'Westworld' Season 3 Episode 8 Review: Intriguing season ends like a tired '90s action flick
Spoilers for 'Westworld' Season 3 Episode 8 'Crisis Theory'
For all its lofty philosophy and its devotion to mindbending twists, a major part of what defines 'Westworld' as a show is its ability to take an aesthetic and run with it. Starting with cowboys, moving on to samurai, and then abandoning both for the show's take on a bleak take on modern society in the not-so-distant future, 'Westworld' ends Season 3 by going all-in on its minimalist sci-fi. While in terms of scope, this is as big as the show's ever gotten, the actual execution of this episode is a lot more tiring.
At one point in the episode, Engerraund Serac (Vincent Cassel) has Caleb Nichols (Aaron Paul) actually be seated while he explains his grand plan. Everyone's dressed in black. Serac has gone full villain, surrounded by his henchmen, performing acts of arbitrary cruelty, as the futuristic specter of doom hangs over them all in the form of Rehoboam. It feels like a scene you've seen a hundred times before, and not even the reveal that Rehoboam was using Serac as a puppet does much to make things interesting again.
Toward its end, the show has placed a lot of importance on Caleb's shoulders, though with everyone revealing their final plans towards the end, the show hasn't really managed to justify why Caleb mattered in the first place. None of the events that happen during the course of the season really change if Caleb was somehow removed from them. Maeve (Thandie Newton) and Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) are at the heart of what makes things the final and as such it's a shame that both their arcs were so underdeveloped during the season to give Caleb more of the spotlight. The show played their respective roles so close to the chest that when 'Westworld' reveals its cards with underdeveloped setup, it ends up falling a little flat.
There are, however, some moments worth appreciating in this finale. After three seasons worth of deliberations about free will, Dolores finally gives Caleb and the audience the most clear-cut answer they will ever get: "Free will does exist. It's just ****ing hard." For a show filled with existential one-liners delivered with as much gravitas as HBO's production budget can muster, Dolores plain, straightforward answer to all of the show's philosophical conundrums is not only refreshing but possibly one of the best moments of the series. Maeve and Dolores' first (and possibly last) proper conversation was the highlight of the episode, as they plot a course for humanity and more importantly, Season 4.
The show does deserve some acknowledgment for sticking to its guns in bringing about the apocalypse. The hosts mean business and what could have been a long drawn out story has seen robots go from attaining free will to bringing about the end of human civilization and putting in place plans for creating a new one in three short seasons.
Season 3 has had its hits and misses, and while this episode was more miss than hit, 'Westworld' is to be admired for its genre-jumps from season to season and keeping things about as smooth as can be expected. The show avoids growing stagnant, and the teases sprinkled throughout this episode make Season 4 something to look forward to.
This is the final episode of 'Westworld' Season 3.
