One of my favorite shows right now is Glitch Productions’ Knights of Guinevere, created by Dana Terrace, Zach Marcus, and John Bailey Owen. The adult animated sci-fi psychological thriller takes place in a futuristic world covered by a giant amusement park called Park Planet floating in the sky, with android princess Guinevere serving as its mascot. Meanwhile, the surface world is a dystopian wasteland where the people only exist to keep Park Planet up and running.
When a Guinevere android escapes Park Planet’s elderly owner Olivia Park, “Gwen” finds herself turning the lives of factory laborer Frankie and android surgeon Andi inside out. Now that episode 2 “Wolves Around the Corner” is out, we got some glimpses into who Gwen is while seeing her suffer from the severe PTSD she gained from her abusers Olivia and Park Planet’s founder Orville Park.
As I was watching the episode, I couldn’t help but wonder…you don’t see or hear any reference to a Mrs. Park. Could the reason be that something happened to kick Olivia’s mother out of the picture, while Gwen was created to be a stand-in for Orville’s wife and Olivia’s mother?
Here’s What We Know So Far
Orville Park was married, or at least in a romantic relationship, at some point and eventually had his daughter Olivia. In the pilot episode, a family portrait on the wall of Olivia’s room has the faces of Orville and his wife hidden from view.
Orville would create an android named Guinevere (the Gwen we see in the show’s present timeline), and Olivia would develop an unhealthy attachment to. She becomes obsessed with fixing Gwen, though it’s unclear if she’s just torturing the poor droid or has deluded herself into thinking she’s capable enough to fix whatever imperfection or flaw she feels Gwen has. Even as an elderly woman, Olivia’s obsession with Gwen has only gotten worse, especially now that Gwen has reached the surface.
Orville would then create a planet-spanning amusement park as a birthday gift for his daughter. “I hope this can make up for… I don’t think I need to say it,” Orville tells Olivia while encouraging her to “let your past fade away.” We don’t know what happened to Olivia exactly. But notice that in the family portrait, Olivia’s hair used to be black like her dad’s, yet it turned whitish blonde when she was still a child.
The amusement park then becomes a media empire revolving around Gwen with future Guinevere androids, movies, TV shows, merch, etc. bare her image. The Pilot makes it clear that Gwen is a unique model who doesn’t match any known Gwendroids, with Andi speculating that Gwen is “the mold” or prototype in “Wolves Around the Corner.”
While Orville is showing Olivia the park, Gwen glitches then tries to leave by jumping from the floating island they’re on to escape to the surface world. Orville screaming for security implies this isn’t the first time this has happened. Gwen would spend (if the show’s timeline is correct since Park Planet is 99 years old) a century trying to escape the Parks.
Oh, did I mention that Gwen hates Orville and Olivia? Anything that reminds her of those two will trigger her PTSD. She’ll suffer from flashbacks of the torture she experienced, get violently aggressive with others while she hallucinates, or will just be absolutely terrified. While Gwen’s hatred for Olivia makes sense due to the torture she endured, why would it extend to Orville? I’ll get to that part later, but first…
My Theory
This is where my head went. We know that a terrible tragedy befell the Park family before the events of Knights of Guinevere. Maybe Olivia’s mother was killed in a horrific accident while in the presence of her daughter, which would explain why Olivia grew up to be so unstable. Orville wanted his daughter to heal and move on with her life. So he built an android based on everything about his wife to act as a surrogate mother. It wouldn’t surprise me if every detail down to Gwen’s personality, looks and even her name came from Mrs. Park.
It would explain why Gwen’s wires were made to resemble realistic human intestines while her cobalt-blue oil looks more like blood. She was designed to resemble a human as much as possible.
Olivia’s obsession with Gwen makes more sense if you look at it from the perspective of a child suffering from untreated abandonment issues. Every time Gwen tries to escape or acts in a way that tries to assert some autonomy is a threat. Gwen’s role is to be Olivia’s eternal companion and is expected to behave accordingly.
And yet, she doesn’t.
For someone like Olivia, that could feel like losing her mother all over again. That might be why she treats Gwen like a broken machine that needs repair. Her “fixing” could be a way to figure out why the android won’t follow her programming.
This theory also paints Orville in a completely different (and creepy) new light. In “PILOT,” Orville told his daughter he wanted her to let her “past fade away” and focus on her future. But (if this theory still holds up in the future) he couldn’t do the same for himself. He didn’t just build a park. If Gwen is based on his wife, then he built an empire around that image, a never-ending memorial to a lost love. His strange fixation with Gwen and what she represents seems to be even stronger than his daughter’s.
Speaking of which…
Did Orville Assault Gwen?
The show implies that Gwen’s disdain for Orville might be stronger than the hate she has for Olivia. With Olivia, Gwen just wants to get as far away from that woman as possible. There’s no evidence to suggest Gwen ever tried to harm Olivia in any way. She only wants to be free. But Orville is another story.
In “Wolves Around the Corner,” dirty Park officer Armend drags Gwen to a bathroom in the club they’re in and pins her to the wall. He touches her face, calls her “gorgeous,” makes jokes about how Gwendroids should be fuller and laughs about what her “canon age” should be. It’s hard not to watch that scene without thinking about the Cornell 7 or the Epstein files.
Then Gwen is hit with a flashback of what looks like Orville’s hand pulling down the “skin” under her eye.
The memory prompts her to attack Armend while declaring she will “not be returning to that den of wolves.” And then she shoots Armend in the stomach with his own gun!
The next time Gwen sees Armend, she flashes to another memory of Orville. In this one, Orville is older and bleeding from his head and nose after Gwen seemingly hits him. She kills Armend while telling her hallucination of Orville to “be dead.”
But before we get to all that, there’s a scene where Gwen flashes back to an adult Olivia arguing with Orville, where she screams that she has to “clean up your mess.” If Orville was God forbid, using her for sex, then I understand why Olivia felt like she had to fix Gwen all the time.
Now, nothing has been confirmed but the fact that a predatory authority figure reminds Gwen of Orville speaks volumes.
The Curse of the Park Family
Olivia’s outburst could have been referring to Park Planet as a whole. It’s not like any of this is what Olivia wanted. She’s forced to watch over the amusement park, maintain and build upon the success and political influences gained thanks to Princess Guinevere’s popularity. What if the “mess” Olivia keeps cleaning up is Gwen herself. If that’s the case, then it’s no wonder Olivia became estranged from her father as they both grew older.
The Parks’ storyline is just as much a Shakespearean tragedy as it is a horror story. A horrible event left a father and his daughter scarred for life. Instead of moving past it, Olivia and Orville tried to assert some measure of control over their trauma. They both failed and poor Gwen has to live with the fallout, along with the rest of humanity.
