Westworld, HBO’s smash sci-fi hit, returns tonight with the premiere of its second season. Of course there is still a ton to unpack with this show, and you could go on and on for hours with questions about the show. I’ve come up with six that, for me at least, are going to be really interesting to watch for throughout the next 10 episodes. There are some big ones that I won’t be discussing here (Delos’ master plan, for instance) that just right now simply don’t hold as much of an interest for me. But all that could easily change once we see the direction this season is headed.
1) How many of the other parks will we see?
Might as well start with a fan favorite. Shogun World was teased in the season 1 finale and we have since learned that at least one episode will take us into this new park. We know there is a total of six parks so it becomes a question of whether or not we will see any of the remaining four parks this season Did season 1 set a precedent of teasing one new park to be shown the following season? One thing to watch for is the storyline of Maeve and her search for her daughter. We know the general location of her daughter, but which park does “Park 1” refer to? If it’s not Westworld or Shogun world, will we see Maeve venture into this third mystery park? I hope the other parks get a similar treatment as in season 1. Tease the existence of one or two others, but wait until season 3 for the payoff of an actual visit.
2) Which hosts, and how many, are fully self-aware?
By all accounts, Delores and Maeve are fully self-aware, but who else is right now? And are those two even actually self-aware or could this all be part of some larger plan of Ford’s? I think that would be a long shot but as this show as already proven, you can never be 100% certain of anything. And the other part of this is whether or not it will even be clear to the viewers if any given host has become self-aware.
Going a step further, are any of the hosts in the other parks self-aware or is this so far only occurring in the Westworld park.
3) Who will die?
In a recent interview with EW, Westworld star Evan Rachel Wood got to talking about the level of violence in this new season.
“I go to haunted houses every year, only this time I wasn’t getting scared,” she recalls. “I was like, ‘What’s wrong with me?’ And I realized: I’ve been [filming] season 2 too long. I’ve been completely desensitized to blood and dead bodies. So you can expect a lot of carnage.”
This fact alone doesn’t come as much of a surprise. But what I’m excited to find out is who will be a part of all this carnage. Will Westworld go the way of Game of Thrones and kill off a number of main characters? Or will they be more traditional in the sense that they keep most of the major players around for a while? Some of the groundwork has already been laid for the former, with Ford being killed off in the season 1 finale. That’s the way I’m hoping the show goes. One of the things I love (among many, many, many thing) about GoT is that the there is no fear in this regard. It keeps the viewers on their toes because you never know what’s going to happen. It keeps the show unpredictable, in a good way.
4) Will we find out where the park is located?
This is something that I want to be revealed, if only to satisfy my own curiosity. If we do, I hope it’s because the reveal fits into the narrative of the show. I don’t want it to be revealed just for the sake of revealing it.
5) In the same vein as the previous question, will we get see the real world this season?
I have the exact same thoughts on this as the location of the park. I really want to see some scenes outside of the park, but only if it fits within the larger story. I don’t want it to be forced into the show.
6) Will music be used as effectively as it was in season 1?
This might seem small but it just may be my biggest hope for season 2. In rewatching the first season, the music was one thing I noticed a lot more the second time around. It was as close to perfect as any score in any TV show I’ve ever seen. Two of the best scenes of the first season (one of which is both my favorite and what I think is the best scene of season 1) were so good because of the music. And that’s what I’ll leave you with. Just listen, watch, and enjoy.
And this, my favorite scene of all of season 1. I can’t even count how many times I’ve watched this clip.
