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Westworld Season 2 |OT| Through 'The Maze' we reach 'The Door'

NovumAngel

Banned
Ve5KJ88.jpg
Inspired by the 1973 motion picture 'Westworld', written and directed by Michael Crichton, this one-hour drama series is a dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousness and the birth of a new form of life on Earth.

The 10-episode second season will premiere on Sunday, April 22 at 9/8c on HBO in the US. It will be simulcast on Sky Atlantic in the UK on Monday, April 23 at 2am and another broadcast at 9pm.

Spoilers! Please be wary of posting spoilers of the current weeks episode as people may have to catch up during the week.

CAST
Returning Cast

Evan Rachel Wood as Dolores Abernathy​
Thandie Newton as Maeve Millay​
Ed Harris as The Man in Black​
Jeffrey Wright as Bernard Lowe​
James Marsden as Teddy Flood​
Tessa Thompson as Charlotte Hale​
Ingrid Bolsø Berdal as Armistice​
Clifton Collins Jr. as Lawrence​
Luke Hemsworth as Stubbs​
Simon Quarterman as Lee Sizemore​
Talulah Riley as Angela​
Rodrigo Santoro as Hector Escaton​
Angela Sarafyan as Clementine Pennyfeather​
Shannon Woodward as Elsie Hughes​
Ben Barnes as Logan​
Jimmi Simpson as William​
Leonardo Nam as Lutz​
Ptolemy Slocum as Sylvester​
Louis Herthum as Peter Abernathy​

New Cast
Fares Fares as Antoine Costa​
Katja Herbers as Grace​
Gustaf Skarsgård as Karl Strand​
Hiroyuki Sanada as Musashi​
Peter Mullan as James Delos​
Rinko Kikuchi as Akane​
Zahn McClarnon as Akecheta​
Tao Okamoto as Hanaryo​
Betty Gabriel as Maling​
Jonathan Tucker as Craddock​
Julia Jones as Kohana​
Kiki Sukezane as Sakura​

TRAILERS






SEASON ONE RECAP




westworld_season_2_review_spoiler_free_0.jpg
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bitbydeath

Member
Didn’t know Floki was in this!
Gustaf is an awesome actor.

Episode was a bit slow but I guess they’re setting up new characters and momentum.

Guess we’re doing the two timelines thing again, only this time made obvious.

With Gustaf scenes being the future and everyone else taking place right after the events of season one.
 

JORMBO

Darkness no more
I had a hard time following the first episode. I forgot a lot of what happened in the first season.
 
The 2 minute recap of the first was perfect
Did you not catch that?

S02E01 was cake to follow, but it didn't do much
Bernard is fuzzy and is the central focus of the most present timeline
Hell, now that he's in the secret lab with tessa he might be the focus in the 2 weeks prior timeline.
 

LordPezix

Member
I'm locked in GAF!

LEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO BBAAABBBYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




Waiting for Eastworld Samurais to fight the Natives!! - I've got $20 on my Indian nation fam!



Also did anyone notice a drop in picture quality? I swear the 1st season had way better image clarity than this first Ep for season 2?
 
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Not really digging the multiple timelines again, i'm just expecting whatever is happening now to not actually be true and it took away some of the excitement for me.

Having said that i'm already waiting for next weeks episode.
 

Guiberu

Member
Thoroughly enjoyed the episode.

Felt like a natural continuation of where we left off, and has me gripped for what's going to come next.

Contrary to an earlier point made, I felt like the cinematography had improved somewhat. Everything had a much more "film" like quality.
 

Kadayi

Banned
The episode definitely left me hankering for more, but as others have posted I kind of feel like I should have rewatched season 1 again as a prepper because it was pretty disorientating at first; -

I guess Charlotte is going to get scrubbed before the timelines catch up because there's no way she's getting out and not revealing Bernards secret.

