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Westworld: Our 11 Biggest Questions About ‘Virtù e Fortuna’

Photo: HBO

Westworld continues to amaze and confuse viewers in equal measure with Sunday night’s action-packed third episode of season two, “Virtù e Fortuna.” While the world of the show seems to be expanding, the narrative actually tightens up a little bit this week, focusing mostly on the Dolores/Wyatt–led revolution and the retrieval of her host father, Peter Abernathy. But as always, we were left with more than a few questions about everything that went down. Let’s jump right in.

What’s the deal with this new park?

Westworld is doing a lot of mind-bending in its opening scenes this season, and “Virtù e Fortuna” is no exception. We begin with a scene in what appears to be a park inspired by tiger hunts and the imperial British rule of India. Yes, it’s a new park! It’s clearly a part of the Delos Corporation, but it’s not Westworld or even the foreshadowed Shogun World. So, where are we? At the end of the episode, our intrepid heroine Grace washes up on the shore of Westworld, which means she must have been on a nearby island. More importantly, are all the parks in the middle of a revolution?

Where is Peter Abernathy in the near-future timeline?

When Charlotte runs into Bernard, neither seems to know where Dolores’s father is, yet they both crossed paths with him in the post-revolution timeline seen in this episode. How did they lose him? And where might he possibly be now?

Wait, they don’t need Peter Abernathy alive?

At one point, Charlotte says to just “cut off his head and go.” If they can do that, why put the information into a host in the first place? Is it the only thing that can hold so much data? That’s a little hard to believe. There were theories floating around that somehow the data had to leave the park in a live host, but Charlotte’s threat seems to imply otherwise.

Will Dolores and Maeve reunite?

Pay close attention to this choice in the episode’s edit: After Dolores says they won’t have a chance in the revolution if they fight alone, it cuts immediately to Maeve, Sizemore, and Hector in the base. Will the two most powerful hosts in Westworld have to join forces to win?

Just how much control does Maeve have?

As they’re being approached by members of the Ghost Nation in the riverbed, Maeve has a really interesting moment in which she just looks at one of them and tells him, Obi-Wan style, that he will let them go and forget they ever saw them. It’s a reminder that she has the ability to control certain hosts with a turn of a phrase or a hand movement. Although maybe not entirely. Her enemy pauses for a second, but moves again when backup comes out of the woods. How much control does Maeve now have in the park? And is it in all the parks?!?!

What are Dolores’s plans in the real world?

Dolores delivers a fascinating monologue to Teddy in which she describes a “kind” out in the real world that refuses to die. Is she talking about the host program and William? Considering the fan theories about real people being turned into hosts — not unlike the way Arnold Weber was turned into Bernard Lowe — might she be talking about a form of immortality? If so, how is Dolores going to exploit it? Is she just planning to reveal it to the world?

What exactly is in Peter Abernathy’s head?

When Bernard gets his hands on Peter Abernathy, he finds a massive file with a complex encryption key. Meanwhile, we all know that Charlotte is willing to put her life on the line to get this file out of the park. What exactly is in it? Could it be all of the surveillance footage and DNA collected about guests who visited the park? Or something even more nefarious?

How many bullets can Dolores take?

When Dolores chases after Charlotte and Peter outside the fort after the assault, she takes two bullets and barely moves. She’s like Arnold in T2. This recalls the scene from last week’s episode with the Man in Black, in which it’s clear that the hosts are now much harder to kill. Just how strong and invincible are they? Is Dolores stronger than other hosts because she’s more aware of her independence and invulnerability?

Are the Delos parks on different islands?

When Grace lands on the shore of Westworld, she sure doesn’t look like she’s gone miles in the water. The Bengal tiger that chased her in the opening scene makes it to shore too, since we saw it in the season premiere. In other words, the two parks can’t be far from each other. But how far did she swim?

If not, are the walls between Westworld and Shogun World completely collapsed?

In the final scene, Sizemore says that they’re on the north edge of Westworld when they come upon a campfire and evidence of a shogun massacre. Then, they’re suddenly attacked! Unless we learn about a shogun boat, these two parks are clearly connected by land. This raises all sorts of questions, of course. If shoguns can just travel into Westworld, has it just not happened before? Would guests just wander between parks like one wanders around the Magic Kingdom? And what other worlds might be connected on the same island?

Do hosts exist in the outside world?

This one isn’t exactly episode-specific, but worth considering based on information gleaned from “Virtù e Fortuna” and the season to date. We were reminded in the opening and closing scenes that the hosts are revolting across all parks, including Shogun World. We’ve also seen hints that hosts are in the real world, too. Arnold and William took Dolores outside of the park more than once, and fans have theorized that hosts might be replacing powerful figures (à la the film Futureworld). If they exist, are those hosts losing their minds too? Or is this a revolution confined to the parks? And here’s the real burning question: Despite their apparent independence, is this revolution still working from Ford’s script?

Westworld: Our 11 Biggest Questions About ‘Virtù e Fortuna’