“Westworld” may have only aired one season so far, but it’s hard to deny that it has easily become a favorite amongst HBO’s lineup of original series. This futuristic show took over audiences’ attention when it aired in 2016 and season two is one of the most anticipated shows of 2018.

“Westworld” is based in an atypical wild west themed amusement park. Instead, it is filled with android hosts who are programmed to help bring enjoyable and seemingly real experiences to their guests. The hosts, as shown throughout season one, are on an apparent path to self-discovery as they go through their typical day-to-day storylines throughout the park.

The moral and ethical dilemmas, as well as the questions of how far humanity will go when it comes to technology, were some of the fascinating ideas that fueled much of the interest for the first season of “Westworld.” The android hosts are insanely humanlike right down to the way they feel, thought the guests treat them like anything but, murdering and assaulting them in order to live out the “full experience” that the expansive park has to offer.

The first season was full of enough twists and turns to match the best Six Flags roller coaster. And while the show’s creators answered plenty of questions about the world the show exists in, they made sure to raise even more questions. Some characters, like the quirky but beloved Elsie, have been missing since way before the end of the season, keeping viewers wondering when – or if – they would ever know the darkest secrets of  Westworld’s hidden operations.

After leaving viewers with a heart-wrenching finale that featured a number of humans being massacred by their android hosts, there were many questions about where the second season would pick up.

Airing on April 22, “Westworld’s” season two premiere didn’t disappoint. The breathtaking episode began in the same simplistic interview set up between Arnold and Delores, creating a sense of familiarity.

The rest of the episode is anything but, however. Audiences are taken through a new storyline with only a few questions leftover from the previous season actually being answered. Key characters are brought back to continue the stories of both the hosts and the surviving humans that began in season one, though the dialogue and interactions between characters in the second season shows that Westworld is about to change for the better.

The plot only thickened in the season premiere, showing the duality of both human and host characters throughout the episode, and exposing some of the secrets to the mysterious parent company Delos. While fan-favorites like Delores are exploring more about themselves and recalling memories from past lives, the humans who run the park are working hard to keep the public in the dark about the issues plaguing their hosts.

The brutality within the show has also taken a step up from its first season, with everything from traditional muskets to futuristic-style guns flooding the screen. The intensity of the first episode compared to the last season shows that viewers are in for a season that won’t spare any characters. The action-packed show has grown from guests timidly shooting a gun at a host to heartracing scenes and detailed prosthetics.

While it is evident that the show is preparing to take a major and exciting change in direction, the initial mystique that drew so many into the show nearly two years ago has not been lost in the second season. The changes and storyline that HBO is bringing to us in the second season is guaranteed to be action-packed, heart racing and an overall work of art.