‘Westworld:’ Why Dolores Needs to Break Free From Wyatt

Lauren Gallaway
TV HBO
TV HBO

SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers from the Westworld Season 2 episode “Journey Into Night.” Proceed with caution.

During Season 1 of Westworld, Dolores was a compelling character. Her gentleness, her curiosity, and her love for the beautiful things of the world made her enchanting and mesmerizing. She was very easy to fall in love with, as a character, because of these qualities.

During the Season 1 finale, her Wyatt persona was activated and she became a killing machine. While Wyatt may have helped Dolores break free from her docile programming, she shouldn’t stay in Wyatt too long, or she could kill every host and human left in the park. We know that when she was programmed to be Wyatt before that she did kill everyone — hopefully she doesn’t deliver a repeat performance of that original massacre.

Westworld‘s Wyatt

Wyatt Westworld

Wyatt was first mentioned during the Season 1 episode “The Stray”. When Teddy didn’t have a full backstory, Ford decided to introduce one to him. Teddy believed that the commanding officer he once served under during the war went rogue and killed all of their fellow soldiers.

As the season went along, there were stirrings that Wyatt had kidnapped Dolores and that he was the most ruthless villain ever introduced into the park. This narrative turned out to be a smoke screen for a real event that happened almost 30 years prior. Once Dolores was conscious, Arnold had given her an alternate personality, that of a soldier gone rogue, Wyatt. As Wyatt, she recruited Teddy, and together they killed all of the original robotic hosts and Arnold himself.

Wyatt does not exist outside of Dolores. The actor who portrayed Wyatt in one of Teddy’s memories, Sorin Brouwers, was playing a figment of Teddy’s imagination. As Teddy’s memory got clearer, he could finally see who Wyatt really was: the killer inside of Dolores.

Who Are You Now, Dolores?

Westworld Season 2 Dolores Teddy

When Season 2 kicked off this week, fans got a glimpse of the new Dolores. A Dolores with Wyatt’s full personality running through her. This was not the Dolores we knew and loved from Season 1. This was not the Dolores who loved to paint, who believed in the world’s beauty, this was a cold-blooded killer.

Some fans may love this side of Dolores. After all, she’s no longer the damsel in distress that she was during Season 1. So how much of Dolores is the farmhand’s daughter and how much is she Wyatt? Better yet, how much of Dolores is her true self? Her sentient self? She even asks herself that question during the episode. “This is what the farm girl would say, this is what Wyatt would say, but what would I say?”

Whether you enjoyed the darker, wilder side of Dolores or are curious to see who she is becoming outside of all of her programming, it feels like Westworld is going to be answering that question all season long. However, if Wyatt’s programming stays inside of her too long, will she ever be able to find that voice again or will the cycle repeat all over again?

Westworld is currently airing on HBO, Sundays at 9PM.

Lauren Gallaway
TV editor at FANDOM. Creator of The Marvel Report. Journalist, Comic-Con reporter, Podcaster.