Warning: Spoilers follow for season two of Westworld. Take a walk elsewhere in the park if you’re not caught up.
Bookmark this page. We’ll be updating it with new information every week.Time is fluid in Westworld. The HBO series flows from the past, to the present, to the future without explanation. Fans guessed about the presence of multiple timelines in season one until it was confirmed in the final episodes, so with season two, we’re more tuned into the cues that tell us when the story is happening. Because it still can be confusing, we’re breaking down the number of timelines in season two by episode. We’ll be updating this after new episodes air each week.
Episode 1, “Journey Into Night” – Three Timelines
Season two opened with three different timelines:
- The past, with Arnold and Dolores talking as we saw them do in season one.
- The present, the time immediately following the uprising. This timeline features Dolores and Teddy, Bernard and Charlotte, Maeve and Sizemore, and the Man in Black right after the events of the gala on concurrent timelines.
- The future, 11 days after the uprising. Bernard is with Delos personnel in this timeline, and they’re searching the park for answers when they find dozens of dead hosts, including Teddy.
Episode 2, “Reunion” – Five Timelines
Of course the second episode makes things more complicated by showing us five different timelines, one established timeline and four (!) new ones.
- The present. This thread continues from the premiere with Dolores and Teddy, Maeve and Sizemore, and The Man in Black and Lawrence.
- The distant past, when we see Robert and Arnold trying to attract investors. This timeline takes place outside of Westworld on the mainland and primarily features Dolores (in the black dress), Angela, Arnold, and Logan—who has the last name Delos, by the way.
- The past, after William and Logan’s visit to Westworld when William is convincing James Delos to invest more money in the park. William saw the potential of the park after his misadventures, so he brings Logan’s dad, James, to show him the possibilities.
- The past, after Delos has gone all in with Westworld and James is retiring. This timeline takes place outside of the park during James Delos’ retirement party; William, James, Logan, and Dolores are present. William’s wife and daughter are there too, and his kid looks to be around six or seven years old, so I’m guessing it’s been about that amount of time since Delos bought Westworld.
- The past, after the retirement party when William visits Dolores inside Delos Parks’ headquarters. William looks older than he did at the retirement party, but I’m not sure how much older. This is presumably when he shows Dolores the weapon; what she calls the Valley Beyond.
Episode 3, “Virtù e Fortuna” – Two Timelines
The third episode explores two different timelines (maybe it’s three), both established.
- The present, following the uprising. This thread continues with Dolores and Teddy encountering Bernard and Abernathy and Maeve, Hector, and Sizemore running right into at least one samurai. I also believe the guest crossing over from an Indian-inspired world into Westworld with the tiger is close to the present time. However, I’m not sure what state of decomposition the tiger was in when we saw it before, so her storyline could be somewhere in between the present and future.
- The future, about two weeks after the uprising. Bernard, Delos, and Charlotte have lost track of Abernathy.
Episode 4, “The Riddle of the Sphinx” – Four(ish) Timelines
The fourth episode goes crazy with timelines. One is established, and the others are new (mostly). To simplify things, I’m going to group most of the William and James Delos visits into a single timeline even though the visits happen at different points.
- The present, following the uprising. This thread continues with the Man in Black and Lawrence, Bernard and Elsie (she’s alive!), and Grace (the Man in Black’s daughter as it turns out) and Stubbs.
- The past, seven years after James Delos’ death. Delos died from a disease his company once did cure research for before he cut funding for it. They attempted to transfer his consciousness into a host, and they’ve been experimenting with combining human and robot in the decades since. William visits the Delos-bots at various points in time, and since those visits aren’t defined in relation to anything else, I’m lumping them all together.
- The more recent past with an aged William looking like the Man in Black. This is when he makes the decision to let version 149 of the Delos-bot continue to persist, even though he’s not functioning properly. This visit seems close to the Man in Black’s season one timeline.
- The recent past with Bernard going to the secret outpost and getting one of the red pearls of human consciousness and taking out the drone hosts. It seems like this happened during season one.
Stay tuned to see how many more timelines get added in season two!
Images: HBO
Amy Ratcliffe is an Associate Editor for Nerdist. Maybe she’s a host. Follow her on Twitter.
More from Delos!
- How many copies of Robert Ford are in Westworld?
- About that tiger.
- What’s the deal with the organic robots?
[brightcove video_id=”5775461107001″ brightcove_account_id=”3653334524001″ brightcove_player_id=”rJs2ZD8x”]