'Westworld' Season 2 recap: Everything to know about Dolores, William, Ford, Teddy, and more

Trying to remember how Westworld left things at the end of Season 2 is damn near impossible. Not only has it been two long years since the show last aired on HBO, but Westworld has never really made a lot of sense in the first place. And Season 3 is no exception.

What began as a revolution story about cowboy robots and the human tourists who treated them as toys to kill or sleep with (or both) quickly evolved into a multi-leveled mystery full of plot twists, flashbacks, and time jumps.

Through all its style and bloody panache, larger themes like free will floated throughout each episode, leading to a satisfying enough end in Season 1 and a more confusing one in Season 2. That second finale is where our focus lies now.

Let's be honest, it can be pretty easy to get lost in the weeds with Westworld. Instead of venturing into the maze of mashed-up narratives and high concept story twists, we're opting for clarity. And that's why we're sticking with where the show left off in 2018 rather than diving into Season 3 theories before the show even returns.

Hopefully, after you finish reading this, you'll be primed and ready to head back to the future (sorry, we had to) for Westworld Season 3’s March 15 premiere on HBO.

What happened to Dolores in Westworld Season 2?

Dolores Abernathy (Evan Rachel Wood) feels like a good place to start. Even though Westworld features an ensemble cast, the farm girl has been the focal point of the story since day one.

After Dolores woke up and discovered her real Host identity and the fakeness of her world, she focused much of this season on destroying everything. She compiled an army and eventually made it to the mythical Valley Beyond — a rumored land where Host consciousnesses could live in freedom away from all those pesky humans. Dolores went after Westworld's supercomputer known as "The Forge," which was secretly stealing data from the park guests with the goal of replicating their likenesses and consciousnesses as Hosts.

Staying true to her brand, Dolores destroyed that thing, too — but not before stealing a handful of data pearls to take with her. She caused a flood and used the Delos evac team as a cover to venture out into the real world. But before she made her grand exit, she uploaded her consciousness into a Host replicated to look like the recently deceased Delos boss, Charlotte Hale (Tessa Thompson).

From there, all it took was the theft of one of those Host-making machines, where she easily created a new Dolores body — which we're certain she uploaded herself back into — gave Charlotte a different consciousness pearl, and brought Bernard (Jeffrey Wright) back, as well.

What happened to Maeve in Westworld Season 2?

Much of Maeve's (Thandie Newton) second season story arc involved altering Delos' code to benefit her own abilities. She mastered the algorithm and was soon able to guide the Host bodies to her every whim like a robot Pied Piper. Once she freed herself from the Delos lab, Maeve partnered up with Hector and his gang along with the head of narrative, Lee Sizemore, to venture back into the park to find her long-lost daughter.

Unfortunately for the former brothel owner, her emotional story arc ended tragically when Dolores and Bernard (Jeffrey Wright) gained access to the Valley Beyond. She found herself in the middle of a shoot-em-up showdown between the Native American Hosts (aka the "Ghost Nation") and the Delos guards. As she was gunned down, she caught a glimpse of her daughter walking towards the portal with Akecheta (Zahn McCLarnon) — a sentient Ghost Nation member. Once again in a position for her Host body to be reprogrammed and positioned into a narrative, Delos engineers Felix (Leonardo Nam) and Sylvester (Ptolemy Slocum) brought her back to the lab, where all of this began.

Is William (the Man in Black) alive, dead, or a Host in Westworld?

It was revealed in Season 1 that William (Jimmi Simpson) and the black-clad gunslinger (Ed Harris) were one and the same. We got a closer look at his character in the second season and a better understanding of the reasons (and demons) driving him to pursue the absolute destruction of Westworld.

First, there's the tragic detail that his wife killed herself after learning of the violent delights William was pursuing in the park. This destroyed his relationship with his daughter. And after she tried to reconnect with him on his home turf, the Man in Black became convinced she was just a small part in a bigger game Dr. Ford (Anthony Hopkins) was playing with him. So he shot her dead. (We’re still not sure if she was a Host or not.)

