HBO A scene from Season 1 of Westworld
We all know from Season 1 of Westworld that Charlotte had a plan for Peter Abernathy. But more was revealed tonight during the Season 2 premiere, and fans are already developing theories about what it all means. Here are photos and clues to help you as you try to determine just what is going on. This post has major spoilers for the Season 2 premiere of Westworld, so don’t read on unless you’ve already seen the episode or don’t mind being spoiled.
Charlotte had to log into a complicated computer set up in Section 14, a secret underground lab featuring drone hosts. This was an area “above” Bernard’s pay grade.
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Security was so tight that it required a DNA scan to get in and a facial recognition scan.
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She had a tough time getting through to her contact at first. But she was finally able to reach someone. The results weren’t so great, however.
Here’s what the screen looked like while she was trying to establish a connection:
As Charlotte quickly learned, no extraction was coming. The package did not arrive and they weren’t going to come and get her until it did. Bernard questioned her about what was going on, so she explained the whole thing. But not before Bernard got upset about other things he saw in the lab: like off-network drone hosts, and a discovery that Delos might be saving records of guest’s DNA and experiences.
Charlotte explained that Delos was expecting the delivery of a host to the mainland, and there would be no rescue until Delos got that host. Bernard questioned if they would just let people die, and she said yes. “It’s an insurance policy to the only thing that matters here.” That’s when she revealed to Bernard that the host in question was Peter Abernathy.
You may not remember that more about what’s stored in Abernathy was actually revealed in Season 1. In an episode called “Trace Decay,” Charlotte Hale brings Lee Sizemore (the head of the Narrative Department) to Cold Storage. There they find Abernathy. Charlotte says that she is uploading 35 years of data into Abernathy. She tells Lee that he must give Abernathy just enough of a personality to let him get on the train at the Monorail Terminal in the Mesa Hub and leave. (In an earlier conversation with Theresa, Charlotte and Theresa referred to the data as a failsafe in case Ford wiped the hosts’ memories after he was forced out of the park. But obviously they still want the data, even with Ford dead, so that must not be the only reason they wanted the information.)
All of this begs the question of why Abernathy’s data is so important and just what is on it. At this point, we just don’t know. Maybe it’s connected to the DNA that Bernard asks Charlotte about. Maybe it’s secret code about how the hosts work for a competitor. We just don’t have enough to go on at this point, but we do know that whatever the data is, it’s important. It covers pretty much the entire duration of the park’s existence, at least since Arnold had Dolores kill him.
In Westworld, the most innocuous things can be a clue or even a hint for an ARG, which is also part of the reason we included photos of Charlotte’s conversation with someone from Delos. Westworld has had active ARGs in the past that gave extra clues for the story, so it’s always good to pay close attention to what’s going on in the show, including things that appear on cards or computer screens. You never know what you might find.