After a tremendous first season, a complicated second season, and a really divisive third season, it feels just like the hype for a present like Westworld has plummeted. As soon as beloved for its stunning twists, considerate character research, and not-so-subtle commentary on the human situation, the present is now typically criticized for attempting to be too good quite than really telling a cohesive story. And sure, Season 2 of Westworld did really feel just like the writers have been attempting to be a bit too intelligent, and when Season 3 rolled round and we left the park and went into the true world, it was a pointy shift that did the present completely no favors.
However, what the sequence does reach doing in Season 4 is supply new mysteries that proceed to intrigue. However Westworld has at all times been good and introducing new mysteries, the issue comes once they should execute the reply to these mysteries. Final season noticed the definitive finish of 1 model of Dolores (Evan Rachel Wooden) and this season introduces us to a brand new character performed by Wooden: a lady named Christina. Whereas it’s apparent after we first meet her that there’s something up with Christina, it’s not clear what that’s precisely. Is she in a program? Is she a brainwashed model of Dolores? Is she who Dolores is predicated? Followers of the present love deep diving into the story and discovering clues in each errant signal or temporary picture within the credit sequence, however the good thing about Christina’s character for extra informal audiences is a cleaner slate.
It’s fairly clear that the ghost of Dolores’ previous will present up, if not in Charlotte Hale (Tessa Thompson), then within the Man in Black (Ed Harris). However there’s extra to look at than simply that. We at the moment are in a post-Rehoboam world, one the place individuals have free will and their future is just not decided by a program. However nothing on the planet is straightforward, and even with out Rehoboam, the query stays: is anybody actually free? With the 4 episodes I screened for this Season 3 evaluate, I can say that now we have no actually strong reply to that query. Not as a result of one exists and we haven’t discovered it but, however quite as a result of the reply continues to be being fashioned.
From a narrative perspective, the plot as soon as once more performs with our level of perspective. Even when the characters seem like they’re in the identical world, are they actually? Given the frilly worlds constructed by Delos and the facility of the Hosts and their hacking, the distinction between phantasm and actuality is sporting thinner by the day. This creates thrilling twists, ones that eagle-eyed viewers can have already put collectively (making it all of the extra satisfying), and one that may reward those that didn’t upon rewatching.
Whereas Wooden’s Dolores has persistently been our fundamental protagonist on the present, she’s not alone. Maeve (Thandiwe Newton) has been some of the fascinating and entertaining characters, one who has seen a whole lot of character growth all through the seasons. Season 3 did her a bit soiled when she sided with Serac to be able to save her daughter, however Season 4 pairs her up with Caleb (Aaron Paul) and it’s a profitable mixture. Caleb was one of many vivid lights of the final season, a logo of humanity, somebody who needed to do the proper factor and was not prepared to adapt or let Rehoboam lay his path for him. His return this season and his partnership with Maeve is likely one of the finest issues we’ve seen. The 2 characters bond over their shared connection and act nearly like outdated comrades from battle. They’re troopers who’ve survived one thing traumatic and are related by that.
Though the primary couple of episodes begins a bit sluggish, by the top of Episode 4, the present is firing on all cylinders. After a time bounce, the present feels refreshed, distanced from a troublesome previous however not thrown right into a post-apocalyptic actuality. That might be too simple and Westworld is sluggish to take away the person backstage. Splitting the story up into such disparate threads would possibly find yourself ruining the present, however for now, it’s thrilling to leap from Christina to Maeve and Caleb to Hale and William. How the teams will find yourself weaving collectively will resolve whether or not Westworld has gotten again on the rails or if it is going to without end dwell within the shadow of its former glory.
New episodes of Westworld Season 4 air Sundays.
