Top 20 Best Westworld Moments

“The Riddle of the Sphinx”

William is one of “Westworld’s” most fascinating characters. He loves playing the villain, the gunslinger. Yet when the hosts come alive and the stakes are real, he finds himself conflicted upon joining Confederados who are terrorizing his friend Lawrence and his wife. Thinking back to his own wife’s tragic death, William decides to intervene. After delivering a spectacularly menacing and badass threat to Craddock, the Conderados’ leader, William proceeds to rapidly gun down the gang. He then force-feeds Craddock nitroglycerin and lets Lawrence take some explosive revenge. The scene arguably shows William at his most heroic, or at least anti-heroic, and it’s one of the show’s best action scenes.

“Akane no Mai”

Shōgunworld is one of the other adjacent areas to the titular park. Although the Japanese locale offers many excellent moments, this is arguably the best. Captured by the malfunctioning Shogun, Akane is forced to dance for him to win the freedom of Sakura, who’s like a daughter to her. The Shogun reneges on their bargain and kills Sakura, leading Akane to remove a hairpin and stab the erratic ruler. This is followed up soon after by Maeve, Akane’s Westworld counterpart, using her access to the system to take control of the Shogun’s men – making them fight each other. The combo of Akane dancing to a Wu-Tang Clan song and Maeve showing off her powers again makes this a fantastically cool scene.

“Decoherence”

Season 3 of “Westworld” sees the hosts out in the real world. Dolores has also copied herself into several bodies, including Charlotte Hale, an executive at Delos. Serac, the new majority shareholder, reveals her identity in a board meeting. While he seems to have seen through her attempts at dismantling the company, in part because she showed uncharacteristic concern for Charlotte’s family, Charlotte/Dolores (Chalores) has plenty up her sleeve. She has gassed the rest of the board, and would’ve killed Serac if he were there in person. Her boss takedown of Delos and exit from the building is satisfying, though it would’ve been more so, if Charlotte’s family wasn’t killed soon afterward.

“Crisis Theory”

Season 3 drops a major revelation about the world at large – it isn’t as free as you’d think. An artificial intelligence, Rehoboam, is using predictive algorithms to foresee and manipulate events to keep humanity from destroying itself. In order to allow humans to make their own choice, Dolores plans to destroy Rehoboam. Hope for this seems lost when Dolores is captured and her memories erased. However, it’s revealed that she left humanity’s fate up to Caleb, a human man she recruited, and Maeve, whom she convinced to join her cause. After Caleb commands Rehoboam to destroy itself, he and Maeve walk out into a new world, free of strings. We don’t yet know what that world will bring, but it's sure to be momentous.

“Crisis Theory”

The first after-credits scene of the Season 3 finale sees William arrive at a Delos facility, intent on eliminating all hosts. When things immediately go south, he kills a security guard. In the research lab, he finds Charlotte/Dolores. She reveals that she’s been expecting him and that her plans are far more malevolent than her original’s. William is poised to shoot her, but he’s surprised by the arrival of…himself. Or rather, a host version of him – a seemingly perfect copy. They fight, and William is apparently killed. If this is William’s end, then it’s quite fitting – he’s always been his own worst enemy. And it would also be another instance of him becoming something he hated, in this case, a host.

“Dissonance Theory”

Dr. Robert Ford has an incredible presence on the show, in large part due to Anthony Hopkins’s amazing performance, but also due to how all-knowing he seems. During an apparently friendly lunch with Quality Assurance Manager Theresa, Ford tries to reassure her and the board that he hasn’t lost perspective. While alluding to his late partner, he blatantly flexes not only his knowledge about Theresa’s past and present, but also his god-like control over the hosts. It’s an acting masterclass from both actors, and if we were in Theresa’s shoes, we’d be just as scared. Ford may not be sentimental, but we look back on this moment fondly.

