Maeve Has A Clear Mission In 'Westworld' Season 2

In the Season 1 finale of Westworld, Maeve Millay gave up her hard-won chance at freedom so that she could return to the park in an attempt to find the host who had been her daughter in a previous narrative. Long before she was made the madame at the Mariposa, Maeve was a homesteader forced to experience the traumatic murder of her daughter over and over again. They were separated at some point, leaving Maeve (and the audience) wondering: where is Maeve's daughter in Westworld?

In "The Bicameral Mind," helpful human Felix gave Maeve a slip of paper with her daughter's coordinates on it: Park 1, Sector 15, Zone 3. That number might mean very little to an audience that doesn't know the layout of Westworld as effectively as its creators do, but it provided Maeve with a very clear goal. The park is absolutely huge, but at least now she knows where to start.

But that assumes that "Park 1" refers to Westworld. The finale also revealed that there were other parks out there, perhaps in a nod to the movie that inspired the series, which had Medieval World and Roman World in addition to its western setting. The HBO series also introduced Shogun World, which might have greater significance in Season 2 since it features in the promos. Perhaps Westworld isn't the first park after all.

It's easy to deduce that Westworld was the original park created because viewers have seen so much of Ford and Arnold's early work on it, as well as their development of the hosts. It was stated that Dolores was one of the oldest hosts in the park, and perhaps one of the very first hosts that Arnold ever created. All of that seems to indicate that Westworld is the first park, and the others sprung up after it became such a success. However, trailers for the second season show Maeve venturing outside of her familiar setting and into Shogun World.

Perhaps Shogun World was actually Park 1, and Maeve's daughter was placed there instead of elsewhere in Westworld. That would be a perfect explanation for Maeve to traveling to another Delos park, and it does reflect something showrunner Lisa Joy said about the nature of Western films. She discussed the inspiration for Shogun World with The Hollywood Reporter, revealing that the connection between the two came from the reliance of Western films on samurai movies. She said:

The reason we went with the shogun, Imperial Japanese motif for that world is in large part because of the beautiful relationship you had between the golden age Westerns and the golden age samurai films. As soon as Akira Kurosawa would make a film, it would get remade with cowboys. The idea that those stories worked in two very different genres and language, and the relationship between those genres, to me was irresistible as an homage to how Kurosawa was responsible for some of the greatest Westerns of all time.

It's possible that Westworld was initially inspired by Shogun World just like Western films were inspired by Japanese ones. That could lend support to the idea that Shogun World is Park 1, and that's where Maeve must go to locate her daughter.

However, there is ultimately no way to know exactly where Maeve's daughter is ahead of the Season 2 premiere on Sunday, April 22. Finding her might be Maeve's mission for the season. After giving up her spot on the train out of town, she'll likely devote herself to finding her child no matter what it takes — or where it takes her. With the coordinates given to her by Felix, it should only be a matter of time until Maeve reaches her goal.

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