Warning: The following contains full spoilers for the Westworld Season 4 episode "Metanoia," which aired on August 7 on HBO.
To read our review of last week's Westworld episode, "Fidelity," click here.
Wow. Okay. It's hard to envision there's much more story to tell, much less a fifth season, after "Metanoia" -- a turbulent, shockingly eventful penultimate episode that all-but wiped the game board clear in ways both exciting and deflating. After last week's very emotional "Fidelity," which focused a great deal on Caleb getting a message out to Frankie, it felt odd to just rip the entire world, as awful as it was, out from under them both.
Then again, this uber-dystopian story was assuredly building toward something and "Metanoia" was, fittingly, a grand gesture filled with big action, major deaths, and, basically, the end of the entire civilization. In a season of big swings, this was the biggest at-bat yet for the series, though it also felt like a brick wall of sorts. Bernard's been playing out an Endgame scenario — this one in a zillion chance to set things right — but we had no idea that it was basically all for nothing. There was no winning. His plan involved, er, something surviving -- something that can set up a new future.
Basically, it's a future that's hard to invest in because we, as viewers, are engaged in the here and now of the show. Like, do we want "humanity" to live on, somewhere, somehow? Or do we want these specific characters to find a form of victory and peace? "Metanoia" plops this dilemma squarely on our laps. Perhaps it was naive to think that the world hadn't already ended, that there was a "coming back" from this nightmare. What hope was there really except for the remnants of humanity (who do exist in cities -- plural -- we learned this week) getting unshackled in order to rebuild? It wasn't much to cling to.
Still, Westworld blew itself up in a major way here, toppling this future dystopia into a battle royale Purge Planet as host William took his human form's advice and turned everything into a murderous free for all. Maeve fell, Hale fell, Bernard fell (though not before sending video instructions out to someone), and Caleb, (an injured) Frankie, and Stubbs were trapped in the carnal chaos outside.
Bernard's plan connects to the Sublime, which he opened at the top of the episode (after a fake-out opener), but how will that help set up a new take two for humanity? And what was Hale actually "transcending" into when she was interrupted by Maeve? There are lingering threads to snip, yes, but it sure feels, right now, like next week’s season finale will be a series finale.
Two weeks back, it sure seemed like Teddy was a part of Christina's mind (especially since he still was "Teddy"), but this week we learned that, somehow, Christina isn't really... there? So she and Teddy are both sort of existing in a middle zone, probably stemming from the Sublime (where Teddy went, for sure). Hale set up Dolores as Christina, as a form of punishment we assume, but she's also, in some way, tapped into the tower frequency, and she's also not quite living among everyone else. "You're not in this world," Teddy says, though people have been able to interact with her. It'll be interesting to see what this all leads to in the finale.
"Metanoia" had time for side moments -- like Frankie finding Caleb, Maeve's showdown with Hale, and Christina entering her final existential crisis -- but ultimately that all feels overshadowed by the final act of the episode and the collapse of everything. Hopefully, next week will have more time to spend with the characters in order to close out this version of the world in a rewarding fashion.
That's not to say there won't be calamity abound, as "Man Who Sold the World" William's out there making sure nothing survives in this world but him (and cockroaches) but the story suggests even more sacrifice is coming. With all this season's done with Caleb and Frankie -- with the time jumps and the resurrections and so on -- you'd like that legacy to continue forward somehow and not get tied off. "Metanoia" was a game-changer for Westworld, but was it also a game-over (Ed Harris suggests there's one more season)? It was exciting and impactful but since we don't know what the state of the series is, as a whole, there was a bit of an "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Weird)" element at play.
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