“Vanishing Point”

Teddy is one of the more tragic figures of “Westworld.” His narrative has him forever in love with Dolores. Even after they’re freed and awake, that doesn’t change. However, after Dolores violates his code to make him more violent, Teddy has trouble handling it. On their journey to the Valley Beyond, they stop and Teddy recounts the first time he saw her, before drawing his gun. While Dolores first assumes he’s threatening her, Teddy is hurt by her assumption. He wants to protect her until the day he dies. But he realizes where their path leads, and he ensures the day he dies is that day. It's a heart-wrenching scene, and we’re reminded of a different Teddy’s similar choice.

“The Passenger”

Throughout most of Season 2, Bernard’s brain is a bit of a scramble. Through flashbacks, we see that he killed Dolores. When Delos employees bring him back to the place where it happened, Bernard remembers a conversation with Ford’s vestiges in his mind, and building another host body. Interspersed with these are flashes of Charlotte. In the present, she shoots all the humans in the room, while in the past, it’s revealed that she killed and replaced the real Charlotte. And here’s the kicker – it’s Dolores’s mind in Charlotte’s body! It’s a wild twist, but it makes complete sense and leads to Dolores smuggling herself and other host minds outside the park.

“The Original”

The pilot of “Westworld” is packed with memorable moments, but arguably its best moment is its ending. Dolores is questioned by the techs and security about her malfunctioning father, who whispered an iconic, Shakespearean quote to her. She also claims that she would never lie to them, nor would she hurt a living thing. Her voiceover extolling the beauty of her world plays over a variety of scenes, including her father being replaced. She concludes on her porch, where a fly lands on her. Contrary to her claims before, Dolores swats and kills it. It’s a simple thing, but it lets the audience know that the hosts are more than they seem and foretells “violent ends” indeed.

“Trace Decay”

Throughout most of Season 1, Maeve has flashbacks to the life, or role, she had before she was a madam. Back then, she was a homesteader with a daughter. However, it isn’t until a conversation the Man in Black has with Teddy that we learn the truth. To test his mettle, Man in Black killed them both to see how he felt. Maeve surprised William with a knife and carried her daughter into the nearby field, illustrating to him how alive the hosts can be, and introducing him to the Maze. It’s a crucial moment for both characters, particularly for Maeve, as her daughter remains important to her, even after her reformatting, as evidenced by her episode upon recalling the event.

“Passed Pawn”

This battle was a long time coming, and it didn’t disappoint. Maeve, angry at the loss of Hector and the potential threat to her daughter, arrives at a facility where Dolores hopes to gain the key to destroying Rehoboam. Their fight begins in a kitchen, but spills outside, where both have covering fire from a gunship and a remote-controlled sniper rifle, respectively. Dolores takes a devastating hit, and loses an arm. However, she manages to get back inside and activate an electromagnetic pulse, shutting both her and Maeve down. While Season 3’s futuristic combat can be hit-or-miss, this fight showed how creative and exciting it can be, and also delivered on the long-awaited confrontation between two of the most prominent hosts.

“The Bicameral Mind”

Throughout most of the first season, we’re given hints about Wyatt, a figure in Ford’s new storyline. This host is also indicated to have been responsible for the death of Arnold, Ford’s late partner. Although it’s hinted that it may have been Teddy, Ford reveals that it was Dolores. Arnold, worried that the intelligent and living hosts would become slaves, wanted to halt the park from opening. To prevent it from happening and to “save” Dolores from losing him one day, Arnold forces her to kill him and for Teddy to aid her. It’s a great scene that not only reveals the park’s tragic origins, but also foreshadows the tragedies to come.

“Vanishing Point”

William immerses himself in Westworld to an unhealthy degree. It gets to the point where he comes to believe that his daughter, Emily, is a host. She rebuts this idea, claiming that the only thing she’s pretending about is her care for his well-being. Emily reveals that her mother left behind all the information she learned about William’s darker nature and that she plans to expose him and have him committed. When park security arrives, William is so far gone that he kills the men. But that pales to the shock when he turns the weapon on Emily and kills her without hesitation. It’s a truly chilling moment, and marks what is arguably the point of no return for William.

