessions, she would enter the RDF underneath Escalante via the confessional in the church. When Dolores visits the church in this episode, she experiences memories of earlier times in the RDF. And, while hallucinating a meeting with Arnold, she realizes that Arnold cannot help her, because she killed him 34 years ago. This hallucination is a manifestation of Dolores' pre-conscious state (her bicameral mind). In this state, she had conversations with 'Arnold' as an internal dialogue. After Dolores became conscious again (it was not the first time[citation needed] - she had attained consciousness prior to killing Arnold), she would instead have an internal monologue (with herself).
"The Bicameral Mind"[]
Appearances[]
Notes/Trivia[]
It is possible that the White Church was modeled after a Lutheran church, as a Luther Rose can be seen in the glass near the confessional booth.
Image Gallery[]
