Westworld Timeline Explained: How It All Connects

If Westworld season 2’s multiple timelines are making your head hurt then you’re definitely not alone. Following the big twist that Westworld season 1 was actually depicting three separate time periods, the sci-fi show’s second season has kept up the mind-bending jumps back and forth in time as it explores the aftermath of the season 1 finale. We’ve seen more of Arnold’s interviews with Dolores from before the park opened, found out more about happened to William and Logan after their grim journey through Westworld, and been introduced to new mysteries like the nature of “The Door” and “The Valley Beyond” – which may or may not be the same thing.

Not only has Westworld season 2 opened up more places on the timeline, it’s also expanded the scope of the park to include locations like Shogun World and The Raj. The main characters are scattered across the map and the episodes are scattered across time. To help you keep it all straight, we’ve put together a guide to Westworld‘s timeline and what major events took place when. The dates given are derived from an Easter egg on the Delos website, which confirmed that the date of the host uprising in Westworld‘s season 1 finale was June 15, 2052.

• This Page: Flashbacks
• Page 2: Present-Day Westworld

Westworld’s Origins (2015-2020)

The very earliest scenes that we’ve seen in Westworld are the interactions between Arnold and Dolores during the park’s development phase, before it opened. Arnold became obsessed with the idea of guiding Dolores and the other hosts towards true consciousness.

During this development stage, when Robert Ford and Arnold’s work was still being kept top-secret, the two inventors take a selection of hosts out of the park. They set up a tech demonstration for Logan Delos , who is floored by the lifelike hosts and seduced by Angela.

Shortly before the park opens, Arnold believes that he has made a breakthrough with Dolores that proves the hosts are capable of true consciousness, and tries to convince Ford not to open the park. His attempts at persuasion fail, and so Arnold tries one last desperate gambit to prevent the park from opening: he melds Dolores’ mind with that of a villain character, Wyatt. With Teddy’s help, she goes on a rampage through the park, slaughtering the hosts and finally killing Arnold himself by shooting him in the head.

After the massacre, a Ghost Nation warrior called Akecheta comes across the bodies and discovers the maze puzzle that Arnold gave to Dolores in order to help her “wake up.” The maze sparks the beginning of Akechata’s own journey towards self-actualization.

Unfortunately, Arnold’s sacrifice fails. The park opens, but due to the enormous expense of building and maintaining the hosts, it faces financial difficulties that threaten to close its doors again.

Related: Westworld Theory: Dolores Is Still On A Programmed Narrative

Westworld Seeks Funding (2020-2025)

Logan visits Westworld enthusiastically in its early years, but is unable to successfully convince his father, James Delos, to invest in the park. Somewhat understandably, Delos does not put much faith in the business acumen of his spoiled party boy of a son.

During this time, William enters the scene. A mid-level employee of Delos, Inc., William gets a promotion to an executive position after he becomes engaged to James Delos’ daughter (Logan’s sister). Logan welcomes his brother-in-law-to-be into the family by taking him on his first ever trip to Westworld. This trip is one of the major storylines of season 1, showing William gradually falling in love with Dolores as she gets pulled off her usual scripted loop and travels with William and Logan all over Westworld.

After Logan stabs Dolores and exposes her insides to William as a reminder that she’s simply a robot, Dolores staggers away and William’s journey into darkness begins. He slaughters the Confederados, ties Logan naked to a horse, and begins a bloody rampage across Westworld in search of his lost love. When he eventually finds her again, however, he sees her drop the same tin can that she dropped on his first day in the park, and realizes that what seemed like a random act was actually a programmed manipulation. He decides that this means everything he shared with Dolores was merely manipulation, and his heart hardens against her and all of the park’s hosts.

Akecheta finds Logan out in the desert – naked and ranting that “this is the wrong world” and that he needs to find “the door.” Akecheta gives him a blanket and tells him,”your kind will come for you.” Later, Akecheta recalls that Logan’s words “cracked something open in me.”

However, William is still deeply interested in Westworld and its potential. He convinces Delos to invest in the park on the basis that it is an incredibly useful marketing research tool – allowing them to observe its extremely wealthy guests when they believe no one is watching them. Delos is convinced by the pitch, and Westworld is saved.

Related: Westworld Origins: The REAL Purpose of the Park

Westworld Under Delos Control (2025-2051)

With the revelation that William and the Man in Black are one and the same person out in the open, Westworld season 2 is free to explore the years between young William’s first trip to the park, and the “present day” scenes. We learn that William’s exploration of the park’s possibilities wasn’t limited to marketed research; he also began working on a way to achieve immortality by putting a human mind in a host body.

It’s during this time period that we see flashback scenes in which William interviews Dolores and treats her coldly, calling her a “thing.” He takes her to a remote place in the desert where some kind of massive project is being embarked upon. We eventually learn that this project is the Valley Beyond/Glory/The Door/The Forge – different names for a facility where guest data is stored and then used to create AI versions of the guests.

We see James Delos’ retirement party, where Dolores is playing the piano. Delos pressures William to speed up the immortality project. At this point in time, William is married to Delos’ daughter and William’s own daughter, Grace, appears to be about eight years old.

Some time after this, Delos dies and William begins trying to replicate his mind inside a host body. We see two conversations between the younger William and the host version of Delos, with William using the same dialogue to try and establish a baseline . Every time Delos realizes that he is a host, his cognitive functions begin to deteriorate.

At some point during this period of experimentation, William’s wife kills herself by overdosing on pills and drowning in the bathtub. Logan also overdoses and dies.

Circa 1951, William murders Maeve’s daughter in order to discover the darkest thing that he is capable of. This act leads him to the discovery of The Maze, and begins his obsession with solving what he believes to be a hidden game inside Westworld. Maeve is unable to recover from the death of her daughter, and has to be reassigned to a new role as the madam of the Mariposa Saloon.

Around the same time (it’s unclear whether it’s before or after), William visits Delos one last time – the 149th attempt at perfecting a means of immortality. He no longer has any hope that such a thing is possible, and instead uses the attempt to muse that perhaps no one is meant to live forever. After revealing the truth to Delos (including the revelation that both of his children are dead), William leaves the human-host hybrid to go insane in his plastic prison .

Page 2: Present-Day Westworld

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Hannah Shaw-Williams
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Hannah has been with Screen Rant since 2013, covering news, features, movie premieres, Comic-Con and more! You can follow her on Twitter @HSW3K

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