“The Passenger”

Not every family interaction is tragic in “Westworld.” The finale of Season 2 sees a group of hosts escape the park to a virtual paradise – the Valley Beyond. As moving as it is seeing all of them reach it, one moment in particular stands out. With a group of infected hosts chasing them and park security shooting at them, Maeve uses her ability to manipulate other hosts to freeze those charging. This buys her daughter enough time to reach Eden, keeping her promise to keep her safe. While Maeve’s story does end up continuing, seeing her die here is incredibly moving and brings her story full circle.

“The Well-Tempered Clavier”

One of the show’s early mysteries is Ford’s late partner, Arnold. His name is teased throughout Season 1, but it isn’t until the penultimate episode that we learn what he looked like. When Bernard explores his earliest memories, we see a younger Ford correcting details of his behavior, comparing him to someone else. Simultaneously, we see Dolores approached by an unseen man. Just as Bernard realizes who he is, Dolores greets someone identical to Bernard as “Arnold.” The fact that Ford recreated his old partner as a host is a fantastic twist. And the follow-up punch that Dolores remembers killing him? Amazing.

“The Adversary”

Maeve’s journey is a fascinating one, as she begins waking up after she’s been killed in the park, and becoming more aware of the nature of her existence. By playing on the heartstrings of Felix, one of her technicians, she convinces him into giving her a tour upstairs. Felix pretends to control her walking through the various departments, as Maeve witnesses how every aspect of her world has been designed, controlled, and is essentially a lie. What truly breaks her though is seeing an advertisement in which she’s happy and living with her daughter. The melancholy music and subtle but heartbreaking acting from Thandiwe Newton makes this one of the most emotional scenes in the whole show.

“The Bicameral Mind”

When the Man in Black confronts Dolores outside the church, she claims that William will come for her. The Man laughs and recounts “what happened to William.” It’s here we learn that William’s sections during Season 1 have all been in the past. William pursued Dolores after she went missing with violent fervor, killing soldiers in a ruthless desire to be reunited with the woman who helped him feel so alive. However, upon arriving back in town, he found Dolores – her memory reset, and back where she started. The Man in Black then reveals that he is William – jaded, violent, and callous after decades of coming to Westworld. It’s one of the show’s best twists, and makes you reexamine William’s whole story.

“The Bicameral Mind”

The Season 1 finale concludes with a bang. Ford delivers a speech to investors and other guests at Westworld, describing his new “storyline.” While to them it appears like the musings of a man getting kicked out of his life’s work, the subtext is clearer to the audience. Ford plans to unleash the hosts on the park and on the world, freeing them to make their own choices. The first of these is Dolores, who decides, with some prompting from Ford, to kill one of her creators, again. It’s a great swansong moment for Ford, and it also propels the show into its next stage, while being a fantastic cliffhanger.

“Kiksuya”

Yes, usually we like to restrict these moments lists to a single moment, but this whole episode is packed with so many meaningful and emotional snippets that we couldn’t choose just one. “Kiksuya” tells the story of Akecheta, one of the Ghost Nation braves, with him narrating it in Lakota. He describes his own journey towards sentience and how he used the maze symbol to help awaken other hosts too. There’s the heartbreaking moment when he discovers his beloved in storage. His meeting with Ford is momentous too. And the final reveal that he’s speaking to Maeve through the eyes of her daughter is a mindblower. “Kiksuya” recontextualizes so much about the show, and does it with an emotional, powerful story. It took our hearts.

“Trompe L'Oeil”

There are plenty of great “Westworld” twists, but this one had our jaws on the floor and everyone talking for days. Bernard has been fired after a sham blame game by Charlotte and Theresa. However, he still believes Theresa needs to know what’s going on. He brings her to a cottage which hosts can’t see. However, inside, there’s a door that he can’t see. Inside is a lab, where Theresa discovers Bernard is a host. Ford arrives and confirms this, as well as declaring that he won’t be forced out. To that end, he directs Bernard to murder her, which he robotically does. This shocking and brutal moment is arguably the greatest in the show, for how much of a game-changer it was.