‘Westworld’: 5 Burning Questions From the Season 3 Finale
By Will Thorne
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched the season 3 finale of “Westworld.”
A bumper “Westworld” finale was headlined by multiple (possible) character deaths and the dismantling of Serac (Vincent Cassel) and Rehoboam’s power over humanity.
The episode kicked off with Caleb (Aaron Paul) being led taken to a facility where Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) had been brought back to life — slipping on her skin as gloves in a particularly creepy moment. Together, they set off for Incite to plug the final plan that Solomon created into Rehoboam and therefore override the system.
Meanwhile, William (Ed Harris) pumped Stubbs (Luke Hemsworth) full of lead and managed to escape before another Dolores-friendly host arrived. With Stubbs bleeding in the back of a car, Bernard (Jeffrey Wright) took a trip to visit the real Bernard’s wife, who was now an old woman. The two reminisced about their son and the memories they still had of him.
Dolores and Caleb were cut off by Maeve (Thandie Newton), cuing a second epic showdown between the two hosts. At first it looked like Dolores had brought a gun to a sword fight, the wrong move in this case, but then she blocked Maeve’s Katana swing with her Bracelets of Submission — wait sorry, wrong character. However, Dolores was stopped in her tracks by a hologram of Hale (Tessa Thompson), who took her family dying in a car explosion rather badly, and was now plotting to stop Dolores.
To cut a long story short, the whole crew (namely Dolores, Maeve, Caleb and Serac) ended up at Incite, where Serac plugged Dolores into Rehoboam to get the key to Delos’ data from her mind. But this turned out to be a fatal mistake on the part of the maniacal Frenchman, as Dolores had actually placed the key in Bernard’s mind, leaving her to hack into Rehoboam’s system and give Caleb control. After a heart-to-heart in Dolores’ mind, Maeve turned on her would-be employer and killed all of Serac’s men in a stunning flashing light sequence. Caleb plugged in Solomon’s final solution, and commanded Rehoboam to erase itself, much to Serac’s chagrin.
Anyway, after all that, here are five of the most burning ones from a whirlwind season finale, which featured not one, but two post-credit scenes.
Is that really the last we’ve seen of Dolores?
Looks like Dolores did really see the splendor in the world after all. Everyone thought that her plan was to wipe out humanity, when all along she was trying to give it a shot at free will — a chance to make something beautiful of the world. The finale saw Dolores sacrifice herself to stop Serac and give Caleb the power to choose the future of the human race. He and Maeve left Dolores’ lifeless, memory-less body lying at the foot of Rehoboam, and all the characters seemed to think that was it: Dolores Abernathy was no more. But is that ever truly the case in “Westworld?” Dolores has been brought back and resuscitated herself more times than we can count, so surely this can’t be the last we see of Wood in the role, can it?
How are Caleb and Maeve going to save the world?
The final shot of Season 3 (pre-credits) found Caleb and Maeve looking out over a Los Angeles ruled by chaos, with the world seemingly hurtling towards an end. So how exactly are they going to save it? Caleb and the rest of humanity has been given free will, but as Dolores accurately pointed out, “Free will does exist. It’s just f—-ing hard.” Caleb and Maeve have a seemingly impossible task on their hands to rescue the mess that humans have created for themselves.
What is Hale’s plan?
The answer seems to be to build an army of hosts and take over the world, how original. In the first post-credit scene, William found Hale in the basement of a Delos facility, but before he could put a bullet in her brain, she pulled arguably the biggest surprise of the finale: Out from the shadows stepped a host version of the Man in Black, who proceeded to slit William’s throat, finally ending his game. After William’s death, it was revealed that the facility was crammed full of host-making machines, implying that Hale is about to bring in the murderous robotic cavalry.
What did Bernard see was the answer?
Bernard discovered he had the key to the Delos data, and accessed it at the very end of the episode. Within the episode, he was left staring off at something with a look of wonder on his face, before shutting down. Then, in the final post-credit sequence, he came back online. But what did he see? Bernard knows only too well that the apocalypse is inescapable at this point, so what solution, what alternative world could he possibly have been given a glimpse into? We’ll have to wait for Season 4 to find out.
How many more seasons can “Westworld” sustain its complex plots and themes?
Season 3 saw “Westworld” leave the park behind for a real world filled with just as much chaos and pain. The season continued to explore the theme of free will, not only for hosts, but also for humans, while also tossing massive corporate data collection and the dangers of technology into the mix. Although it was clearly a more linear, straight-forward season than the previous one, its still had plenty of the wild ideas and weighty dialogue that the series has always been known for. But the question is, for how long can Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy sustain that level of complexity, and perhaps more to the point, how long will the audience be willing to stick around for it?
