Here's What We Know About Ford's New Game On 'Westworld' Season 2

Westworld Season 2 time jumped to a few weeks in the future for the opening of the premiere, but when it came to the Man in Black, time seemed to have slid backward to only a day or so after the massive slaughter in Escalante. William got what he wanted: a game that had consequences, and he's currently enjoying it to the hilt, even if it means the Hosts are no longer as friendly. But that's just the beginning. What is Ford's new game on Westworld?

Because there is a new game, a bigger game, something that's more than just Ford's "New Narrative," which, face it, is rather swift and brutal and comes to an end before the players were planning. William wanted a new game. He told Ford so. And so Ford has provided, as part of his last act in the park.

William finds out there's a new game to play from Young Robert Ford, the very old Host model that Arnold made back before the park opened. He's come to make sure William isn't lost, and that he knows there's a path her should be following.

That's what I always appreciated about you. Never rested on your laurels. You made it to the center of the Maze. But now, you're in my game.

So what is Ford's new game?

In this game, you must find the door. Congratulations, William. This game *is* meant for you.

This is a callback to last season. William spent the whole season looking for the center of the Maze. Basically, it was his vacation. The year before he had come to the park, right after his wife died, and the Maze revealed itself to him. And yet, all throughout last season, as he tried to find the center, Host after Host would suddenly turn and say "The Maze is not meant for you."

They were right, of course. William wanted to solve the Maze because he thought in the center he might find Arnold, or something Arnold left behind that would trigger free will in the Hosts, and the ability for Westworld to have real stakes. What he didn't understand is that the Host themselves had to find the center of the Maze and then make the mental leap to the deeper meaning. William couldn't do it for them.

But now it's done. Dolores has free will and she's using it to run down the humans who treated her people so bad while opening her fellow Hosts' eyes (mostly violently) to the reality of the world they've been inhabiting for three decades and counting.

So now William must return to the beginning, as Young Ford says. (Everything there really is code. The entire place is based on code for heaven's sake.) But what does that mean? The beginning like Sweetwater? The beginning like Escalante? It doesn't really matter. The game is programmed to find William, and put him on the proper path and keep him there.

William notes drying that Young Robert doesn't really need to remain in this story then does he? The old robot is already verbally malfunctioning. Best to put it out of its misery before someone else does.

So William finally has everything he ever wanted out of Westworld as a theme park. The Hosts have their own agendas, and the stakes are real. Moreover, they're not programmed to be losers, so William will have real satisfaction blowing through them. And he will be blowing through them, on his way to solving Robert's new game. But first, he'll have to go back to the beginning, wherever that is. Let's just hope at the end, William doesn't find himself facing down Dolores for the prize.