Problems with Multiple Timelines Theory

Published January 14, 2017 · Updated July 6, 2022

I spent some time today going over every scene that involved Delores’ loop up until she arrives back home and it uncovered some potential problems with the multiple timelines theory.

In episode 2 there are three scenes :

Delores arrives into town, has flashback of dead people in the street, then has a conversation with Maive where she says the “violent delights” line. 2. William and Logan are walking, William sees Delores going to her horse, Delores has a flashback while packing the horse. 3. William walks to Delores, picks up the dropped can, they exchange looks, and he walks off.
The problem here is that the three scenes are strongly implied to be the same loop, but Maive is in scene 1 and William is in scenes 2 and 3. We know that Maive was not the madame until after the Man in Black stabs her, so she cannot be in a loop with William if William’s timeline is 30 years ago. Even if you assume that scene 1 and scenes 2&3 are separated by time, Delores has a flashback in both scenes, but she shouldn’t have flashbacks until after the reveries are introduced and her father gets all glitchy.

In episode 3 there are two scenes :

Delores is confronted by the rape gang. Teddy saves her. They ride off and Teddy teaches her to shoot a gun, the Wyatt posse recruits Teddy and he rides off. 2. Delores arrives at home and the rape gang is there. Moustache man drags her to the barn, she has a Man in Black flashback and escapes the barn. She has a flashback in front of the house of her being shot which enables her to escape on horseback.
The problem here is that to accept the multiple timelines theory, she has to have been able to escape the gang 30 years ago. But she doesn’t escape the gang in her normal loop; she gets shot. Even if you assume that she normally escapes the barn somehow without the aid of the Man in Black flashback, her flashback in front of the house tells us that she doesn’t survive. Keep in mind that everyone interacting in this scene is a host and the guest is skulking around in the background. The only way to reconcile this is to assume that 30 years ago there was some guest interference once that allowed her to escape. Because we know from her interaction with William in town that her loop is very similar to the present day, right down to dropping the can.

All of this could be attributed to us looking way more closely at the show than the script writers did, which is an explanation I can accept, but if you dismiss that explanation, I don’t see a way out of these discrepancies. Especially the one in episode 2.

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