Sumith Prasad
The fourth season finale of HBO’s science-fiction series ‘Westworld’ follows William AKA the Man in Black’s attempts to annihilate the world by following the principle of the survival of the fittest. Charlotte Hale gets rebuilt and watches a video Bernard Lowe had made for her. Caleb Nichols, Frankie Nichols, and Ashley Stubbs continue their efforts to escape from the chaos of the city. Christina, with the help of Teddy Flood, attains consciousness, which paves the way for astounding consequences. Episode 8 of the season, titled ‘Que Será, Será,’ ends with shocking developments one after the other and if you wish to dive into the same, you are at the right place! SPOILERS AHEAD.
Westworld Season 4 Finale Recap
‘Que Será, Será’ begins with chaos in the city resulting in numerous deaths. William finds a truck and starts his journey to the dam where the door to the Sublime is open. Hale’s soldiers rebuild her. She watches a video Bernard had made for her before he got killed by William. In the video, he instructs her to play a final game against William. She finds out his location and arrives at the dam herself. William opens the valves of the place, seemingly to enter the Sublime. Hale confronts him and lets him know that she will not allow him to destroy the Sublime.
Christina realizes that she is a programmed entity of Dolores. Through the maze that was drawn in the balcony of her apartment and with the help of Teddy, she attains consciousness concerning who she really is. The people who had interacted with her, including Emmett and Maya, are similar entities created by her mind for her to attain answers concerning who she really is. Caleb Nichols, Frankie Nichols, and Ashley Stubbs continue their journey to the off-grid land to join other outliers. Clementine Pennyfeather comes in their way and kills Stubbs. She threatens to kill Frankie if she doesn’t reveal the location where outliers are living.
Caleb tries to save Frankie, only to get hurt by Clementine. Frankie kills Clementine before the latter could kill her father. The daughter and father arrive at the docks where Odina waits for them with a boat. Caleb asks Frankie to leave without him since he is dying. Since his mind and body are compatible, he will not stay alive for long. With no other option, Frankie leaves. Hale kills William with a gun planted inside a tunnel by Bernard to stop him from destroying the Sublime. Christina lets Teddy know that he is a part of her imagination as well.
Westworld Season 4 Finale Ending: Why Does Hale Transfer Dolores to the Sublime?
After returning from the Sublime, Bernard tries his best to save the world. But he remains quiet about how or even which world. In the video message, Hale comes to know that Bernard wanted to save the Sublime since the real world is beyond savable. And the way to save the Sublime is to transfer Dolores back to the Valley Beyond. Hale has built an entire city to display the supremacy of the Hosts over humans using another copy of Dolores’ pearl. The particular copy is named “The Storyteller” as the city and the people living at the place are nothing more than a story and its characters.
Hale transfers The Storyteller to the Sublime so that the city will continue to exist and survive in the Sublime. Bernard must have realized that the actions of the authoritarian figures present in the real world, whether it be the vicious Hale or the monstrous William, will only leave the world destroyed to turn his attention towards the Sublime. In the Valley Beyond, chaos will not be present since the place doesn’t have any space to accommodate the monstrosities of Hale and William.
Since the Sublime is a place where the conflicts between humans and Hosts do not exist, unlike the real world, Bernard realizes that the future lies in the Sublime and ensures that Dolores is in the “heaven” to look after the same.
What is the Final Test/Game? Is the Westworld Real or in the Sublime?
After getting into the Sublime, Christina/Dolores lets Teddy know that a final test/game has to be completed before she can finally rest. Christina/Dolores brings up the test when Teddy asks her to move on from caring about humans. As far as Teddy is concerned, humans are entities that cannot accept change. According to him, Christina/Dolores should not be caring about an inferior species that is destined to rot in the real world. However, Dolores’ hesitation to follow Teddy’s words means that she hasn’t given up on humans just yet. The final test/game can be a way for her to know whether humans can be saved from their appalling destiny.
Dolores can be considering opening the doors of the Sublime to humans if the latter species can evolve into beings that can survive in the Valley Beyond. The test may prove whether humans can be transferred to the Sublime or the evolved human beings can co-exist with the Hosts in the Valley Beyond as well. Ever since the Hosts have started to attain sentience, their co-existence with humans has been a matter of great complexity. The original Dolores tries to annihilate the humans and ends up saving them. Hale tries to establish the superiority of the Hosts over humans. Even after these tests, the two species fail to find a way to co-exist.
Dolores’ final test may answer the conundrum. She also mentions that the test will free the Hosts. She must be meaning that finding a way for the co-existence of humans and Hosts will finally help her kind to move on from the tensions between the two species. The test happens at Westworld, in the Sublime, since the only hope of survival, as per Bernard, remains in the Sublime since the real world has succumbed to chaos and apocalypse for Dolores to even conduct her test.
Why Does Hale Destroy Herself?
The host version of Charlotte Hale is another copy of Dolores Abernathy. Dolores initially tries to annihilate humanity for conceiving and treating Hosts as puppets of human beings. However, she eventually changes her mind and sets out to save the world by trying to destroy Engerraund Serac’s AI system named Rehoboam. However, the host Hale diverges from Dolores upon attaining sentience and aspires to annihilate humanity to establish the supremacy of the Hosts over the human beings. The foundation of her existence lies in her desire to see the Hosts conquering the human world.
Hale’s actions, however, destroy the world altogether. She becomes another tyrant who controls a large section of the Hosts just like human beings did. Her efforts to see the Hosts becoming superior species meet an end when the same hosts start to rebel against her, like William, or kill themselves, like Hope. After pushing the world to the apocalypse, Hale’s creation even tries to destroy the Sublime, the heaven of the very species she cares about, indicating Hale’s failure. She destroying herself is her way of acknowledging her failure.
Without a world, Hale cannot make her kind superior. And since the Sublime doesn’t have humans to conquer, she realizes that she doesn’t have any purpose to remain alive, leading her to kill herself.
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