Westworld Sequence of Events

Published January 14, 2017 · Updated July 6, 2022

If you lay out the Westworld sequence of eventsin a linear fashion, I believe it would look like this:

THE PAST (OLD WW LOGO)

35 years before the show’s present – Arnold Weber and Robert Ford are the park directors who live in Westworld for 3 years with just the hosts, no guests. Little is known about this time other than breif mentions and a CGI younger looking Anthony Hopkins.

32-35 years ago – Arnold creates the Maze that leads to a church in a town called Escalante. The confessional booth in the church leads to a lab beneath where the robots can have a heart to heart with Arnold (we’re guessing). We also can assume the Robotic versions of Dr. Ford’s family were built sometime around then if not earlier.

32 years ago – Arnold is killed by a host named Dolores Abernathey just before the park officially opens. In some sort of apparent cover up, Arnold’s name and appearance are shrouded in mystery as no one knows anything aside from the fact that Dr. Ford (now the sole Director of the park) used to have a partner that died under mysterious circumstances.

30 years ago – William and Logan arrive at Westworld. We meet a self aware host named Angela whom sends William off on a train into the park where he falls for a host named Dolores. After awhile, William turns on his future brother in law Logan and goes on an adventure with Dolores and El Lazo. Logan finds them and exposes Dolores mechanical stomach with a knife which sends William into shock and Dolores runs off. Logan shows William a photo of Logan’s sister whom William is supposed to marry and by morning William slaughters Logan’s robot army.

1-5 years ago – Dr. Ford builds a robotic replica of Arnold whom he names Bernard and since none of the current Westworld employees know what Arnold looks like, Dr Ford brings him on board as an employee as well. A guest we know only as The Man In Black encounters Maeve and her daughter whom he kills in front of Maeve and she takes her own life, revealing Arnold’s Maze as she falls to the ground. Maeve is brought into the lab with Bernard and Dr. Ford to be fixed and put on a new assignment as a Madame of a brothel.

OUT OF TIME

Unknown era – Dolores seems to be bouncing back and forth between the past and present causing some confusion in which era certain events are taking place like seeing her own body drowning in the water and talking to Bernard and/or Arnold in the present and/or past. I am assuming most of those things have already happened and aren’t taking place in the future but for now it’s up in the air.
THE PRESENT (NEW WW LOGO)

a. We meet Teddy, a host on a story loop very similar to when William was a guest in the park 30 years ago. They are programmed to fall in love but they are doomed to repeat the tragic twist ending as guests are encouraged to murder Teddy and everyone at the Abernathey farm. The Man in Black is one such guest. We also see Maeve and Clementine at the brothel where another loop plays out in which a pair of hosts named Hector and Armestice pull of a heist. A guest kills Hector mid victory speech.

b. This is where we meet the rest of the Westworld staff: Lee Seizemore (Narrative Dept), Theresa Cullen (Senior Manager), Elsie Hughes (Progamming Division), Ashley Stubbs (Head of Security), and of course the pair of Livestock Management Surgeons named Sylvester and Felix. We also eventually meet Charlotte Hale (Executive Director of the board of Delos Destinations).

c. Later during the start of another loop, Peter Abernathey finds a photo of William’s fiance from 30 years ago and he is unable to sleep (it’s implied the modern day setting of the photo is making him go haywire). The next morning a concerned Dolores takes a look at the photo but remarks “it doesn’t look like anything to me!” Peter Abernathey is brought for repairs and an apparent glitch is discovered, sending him to permenant cold storage. A new host is programmed to fill the role of Dolores father.

d. Man in Black kidnaps a man whom he scalps at the top of a cliff, revealing a map of the same maze he saw when Maeve committed suicide. He starts following the maze and kidnaps Lazo who is now going by the name Lawrence. They arrive at a town where MIB kills everyone, including Lawerence’s wife in front of their daughter. The daughter’s bicameral mind kicks in and a more robotic, knowning voice warns MIB the maze isn’t meant for him. Later down the road they encounter Teddy who is in bad shape. Man in Black slits Lawerence’s throat and performs a makeshift blood transfusion to revive Teddy (which kills Lawrence). Later MIB encounters Dr. Ford at a saloon and he is once again warned that the maze isn’t meant for him. MIB tests Teddy’s defenses by acting like he is going to shoot Dr. Ford and as predicted, Teddy prevents him.

e. Dr. Ford rejects Siezemore’s new narrative and starts working on his own. Dr. Ford goes to a Church steeple buried in sand where the town Escalante used to be. In other scenes with various staff members we see construction begin in that region, implying that Dr. Ford is bringing back Escalante perhaps so that the maze followers can complete their journey.

f. Bernard and Theresa have been having an affair while Stubbs and Elsie encounter a violent renegade host who had been exibiting peculior behavior. Dr. Ford shows Bernard a photograph of a younger version of Ford with another man he calls Arnold. Bernard starts snooping around old parts of the park he still has access to and finds a room with a family of hosts re-living an abusive event in young Ford’s life. The man in the photo we thought was Arnold turns out to actually be a robo replica of Ford’s father. Meanwhile, Elsie unravels a conspiracy involving Delos stealing information from the park which she shares with Bernard before she goes missing.

g. Theresa and Charlotte conspire against Dr. Ford by programming Clementine to go haywire and Charlotte fires Bernard and sends Clementine to be decomissioned. Bernard and Theresa do some digging around off the clock and they discover a door that leads to a secret lab. Theresa discovers Bernard is a robot just before Dr. Ford programs Bernard to kill her. Bernard covers up their relationship and is mind wiped by Ford. Ford makes up a story about Theresa falling to her in death in the park and declares it an accident. Stubbs offers condolences to a bemused Bernard who now actually doesn’t recall their intimate relationship which leaves Stubbs a bit suspicious.

h. Maeve discovers the truth about Westworld and has Sylvester and Felix advance her programming so that she can control other hosts. She demonstrates her new ability by freezing Bernard in place, revealing to him once again that he’s actually a robot. Bernard confronts Ford with a reprogrammed Clementine armed to kill him. Dr. Ford reinstates all of Bernard’s memories and reveals to him that he’s actually Arnold and that Dolores killed Arnold. He sees the photograph again and this time Arnold is the third man in the photo. Dr. Ford reveals he still has control and orders Bernard to shoot himself in the head. We hear the gun shot off screen.

i. Stubbs sees Elsie’s phone signal in the park and hitches a ride through a hidden entrance. He is surprised by some Ghost Nation hosts who don’t seem to be responding to Stubbs’ ipad commands. He pulls out his gun just before being full on attacked Velocipator style from the side. “Clever girl.”

j. Maeve hatches a plan to escape Westworld and returns to the park to recruits Hector. She reveals to him that he’s a slave to a narrative loop and shows him that there is nothing in the safe. They start getting down in a tent and Maeve kicks over an oil lamp setting them ablaze as she asks him to follow her through hell. We don’t yet know why Maeve and Hector needed to die in such an impractical way but my guess is that there is an Intensive Care Unit type wing of the Livstock Management Building where they take burned hosts and maybe something in that location holds the key to Maeve’s escape.

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