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HBO offers behind-the-scenes look at ‘Westworld’ season 2 finale

BTS: The Valley Beyond | Westworld | Season 2

HBO released the Westworld season 2 finale on audiences over the weekend, and it’s a bit of an understatement to say that it left fans with more than a few questions.

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(Editor’s note: Some mild spoilers are contained in the video and the synopsis of the episode below, so consider yourself warned.)

The second season’s final episode, titled The Passenger, offered a glimpse of the world beyond the borders of the futuristic theme park and hinted at an uncertain future for many of the show’s characters in “The Valley Beyond.”

Fortunately, HBO anticipated fans’ desire for some answers — or at the very least, more information — and released a behind-the-scenes video for the episode shortly after it premiered. The video features interviews with many of the key players in The Passenger episode, and explores some of the events leading up to the finale, as well as the revelations the episode offered up about the park and the world that brought it online.

While there’s still no premiere date set for season 3 of Westworld, the video does offer some hints about what future story arcs could involve for particular characters, such as Ed Harris’ enigmatic Man in Black, as well as many of the other featured hosts and humans. Nothing is official at this point, but Westworld season 3 is expected to debut in 2020 at the earliest.

Season 2 of the series continued to explore the relationship between the park’s now-sentient hosts and the humans that previously controlled them, as well as the dynamic between the park and several other parks in various stages of development at the time of the revolt.

Westworld was created by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, who also serve as executive producers on the series. The show is based on the 1973 film of the same name written and directed by Michael Crichton.

The first season of the series introduced audiences to the expensive theme park set in the Wild West era that is populated by android “hosts” programmed to indulge guests’ every whim. Over the course of the first season, a programming glitch is discovered that appears to cause hosts to malfunction, but the secret behind that glitch — and the park’s true purpose — eventually proves to be much more diabolical.

The debut of Westworld received the largest audience for a series premiere on HBO since the first episode of True Detective. To date, Westworld season 1 is the most-watched first season of any HBO series.

Rick Marshall
A veteran journalist with more than two decades of experience covering local and national news, arts and entertainment, and…
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