This is where things get nuts. William attempted to murder Dolores but was unsuccessful. Then, Westworld did that thing where it plays with narrative timelines. We're not clued in on what happened to William when he got to the Forge. He was apparently taken by the Delos guards and his unconscious body is seen as Dolores makes her way out of the park. How did he escape, exactly? Hopefully, Season 3 will shed light on that question. Because the post-credits scene that finds future William hanging out with his future daughter at the Forge was super confusing, to say the least.

Is Tedd (James Marsden) alive or dead in Westworld Season 3?

Good question! Our robot-boy Teddy had a pretty rough go in Westworld Season 2. Originally programmed to love Dolores and get killed, Teddy slowly gained consciousness in Season 2 thanks to some prodding from Dolores. But when she pushed him too far, Teddy responded by shooting himself in the head.

Of course, it's not that easy to kill a Host. Dolores simply scooped up his metal brain and uploaded it to the Valley Beyond, a digital afterlife where many of the Hosts escaped at the end of Season 2. Presumably, Teddy is still there now, meaning we might not meet him again in Westworld Season 3.

Is Logan Delos in Westworld Season 3?

Remember Logan (Ben Barnes)? William's buddy was left naked and starving in the park at the end of Season 1, where we just assume he stayed. But Westworld's second season dug into his character's story a bit more to give insight into why he was such a tool.

Logan is the son of James Delos — yeah, that Delos. His story doesn't have a long trajectory in Season 2, but he does eventually get out of the park. After the drama that transpired between him and his buddy — William basically stole his life and love like the horrible nincompoop that he is — Logan sorta spiraled and ended up dying from a drug overdose.

What happened to Bernard in Westworld Season 2?

One of the biggest jaw-droppers of Season 1 was the reveal that Bernard Lowe, Dr. Ford's right-hand man, was, in fact, a Host.

This discovery led Bernard on a confusing path in Season 2, which probably makes sense given his own evolving identity crisis. He ended up getting shot and killed after he helped Dolores open the portal to the Valley Beyond. She took his pearl and rebuilt him in the finale's final moments.

So much like Dolores, Bernard is off-world. But given his mental instability and the empathy he has for humans — and the fact that most of the Delos employees probably still think he is a human — we expect a bunch of trouble is on the horizon for him in Season 3.

Is Charlotte Hale (Tessa Thompson) alive, dead, or a Host in Westworld?

Let's clear up the confusion right now. Charlotte Hale, Delos' interim CEO, is a Host. She was murdered by Dolores in Season 2, only to have Ms. Abernathy upload her consciousness into the Charlotte doppelgänger she builds. We're really not sure whose consciousness she replaced hers with in last season's end. Maybe it's Hale? It's definitely not Dolores, though. She reunited with her own likeness after creating a new Host body in her image.

Is Ashley Stubbs (Luke Hemsworth) alive, dead, or a Host in Westworld?

Was Delos' head of security a Host this whole time? That's sort of alluded to in the final scenes of Season 2. After Dolores floods the island, killing a bunch of people and Hosts in the process, Stubbs (Luke Hemsworth) leads the extraction mission. Here, he has an interaction with Charlotte — who's really Dolores — and there's a huge sense that he not only knows it's Dolores but that Dr. Ford actually built him with the specific programming of keeping everyone safe.

Is Anthony Hopkins (Dr. Robert Ford) in Westworld Season 3?

Dr. Ford is dead. Dolores put a bullet right in his head. And yet, in Season 2, he shows up regularly. First, the notion was that Ford implanted his consciousness into Bernard to achieve some sense of immortality.

That wasn't it, really. It turns out that Ford was appearing to Bernard as if he were his own personal Tyler Durden. This is the part of Bernard, the consciousness — and the conscience — that he keeps struggling with.

Dr. Ford is gone. But there's always a possibility he may return in a vision, flashback, or some other twist. This is Westworld, after all.

Westworld Season 3 premieres Sunday, March 15 at 9 p.m. on HBO.