The cleanup guy head honcho just walking around in a business suit seemed kind of daft given the Hosts are armed. I'd expect him to be suited and booted with some grade A military tech at the very least. Also, kind of weird seeing Floki not being off his rocker tbh

Was hoping we'd see (one)Armistice again after the events in the labs, as well what happened to Sylvester and Lutz, Also good to know that Elsie will feature, but I hope it's not a flashback to before her disappearance because that whole narrative smelt like a rewrite .
 
I'm skeptical that they're going to be able to make s2 as interesting (the slow burn towards the host awakening in s1 was gripping) but that was a good start.
 

EviLore

Expansive Ellipses
Staff Member
I think I said something in the S1 OT about completely swearing off this show forever by the end of the first season....possibly........

It's just inherently fun watching Big Mystery shows and talking about each episode afterwards, though, yeah? Argh.
 

bitbydeath

Member
Episode two is still moving at a snails pace, not sure why this show needed a years break when everything should be far tighter than it is. It’s a shame they killed off Anthony Hopkins, I think he was holding a lot of it together.

Dolores arc isn’t interesting at all, a the man in black built a weapon to wipe out people WTF?

Bring back Hopkins, bring back Floki, bring back Trevor from GTA.

Maeve is good too.

I’m liking Fear the Walking Dead more ATM, which is just crazy and not something I’d expect given the quality of Westworld season 1 and the poor quality of FtWD from previous seasons.
 

GoldenEye98

posts news as their odd job
Episode two is still moving at a snails pace, not sure why this show needed a years break when everything should be far tighter than it is. It’s a shame they killed off Anthony Hopkins, I think he was holding a lot of it together.

Dolores arc isn’t interesting at all, a the man in black built a weapon to wipe out people WTF?

Bring back Hopkins, bring back Floki, bring back Trevor from GTA.

Maeve is good too.

I’m liking Fear the Walking Dead more ATM, which is just crazy and not something I’d expect given the quality of Westworld season 1 and the poor quality of FtWD from previous seasons.

Agree on the Dolores part. And she is one of the main characters so it's a problem. The man in black arc is the only interesting part right now for me.

My fear with this show is what I have noticed with some other shows where it starts with a cool original premise...but that premise wears off after the first season and then it's just becomes any other show.
 

TrainedRage

Banned
****lalalala i'm not looking at this thread lalalalala*********






f*** i'm looking.




...Adding Showtime to Hulu again, screw you guys.
 

Cleared_Hot

Member
Dude this new season is dragging big time. Dalores is completely uninteresting at this point. Man in Black is the only semi interesting thing here after episode two.

Btw, anyone elses catch the ridiculous amount of blade runner references in episode two?! It was everywhere in the flash back scenes, even the music.
 
Blah. S2 is leaving me more and more bored each episode. Already thinking about dropping the show.

S1 was Handled way better. Dont like the multi timelines in s2.
 
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NovumAngel

Banned
I only watched the first season earlier this year, I guess watching in a much shorter time span (around 2 weeks) kinda makes you not notice the slowness of the show.

Now watching it week by week, yeah I get the complaints about how slow (mind not boring) it is, but it's still fairly enjoyable.
I've seen a couple of interesting theories floating around but I'm trying to avoid them since I know people on here guessed the "twists" weeks before they happened.

I'm in half a mind to just wait and watch it all when it's finishing up but Sky are showing a bunch of spoilerific adverts so that doesn't help.
 

Cleared_Hot

Member
I only watched the first season earlier this year, I guess watching in a much shorter time span (around 2 weeks) kinda makes you not notice the slowness of the show.

Now watching it week by week, yeah I get the complaints about how slow (mind not boring) it is, but it's still fairly enjoyable.
I've seen a couple of interesting theories floating around but I'm trying to avoid them since I know people on here guessed the "twists" weeks before they happened.

I'm in half a mind to just wait and watch it all when it's finishing up but Sky are showing a bunch of spoilerific adverts so that doesn't help.
Is it against the forum rules to post theories? Technically not a spoiler...
 

NovumAngel

Banned
Is it against the forum rules to post theories? Technically not a spoiler...
Yeah you're right, they're not really spoilers but some people don't like reading them.

