Annees Folles
Episode 3 of Westworld Season 4 begins with ominous whispering “Dad, open your eyes.” Zooming out we realize this is… Bernard! It’s been a while since we saw him and he wanders through the rooms of his memory, chasing ghosts. Apparently Bernard has made this world for himself but he’s stuck in a loop of his own making. It’s all very cryptic, with flashes of the future, talk of “all paths lead to destruction” and a prophetic mission involving Bernard’s need to save the world. Stubbs is still kicking around too, and he jokes about Bernard’s “robot heaven.” After encouraging Stubbs to pack up the shovel, the pair head off on the road. Bernard’s mission to save the world is about to get underway. But quite how is left up for debate. Apparently Bernard needs to trigger a “specific series of events” in order for that to happen. Stubbs laughs incredulously. Outside at the diner, he shows off the familiar sigil for the maze we’ve seen before to a random straggler who rocks up. She’s part of “the cause” and through her, Bernard manages to get a ride to the “condemned land” given there’s something hidden out in that wasteland. Bernard promises he can help find a weapon these guys have been looking. When Bernard is lead out to the rest of this woman’s group, he tells them he knows what they’re looking for and he can find it. Meanwhile, Caleb and Maeve begin their descent into a brand new world. The music is a brilliant throwback to the wild west, and there are some nods here that hark right back to that first season – including drunks in the street and “missions” involving bandits and crooks. Maeve navigates through this labyrinth, making sure Caleb doesn’t pick anything up or tamper with the narrative work of the hosts. They arrive at the Butterfly Club, where Maeve scoffs, pointing out that the visuals have changed but it’s predominantly the “same old story.” including the old-timey mix of current songs and the no-nonsense cheap rip-off of Maeve too. Eventually a big shootout ensues, leading to numerous dead lining the floor. Or, well, hosts anyway so not really dead. You know what I mean! They wait for the clean-up crew to arrive, with Maeve and Caleb both playing dead so they can break into the backrooms. Just like the earlier seasons, Maeve begins accessing the files once there but there’s something off about the level they’re on. They can’t actually access anything on this level – they’re still in the game. And part of that game comes from re-enacting the Westworld massacre with a fake Wyatt (Dolores’ old alias of course). Maeve realizes what’s happening and slips away downstairs with Caleb. Once there, they notice several hosts working on that familiar black goo we’ve been seeing Charlotte and William with. It’s now clear that they’re infecting flies with it. These are then attracted to humans, which Maeve deduces is part of some sort of “frequency” attracting them. The pair head into an adjacent room where they find numerous people being controlled… including a young Frankie. She was earlier captured in the episode by a man posing to be part of security intel taking her to a safehouse. Despite trying to evade this guy, she’s unable to escape. Maeve eventually manages to overwrite the controls, which opens up the doors and allows Caleb to save Frankie. He promises to stay with her but Frankie claims that “she doesn’t want him to leave.” And now we understand why. This isn’t the real Frankie. It turns out she wasn’t captured after all. This is a host and a decoy planted to bring Caleb in. As the robot opens up its monstrous mouth, flies protrude out. Unfortunately, Maeve is not going to help given she’s currently busy with William, who pops up and begins manhandling her. Despite taking several bullets in the gut, he shrugs it off and tells her he’s had an upgrade.
The Episode Review
There is a lot going on in Westworld Season 4 and the decision to essentially “hard-reset” this world deserves a lot of props. They’ve clearly learned from their mistakes in season 3 and Maeve is no longer the super-uber Mary Sue she was before thanks to these upgrades. Christina/Dolores is notably absent from this episode, as is Charlotte, as the attention instead turns to Bernard, who pops up and clearly has some sort of prophetic message he needs to conduct. This is easily one of the best episodes of the whole season so far though and the ending definitely hints that we’re going to get a very different Caleb moving forward. Either way though, this series is just starting to get interesting now and it’s anyone’s guess where this one is likely to go next.
