NOTE: This article includes major spoilers from ‘Westworld’ Season 2.

 

The penultimate episode of Season 2 of Westworld, “Vanishing Point”, was one of the most eventful episodes of the series. It included a dark flashback into the Man in Black’s life, when his troubled, alcoholic wife committed suicide; and there was also a dark scene in the present timeline, as the Man in Black killed his daughter Emily (Happy Father’s Day). To conclude the episode, Teddy decided he could not move forward with his life after Dolores changed him, leaving Dolores alone on her journey.

 

There are still many questions about what exactly is going on in Westworld, so we’re going over the biggest questions with the season nearly concluded. This Sunday’s season finale, which is a stunning 90 minutes long, should answer a lot as things come to a head. But a lot might be left up in the air until Season 3 and beyond.

 

The Man in Black

The ending left us with a dead Teddy and a heartbroken Dolores, but “Vanishing Point” was very much an episode based around the Man in Black. The Man in Black’s wife, Juliet, had a huge drinking issue, which Emily revealed by her story about the ballerina music box had gone on for years. It was a harrowing story, and Emily says she blamed herself for her mother’s death, too.

 

However, as the flashback progressed, it revealed that Juliet heard everything the Man in Black said as she was fake sleeping, and she retrieved the memory card that Ford gave to her husband earlier in the night at the party. When Juliet saw William was a cold-blooded killer in the world he admittedly felt he belonged in, she couldn’t live with it.

 

The Man in Black losing his wife made him even more ruthless than he already was, and it was probably part of what set him on this track after he discovered “The Maze” in Season 1. Obviously, he’s done some bad things in the park and has spent too much time there over the years, but it was pretty extreme that he snapped and killed a few QA workers before killing Emily.

 

It was a tragic scene, as the Man in Black killing is own daughter is going to be impossible to get over, and it also shows that he’s completely off the deep end. Having a quick trigger on his own daughter, even if he thought she was a host, was a bit disappointing considering Emily wasn’t physically threatening him in any way, but he’s just lost it at this point.

 

For much of this season, there have been clues sprinkled throughout indicating the Man in Black might be a host himself. In “Vanishing Point”, he began questioning it himself, and he nearly took his own life before ultimately not pulling the trigger. We also saw in the flashbacks that William has questioned his “realness” by looking at his forearm before, too. After the Man in Black storyline ended in cliffhanger of him cutting his arm open, we should find out once and for all whether he’s a host in the season finale.

 

What is Ford’s game with William?

The conversation between Dr. Ford and the Man in Black on the night of Juliet’s death was very interesting. It’s even more interesting when you consider Juliet might still be alive if it had never happened and William didn’t receive the memory card from Ford. The adversaries/colleagues each said their piece at the bar, and the Man in Black declared he was done with Ford’s game. But, to himself as the Man in Black left, Ford said: “I think perhaps one final game.”

 

This could have just been Ford talking about “freeing” the hosts and having himself killed by Dolores, but how did he know the Man in Black would continue playing? Ford could have just known the Man in Black well enough over the years that he knew what would happen. But Ford could have been in more control of the Man in Black’s situation than we realize.

 

The Forge

Bernard revealed the name of the location where all the guests’ data is stored: “The Forge”. It’s previously been called “The Door” or “The Valley Beyond”, and everyone is headed to it. I’m just not sure what Bernard thinks he’s going to do by getting there first. The preview for the season finale, “The Passenger”, shows that we’re going to get a good look at the Forge soon.

 

The timeline

Teddy killing himself at the end of “Vanishing Point” caused some major confusion in the timeline for me. As we know from the first episode of the season, Teddy ends up dead in the water, and he’s eventually taken back to the Delos lab and is in the storyline furthest in the future, with Charlotte Hale questioning Bernard. It was thought that Dolores having the Cradle blown up (via Angela) meant the hosts would be dead for good if they die, but that doesn’t appear to be the case.

 

As shown by Clementine being brought back and turned into a host with the controls Maeve has had throughout the season, the hosts can still be repaired. So basically, the hosts can still come back from the dead, but they need someone to bring them back—which probably isn’t going to happen considering the host revolt.

 

However, the timeline is still confusing. Even with a 90-minute finale, it seems difficult Teddy would end up in the water and brought back to the Mesa 11 days into the future all in that time, though there could be time jumps. The same goes for Bernard, who is headed for the Forge yet, as we already know, ends up in the Mesa with Charlotte in the future.

 

Overall, I’m anxious to see how the main timeline from this season eventually gets to the furthest-point timeline. My guess is the season might end with the timelines catching up, and Season 3 picks up where it leaves off.