My own opinion would be to put them in spoiler tags and mark them as theories but that's just me.
 

bitbydeath

Member
Here’s one theory and it is kind of a biggie so read at own risk -

images

This is the photo that broke Abernathy (Delores dad) last season.

Now here is the same lady Juliet who is Logans sister and Williams wife.

images


Abernathy breaking down over a picture of Juliet indicates he knew her. (Possibly Logan who has gone missing since being set away by William at the edge of the park while tied to a horse).

Therefore Abernathy and possibly every host in the park may have actual people in the machines which is how the AI is so realistic.

Oh and the man in black may also be a host and not know it, hence why Ford has tasked him with his own Journey and also why he no longer goes by the name William.

Smaller theory
I think the ‘weapon’ Delores wants to use is the data they’ve collected on everyone in the park.
 
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Cleared_Hot

Member
Here’s one theory and it is kind of a biggie so read at own risk -

images

This is the photo that broke Abernathy (Delores dad) last season.

Now here is the same lady Juliet who is Logans sister and Williams wife.

images


Abernathy breaking down over a picture of Juliet indicates he knew her. (Possibly Logan who has gone missing since being set away by William at the edge of the park while tied to a horse).

Therefore Abernathy and possibly every host in the park may have actual people in the machines which is how the AI is so realistic.

Oh and the man in black may also be a host and not know it, hence why Ford has tasked him with his own Journey and also why he no longer goes by the name William.

Smaller theory
I think the ‘weapon’ Delores wants to use is the data they’ve collected on everyone in the park.

HOLY SHIT
 

Kadayi

Banned
Here’s one theory and it is kind of a biggie so read at own risk -

images

This is the photo that broke Abernathy (Delores dad) last season.

Now here is the same lady Juliet who is Logans sister and Williams wife.

images


Abernathy breaking down over a picture of Juliet indicates he knew her. (Possibly Logan who has gone missing since being set away by William at the edge of the park while tied to a horse).

Therefore Abernathy and possibly every host in the park may have actual people in the machines which is how the AI is so realistic.

Oh and the man in black may also be a host and not know it, hence why Ford has tasked him with his own Journey and also why he no longer goes by the name William.

Smaller theory
I think the ‘weapon’ Delores wants to use is the data they’ve collected on everyone in the park.

Not entirely sold on the first, but I concur with the second

I think the place where both Delores and MiB are heading is the Valley (which I figure was being created by the diggers) and this is where Delos basically had their dirt on everyone data centre. Delores wants to use it to show the world what people did, whilst MiB wants to erase the file they have on him. I also think the Valley is flooded by the time Bernard and the mop up crew turn up (thus all the dead hosts), though who floods it presently remains a mystery.
 
Not entirely sold on the first, but I concur with the second

I think the place where both Delores and MiB are heading is the Valley (which I figure was being created by the diggers) and this is where Delos basically had their dirt on everyone data centre. Delores wants to use it to show the world what people did, whilst MiB wants to erase the file they have on him. I also think the Valley is flooded by the time Bernard and the mop up crew turn up (thus all the dead hosts), though who floods it presently remains a mystery.
Didn't bernard say that HE killed all of them?

Oh man this season is awesome!

Also, am I seeing things wrong or is the man in black really an AI too? That thing he used to heal himself.
 

Cleared_Hot

Member
Nobody responded so I'll ask again because I think it's worth pointing out...there was a ton of blade runner references in ep 2. The whole scene where Dolores was shown outside. From the music, to the tiles that were straight out of deckards apartment. The water reflections on the walls. Come on, it must mean something.
 
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Kadayi

Banned
Nobody responded so I'll ask again because I think it's worth pointing out...there was a ton of blade runner references in ep 2. The whole scene where Dolores was shown outside. From the music, to the tiles that were straight out of deckards apartment. The water reflections on the walls. Come on, it must mean something.

Well, perhaps the next stage would be to create a fully organic host. Right now, they possess the outward appearance, but the brain is still artificial. The collection of Visitor DNA could well be a thing in that regard.
 

