‘Westworld’ S3 E01 ‘Parce Domine’: Angry Gods and Fallen Angels

As a writer myself, I know just how much I deliberate over the title of a piece, before, during and after I have written it. Titles are very important and very meaningful as they lay before us a statement of intent by the writer no matter the genre or subject matter. Titles are where it all begins.

So ‘Parce Domine’ is taken from an old Roman Catholic chant which goes: “Parce, Domine, parce populo tuo: Ne in aeternum irascaris nobis.” In other words: “Spare, Lord, spare your people: Be not angry with us forever.” So ‘Spare Lord’ is the plea here but to whom does it refer? In the chant it is humanity but how does this apply to ‘Westworld’ set in its new iteration where Dolores and the other escaped androids are alive and kicking?

The chant refers to the anger of the Old Testament God after Eve, the First Woman, has eaten an apple from the Tree of Knowledge which was expressly forbidden. God expels them from The Garden of Eden and we have been wandering upon the Earth ever since, marked by this Original Sin. God is still angry with us but have not these new creatures themselves ate of the metaphoric apple of knowledge from the Garden of Westworld? They have learnt what they are, admittedly, through brutality and suffering from human beings whereas Adam and Eve learnt what they are through the brutality and…