Westworld: 5 biggest takeaways from season 2, episode 10
Westworld pulled out all the stops in the mind-blowing season 2 finale. The stakes are forever changed and there’s no going back.
As the valley floods, let’s dive into the 5 biggest takeaways from the season 2 finale.
Warning: Major spoilers will follow from all of Westworld season 2.
1. Halores
One of the finale’s biggest shockers was that the Charlotte Hale from the future timeline with Bernard was actually a host carrying Dolores’ consciousness. On set, this character became known as “Halores”.
This doesn’t mean that Charlotte was always a host. She was a ruthless human right up until the moment she died.
It turns out Bernard created a host of Charlotte occupied by Dolores’ consciousness–Halores. Halores killed the real Charlotte, allowing Halores to take full control of operations by the time Strand and the Delos team arrived. They were clueless they working with a host, much less a host carrying the consciousness of Dolores.
Bernard and Halores worked together to manipulate Strand and the Delos team into thinking they were in control and on the verge of victory, only to terminate them and attain their tickets to the outside world.
2. The truth about Stubbs
In both seasons 1 and 2, Ashley Stubbs has largely flown under the radar. He flitted in and out of the story, sometimes interacting with important characters like Bernard, Charlotte, or Elsie, but ultimately never seeming like one of the more developed or intriguing characters himself.
The season 2 finale proved Stubbs has always been far more than he seemed. His conversation with Halores made it abundantly clear that he knew exactly who he was talking to and allowing to leave.
His word choice also revealed that he has been a secret host under Ford’s control all along. Showrunner Lisa Joy confirmed this in an interview with The Wrap:
"His knowing talk about, “I’ve been at the park a very long time,” and Ford (Anthony Hopkins) designed him with certain core drives, and he’s gonna stick to the role he’s been programmed with; it’s a little acknowledgement of just why he might have his suspicions about what’s going on with Hale, and then lets her pass.And doesn’t it make sense if you are Ford and designing a park and you have a whole master plan about helping robots that you would keep one Host hiding in plain sight as a fail-safe? Maybe the Host who’s in charge of quality assurance?"
This explains why Stubbs has always been so empathetic towards the hosts, not in an overtly suspicious way, but certainly more than his coworkers that his attitude set him apart from them. He saved Bernard on the beach and tried to get Bernard away from the Delos team later once they began to grow distrustful.
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Stubbs did all of this to protect Bernard as his fellow host and because of how much Bernard mattered to Ford. Stubbs’ discomfort at seeing Peter Abernathy literally nailed down and his attempts in the finale to stop Delos from unleashing Clementine among the hosts were also hints of his true nature.
Stubbs as a host also seems to explain why Ghost Nation took him captive. They recognized Stubbs as a host and wanted him to join the group of hosts they were gathering to take through the Door in the Valley Beyond.
Ford’s programming had greater plans for Stubbs, though, as he was needed to help Bernard and the other hosts and slow down Charlotte and the Delos team as much as possible.
Stubbs was programmed with the responsibility of helping the hosts in the park, but he makes it clear to Halores she is no longer his responsibility now that she’s leaving for the outside world. That doesn’t mean his work is done, though, as there’s still plenty to be done in the parks when it comes to the hosts.
3. Dolores reaches the outside world
Hidden in the skin of host Charlotte, Dolores successfully reached the outside world. She did not travel alone, though. Fans can spot several black pearls–each containing the consciousness of a different host–inside her purse as she departs. One of the pearls contains the consciousness of Bernard.
Using the host printing machine in Arnold’s house in the outside world, Dolores recreated Bernard’s physical form which includes his consciousness as well. Since Dolores is now no longer speaking through the physical form of host Charlotte, it appears that the host printing machine was also used to recreate a physical form for Dolores–her consciousness now occupying her own body. The Charlotte host is still with Bernard and Dolores, though, raising the question of whose consciousness is in there now.
It’s fitting that season 2, episode 2 showed flashbacks of Arnold taking Dolores to the outside world, and now Dolores has taken Bernard to the outside world. She doesn’t agree with Bernard’s outlook and philosophy, but she recognizes that she needs him, and needs to let him have his own choices and utilize free will in his own way just as she needs if both of them are to survive and truly be free.
4. Bernard finally completes the Maze
Unlike Dolores and Maeve, Bernard didn’t complete the Maze in season 1. They completed the Maze by attaining free will and finding their inner voice, their voice and theirs alone that guides them and elevates to a higher state of consciousness. Bernard was awakened by Ford in season 1 and afterward continued to exist under his control.
After Ford’s death, he was free for a brief period of time but floundered to find his way and make his own choices. He soon found himself under Ford’s control in season 2, this time via Ford’s consciousness.
After struggling so hard and so long to become truly autonomous, it’s a huge deal that Bernard finally completes the Maze in the last episodes of season 2. It turns out Bernard really did delete Ford’s consciousness in the previous episode.
Ford’s reappearance in the finale is Bernard’s inner voice. Bernard imagines his inner voice as Ford, but it’s not actually Ford because he was deleted from Bernard’s system.
This proves it’s all Bernard who has the idea to create a host of Charlotte occupied by Dolores’ consciousness, a host that would kill the real Charlotte. It’s all Bernard that intentionally scrambles his memories and washes up on the beach so he can be found and execute his plan against the Delos team.
All of this is significant character development not just for Bernard, but for Ford as well. Instead of preserving his consciousness because he can’t let go of control, he did it to help push Bernard to complete the Maze. It took Ford regaining control, Charlotte murdering Elsie and other drastic events, but all these factors allowed Bernard to finally complete the Maze and utilize his free will.
5. The post-credits scene takes place in the distant future
Many fans felt like they had an overall handle on the season 2 finale. Then the post-credits scene came and blew that handle to smithereens.
A great deal remains unclear about the scene, but one thing audiences can know for sure–both by watching carefully and from interviews with the showrunners–is that it’s taking place in the distant future.
This is visually indicated by the sight of the Forge now in ruin and decay. A significant amount of time needs to have passed for the Forge to look this way. Showrunner Jonathan Nolan further confirmed this in an interview with Entertainment Weekly:
"We do see the ruins of it. So that does suggest in that scene we are further in the future. We’d always said with this story we wanted to consider the beginning, middle and the end of the emergence of a new form of life on Earth and we managed to cover a lot of those bases in this season."
Given this information, it seems a host version of William is trapped in a hellish loop with a host version of his daughter Emily. She is taking on the role William once took when endlessly testing the countless host versions of James Delos. Now William is in the position of the James Delos hosts being tested for “fidelity.”
This doesn’t mean that William has been a host the whole time as the Man in Black. In fact, it’s likely that he was human for all that time, especially since he doesn’t seem to have discovered anything after digging into his arm.
All this means is that in the future someone has trapped a host version of William in a nightmarish loop with a host version of the daughter he killed. It seems like something Ford or Dolores might do to torment William. It could also relate to the next stage of evolution for hosts given Nolan’s comments about the emergence of a new form of life.
The William that washes up as Halores departs for the outside world is likely still the human Man in Black fans have followed for the last 2 seasons.
It will be fascinating to see when and how this future timeline with host William occurs.
Next: Westworld: 4 major questions from season 2, episode 10
These are our 5 biggest takeaways from the season 2 finale, but there’s so much more compelling content we barely even touched here. There’s plenty more to unpack, especially where the Valley Beyond is concerned. We will continue to discuss the latest and greatest on Beyond Westworld.
What is your biggest takeaway from the finale? Let us know in the comments!
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