Kadayi

Banned
Episode 3.

I'm not sure how to feel about this one. They threw a lot of information in there, but it felt a little jumbled.

Wyatt/Delores plan seemed to turn to shit as she wasn't able to get the Confederates to not act like a bunch of numbnuts and get their shit shoved in by the mop-up team but at the same time the entire battle approach of the mop up team, advancing against rifles with SMGs just seem tactically insane as well. Do none of them possess sniper rifles? Why not attack at night using night vision instead?

Bernard turning Rebus to a noble gunfighter was naturally hilarious given Steven Ogg will always be Trevor Philips in many peoples eyes. I do hope we see more of him in future episodes.

Good to see Armistice back, though there didn't seem to be any explanation as to what she'd been up to in the interim. Mayhap we'll get some flashback to her adventures after the end of season one later on, but it felt a little jarring and plot convenient for her to be so near where Maeve etc were given the sheer size of the park.
Curious to know whether the Raj world excursions were merely bookends to explain the park relationships in terms of the divides or whether that narrative will continue beyond. Certainly clear to see that the host contagion has started to spread, but that it hasn't necessarily become a wholesale revolt versus filtering in from the peripheries.

Curious to know what Armistice has Felix carrying, though I'm guessing it might be some katanas.

Also, I have a suspicion that Bernard has transferred the datafile from Peter to himself, however, I don't really get why Clementine knocked him out.
 

GoldenEye98

posts news as their odd job
Yeah still hasn't really hooked me. Almost like it's turned into The Walking Dead where there is just different groups travelling around and instead of zombies you have the hosts...

The only thing that's starting to get bit interesting is wondering what is so important about Dolores dad.
 

Kadayi

Banned
The only thing that's starting to get bit interesting is wondering what is so important about Dolores dad.

Did you not watch last season? Charlotte uploaded 35 years of secret data into Abernathy unbeknownst to Ford and she was going to smuggle him out of the park as a guest until shit went sideways. That's why Abernathy keeps going on about getting on the train, and why she wanted him back
 

GoldenEye98

posts news as their odd job
Did you not watch last season? Charlotte uploaded 35 years of secret data into Abernathy unbeknownst to Ford and she was going to smuggle him out of the park as a guest until shit went sideways. That's why Abernathy keeps going on about getting on the train, and why she wanted him back
I watched it...but can barely remember any of the details.
 

EviLore

Expansive Ellipses
Staff Member
Yo everyone, just to clarify on our standardized GAF TV show OT rules to keep everything smooth and easy to talk about:

-Up to and including current episode at official air date, no spoiler tags needed
-Preview talk, spoiler tag and mark preview
-Fan theories you don't need to spoiler tag, but just mark them as theories. Obviously if you're basing theories off leaked information or preview information though, spoiler tag and mark as such.

Thanks!

I seem to recall swearing off this show forever in the last OT after the season finale haha, but we'll see. It's always fun watching these mystery shows episode by episode and following it with other people, talking and speculating and so forth. That's one thing Netflix season bombs can't do very well. Like various friends and I were all watching Stranger Things 2, but we all started and finished the season at different times, were always on different eps and so couldn't talk about it, and there was barely any conversation about it once the timetables lined up for me and someone else getting to the end and safely talking about it freely. Definitely something socially engaging about a weekly TV series run with a season story arc getting people together to talk, IRL or on GAF etc.
 

bitbydeath

Member
I hate being so critical of this show it’s just that the writing in season one was so well done and now it is... not.

Seeing just small pieces of Safaris and Samurais makes it even more disappointing honestly. What they should have done was an anthology series where each is wrapped up in a different park each season with no continuation whatsoever.

Why is the cleanup crew risking their own lives by attacking head-on when they could just fire a simple EMP in the hosts direction?

Also how has this not become a world issue? Is the problem kept a secret somehow? It should be dealt with pretty quickly when peoples lives are at stake.

