Two years has passed
since we watched Delores Abernathy (Evan Rachel Wood) leave the Westworld Park
with a bag of 5 pearls. The biggest
question at that time was…"who did she bring out to the real world"? Welcome to Westworld…The New World…the one
inhabited by humans and overseen by an all seeing A.I. called
"Rehoboam".
This season left
behind the western saga we grew to love and feel comfortable with, even through
the blood shedding and chaos.
Now we are dropped into futuristic cityscapes, of which I must admit, were
absolutely breathtaking to behold. In
the future mankind has done wonders…flying transportation, amazing new drugs,
medical miracles, and robotics. Sex is open, wild and everything paid for with a swipe
of your thumb. Technological
advancements the like of which most of us will never see and all for...what? Basically, man has been enslaved. All your
dreams and aspirations have been taken from you by an app. The elites have won
the battle and the essentials are only worker bees, being lowest on the economic
rung.
We now have a
man-made God (Rehoboam) who decides your fate, all without your knowledge or
permission. Death of "free will"…but hey, take solace in Delores's words, “Free will does exist. It's just fucking hard.” I find inspiration in other ways…"The
future's so bright, I gotta wear shades". 😎
Into this world
Delores ventures, not as herself, but as a replication of Charlotte Hale (Tessa
Thompson). The very first thing Charlotte does is create a new host, Delores. Confused already?
Now human Charlotte happens to be the acting CEO of Delos, the corporation
which runs Westworld Park. Least we forget, we are reminded that human Charlotte was killed by Dolores in Season 2. Host Charlotte (Delores) is really running Delos. Let's
just call host Charlotte, Delores-Charlotte or DC for short, shall we?
DC has been tasked with taking
the company private, using money siphoned off various shareholders by
Delores. The privatization of Delos is
being done to thwart a takeover attempt by Incite, the company which keeps Rehobaum in its lobby and is owned by Serac. Of course, the plan to keep Delos away from
Serac fails.
Second step of the plan begins with Delores creating another host,
to help her get close to Rehoboam (Incite).
We are fooled into thinking this new host is Teddy (holy smokes it's a
MAN!!), but nope…only another version of Delores. We can call her Delores2. Delores2 manipulates the software in Rehoboam
to notify everyone in the world what "God" has planned for them…their
entire future appears on their mobile phones. Upon seeing their fate, people
become engulfed in fear and despair…throwing the world into chaos. Yup, there is rioting and looting in the streets. The world goes up in flames.
As the show rolls
along, we find that two other versions of Delores are created who assist with
distributing more conflict and confusion into an already panicked world. In
addition, we also find out that Bernard/Arnold has been created to
counter-balance whatever Delores has planned. Bernard happens to be her
"voice of reason". Basically, Bernard is wasted in this season, stumbling around with Stubbs, trying to figure out what Dolores is actually up to. (Sigh)
So the major mystery of last season....(who was taken out of the park)...is finally solved, approximately
halfway through the season. Ok…enough of
that. It was a major disappointment to
me. I am sure Delores figured she had a job to do. Who better than herself
to trust to get it done?
Going back to DC who
begins to unravel…literally and figuratively...because of her own body's
objections to what she is doing. (I can't explain that one.) We are reminded
that human Charlotte has a family and this weighs heavily on host DC. Delores keeps reminding DC that it is not really her family…since she is a host and not human.
Unfortunately, DC chooses
Charlotte's family in a marked betrayal of Delores who had planned that all
versions of herself were…expendable. After DC's "family" is killed in
an explosion, she makes plans to do things "her own way". This
decision takes her into direct conflict with Delores's objectives. Fast forwarding to the finale, we find DC
with a huge number of host building machines at her disposal and an evil look
in her eye. That's all I am going to reveal about the final episode.
I must mention a few
others who were also in this season:
- Caleb (Aaron Paul} basically follows Delores around like a puppy. He was really the new "Teddy".
- Maeve (Thandie Newton) felt stuck in a continual Westworld loop, a theme park simulation of Nazi soldiers occupying France. She was occasionally sent out by Serac to fight Dolores. Her story line was short, It was as if she was just waiting for Delores to finish or flesh out her story, before her own takes flight. Hopefully, she gets a better story line in Season 4.
- The Man in Black (Ed Harris) spends most of his time in a state of despair/guilt...drinking and talking to his dead daughter. With the help of Bernard he breaks out of a holding facility and begins his journey to destroy all the hosts. He is going to save the world. DUH! In truth, for the entire show, we wondered whether he was human or host. (I'll leave it as something you can continue to mull over).
With society
collapsing, nuclear war inevitable, the world dying around their ears; we see
Mauve talking to Caleb in the closing moments of the season about the new world coming. We are left
wondering what Season 4 will bring. More major global conflict or will there be a
fresh start and where? Will mankind succumb to being hosts? Living forever has
been a subtle theme of this show over the last three seasons.
Yes, I left out the actual ending. Yes, I did it on purpose. There
are several post-credit scenes that leave more unanswered questions about
everyone's fate. Westworld 3 was short by 2
hours…maybe there was a reason the post-credits were added.
Actually, Maeve sums
it all up nicely…."in this world, we can be whoever we fucking want".
Enjoy and cheers!🍷