Its been almost two years since we last cut into our arms, looking for wires, trying to determine whether we were host or human. Wait, just us? Well, anyway, HBOs Westworld returns with its third season this Sunday, and unless you have some crazy sentient-host level of recall abilities, you probably forgot a thing or two about last season. And where it all ended. Which was almost where the season began. Because timelines.
Thankfully, season three looks like it will mostly take place out of the park, meaning we can expect something of a straight chronology. At least, we hope.
Heres where we left off with each of our heroes, heroines, and whatever the hell Charlotte Hale is at this point:
Delores
The 'Westworld' Season Ending, Explained
You might remember that much of the conflict in season 2 involved the hosts reaching the valley beyond, an in-park portal to a virtual world where all the hosts consciousnesses could live free from violent delights. Ford had built the portal as a final escape for the hosts who wouldnt awaken and transition to the world outside the park (hosts who weren't basically everyone below). He thought it was right that the hosts live on in their Matrix heaven. So did Maeve. So did Bernard.
But Delores thought the gateway was just another prison, a false salvation. She tried to stop it. Only a third of the hosts managed to enter the valley beyond. Delores then encrypted this world, implying she still has access to all their "brains."
Meanwhile, Delores was also interested in the data collected from the guests. Apparently, the park doubled as an uber effective Big Brother Facebook at tracking guests' behaviors to create consciousnesses for them. Guests could then ostensibly pay for this data and live forever. (Rich people, right?) But Delores, after downloading the guest data into herself (for future world domination), erased the data. Bernard saw this happen and, realizing Delores will be unstoppable if unleashed into the world, killed her.
Bernard (and Ford?)
The 'Westworld' Season Ending, Explained
Bernard is still pretty deep in his own maze. Is he awake now? Has he reached the center that Ford, insinuated at the end of season 1? Its not really clear.
What is clear, however, is that after Bernard saves Ford's consciousness and meets him in the virtual Westworld, Ford and Bernard's consciousnesses seemed to merge. Bernard was then able to see and hear Ford throughout much of the second season. This relationship culminated in the question of whether or not Bernard wanted his "kind" to survive. Realizing the threat humans pose to hosts, he decided to rebuild Delores after he killed her. But he gave Delores Charlotte's body so that she could escape the park. He then erased his memories and woke up on a beachwhere the second season first began. Timelines!
Charlotte (now Delores)
The 'Westworld' Season Ending, Explained
She dead. But Charlotte's body is still very much ... alive? (Hey, they needed to find a way to keep actor Tessa Thompson in this show somehow. She's just too good.)
Charlotte had wanted Delores to wipe out the hosts before they reached the Valley Beyond and had even killed Elsie in order to ensure the hosts would all die. But Bernard (and Ford?), having realized that humans pose a threat to his "kind," rebuilt Delores as Charlotte. This Delores Charlotte (let's call her DC) then killed the real Charlotte Hale.
DC then met up with the Delos team that arrived, responding to all the killing in season 1. On the beach with DC: memory-erased Bernard. DC went with the Delos team back through the park, dowloaded the host data from the Valley Beyond, and then killed everyone, including Bernard.
She returned to the beach to board a rescue boat for the mainland. In her bag: five "pearls," or the "brains" for the hosts.
In the human world, DC used these pearls to resurrect hosts. She brought Bernard back to life as well as Delores' body, which she then put herself back into. So DC is now Delores once again. As for which host has been downloaded into the Charlotte body, we don't know.
To recap: We've got Bernard, Delores, and mystery Charlotte all alive in the human world. And three other unknown host pearls.
Maeve
The 'Westworld' Season Ending, Explained
Throughout the season, Maeve served as the ideological antithesis to Delores. She wanted the hosts to reach Matrix heaven and even sacrificed herself so that her daughter could pass through the portal with the Ghost Nation. Maeve's body was then brought back for repair, we assume.
So she's neither in the Matrix heaven, nor in the human world with Delores. She's still in the park. Bummer, dude.
William (The Man in Black)
The 'Westworld' Season Ending, Explained
This image captures William's current mental state pretty well; he's a mess.
The last time we see William, he was on the beach as DC escaped. But before that, William had a helluva season. We learn about his family and how his wife had killed herself when she learned what William was doing in the park. Then later, in the park, William killed his daughter and a bunch of humans because he thought they were hosts. Damn.
During a post-credits scene, we find William sometime in the future performing a "fidelity test" with a host version of his daughter. (The same way he performed a fidelity test on James Delos.) The scene implies that William's consciousness was somehow downloaded into a host. Perhaps the entire season (for William) was just a fidelity test, forcing him to relive the worst week of his life over and over again. Sounds like hell.
Anyway, he's on the beach now and headed back to the human world where DC will be waiting.
Stubbs
The 'Westworld' Season Ending, Explained
Stubbs is alive. We saw him on the beach with the other Delos soldiers at the end of the episode. But then he said something cryptic to Delores (disguised as Charlotte): "I stick to the role Ford gave me." Umm wtf does that mean? Does Stubbs know Charlotte is Delores? Is Stubbs in on it? Is Stubbs actually Ford?
Teddy
The 'Westworld' Season Ending, Explained
He dead. Well, hes in Matrix heaven now. After reaching what we think was sentience, Teddy decided that he couldnt follow Delores, so he killed himself. However, Delores saved Teddys core memories, along with those of everyone else in the Matrix cloud. Saved later for download, perhaps.