Which Characters Will Return For ‘Westworld’ Season 3? An Investigation
Spoiler Alert
[Spoiler Alert: This recap contains spoilers from “The Passenger,” the Season 2 finale of Westworld.]
The Westworld finale held nothing back in terms of shocking reveals, character deaths, and more. So who managed to survive the carnage?
Not only were we introduced to a whole new world, but we also watched as the hosts and humans battled for dominance as the rules of the game changed. Some returns are quite obvious at this point, while others are less clear.
Below, we investigate which characters will likely be back for a third act.
Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood)
After being shot by Bernard (Jeffrey Wright) in the forge, Dolores is brought back online in Charlotte Hale’s (Tessa Thompson) body, and her new appearance allows her to easily slip out of the park. Dolores ends the episode in the “real” world, reviving her original body just in time for Bernard to awaken.
It’s still a mystery as to who else Dolores will bring back, but she exited the park with a bag full of “pearls,” the spheres carrying specific hosts’ consciousness. Clearly one of them was Bernard, but who are the others?
Bernard (Jeffrey Wright)
After spending the whole season in a state of confusion, fans finally learned the reason for Bernard’s foggy mind — he did it to himself, protecting information about the park’s guests from Karl Strand (Gustaf Skarsgård). Though he brought Dolores back in the form of Charlotte Hale, his decision cost him his “life” when she shot him.
Then, Dolores brought him back, telling him they will have to agree to disagree about their take on humans vs. hosts as they enter the “real” world.
Maeve (Thandie Newton)
Fans saw the maternal figure just barely miss making it through the door of a new world — one that series creator Lisa Joy refers to as “the Sublime” to The Hollywood Reporter. As she held off those who posed a threat to her daughter, Maeve watched as the young girl crossed over.
But while Maeve went down in a hail of gunfire (via the Delos team), the final moments implied that humans Felix (Leonardo Nam) and Sylvester (Ptolemy Slocum) would bring the fan favorite back online. Whether that’s what Maeve would want or not, fans will be glad to see her return.
Teddy (James Marsden)
In the penultimate episode, James Marden‘s character sought a way out through suicide, as his true self conflicted with the ruthless soldier Dolores had turned him into. By the end of the episode, Dolores had Teddy’s consciousness uploaded to “the Sublime.”
But because she left the park with those “pearls,” it isn’t out of the realm of possibility one of them could have some of Teddy’s consciousness attached. And since Dolores is the only one who knows the true location of “the Sublime,” she could very well meet the conflicted cowboy once more.
William, a.k.a. The Man in Black (Ed Harris)
Towards the end of the season, fans began to question William’s status as a human. And in the post-credit scene of the finale, we saw him in the future, in the same predicament as James Delos (Peter Mullan) was previously. Could William be a hybrid of host and human, created from the memories of the living?
According to Lisa Joy, the William we see in the current timeline is different than that of the one during the post-credit sequence. In other words, William is a human now, but he’s brought to life in a hybrid version of himself in the far future. In other words, in some shape or form, Ed Harris will be back in the third season.
Akecheta (Zahn McClarnon)
The fan favorite was reunited with his love Kohana (Julia Jones) in “the Sublime” at the end, after assisting Maeve’s daughter in crossing over. His body was killed but only after he was able to pass through, so his consciousness remains. Could he make a return? On Westworld, anything seems possible.
Honorable Mentions Who Could Return
Hector (Rodrigo Santoro), Armistice (Ingrid Bolso Berdal), and Clementine (Angela Sarafyan) were all killed in the finale battle sequence, but they could return through the same means as Maeve. The salvageable hosts were to be exhumed from the forge for safe keeping, after all.
Since Felix and Sylvester are likely to work on Maeve, they could bring her friends back — at least, that would be the honorable thing to do.
Unlikely Returns
Anthony Hopkins‘ Robert Ford, Elsie (Shannon Woodward), and Lee (Simon Quarterman), are most likely not going to reappear in future episodes. While Hopkins’ character shocked fans with his ghostly return this season, Bernard makes the realization that Ford’s presence was all conjured up by his own consciousness.
Meanwhile, Charlotte Hale killed Elsie when she threatened to reveal the use of visitor data to the public, and Lee sacrificed himself to let Maeve and her friends escape to “the Sublime,” or the valley beyond.
Westworld, Season 3, TBD, HBO
