4 Different Timelines?

Published November 18, 2016 · Updated July 6, 2022

Rog, Big D, & Gene,

Love you guys and the podcast! Yours is the definitive Westworld podcast. It makes my commute from work something I really look forward to.

Hearing a lot of the theories (from people much brighter than me), I was under the impression that we were looking at 2 timelines, but now I am thinking that we are looking at 4 distinct timelines (each telling a different story).

#1 Arnold’s story

Arnold (human) created Ford (host). Ford is the first host to gain self-consciousness. Ford helped Arnold develop and redesigned the other hosts to what they are today. Arnold wanted all the hosts to gain self-consciousness, but Ford did not. He was both empowered by his self-consciousness and burdened by it. He felt that it would be cruel or the other hosts to be aware of their plight in life and rather that they live in ignorance (i.e. mind clean). Ultimately, Ford uses Dolores to help him kill Arnold. The legend becomes the fact and Ford assumes being the human creator of the park.

#2 William’s story.

William (human) continues on his narrative with Dolores and falls in love with her and wants to help her escape the park. Their mission gets interrupted and is not finished. William is devastated that Dolores was just playing the part assigned to her and is extremely angry that he was made a fool of. While his feelings were genuine, Dolores’s feelings were not. Logan shows up at the end of this story explaining that he knew that this experience would toughen him up and now he can be part of his family. Logan’s family company is Delos and saves the park financially.

#3 The Man in Black Story.

The Man in Black is an older bitter William. William keeps returning to the park for 30 years still in love with Dolores and the allure of the park. He is in search of a deeper meaning of the park that is not there at all. Ford (host) designs Teddy (host) as a surrogate to the original hopeful valiant William. The MIB has a terminal condition and wants to finish his first mission in the park (i.e. setting Dolores and destroy the park). MIB wants her to love him, but more importantly remember him. Ultimately, Ford uses Dolores to kill the MIB.

#4 Maeve’s story.

Maeve is operating on a specialized loop designed by Ford and is not achieving self-consciousness. Ford is using Maeve as a tool to kill all the remaining human Board members upon their visit to the park. The killed Board members will then be replaced with surrogate hosts and go into the real world. Bernard is a host replica of the deceased Arnold. Arnold and the Maze are a failsafe program created by Arnold (human) to push self-consciousness to all hosts. Arnold (human) possibly had suspicions about Ford and designed the narrative of the Maze as the central offices of the park with the man at the center being Ford. This program has been thwarted by Ford up until this point but is gaining some traction in this timeline with Dolores only. Dolores is remembering the different memories she has had with killing Arnold/MIB and is retracing the loop she had with William/MIB. It is here that Dolores will confront Ford at the central offices of the park.

Keep up the good work and keep calling them like you see them. I don’t care if any or none of the theories are true or not, I am just happy to be on this wild and crazy ride.

Gabriel Jimenez

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