Westworld finale brought many answers to long-term fan theories but also brought a lot of confusion. During all seasons, we followed the adventures of AI Dolores Abernarthy (Evan Rachel Wood) fighting to overthrow humankind for her fellow robots. “Crisis Theory” was directed by Jennifer Getzinger and written by Denise Thé and Nolan. In the past, Nolan told TheWrap that Season 3 was “a little different” from the others: read the whole recap to know why.
Spoilers for “Crisis Theory”, Season 3
The finale starts as Dolores and Caleb meet Solomon, an earlier version of the super-computer Rehoboam controlling humankind. From that moment to the ultimate fight in Incite, a first surprise comes to the audience’s ears: Dolores wasn’t seeking the destruction of mankind, but was actively trying to save them and give them free will. To achieve her goal and pursue the Hosts’ mission, Dolores eventually manage to get Maeve (Thandie Newton) on her side by revealing Serac’s (Vincent Cassel) true intentions. Maeve was promised a beautiful afterlife with her daughter, but Serac turned out to be the slave of his own hatred and the former enemy is reminded of one of Dolores’ first lines in the series. “So many of my memories were ugly. But the things I held onto until the end weren’t the ugly ones”, Dolores tells her, “There is ugliness in this world. Disarray. I choose to see the beauty. Some people choose to see the ugliness in this world, the disarray,” she says. “I choose to see the beauty.” After that, Maeve finally picks a side and fights for humankind along with our main characters. Later in the episode, Maeve reveals that Dolores picked Caleb (Aaron Paul) because his inner struggle between violence and generosity made him capable to make choices. In a flashback, Dolores explains that Caleb was part of a training program in Park Five where soldiers trained to understand the difference between protecting civilians or allies and killing an enemy by fighting cybernetic enemies in order to simulate real-life combat scenarios. Dolores met Caleb when she and other women Hosts were saved by his men from a simulated fight. As the soldiers were contemplating raping the androids in return for their “service,” Caleb stopped them and reminded them of their honor.
As one more shocking turn of events, Dolores seemingly died to help erase Rehoboam. Merging her coding into the machine, Dolores gave Caleb full control of Rehoboam and the latter orders it to erase itself. With the help of Maeve, Caleb finally gives mankind the occasion to make their own choices and follows Dolores’ earlier words “Free will does exist. It’s just fucking hard”. On the other side, as Bernard confirms her demise by saying he can no longer feel their connection, he proceeds to throw another plot twist. Serac tried to get the key to the android afterlife from Dolores during the entire episode and surprisingly, it was Bernard who had it all along. He says he is going to the “Sublime”, but his apparition in the second post-credits scene doesn’t leave a good impression on the Valley Beyond. On the first scene after the credits, Bernard comes back from Eden after an uncertain amount of time and covered in dust, he blankly stares at the audience as if he saw something terrible.
The first post-credits scene offers brings even more highlight as it finally uncovers the mystery behind the Man in Black. As William (Ed Harris) walks through Delos, he encounters Charlotte Hale (Tessa Thompson), one of Dolores’ numerous copies, and kills her in the depths of a research lab. But as he is thrown by anger, he runs into an artificial version of the Man in Black and after a long fight, gets his throat slit by the cybernetic being. However, William’s murder had one particularity: his assassin had his face. After two decades between the parks, his doppelgänger gave him the answer behind his search for identity in a brutal manner: he was an evil individual during his exploits in the park. However, Ed Harris expressed his desire to play the Man in Black part of his character and the death of William in the real world may bring a new part into his future acting.
What will Caleb do with his new responsibilities? How will he and Maeve rebuild civilization? Is Dolores really dead? What did Bernard see ? How these questions will find their answers in Season 4, as announced by HBO in April.