'Westworld' Season 3 finale promo teases apocalyptic end of the world and asks what happens after
Season 3 of ‘Westworld’, even if lackluster compared to the first two, has been a good run in general. The show moved away from the turn-of-the-century Western aesthetic to all-out neo-futurist cyberpunk visuals this season. And while the visuals were spectacular, and not garish or over-the-top at all, the story alongside it took some hits. The biggest disappointments this season were two episodes: ‘Genre’ where Caleb (Aaron Paul) experiences different trips thanks to a designer drug; and ‘Passed Pawn’ where his extremely-predictable backstory was revealed.
The penultimate episode was not great but ‘Westworld’, in the past, has demonstrated its ability to bounce back from a lull. So we can still expect good things from the finale. Season 3 Episode 8 is titled ‘Crisis Theory’, a term in Marxist economics that pertains to the law of the tendency for the rate of profit to fall. It basically suggests that capitalism can’t last because it can’t produce an eternal form of production since the rate of profit tends to fall over time. While it’s a bit of a stretch to call Dolores’ (Evan Rachel Wood) revolution a proletariat movement, it is nonetheless prudent to remember that her movement does aim to eradicate the current system that is a mix of capitalism, technocracy, and automation.
The end of episode 7 saw a few things: one, both Dolores and Maeve (Thandie Newton) were fried by the electromagnetic pulse. Two, William (Ed Harris), who has now vowed to fulfill what he perceives is his destiny to kill all Hosts, has Stubbs (Luke Hemsworth) and Bernard (Jeffrey Wright at gunpoint -- he had promised them both that he’d kill them. And three, Caleb was now in possession of a quote-unquote virus that was strategized by Solomon, the predecessor of Rehoboam. Before she went to battle Maeve, Dolores handed over the responsibility of the revolution to Caleb.
So what’s in store for episode 8, the season finale? The promo is enlightening and vague at the same time, a specialty of ‘Westworld’ in general. As Bernard’s voice says, “What’s about to happen was always gonna happen,” we see Caleb move through the streets of a city in the midst of what looks like utter chaos. There are security forces in riot gear visible. Less than a city, it looks like a warzone.
The biggest thing that’s revealed in the teaser is that both Dolores and Maeve have at least one last fight left in them. We see Caleb tend to a skinless Dolores. She looks exactly like she did when Arnold (Wright) had first created her -- a skeleton of steel, no muscles, no blood; only Dolores’ face over a metal body. What comes next is a supercut of shots: Dolores and Maeve facing each other. Them fighting. A war ensuing. Chaos all around. In the midst of this, William declares, “I have a role to play now. I’m gonna save the f*****g world.”
The success or the failure of William’s endeavor is of course not even hinted at, but it’s likely that he won’t. The most interesting part of the teaser is a voice, likely that of Bernard, that asks the question, “What comes after the end of the world?”
‘Westworld’ has always dabbled with the idea of free will versus determinism. But this season has taken this theme up in all earnestness. Caleb’s mission is to make sure that Rehoboam is destroyed, ensuring that people are allowed to exercise free will and not controlled by Serac’s (Vincent Cassel) system. In a sense, it is the end of the world as it has been for the better part of four decades.
The end of the world, thus, is more or less certain with Solomon’s crisis strategy in place. It’s also prudent to remember why Serac considered Jean Mi’s Solomon inferior, leading him to create the superior Rehoboam. Jean Mi was an outlier by his own AI’s standards. But him being an outlier also meant the machine wasn’t what Serac wanted. An outlier is only then likely to bring an end to this. Which could well be Caleb. What isn’t, is what happens after that. Perhaps we’ll see what will be the basis for the now-confirmed season 4.
The ‘Westworld’ finale airs on May 3 only on HBO.
