The 12 Biggest Questions Ahead of Westworld Season Two

Photo: HBO

Are you ready for another loop? The sci-fi obsession with a world of androids and six-shooters starts again on Sunday, when HBO’s Westworld returns for season two. The first season was a smash hit of a puzzle box, a story that fans loved to dissect and analyze so much that the its creators (lightly) mocked that spoiler-driven passion by Rickrolling them. The new season promises action, mystery, and more riddles to obsess over — but, of course, we have plenty of lingering questions that still need answering. Before you dive back into Westworld, here’s a guide to the biggest mysteries from season one.

Who is running things inside Westworld?

At the end of season one, Dolores Abernathy (Evan Rachel Wood) staged a full-on revolution, killing the park’s creator Robert Ford (Anthony Hopkins) and unleashing murderous hell on all of the humans attending a corporate gala. So, where do things stand now inside Westworld? Have the inmates completely taken over the asylum? Are guests still running through saloons and setting up camp on the outskirts of town as if nothing is wrong? Who, if anyone, in the management team is still alive? Or is Dolores’s revolution already complete?

What is the goal of the revolution?

Do Dolores & Co. just want to play with their human creators as they’ve been played with their entire lives? Or could their android revolution extend to the real world outside of the park? Let’s say they have taken over Westworld: What next? And now that we know Dolores is really the mysterious “Wyatt” host that everyone was after, will she stay in that role?

Is Ford really dead?

Robert Ford, the sadistic godlike figure who created this adult amusement park run amok, took a bullet in the brain in last season’s finale. For most shows, this wouldn’t raise so many questions, but in Westworld, what you see isn’t always real and death may not be the end of the story. Almost immediately, fans started speculating that the Ford who “died” may have been an android — or perhaps he even uploaded his consciousness into another version of himself. According to EW, however, we will see a young version of Robert Ford in season two, but the Ford we know is honestly dead and gone. Hopkins was only signed to one year and won’t return.

Where the heck are Hughes and Stubbs?

Shannon Woodward’s programmer Elsie Hughes and Luke Hemsworth’s security chief Ashley Stubbs essentially disappeared at the end of season one. Hughes went off to investigate the weird happenings in Westworld, and it looked at one point like Bernard (Jeffrey Wright) may have killed her. But as mentioned above, death is more of a concept than a reality on Westworld: Hughes is returning for season two, which raises the question of what Bernard’s strangling memory was all about. As for Stubbs, he was taken prisoner by the Native American hosts who live on the outskirts of Westworld. It appears that these behind-the-scenes puppeteers will now be the pawns of their own creation.

What happened to Logan?

In one of the flashback timelines, we saw William (Jimmi Simpson) abandon his future brother-in-law Logan (Ben Barnes), sending him off naked to the edge of Westworld. What happened next? Did nobody ask where he was? There’s surely an untold chapter or two to Logan’s story, and the character is rumored to return in some capacity for season two. William is unlikely to be as major of a character this time around, but Simpson has confirmed that he will return, which means Barnes’s Logan could easily pop up in new flashbacks. Perhaps we’ll learn more about how William became the Man in Black? Or at least how Logan got his clothes back.

What is Charlotte Hale up to? And where is Peter Abernathy?

Tessa Thompson’s mysterious corporate queen from Delos survived the massacre at the end of season one, but did she get the data she needed out of the park? Charlotte apparently hid the information in the Peter Abernathy host, who previously was programmed to play the role of Dolores’s father, and Peter (Louis Herthum) will apparently play a major role in season two. Will he a product or a character? Well, in Westworld, people can be both.

Will we ever see the outside world?

We saw nothing outside of the park in the first season, prompting fans to theorize about what the “real world” of this vision of the future might be like. There are shots in the previews for season two of futuristic skylines, but these could easily be dreams or visions or even simulations within the park. You never know if what you’re seeing is real on Westworld. Sooner or later, the show is sure to expand beyond the park boundaries, but we’ll just have to wait and see.

Will we see the other parks?

Last season’s finale hinted at a samurai world, which has since officially been branded Shogun World. When will we get to see it? And what about other parks? As a tease for season two, HBO unveiled a website for the fictional Delos Corporation that revealed not just the existence of Westworld and Shogun World, but four other parks! They don’t have names … yet. Instead, the site merely features an “experience” page for the six parks that says “Reservations Closed to the Public,” and “Authorized Personnel Only” if you try to click on them. Does this mean they’re closed during the timeline of the show? Maybe they won’t be for much longer. And will Dolores’s revolution extend to these parks?

What does Maeve want?

Perhaps the most interesting character in the first season, Maeve (Thandie Newton) played a crucial behind-the-scenes role in the host revolution — a role seemingly written by Ford himself — though her key moment was choosing to return to Westworld to find her daughter. We’re led to believe that Maeve escaping Westworld was actually Ford’s predetermined plot, and when she gets off that train and marches back into the park, she’s making her first true decision. So, what happens now? Will she join up with Dolores? Continue fighting? Re-assimilate? Or will the search for her daughter trump all else?

What does Bernard remember?

Bernard Lowe learned the truth about his existence at the end of season one — that he is merely a replica of Westworld co-founder Arnold Weber, and that he now does Ford’s bidding, often as a hitman — and basically chose the bliss of ignorance, going back into his android stupor. Ford’s final order to Bernard was to shoot himself, but Wright is all over the previews for season two, so he’s definitely back. How much does he know? Depending on what’s happening with the revolution, Bernard can’t just be a kindly programmer again. What he does and doesn’t remember will surely dictate how he responds to the crisis.

Will the Man in Black find his most dangerous game?

The end of season one revealed what we suspected: Ed Harris’s evil Man in Black and the kindly William are one and the same. Basically the oldest and longest player of Westworld, William has been looking for the ultimate end game of Westworld. Will he find it in season two? And whose side will he be on? He may be one of the biggest shareholders of Delos, but he’s also the one most likely to enjoy the android revolution within the park.

Will season two keep asking more questions?

If we compare Westworld to Lost, an obvious influence in a lot of ways, the second season will mark the point when viewers start to wonder if their major questions will ever be answered. Clearly, there’s a lot of material to play with. But what if Westworld stops messing with its audience and embraces its action side with an all-out war between the humans and the hosts? Let’s hope the show takes a moment to enjoy what it’s set up before unleashing a brand-new puzzle box. After all, we’re still having so much fun with the one we’ve got.

The 12 Biggest Questions Ahead of Westworld Season Two