And why did the show build up Delores to be likeable last season but now want us to hate her suddenly? She’s not wanting to help robots or humans only herself.
 

GoldenEye98

posts news as their odd job
Yeah this episode was a hell of a lot better than the first three imo...and suprise Dolores or Maeve weren't in it.
 
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Kadayi

Banned
Bit of a mixed bag really. I dug some of the ideas, but I wasn't sold on the execution. The whole Lost Style bunker for keeping Delos in was cool, but at the same time, it being in the absolute middle of nowhere didn't make a whole heap of sense least of all when the apparent protocol for dealing with every failure was, not to just pop out old Delos malfunctioning brain unit and try again, but instead to burn the entire set down and then presumably after clean up, painstakingly rebuild it. All I could think whilst watching them set fire to the set again was: -

but-why.gif


I mean jeez, how do they get the resupply in of the beds and the record players? Do they get supply drops like the Dharma Initiative every so often? It just didn't feel like something that was thought through versus 'this will look cool' and that lack of followthrough in terms of 'does this make sense given the location and situation' is a bit of a red flag for me, because it makes me question the nature of my reality whether the writers themselves hold their ideas up to scrutiny.
 

hivsteak

Member
I mean jeez, how do they get the resupply in of the beds and the record players? Do they get supply drops like the Dharma Initiative every so often?

I thought it was ridiculous at first too. It makes sense though.

They had to keep the room’s integrity intact and it is easier to ensure that by completely destroying it than trying to recycle and reuse. The room has to be a fixed variable within their experiment, along with William coming in eventually to see Delos.
 

Kadayi

Banned
I thought it was ridiculous at first too. It makes sense though.

They had to keep the room’s integrity intact and it is easier to ensure that by completely destroying it than trying to recycle and reuse. The room has to be a fixed variable within their experiment, along with William coming in eventually to see Delos.

See I pondered that, but it just doesn't make any sense that the room or even the host body would be factors. The fundamental issue is in the artificial construct based on Delos Brain and it malfunctioning over time.
 

bitbydeath

Member
I guess Abernathy was 2.0 of this idea since he passed and was free to join westworld?

I was hoping Ford would come back on the show in a host body.

The episodes go for a bit too long, this could have cut out 20mins of filler and been a lot more impressive to watch, great to get some answers though.

Was the girl with Bernard in season 1? I don’t remember her...
 
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Kadayi

Banned
Was the girl with Bernard in season 1? I don’t remember her...

Elsie? Yes. She was in season 1. She found the secret transmitter set up by Theresa towards the end of the season, but Bernard under Ford's instructions choked her out.
 

LordPezix

Member
Hey I was curious I never heard or got the figures it cost an individual to attend the park. Anyone know this? I figured it has to be in the millions right?

Also I am really excited for them to explore the oriental park just a bit. My boy Hiroyuki Sanada is in it and I can't wait.
 
Oh god this show has totally jumped the shark as far as I am concerned. Just finished watching season2 up to Ep5 and I don't think I can keep watching this show.

So disappointed because I LOVED season 1. I watched it through multiple times. But season 2 its like they completely ran out of ideas. Completely bankrupt creatively. Its a soap opera now with no intrigue left in the tank.

I just can't...
 
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DKehoe

Member
Hey I was curious I never heard or got the figures it cost an individual to attend the park. Anyone know this? I figured it has to be in the millions right?

Also I am really excited for them to explore the oriental park just a bit. My boy Hiroyuki Sanada is in it and I can't wait.

At this point I find it best to just not think about how the park is financed. Especially now that we are seeing how big Shogun World is too.
 

Keylime

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Oh god this show has totally jumped the shark as far as I am concerned. Just finished watching season2 up to Ep5 and I don't think I can keep watching this show.

So disappointed because I LOVED season 1. I watched it through multiple times. But season 2 its like they completely ran out of ideas. Completely bankrupt creatively. Its a soap opera now with no intrigue left in the tank.

