Episode 3, titled “Années Folles,” returned to Barnard’s story and left me rethinking Westworld Season 4 –or at least several of my existing theories. As you’d guess, *spoilers* to follow.
Bernard’s Mission
The episode begins with Bernard in the Sublime, where we finally see the mysterious Tower. But, of course, the Sublime is a virtual world – or hundreds of virtual worlds if Akecheta, whom Bernard meets in the Tower, is to be believed. There, we learn Bernard’s mission in Season 4: to prevent the end of the world.
We also learn that one year on earth is a millennium in the Sublime. So Bernard has literally been there for thousands of years. It turns out that during that expanse of time, the good hosts have figured out all the scenarios that will lead to the world’s end and presumably humanity’s extinction. But there is one scenario where humanity can be saved. The only hitch is that Bernard will give his life in the process. You’re not alone if you’re picking up an Avenger’s Endgame vibe.
We know now that Bernard is the savior character this season. Fortunately for us, Bernard has an irrational love for humanity.
Bernard’s Timeline
When Bernard returns from the Sublime in the old motel room, covered in dust as if an eon had passed, I assumed he had awakened far, far into the future, probably after some apocalyptic event. This is the first theory Episode 3 left me rethinking, and I’m ready to throw it aside.
Given Bernard’s mission, and given that Halores is humanity’s biggest threat, I believe Bernard has returned to the show’s present. Seven or eight years have passed (meaning 7,000 to 8,000 years in the Sublime), but Bernard and his sidekick, Stubbs, are ready to stop her. And Bernard knows precisely what must occur, step by step, to save the world. Much like Doctor Strange in Infinity War.
The key to saving the world appears to involve a mysterious woman Bernard meets outside the Road’s End Dinner. The woman leads a resistance of some sort, and the familiar Maze symbolizes their “cause.” She takes them to the group’s headquarters in a remote desert that I’d guess is not far from Delos’s new park. But we’ll have to wait for another episode to learn more about what the group has been up to.
Caleb
After getting an amusing recreation of the Safe Heist in the Roaring Twenties version of Westworld, narrated by Maeve, who thinks the whole act has gone downhill, we discover more about what Halores may have planned for the humans.
And it may not be host flies, as I had predicted. At least, not exactly.
Despite the show’s opening credits depicting the creation of a host fly, Maeve and Caleb discover something different deep beneath the park. There, drone hosts are working with trays of fly larvae. But, of course, you don’t need larvae to build host flies. No, these flies look natural, but they’ve been infected by a genetically-engineered parasite that they can transmit to humans. The parasite comes in the form of a black oil or ooze that harkens back to the X-Files.
Even worse, we discover that Halores has set an elaborate trap for Caleb and Maeve. So elaborate that Halores has an old-school robot-host version of Caleb’s daughter waiting for him. Caleb thinks it’s his real daughter, and before Maeve can tell him the truth, the robot’s head opens and infects Caleb with the parasite flies. The parasite makes humans want to kill themselves, so it doesn’t look good for Caleb.
I want to say Maeve could save him, but she appears to have been captured by an enhanced, host version of William (presumably still the one we’ve seen all season). It’s on this cliffhanger that the episode ends, but the show still left me rethinking one more thing …
Delores
Delores did not even appear in the episode, but the revelation that the Tower, which has been a big part of her storyline, exists in the Sublime, made me consider whether she too is in the Sublime. That’s a possibility, but after some thought, I doubt it. The Sublime was supposed to be a paradise for the good hosts, but the life of Delores/Christina seems more like a hell than a heaven.
That said, I think Delores likely exists in a more malevolent simulation. Perhaps it’s one Harloes trapped her in, assuming she got ahold of one of the remaining Delores cores. This would certainly explain why this simulation is slowly tormenting Delores.
But I have a new theory: Delores could be trapped in whatever remains of Rehoboam. If the Tower existed at some point in the real world, it’s reasonable to believe it would exist in Rehoboam’s memory banks. This would mean that Christina is the real Delores who would have survived the events of Season 3. Since she has always been my favorite character on the show, I like that idea. But for now, it’s just a theory. And after this last episode, we know how those tend to go.
This leaves me with one last theory I’ve stumbled upon on the internet: that Delores’s scenes are taking place in the real world but in the pre-Westworld past. Under this theory, a human Christina will meet up with the human Arnold or Ford and become one of the original creators of Westworld. Christina is already writing Delores’s story, so this theory may have legs. This would also be a big twist, but how would this story relate to the larger narrative that is Season 4?
Also, this theory does not explain all the strange things happening to Christina/Delores: the dead birds; the mysterious Tower that keeps showing up; the fact she just wrote the story of a real man who recently killed himself, but who has had a wing of a closed-down mental crisis center dedicated to his memory for years. Real-life isn’t this strange.
So, for now, I’m going with the theory that Delores is trapped in a simulation, probably within Rehoboam. Which means it’s possible she could be reunited with Bernard at some point to help save the world.
Those are my revised theories after “Années Folles.” But drop me a comment if you have some more. See you next week.
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