Updated Oct 23
Thanks for the A2A.
At the Season 2 finale, Virtual Ford instructed Bernard to implant Dolores’ control unit (robot brain) into the host-Hale body. That was the host being rendered at Ford’s secret outpost lab near the end of S1.
Disguised as Hale, Dolores is now being evacuated, on her mission to infiltrate the mainland. My guess is that, the parks are either on a future version of Taiwan, or on an artificial island constructed off the coast of China.
Bernard is probably also escaping. After Karl Strand’s death, Bernard might still be mistaken for a human.
Stubbs is a host, is enabling their escape, and will remain at the park for the time being. I’m fairly sure Elsie was human, and gone for good. I also don’t expect to see Logan, Akecheta, Clementine, Hector, or Armistice again, unless in flashbacks. On the other hand, I didn’t expect to see Ford in S2, either.
William is evacuating, having been shot three times in the confrontation with Maeve and Lawrence, plus having his own gun explode. He will recover. His injured right hand will be replaced with a mechanical one.
Dolores (in the Hale body disguise) carries five “pearls”, or control units. These include Teddy, an alternate version of Hale (to take control of Delos Corp), probably Maeve, and also Peter. If physical Bernard can’t evacuate, then his is the remaining control unit.
Peter’s control unit was loaded with an encryption key. This will decode an archive of guest behaviour profiles, which has been transmitted to Delos Corp, and also to some other facility accessible to Dolores.
Dolores is headed to Arnold’s old house, where Ford had placed a machine for rendering new host bodies. A new Dolores body will be made, and have her control unit installed. Bernard has been coerced to help her in this.
It isn’t clear why, but Dolores explicitly said that she needs Bernard, long-term, despite being enemies. Ford somehow planned this. She has the encryption key, but Delos Corp doesn’t.
Dolores may blackmail the wealthy, powerful former guests, by threatening to publicly broadcast the recordings of their actions in the park.
There will be some flashbacks, in which we see the other parks, shortly before the uprising. They will include Medieval World, Roman World, and either a futuristic space-travel world, or (I’m just guessing) a prehistoric world. There are five parks in total, and Ford sent a signal to all of them right before his death.
There will be more flashbacks, to William’s evolution over the past 30 years. Hopefully including some comedic relief with him and Lawrence.
There were two separate scenes in the S2 finale, with William cutting into his arm. I suspect that, they may have been on separate timelines.
The S2 post-credits scene (set far in the future) shows that, the park has been destroyed and abandoned. It also shows that the hosts have an electronic copy of William’s consciousness, which they have tried to load into a host body. There have been many attempts (similar to the James Delos copies), to study William’s choices and behaviour.
The host-William construct keeps replaying events, particularly killing Emily, hoping that, somehow, he can make different choices.
The hosts know that they are artificial, with programmed, repetitive actions. They are now studying the humans, to see if there is some difference. Virtual Logan claims that, humans are mathematical algorithms, programmed and destined to the same mistakes, no matter how many repetitions or second chances.
We may see other human-to-host attempts. An important pattern is that, they need to be rebooted, in a familiar environment, with a familiar physical situation, and a familiar person doing the “fidelity” interview. James Delos listening to “hi-fidelity” LP records in the mockup of his house, while doing his morning exercise, when William arrives. And previously being virtually tested in millions of computerised paths towards the final conversation with Logan. Bernard as an attempt to resurrect Arnold, tested by Dolores in the basement room where they talked many times. Host-William at the moment of escaping down the elevator, and now confronted by host-Emily.
Each main character has a “cornerstone” of grief and pain, which makes them more real. Including the humans. Ford as an abused child. Bernard programmed with the death of Arnold’s son Charlie. Dolores being raped. Teddy failing to save her. Maeve and her daughter, plus worried about Clementine (who ultimately becomes a weaponised zombie). Akecheta alienated from his tribe. James abandoning Logan. Lawrence seeing his wife killed. William still loving Dolores, and grieving for Juliet, and then actively killing Emily.
Some of the books in the library have readable names of guests, who will be future characters.
Perhaps we will see other characters engaging their grief and guilt. I expect more attempts to replay scenarios, in which they struggle to get things right this time.