While fans may have fallen a little bit out of love with Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt since its 2015 premiere, that doesn’t mean the Netflix comedy has stopped offering up pitch-perfect pop cultural satire three years later. In its just-dropped season 4 alone, the Tina Fey creation pokes fun at everything from true crime documentaries and the unending success of questionably-talented super rich, white celebrity offspring, to the entire Showtime lineup (“Ray Don-ah-vahn? Who or what?”). But, considering Kimmy Schmidt’s obsession with the entertainment landscape, it’s no surprise those trendy topics are the Ellie Kemper-starrer’s latest targets.
What no one could have seen coming was an accidentally perfect riff on Westworld, one of television’s most famously tight-lipped series, and its weirdest, most unexpected storyline to date. Yes, we’re talking about the bizarre human to host program the Delos corporation has been secretly working on for decades. Yet, that is exactly what brand-new Kimmy instalment “Kimmy Has A Weekend!” somehow gives viewers.
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The surprise Westworld connection comes and goes in a matter of seconds, so viewers seriously have to pay attention if they want to catch it. The moment in question arises when Jacqueline White (Jane Krakowski) explains to unlikely ally and sometimes landlord Lillian Kaushtupper (the fabulous Carol Kane) that she absolutely needs to reclaim her apartment in time for her son Buckley’s imminent return from military school. If Jacqueline doesn’t get her currently subletted pad back, Buckley (Tanner Flood) will end up staying with his stepmother, who is “just a younger version” of Jacqueline. “Literally,” the former socialite emphasises.
This is what brings us to a scene that looks like it’s right out of that Sorta-Host James Delos (Peter Mullan) In A Bunker episode. Jacqueline explains her ex-husband’s new wife is an actual clone of hers, who was created with the DNA from her hairbrush. With that little piece of exposition finished, Kimmy Schmidt immediately cuts to the clone, who is lying down on a coach screaming, “Whose memories are these?!”
If Jacqueline’s clone simply looked just like her, that would be one isolated, not-very-Westworld-y thing. Pop culture is littered with evil clones. But, the copy is clearly suffering from the same form of mental, existential overload that plagues the human-host hybrids Delos is trying to produce, who have the bodies of robots and the consciousness of their many unsuspecting clients. And, as with the Westworld clones, this manufactured body is rejecting the very human memories inside of its man-made head. Creepy.
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While it’s deeply unlikely “Kimmy Has A Weekend” meant to comment on Westworld — the episode filmed sometime around February — weeks before anyone found out about Delos’ true nefarious plans for their hellish theme parks, it does open up brand new possibilities for the corporation’s end game. After learning Delos is secretly trying to download the consciousnesses of their affluent guests, everyone assumed the fictional company's goal is filling the highest levels of power with clones who are loyal to them above all else. But, what if the company also wants to sell its human-host technology back to its wealthiest clients in the precise way that led to the creation of the Jacqueline clone?
For a show with as bleak of an outlook on humanity as Westworld, it doesn't sound of out the realm of possibility that the show's richest men would want to start replacing their human wives — and their irritating human will — with compliant hybrids. That way, these power players can get the exact kind of woman they want in the exact kind of packaging they want, and Delos gets a fortune for making that happen. It’s a win-win for everyone… except for ladies like Jacqueline, who are replaced by their uncanny, malfunctioning doppelgängers.
Everyone, welcome to the wildest Westworld season 3 theory, courtesy of, somehow, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.