'Westworld' Season 3 Episode 6: Hale might end up destroying everyone and Hector may come back from the dead
Spoilers for 'Westworld' Season 3 Episode 6 'Decoherence'
With only two episodes remaining, episode 6 of ‘Westworld’ Season 3 served as the first part of a three-part finale. Not only were things set into motion, but there were also some loose ends that were tied as well. In a manner of speaking. ‘Decoherence’ saw an abundance of confrontations. Host Charlotte Hale’s (Tessa Thompson) confrontation with Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood); Maeve’s (Thandie Newton) confrontation with Dolores; and, of course, The Man in Black, William’s (Ed Harris) confrontation with himself, including two younger selves (one of whom is played by Jimmi Simpson).
The episode also saw what can possibly be a ‘Matrix’ style machine war, that is sure to turn interesting in the coming episodes. It also finally gave Maeve the motive she would need to wage war against Dolores -- the latter killed (without any chance of recovery) Maeve’s beloved Hector (Rodrigo Santoro).
Fans of the show had a lot to speculate over the episode, especially the rich symbolism every episode of ‘Westworld’ is chock full of. A fan observed that the Incite logo is the spherical version of “The Maze” from season 1, the key to emulating consciousness in the Hosts. The parallels between the Delos exercise with Hosts and Incites experiments with humans have already been displayed throughout the season. This only accentuates that.
But coming back to the plot of the episode, a fan observed just how Serac realized Hale was not her true self; rather she was Dolores. Serac realized that because of her instinct to save her so-called family. The reason the fan stated was very fitting: “I think the problem with Rehoboam, specifically that Dolores and Caleb see, is it uses the data to determine your WORST self. It's a lot like the Forge in that regard. It exposes the worst parts of your personality and makes calculations based on that. So you can never grow because the data won't take risks. Hale may very well have had the capacity to be a decent parent to her son. But Rehoboam kept putting things in her way to get her to meet the prediction - that she wouldn't be.”
Continuing with Hale’s possible journey, a fan suggested, “She'd make a fantastic surprise villain. Went to extreme lengths to save two humans she had realized were worth saving only for them to die anyway. She could go full nihilist and want to murder everyone, hosts and humans alike,” to which another responded, “I imagine Halores will either join the other characters against Dolores or become the ultimate Big Bad of the story, to the point that Dolores will need William, Bernard, and Maeve to fight against her.”
Moving away from Hale, however, another fan had an interesting take on Hector and how there was a possibility of his return: “Serac had his newly acquired Delos employees go get Hector's control unit which was at cold storage inside the park, then what could have only been a few hours at most, the pearl from that control unit is at Delos headquarters in San Francisco where Halores crushes it with her hand. I had assumed that the hosts that Maeve requested were sent digitally across a network. How did the pearl go from the park to San Fran in such a short time to be destroyed? I really liked this episode but I feel like the whole bit with Serac's ability to make/copy hosts before he had complete control of Delos is sloppy and inconsistent.”
Another fan agreed with this theory and said, “I agree that it seems like they transmitted Hector’s profile rather than physically shipping it to California. Even if it was the same pearl, it’s not inconceivable that Serac made a back-up (since he really wants to beat Dolores).”
If that is the case, then the ultimate battle between Dolores and Maeve right now sees the latter as the stronger contender.
The next episode of 'Westworld' airs April 26, on HBO.