I just can't...
Well shit... I just jumped in here to ask if Season 2 got any better because I'm having to force myself through the first 3 episodes so far and I just can't bring myself to keep watching. Like all the intrigue of the show seems kinda gone to me.

Doesn't sound like its getting any better. :confused:
 

Future

Member
Well shit... I just jumped in here to ask if Season 2 got any better because I'm having to force myself through the first 3 episodes so far and I just can't bring myself to keep watching. Like all the intrigue of the show seems kinda gone to me.

Doesn't sound like its getting any better. :confused:

Episode 6 was amazing to me. Finally some new information that puts things in new perspective. Cannot wait for next week

Episode 5 was one of the slower ones. They haven’t found a way to give needed backstory information in an interesting way. The “sidequest” writing of some of these characters just puts them on these uninteresting missions. You need this info, but I wish it could be more entertaining
 

Panda1

Banned
Oh god this show has totally jumped the shark as far as I am concerned. Just finished watching season2 up to Ep5 and I don't think I can keep watching this show.

So disappointed because I LOVED season 1. I watched it through multiple times. But season 2 its like they completely ran out of ideas. Completely bankrupt creatively. Its a soap opera now with no intrigue left in the tank.

I just can't...

Poor darling, https://www.cinemablend.com/television/1562520/how-many-seasons-hbos-westworld-already-has-planned , even not knowing this you must have some massive ego to say its run of ideas - there was only 1 idea - the idea of humans and robots. Its sci-fi 101, taken literally from West world book. A TV show for many seasons are all character driven. Bankrupt creativity yet the show has been constantly creating new stories for the characters and has been renewed for another season. It must be amazing having such a narcissistic ego thinking that the reason that you dont want to watch the show is because you image it better in your head! Of couse I apologise as I dont know you if u are an Emmy award winning screen writer or have any similar credentials.

Its would be easy to say I dont like character driven shows and leave it there, but your devastating insight into the creative process might mean you have left something of substance to say.
 

bitbydeath

Member
Episode 6 was amazing to me. Finally some new information that puts things in new perspective. Cannot wait for next week

That is good to hear, I haven't watched it yet.
I'm going to finish up 13 Reasons Why S2 (Which is amazing) before I jump back into this show.
 

LordPezix

Member
At this point I find it best to just not think about how the park is financed. Especially now that we are seeing how big Shogun World is too.

Yeah after I saw that I came up with some theories.

I'm really loving the series so far for the small pieces of the greater puzzle.


Here is what I am thinking is going on.

Westworld and the entire park is on a different planet. I think it would be a fair assumption that given the technology level the hosts themselves represent that man kind has achieved space travel to some extent. I started thinking this is the last Episode where you see basically a Mt.Fugi. Now it can't be the actual Mt.Fugi because it is right next to Westworld which given it's landscape doesn't exist on Earths Japan.

A few more pieces of evidence that are making this theory stronger for me is that in the first season you hear the parks employees mention their 6 month rotations, which is oddly long for even a super sized park to have if they are still located somewhere on Earth. Would make sense if that is how long the space travel time was though, even though six months given our current standards of space travel isn't very far, would make sense to a civilization that had achieved warp travel or something similar.

Another one was the extraction of the information, we heard in the first season that one of the hosts was trying to link to a satellite, which to me is a bit overkill when you could send in an agent and physically extract it if you killed a host and hacked their mind in a hidden part of the park. The use of the satellite makes more sense to me if it were another planet the park was located.

Lastly is the lack of the response from the public over attendees being killed? We know Davos is trying to cover things up and take care of it internally but given how hard things are to cover up given nowadays standards I can't even imagine would it would be like in the future. It wouldn't be hard though if you had time before any outside information on the issue took months to transmit through space.

Also did you ever notice that the entrance to the beginning of a park is at a train terminal? Not like a standard entrance we see nowadays at our parks. I think this train terminal directly leads from the space/airport tarmac directly to the park as one unit.

There are a few other things but for the sake of not turning it into a novel, this is what I think is going on. It's probably a bad theory that will get shredded here in a few posts but hey it's still fun.
 
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