Westworld looked dramatically different when it returned for its Season 3 premiere. Not only had the show left the park behind, but many Season 2 characters like Lee Sizemore, Stubbs, and William were nowhere to be seen, leaving Dolores awash in a sea of unfamiliar faces. While some of those characters will be popping up again in the near future, as teased by Season 3's many promos and trailers, at least one of them is gone for good… or is he?
Lee Sizemore probably wasn't anyone's favorite character in Westworld Season 1, as he spent the majority of his screen time shouting at his coworkers, drunkenly hitting on his boss, publicly urinating in the control room, trying to smuggle data out of the park, and generally being an insufferable ass. But he underwent a remarkable transformation in Season 2, going on a journey of self-discovery that turned him from one of the show's most unbearable characters into one of its most endearing.
After failing in his mission to get Peter Abernathy (and the data inside his head) on the train and out of Westworld in the Season 1 finale, Sizemore spent most of Season 2 with Maeve. The self-aware host rescued Sizemore from one of his own carnivorous creations, then demanded that he accompany her on a quest to find and rescue her daughter, along with Hector, Armistice, Felix, and Sylvester.
Maeve proved to be a positive influence on Sizemore, as he went from viewing the hosts as disposable playthings under his control to complicated beings with real emotions, desires, and agency. It was also revealed that Sizemore had written Hector as an idealized version of himself, and that the writer had his own "Isabella" in his life: a woman he'd loved who had left him and broken his heart. Sizemore's development wasn't a smooth transition; he still made mistakes along the way, including calling in the cavalry that resulted in the capture and torture of Maeve at the hands of Charlotte and Delos techs.
After she freed herself from Delos' clutches — with a little beyond-the-grave help from Robert Ford — Maeve reunited with a remorseful Sizemore, and they rushed off to make sure that Maeve's daughter made it through the door into the Sublime before Charlotte accomplished her mission of destroying all the hosts. Unfortunately, Maeve's gang was waylaid once again by Delos forces… but by this point, Sizemore was so devoted to Maeve that he was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for her.
Wanting to do at least one good deed in his life, Sizemore stood his ground and confronted the Delos forces as Maeve and the rest made their escape. He finally got to give the epic speech he'd written for Hector in Season 1 (the one that was cut short by a guest's bullet), and went down in a literal blaze of glory. It was a fitting end for Sizemore, who was told by Ford in Season 1 that the guests are "not looking for a story that tells them who they are; they already know who they are. They're here because they want a glimpse of who they could be." At least Sizemore learned that lesson before he died.
Or did he? Death is rarely permanent in Westworld, where people are frequently brought back as hosts or revealed to be hosts or have their consciousnesses uploaded into a computer program or are subjected to immortality experiments. Sizemore was definitely hit by at least a couple of bullets, but most of the hail of gunfire was heard offscreen as Maeve made her escape. Could Sizemore have survived? After such a great arc in Season 2, where else would his story go if he did live?
With Bernard on his way back to the park, he's bound to find some surprises in the wreckage of Westworld. Only time will tell if Sizemore will be among them.
