Westworld's Multiple Timelines Are Ruining Season 2

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Warning: Spoilers for Westworld Season 2 Episodes 1-4.

Westworld Season 2 has thus far proven a mixed bag, and the root of its problems are a near-obsessive approach to multiple timelines. Once the show's ace, it's become an interchangeable predictable and tiring trope, and in Episode 4 goes simply too far.

That Westworld has struggled with the tricky second album is somewhat surprising given how much of the broad story is mapped out by the concept. The show is based on Michael Crichton's 1973 film of the same name depicting a futuristic theme park gone wrong where the robot hosts turn on their guests with bloody precision (although many of its ideas of robot identity and nefarious corporate dealings didn't manifest until sequel Futureworld), and HBO made clear there was five-season plan from the off. Given how Season 1 was very much focused on getting up to the original's starting point - it ended with creator Ford allowing himself to be killed by way of host Dolores gaining consciousness and in the process untethering the rest of the robots - it was assumed Season 2 had it easy: it's finally delving into the base premise.

However, the first four episodes have been tough going. The show is still incredibly well-made (bar its fight scenes), with top-level acting, visuals and overall aesthetic design, and overall achieves a "good" descriptive, yet the story it's telling feels off to the point it can be exhausting. So many of its plot turns - the park is Facebook, the park is about immortality - come on the fly, as if what would happen after Dolores pulled the trigger wasn't even considered before renewal. It's even unclear quite how the "free" robots work.

Season 1 tied everything together with gusto, but if this run has a similar trick up its sleeve, the journey is questionable. There's a lot of elements of the show's storytelling to unpack in response to this: episodes run too long; it's following Game of Thrones' structural formula without the roadmap George R.R. Martin provided; the themes and character arcs are yet to be in any way clear. However, after the fourth episode, an emblematic concern has emerged: timelines.