Well, there it is. Sunday brought the fourth season of Western world to the conclusion, and my head is still spinning from the last moments of the new episode.
Episode 8 offered a satisfying explanation for Cristina’s situation and brought us to a showdown between former allies, Chalores and William. Let’s cover every moment of the finale, including, of course, that fantastic ending.
The chaos continues
As the episode begins, chaos unfolds in the city. The character we see at the very beginning (who talks about his killing game before taking the ax to the head) is someone we’ve seen on the show before – Westworld host Rebus from seasons 1 and 2.
The violence perpetrated by the hosts and the people seems endless – one stabs someone, another shoots the stabber. One teenager appears to get out unscathed, but host William dramatically emerges from some smoke and shoots him dead. He steals keys from the child and gets into a nearby car.
The show cuts to Chalores still lying lifeless in shallow water near her Tower. The hosts of the drones (the white worker bees) remove it and fix it back. Chalores tells the hosts to make her stronger and it looks like she got a new robotic interior. (Chalores is an alias for Charlotte Hale. In the past, Dolores would make copies of herself—the “self” that exists in her pearl—and place it in a host version of Hale.)
Bernard’s last message
In last week’s episode, we saw Bernard recording himself talking on what looked like a tablet before William shot him in the head. The ending reveals mysterious recipient of Bernard’s last message is Hallores.
The former host travels to the tower room, which contains a red hologram of the city, and finds that he cannot change the course set by William. A drone host brings her a device that contains Bernard’s recorded message, and Chalores watches it: “It’s not the world Charlotte wanted, but it’s the world you created,” Bernard says. “The question is, what happens next?
Christina gains some clarity
We learned last week that Christina is not really I was walking around the town of Chalores with hosts and people this season. The finale introduces us to her situation: “I’m just a program running things behind the scenes,” Christina says. “A machine without a body.”
Christina points out a design of the famous Western maze on her balcony. Teddy tells her that the maze is a “mind map” that “woke Dolores once a long time ago,” but says he didn’t create the one she was talking about. Then things finally clicked for Christina. “Hale didn’t design Maya and Peter and everyone else who kept me company in my world. I did,” she says. “…I was trying to make sense of myself, so I was talking to myself with the voices of others.” Christina also drew the labyrinth.
The show takes us to Chalores, who is still in the tower room. She enters the red hologram and starts stomping on the ground — each time the world around Christina and Teddy seems to glow. Chalores eventually knocks out the hologram and shatters the ground beneath it, revealing a pearl. Teddy tells Cristina that Chalores is taking them out of her body. We see Chalores reach for the pearl and then Cristina’s world goes dark.
Caleb, Frankie and Stubbs confront Clementine
Frankie is still in bad shape after taking a bullet to his lower body. Caleb tells Stubbs that he is choosing to hide the truth from Frankie for his limited time left on Earth (Caleb’s body is rejecting his mind, Stubbs says).
The trio arrive at a looted store and Caleb gathers some supplies to treat Frankie’s wound. An intruder walks in and Stubbs seems to have the upper hand on him, but Clementine comes out and shoots them both dead. Clem slams Stubbs’ face into something sharp, killing him.
Clementine wants Frankie to tell her where the outliers live (“Somewhere off the grid where none of the crazy people here can find you”). After a fight between Clementine and Caleb, Frankie shoots Clementine, getting the dastardly host off their backs.
William wants to destroy the Exalted
William drives down the road listening to Ring of Fire, but a gunshot interrupts his jam session. Chalores appears to have told hosts in the area to head over to him. One of them is Craddock, a member of The Confederados who appeared in season 2 and 3 of the show. William takes them both out (although they manage to damage his vehicle) and takes a pair of glasses that allow him to see Chalores. The conversation between the former allies reveals that William is following (“spreading fire on”) The Sublime. Chalores says she won’t let him. As the exchange ends, Williams notices horses in a nearby paddock.
Later William (dressed as MIB and riding a horse, an epic nod to his character in the Westworld park), arrives at the Hoover Dam facility, where the door to The Sublime is still open. He messes with what looks like a control panel, and a warning reads “Warning, critical error. Shutting down will delete all data.” Chalores shows up and the two main villains of the season get into it. They eventually take the fight outside, where sparks fly and the door to Sublime appears to be under tension.
Chalores tells William that this is not the world she wanted, and we hear the rest of Bernard’s message: “This world has no more hope for us, but there is still hope for the next world. A test conducted by her if she decides to. If you decide to give her that choice. You can’t miss, reach with your left hand.”
Chalores, out of bullets and cornered, reaches over and finds a gun – the one the shrewd Bernard left there for her. She uses it to shoot William. “I choose to give her the chance,” Chalores says. “I hope she takes it.” Chalores appears to cut open Williams’ head, remove his pearl, and crush it.
Later, we see Chalores tucking the pearl she pulled out of the ground (she calls it “Dolores”) into a nest near where the Exalted One is being held. (I’m still pretty confident that Christina shares the same pearl as Dolores…it would make sense as Rehoboam erased Dolores’ memories last season).
Unpacking this ending
Oh man, that ending. I’m still trying to wrap my head around the whole cryptic dialogue between Cristina and Dolores, but let’s get down to it.
After Chalores makes her choice, the show cuts to Teddy and Cristina, and Cristina recognizes that they are in The Sublime. She confirms that the Teddy we saw in season 4 is also her own invention (she created him from her memories) and says that the real Teddy is somewhere in The Sublime.
Imaginary Teddy tells her to look for the real Teddy. He also advises her to “Let people go. Don’t bring the flaws of their species into our world.”
Seemingly still talking about humans, Teddy adds, “They’re not like us. Their codes are written in their cells, they will never change.” Christina replies, “We can still see.” Teddy asks how and she says, “One last test,” a dangerous game she created. The same way he brought Teddy back, Christina can “remember”.
Suddenly, Teddy disappears. A brunette Christina appears, dressed as Dolores from the Westworld theme park. She passes through the death-ridden city of Halores, but this setting eventually disappears. In the last shot of the finale, Dolores/Christina is standing in the Westworld park – she’s completely transformed into Westworld’s Dolores, wearing a blue dress and blonde locks.
Here’s what Christina says at the end of the episode: “Sane life on Earth has ended (the hosts and humans left on Earth are gone, she adds). “But some of it can still be preserved. In another world. My world. There is time for one last game, a dangerous game, with the highest stakes. Survival or extinction. This game ends where it began, in a maze-like world that tests who we are. It reveals what we are to become. Maybe this time we’ll break free.”
Continuing Thoughts:
Season 4’s limitation got me thinking about Arnold’s Labyrinth, a key part of Westworld’s first season. This intangible maze is not for humans, but for hosts – created by Arnold (creator of the original theme park) to test consciousness.
Can Cristina/Dolores design a human test now? A maze to navigate? To be clear, the show doesn’t give clear answers about what Dolores means. This is just what my brain can come up with after one viewing. I’m sure I’ll be thinking about this ending for a while.
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