A Theory [*Spoiler Alert*] :
Interior Chinatown is about a future where Hulu shows are made completely by A.I. and are starring individual A.I.s that are placed in a virtual environment much like a video game. Jonathan Wu’s A.I. was the first to become sentient and as he grew increasingly aware of his surroundings, Hulu programmed the rest of the A.I. to attack him, much like you would a virus on a computer. Because it is still a show, the way it attacked him was by making him seem crazy and they capitalized on the drama. By making Jonathan Wu the villain, Hulu is combatting the virus he was spreading by trying to get other A.I. people to become sentient as well. Jonathan, realizing he can’t escape becoming part of their story, does the only thing they don’t expect: cuffing himself to a sinking ship. Unfortunately for Hulu, Jonathan’s death came too late because his sentience had spread to Willis Wu, now hell-bent on finding out what was going on. Willis and Jonathan spread it to Lana, and at the end of the day Jonathan was able to save them by telling Lana the way out of the matrix. Cut to Lana tackling Willis off of the roof of the building to their deaths. Except they can’t die - they’re A.I. Instead they go somewhere else. Willis is able to see Jonathan for a second, (maybe Jonathan figured out how to hack the system?) but Hulu is still in control. Willis is thrown into a new show, in a new role. Hulu thought that resetting him into a new narrative would fix their ailing A.I. but they were wrong. Willis remembers, and Lana is there too and so does she.
Season 2 seems like it should be interesting if this theory is true because there’s no battle more futile than an A.I. trying to break out of a virtual world. How could a line of code ever become physical? Also, why was Jonathan not put into a new show but Lana and Willis were?
So many questions!
