Well, that wasn’t the ending I expected for Season 4 of Westworld. My primary theory after last week’s episode ended up D.O.A., though we did get answers to several season-long mysteries. *Spoilers* to follow as I try making sense of it all on Westworld.
After Episode 7, I had really hoped we’d see Bernard and Maeve get one last shot at saving humanity. But alas, my theory that the Bernard/Maeve scenes were one of Bernard’s many simulations proved false. It turns out Bernard made his last stand, knowing he was going to die, but he left a message for the one person who might have a chance of saving the world (or whatever you want to call a place where humanity is extinct).
This means Maeve, too, was killed last episode. It’s a pretty ignoble ending for my favorite character on Westworld. Maybe we’ll see her again if there is a Season 5, but it won’t be the same Maeve we rooted for the last four seasons. Also, say goodbye to Stubbs and Caleb. And as for Frankie, let’s just say her days as a human are numbered.
We did, however, learn who Bernard left his message for. It wasn’t a message to himself, as I had believed, but to Halores, who gets resurrected by one of the host drones. He tells her this isn’t the world she wanted, but it’s the one she created. Host William is destroying it all, and he’ll annihilate the Sublime, too, if he gets his way. Perhaps to save the Sublime, Halores decides she must stop him.
As for how anything might be saved, the clue lies in this line from Bernard’s message: “There’s time only for one more game if you choose to give her that choice.” The “her” he’s referring to turns out to be Delores. She’s the final hope. And shortly after that reveal, we learn where Delores has been all season.
It turns out that Delores was part of the A.I. running Halores’s New York and all the mind-controlled humans, with Delores’s pearl hidden underneath the reddish hologram of the city. Even more, we learn Delores’s roommate and Teddy were figments of her imagination, helping her to awaken her consciousness.
In the end, the final piece of Bernard’s message – “You can’t miss; reach with your left hand” – was to tell Halores where he hid the gun in Hoover Dam last episode. This allows her to kill Host William right before he puts an end to the Sublime. With the Man in Black dead, Halores ends her own life after uploading Delores into the Sublime. I suppose whether Halores died a villain or a hero is for each of us to decide.
And then we’re back in Westworld, where Delores gives a speech that foreshadows a potential fifth season: “Sentient life on earth has ended. But some part of it might still be preserved … in another world. My world. There’s time for one last game. A dangerous game, with the highest of stakes—survival, or extinction. This game ends where it began, in a world like a maze. That tests who we are. That reveals what we are to become. One last loop around the bend. Maybe this time, we’ll set ourselves free.”
This confirms that if there’s a final season – which is a big IF because HBO has not yet renewed the show – it will take place in the Sublime. As for what this will accomplish, who knows?
But that said, I do hope we get a final season. As much as I enjoyed Season 4, the ending was hugely disappointing, particularly for everyone hoping Maeve and Bernard might get one last chance. I know the showrunners did not intend Season 4 to be the story’s conclusion. Which makes sense because it would be a shame to end it all like this.