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'Westworld' Season 3 Ending Explained: Imminent man vs machine war and other things that season 4 will address

Rehoboam predicted that if Caleb’s plan is successful, violence would ensue for years before the ultimate end of humanity

Spoilers for 'Westworld' Season 3 Episode 8 'Crisis Theory'

It’s a good thing that we know ‘Westworld’ has been renewed for a fourth season (and will possibly have a total of six seasons). Because otherwise, the Season 3 finale would have left fans anxious thanks to the kind of cliffhangers it has. And it has many. So, without further ado, let’s address the five main things we can look forward to in Season 4, based on these cliffhangers.

1. Dolores may not be coming back

Serac (Vincent Cassel) in Season 3 Episode 8, while looking for the Sublime data tortured Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood). He wiped out every last memory from her. While hosts can and have been resuscitated, there seems to be an odd finality in Dolores’ fate.

2. The ‘end of the world’ may be a full-scale war between man and machine

As Maeve (Thandie Newton) and Caleb (Aaron Paul) walked away from Incite, we saw carnage in the real world. Riots were already taking place. Without Rehoboam in control now, things had now escalated to bombings and destruction. And we mustn’t forget: Rehoboam predicted that in the event of the success of Caleb’s plan to destroy it, violence would ensure for years before the ultimate end of humanity.

But how will that play out? For one, we can see that Caleb will surely have a greater role as the leader of men. He was already seen as the leader of the revolution. And with Maeve on his side, it is possible that he would rise to greater power.

On the other end of the spectrum is Halores (Tessa Thompson), who seems to be amassing her own Host army. She may have developed a personality of her own, but she is still, to a certain degree, a version of Dolores at her most vengeful and destructive. Her plans then for humanity can only be one thing: erasure. Here’s hoping that the war does not turn out to be like ‘Terminator: Salvation’.

3. Bernard will play a significant role in this war

The last we saw Bernard (Jeffrey Wright), he woke up, covered in dust and dirt inside the room where he had shut down while accessing the Sublime. He wakes up with a definite purpose in his eyes, signaling that he had seen something inside the data that would be crucial to the fat of the world. Bernard has always been one of the most puzzling pieces of ‘Westworld’.

His existential crises may have finally come to an end with the information he’s unlocked. We don’t know what he saw, but it can be safe to assume that Dolores left it with him, having calculated that she may no longer be in the picture by the end of it. She trusted Bernard to carry the work on. 

4. The Man in Black

The first post-credit scene involved a fight between the real William (Ed Harris) and the Host Man in Black created by Halores. The Host seemed to have passed all fidelity tests (remember the post-credits scene at the end of the season 2 finale?) and seems to be more ferocious than ever. The fight culminated in the Host MIB slitting William’s throat.

We can’t be sure if William dies (he has come back from almost certain death in both Seasons 1 and 2 of ‘Westworld’), but what we can be sure of is that with the Host MIB, Halores will wreak havoc over the world through Delos.

5. We will definitely see a lot of familiar faces we missed in Season 3

With Season 3 based in the 'real world', a lot of Hosts we saw in the park were no longer there in this installment. We were, instead, given a bunch of new human characters. And while these characters proved to be excellent, one does miss the Hosts. Yes, we saw a few of them — Musashi (Hiroyuki Sanada), Hanaryo (Tao Okamoto), Clementine (Angela Sarafyan), El Lazo (‎Clifton Collins Jr.) — but with Halores building a Host army, we can be sure to see more of them now.

Here’s hoping that the coveted list included Teddy (James Marsden).

'Westworld' is slated to return for Season 4 sometime in 2021.