So you’re preparing for a new season of Westworld? It would help if you had a slick new wardrobe, a former soldier to befriend, and some bodies to stick your mind in. But if time doesn’t allow it all, this recap of the third season should suffice.
The first episode of Westworld Season 4 premieres Sunday, so it’s time to look back at where things ended in HBO’s complex and fascinating sci-fi series. Taking place largely outside the infamous theme park, Season 3 revealed more of human society in 2050, ending on a cliffhanger. There will be eight episodes, just like last season, with more coming on Sunday. When you’re ready, go ahead and get yourself back online.
Aaron Paul joins the Westworld cast in Season 3.
HBO
Caleb (Aaron Paul) joined the cast
Season three introduces Caleb Nichols (Aaron Paul from Breaking Bad), a war veteran haunted by the memory of losing his friend, Francis, in battle. In episode 1, we learn that he is a construction worker and an approachable criminal who takes jobs through an app. When he meets Dolores, he joins her on her mission.
We eventually discover that Caleb is considered an “outlier” by a machine named Solomon and his successor, Rehoboam. Because of this status, he underwent reconditioning therapy, a “treatment” that altered his memories. According to Solomon, it was “effective,” and Caleb was allowed to re-enter society. Not everyone was so lucky (more on that in the “pods” section).
It is revealed that Caleb and Francis (played by rapper Kid Cudi) both survived the war, and in an instant, Caleb is the one who killed him. Solomon offered money to each of them to take out the other, and Francis turned on Caleb and forced Caleb to shoot him. Another twist is that the crime app Rico was created so that outliers like Caleb would round up other outliers.
Maeve is back.
HBO
Maeve and Caleb work together.
Maeve reluctantly teams up with a new character named Engerraund Serac this season after Serac tells her that the key to the sublime – where Maeve’s daughter exists – is in Dolores’ mind. Serac is a billionaire who created Rehoboam with his brother, Jean Mi, and came to serve as Rehoboam’s mouthpiece. Serac/Rehoboam wants the wealth of guest data collected by Delos Incorporated and believe the key is also in Dolores’ mind.
In the Season 3 finale, Maeve switches sides at a crucial moment and helps Dolores and Caleb. She said she realized why Dolores “chose” Caleb to help her — not because of his capacity for violence, but because of his ability to choose. Dolores leaves it to Caleb to decide the future. He tells Rehoboam to “execute the last command” — applying a new strategy Solomon gave him — and trigger the Apocalypse—more details on that big step are below.
In the third episode of Westworld, Caleb, and Dolores get to know each other better.
HBO
Dolores is no more. Perhaps
In the Season 3 finale, Rehoboam destroys Delores’ memories to find the key to the Delos above data. ItDelores, as we know, may be gone for good, but with this show, I’m not counting any possibility. It’s not there.
‘Charlotte Hale’ builds hosts.
It’s not the end for this Dolores duplicate. Season 3 confirmed that Dolores was making copies of herself (her control unit/pearl) and inserting them into the bodies of Charlotte, Musashi, Martin, and Lawrence. Pseudo-Charlotte helps Dolores by posing as Hale, but she is eventually discovered, costing her money. The last time we see the new Charlotte is in the post-credits scene of the finale when a host version of William joins her, and it looks like she’s going to build more hosts.
Charlotte Hale (or a host version of her) arrives at Delos headquarters.
HBO
Host William has replaced William
Season 3 is a doozy for William. He has hallucinations of his murdered daughter, is tricked by the new version of Charlotte, and undergoes some rather unconventional futuristic therapy. When he emerges from all that, William declares that his “original sin” was building hosts, and he wipes them all out. However, in the finale’s post-credits scene, William is mortally wounded by another version of himself answering to fake Charlotte.
There are still a lot of people in those weird pods
Solomon reveals in episode 7 that the treatment given to Caleb only works for one in ten people. So what happens to everyone else? As Caleb puts it, they are put to sleep in pods, where they are “not even allowed to live or die”. In Episode 7, we see hundreds of creepy, human-sized gray containers.
Caleb ushered in… the apocalypse.
So back to that whole apocalypse thing. When Caleb makes his final move in the Season 4 finale, he says he’s doing it to give the world a choice, as Dolores did before him. The show shifts to Bernard, who sheds much-needed light on Dolores’ intentions and Caleb’s fallout: “She wasn’t trying to wipe out the human race. She was trying to save it,” Bernard says. “What’s going to happen will always happen. Serac and his brother just held back. Humanity has never considered its sins.’ He adds, “Our world had to burn down before we could be free.”
So the reckoning is now. At the end of the finale (before the credits), we see Caleb and Maeve looking out for some skyscrapers, which are startled by explosions. SWithBernard in that scene, callbs alls it the apocalypse, and Bernard doesn’t correct him.
Bernard, played by Jeffrey Wright.
HBO
Bernard enters the sublime
Bernard, not Delores, holds the key to the Sublime, the place hosts like Maeve’s daughter currently occupy. In the Season 3 finale, Bernard uses it and announces that he is looking for an answer to what comes after the end of the world.
We may see Engerraund Serac’s brother, Jean Mi, in Season 4
We saw Jean Mi in season 3 flashbacks, and it’s suggested he’s in one of the pods we see in the penultimate episode. In the Season 3 finale, Engerraund admitted to having podded (podded?) his brother following Rehoboam’s instructions. Maybe we’ll see him again when the show covers those hair-raising capsules again.
