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The Season 3 finale of Westworld was amazing, just like the rest of the season. And just as we enjoyed in Season 2, the Season 3 finale also had a compelling post-credits scene. But understanding how it meshes with the Season 2 post-credits scene can be a little confusing. Here’s a look at some theories on how they might work together.
This post has major spoilers.
A Recap of the Season 3 Finale Post-Credits Scene
In the after-credits scene for the Season 3 finale, William is at the Delos headquarters, asking where the hosts are. He’s heading to the lower level research lab, fully embracing his Man in Black side and his desire to destroy all the hosts before they destroy humanity.
Charlotte is in the lower lab, waiting for him.
“Well done,” she says. “You’re right on time William.”
William says his role is to kill her and save the world. But Charlotte says Dolores wanted that too, and look how that turned out for her.
“But you’re right William, you are going to save the world for us,” she adds.
And she brings out a new William. Yes, it appears that there’s a new host who looks just like William. This host tells William Original that he only thought the dark side of him was just a part of him that he tried to suppress. But it was actually all of him, and now Host William is that dark side.
They engage in a pretty fierce fight, but not surprisingly, Host William ends up the winner. As he kills Original William, he says: “Welcome to the end William.”
And we see a new lab, where many more hosts are being created. William failed to stop the hosts, it appears, and now his host version is left to bring more hosts into the world.
How Does This Match the Season 2 Post-Credits Scene with William?
So where does that leave what we saw in the Season 2 Epilogue and how does that mesh with what we just watched? You can rewatch that scene in the video above.
It’s all a little confusing, so hopefully, Season 4 will clear some of that up. It was clear that Host William matched Original William quite well, since he could say the same things as Original William at the same time, word-for-word.
Some fans think the Season 2 epilogue was actually Charlotte-Dolores testing fidelity in the new Host William. But I’m going to guess that’s not the case. Season 2’s post-credits scene appeared to take place far in the future at the Westworld lab itself, not at the Delos Headquarters. And they talked about how they’ve been through countless iterations with William.
In that epilogue scene, William woke up in what appeared to be a much older version of the Westworld headquarters, although he had the same injuries as he did in the Season 2 finale.
“I’m already in the thing aren’t I?” he asked. A host in a body that was just like his daughter’s said no, the system was long gone.
“This isn’t a simulation… This is your world. Or what’s left of it. Do you know where you are, William?”
She asked him how long he’d been there, and he wasn’t sure. “What were you hoping to find, to prove?”
“That no system can tell me who I am,” he said. “That I have a f***ing choice.”
“And yet here we are. Again,” she said.
“How many times have you tested me?” he asks. He’s been brought to a room just like where he had questioned James Delos’ host.
“It’s been a long time William,” she said. “Longer than we thought. I have a few questions for you. The last step’s a baseline interview to allow us to verify… Fidelity.”
In an after-credits talk following the Season 2 finale, Lisa Joy revealed more about this scene.
“The very thing he created is his greatest fear,” she said. “By the time that elevator …lands, he’s somewhere else… His worst fear has come true… The entire quest he’s been on this season, up to the killing of his daughter, he’s repeated again and again and again because the hosts are testing for something, and they have yet to find the thing they are looking for.”
She said the last scene is “as he realizes the full import of his hell. He is.. in a prison of his own sins and he will be for many lives to come.”
We also learn in that same interview that his daughter’s now a host and they’re very far in the future. That is seemingly confirmed by the producers after the Season 2 finale, which makes it even less likely that the scene involved the Host William we saw in the Season 3 finale.
So based just on Lisa Joy’s interview, it appears that Season 2’s post-credits scene was NOT testing fidelity for the new Host William that we saw in Season 3’s post-credits scene. Rather, it was something else taking place far in the future. Perhaps mankind wasn’t able to save itself like Dolores hoped, but ended up self-destructing just as Rehoboam predicted, and now they have to create a “new” humanity in its place.
I’m going to guess that because William died, there’s going to be a need to bring original William back at some point in the far future. The hosts’ only means will be the same way William tried to bring back James Delos. But it’s going to take an endless string of fidelity tests to do so.
What About Bernard’s Scene?
We also saw Bernard, covered in dust, waking up a long time later in the Season 3 post-credits scene. He’s back, but it’s unclear just how much time has passed.
The ash and dust covering Bernard meant that Bernard woke up a long time in the future.
There’s a chance it could have been a shorter point in the future, since we see buildings exploding when Maeve and Caleb are talking at the end. All of that destruction could leave a lot of dust and ash.
But I’m going to guess that Bernard is waking up around the same time that William did in the Post-Credits scene for Season 2. Both left us with the impression that a lot of time had passed. However, we weren’t given a lot to go on in Bernard’s scene, so this is only a guess.
I’m glad the show’s been renewed for a fourth season. Maybe some questions will be answered that we were left with tonight.
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