Warning: The following contains full spoilers for the Westworld Season 4 episode "Generation Loss," which aired on July 17 on HBO.
To read our review of last week's Westworld episode, "Annees Folles," click here.
Westworld hurled us headlong into a horrific future in "Generation Loss," a wickedly exciting chapter filled with answers about Season 4's diabolical machinations, acting as a tableau that portrays a truly grim depiction of humanity as the scrappy remnants of our species fight to end global enslavement at the cruel hands of A.I. overlord Charlotte “Dolores” Hale.
So. Much. Happened.
We were given answers about Caleb and Maeve's past (that flashback from the premiere was allowed to play out more fully), learned that Maeve loved Caleb and went into hiding to save him/give him a life, witnessed host William finally become the Terminator-style stalker bot that Yul Brynner's Man in Black was in original Westworld movie, and then reveled in a nice, light two-episode twist involving Caleb's daughter Frankie actually being the rebel who picked up Bernard and Stubbs last week -- as, yes, that story’s taking place 23 years after the Caleb/Maeve Golden Age adventure (after our two heroes blew it big time). Phew! There was a ton going on here but it never piled up into anything overly convoluted.
So then… the weapon buried in the desert is Maeve, Caleb's now stuck in a horrific cycle of fidelity checks to see if his future copy is a faithful replication of his old self, and the "tower" that was spoken of (and drawn) in Christina's story turns out to be the giant controlling beacon that lords over all society. That means her storyline is also a part of this gruesome dystopia and the NPC arcs that she writes are, as many guessed, controlling actual people. Humans are now puppets, and signs also point to them being used over and over again in the same story (given that Christina found out the guy who jumped off the building had already died years ago).
No, the "hosts" in The Golden Age park weren't actual humans, as pondered last week, but the humans of the future certainly are. And the guests of The Golden Age were filled with flies as part of Hale's bid to have the park be the "super-spreader event of the century." We'd learn later also that children would absorb the flies more easily, making full control over humanity take a generation to firmly grab hold, and that, as with every virus, some people were naturally resistant or immune (like Caleb's bloodline, apparently).
"Generation Loss" was sinister in all the right ways. Sure, some of the twists were spottable but satisfying will beat shocking any day of the week. The main goal is to give us a story that flows well, honors the characters, and gets our dander up. This was an infuriating episode, meant in the best way possible. With this being the Infinity War of the season -- or series, even -- the scope of Bernard's quest falls into place.
Westworld has expanded significantly, giving us a super-dark A.I. apocalypse that feels worse than, say, something like Skynet wanting to kill everyone. Being puppeted by robots, for their macabre amusement, in these sort of Sisyphean loops is worse, narratively, than pure annihilation. And on top of this, you get to feel sad and deflated watching Caleb try so hard to prevent his daughter from growing up in this world, only to realize you'd already started watching her exist in it last week.
There was intense action, particularly during Caleb and Maeve's escape from the park (when Hale sicced the controllable guests on them) and then between Maeve and William, whose battle raged from the park's lab all the way to that dig site. Bullets flew and explosions erupted in the strongest episode of the season (so far), which was able to unspool much-needed explanations in a fun way that played into the show's twisty strengths.
Christina's world is still mostly a mystery though. It's connected to the world host Caleb found himself in at the end, which was controlled by the tower, but it also remains at arm's length. The people in Christina's realm don't know about this tower, and those who do sound like conspiracy loons. Are most humans shielded from the truth in the future? If so, then Hale must feel satisfied knowing that her dreams of revenge are only known to her (which doesn't sound much like the Hale who gloated over the real William two weeks ago). Is Cristina's arc even further in the future than what was shown to us this week? Is she allowed to exist in a different place, uncontrolled but unaware she's manipulating others?
And why does James Marsden's new Teddy, who Christina had a very sweet date with, seem like he does know what's going on behind the veil? He claims to have been a "bounty hunter with a heart of gold," and says it in a knowing way, as if he half-expected Christina to know what he's talking about. Still, we got so many answers this week that any big revelations about this story can hold off for a while. Especially since, despite the nefarious underbelly, there's a sugariness to "Teddy" and Christina's burgeoning love affair that offsets the ghoulishness of the other side of the season.
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