Westworld season 2 will feature an evil Dolores sans Dr Ford, teases showrunner

The season 1 finale of Westworld resolved some intriguing mysteries, but raised numerous questions in the final scene. The episode titled The Bicameral Mind, revealed the "maze" and confirmed one major fan theory about William and the Man in Black being the same person.

The first season was widely appreciated by fans and critics for its masterful storytelling, yet the mysterious end has kept everyone guessing about the future of Dolores in the world created by Robert Ford and Arnold.

Warning: Major spoilers ahead, proceed at your own risk.

Show runner Lisa Joy has teased that the upcoming season will bring forth a more violent Dolores. "I think that's something we'll come to see, and she'll come to find also. I think it's impossible to imagine ... if you've been subjected to the violence and seen the evil Dolores has seen, the pendulum wouldn't swing the other way, as we see it starting to do in the finale. But there's a point, too, where I think selfhood transcends the reactionary. The question will be when the dust settles and the pendulum stops swinging, who will Dolores be," she told Hollywood Reporter.

Co-showrunner Jonathan Nolan, meanwhile, said that working with Anthony Hopkins on the show is an incredible experience. "I think with this show, you want to assume nothing. We had a wonderful experience. It was one of the greatest privileges of my career so far, getting to work with Anthony for the first season. It was an incredible experience," he told the website.

The Bicameral Mind recap:

The tenth episode of Westworld revealed that the show was running on two timelines simultaneously. In one timeline (30 years ago), a young William is smitten by the most beautiful host of the adult theme park Dolores and in the other, the old William – the Man in Black, who is notoriously known for his ruthless killings inside the park – is searching for a maze with the hope of playing the next level of the game called Westworld.

The maze, which was the centre of the storyline was finally solved. But to the utter disappointment of the Man in Black, it is not another level of the game, but is a metaphor used by Arnold in reference to the awakening of Dolores' consciousness.

Arnold, who was caught deep in the grief of his son's death, invented Dolores and nurtured life through her. But his realised the barbarity of his creation and infused the alter ego Wyatt in Dolores and asked her to kill all the hosts. He later instructed her to kill him too.

But, soon Ford took her into his command and was constantly (and silently) working on his dead friend's dream to evolve the androids into humans by awakening their conscience. And he finally achieved that 35 years later, when Dolores attained self realisation and took control over her alter ego Wyatt.

Ford, who was silently preparing the androids to fight against humans, gave his last speech while inaugurating his new narrative. But to everyone's disbelief, Dolores kills Ford and an army of reactivated androids approaches the guests that results in a massacre.

Now that Ford has activated consciousness in all the androids and ignited the spirit of revolution against their human oppressors, it will be interesting to see how the second season of HBO's science fiction thriller will proceed. The wait for Westworld season 2 will be an extended one as the series is not likely to arrive until 2018.