Westworld X: Reloaded for Fourth Season

[Cas Stark]

I'm a little sad that the final episode of the season, and possibly the show, is on tonight and there is almost no buzz or coverage.  

[DMC]

I did see an article on The Ringer the other day - ‘Westworld’ Is Good Again, Somehow.

[Corvinus85]

The ending was grimm, highly pessimistic, but bold, too. I have questions

Spoiler

How did the humans continue to kill each other if the control tower was destroyed? Was Williams' final command hardwired in somehow or would it have faded away?

I don't accept the premise that the surviving humans will go extinct. This supposed extinction was caused just by the millions of controlled humans murdering each other. But there was no effect on the climate. The world is still abundant in resources.

 

[DMC]

1 hour ago, Corvinus85 said:

I have questions

Spoiler

I took that as a callback to Season 3 - that Rehobeam was correct that the humans would eventually destroy themselves.  Dolores never contradicted that, she just wanted to give them a choice.  And presumably, considering all that's happened since season 3, humans' extinction has been drastically exacerbated.  Or at least it makes sense that would be what Dolores 2.0 anticipates.

That being said, if there is a season 5, I fully expect we'll get Frankie and co. Mad Maxxing it up.

Loved this season.  Really hope we get to see one final test.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

Did the pearl that Hale picked up look like the Rehoboam computer cores to anyone else?

[DMC]

19 minutes ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

Did the pearl that Hale picked up look like the Rehoboam computer cores to anyone else?

Yes, but...

Spoiler

I like to think the the pearl that Hale uploads into the sublime is the fifth pearl she took from the park way back in the season 2 finale and was the only one still unaccounted for.  Recall in the season 3 finale we see that fifth pearl is Lawrence who tells Bernard to go see Arnold's widow.  

Now, Lawrence did finally show up in the finale tonight, but he was clearly Lawrence-Lawrence given his interaction with William.  And surely Hale would have retrieved the remaining version of Dolores (and herself) in order to run her dystopian city.

 

[Corvinus85]

6 hours ago, DMC said:

Yes, but...

  Hide contents

I like to think the the pearl that Hale uploads into the sublime is the fifth pearl she took from the park way back in the season 2 finale and was the only one still unaccounted for.  Recall in the season 3 finale we see that fifth pearl is Lawrence who tells Bernard to go see Arnold's widow.  

Now, Lawrence did finally show up in the finale tonight, but he was clearly Lawrence-Lawrence given his interaction with William.  And surely Hale would have retrieved the remaining version of Dolores (and herself) in order to run her dystopian city.

 

That wasn't Lawrence, he was that ex-confederate officer. Lawrence is played by Clifton Collins Jr

[DMC]

2 hours ago, Corvinus85 said:

That wasn't Lawrence, he was that ex-confederate officer.

Ah, right, it was Boon from Justified.  Weird that they look alike to me, at least in that scene.  Anyway, all the more reason to assume Dolores 2.0 is Lawrence's pearl.

[Jen'ari]

Pyramid Song  

[Ran]

45 minutes ago, Jen'ari said:

Pyramid Song  

That makes the 6th Radiohead song Djawadi has covered on the show. Clearly someone on the production team is a huge Radiohead fan. Actually, Djawadi says they are all fans (meaning him and the producers, I guess).

(The other five songs: Fake Plastic Trees, No Surprise, Exit Music (For a Film), Motion Picture Soundtrack, and Codex.)

[DMC]

Gotta say between the shitty ratings, Discovery's cost-cutting, and the simple fact it hasn't been announced yet, it's hard to see the show getting renewed for their planned last season (which Joy has confirmed is the plan in recent interviews).  That really, really sucks, especially considering they just had one of the best comeback seasons for any show I can remember.

[TormundsWoman]

I only wish that instead of that Army colonel we could have seen Lawrence trying to stop William! How I loved those scenes between Collins Clifton Jr and Ed Harris in previous seasons. Positively insane tv for me. In a good way. But that was Jonathan Tucker (I looked up who played the army col from previous season)

Anyway, very split on how I feel about the ending. On one side they did a good job of setting up the end. On the other hand there’s a weird feeling that Bernard was a total fail at his job.

I mean he did a bajillion Sublime simulations and decided Maeve is essential to the endgame, only to have it completely NOT be even remotely that. Maybe because he completely underestimated William being able to manipulate host William being a true William at pearl (?) in every single scenario in the bajillion he ran…

and that brings me to Christina/Dolores. So I have an existential question: how is she running simulation from the sublime on real humans left in the world who will eventually be according to Clementine “pockets of outliers” who do NOT play the game Dolores is setting up? Is this a game just for the hosts AI uploaded in the Sublime? I need to see this all over again.

[karaddin]

I think it they don't get another session then this is about as perfect a "cliffhanger" to leave hanging as you could get. Bleak as fuck, but artistically/narratively it works as a stopping point.

There's no guarantee that one last chance in a final loop through Westworld is going to save anything anyway.

[DMC]

51 minutes ago, karaddin said:

I think it they don't get another session then this is about as perfect a "cliffhanger" to leave hanging as you could get.

Honestly the show could have ended after the first, third and fourth seasons and still been cohesive and a somewhat satisfying conclusion.  Which is a pretty great compliment.

[Spockydog]

Can someone help me out here.

The scenes at the dam do not take place in the real, physical world. They are in the Sublime, or some other digital landscape. I mean, it has to be, because, otherwise, wtf was that big fissure in the sky?

But, then again, is this not the very same dam that William acquired in the first scene of the season when he killed that cartel dude?

Also, the scenes taking place in the Sublime are supposed to have a letterbox aspect ratio. However, the scenes with the giant fissure in the sky do not.

I don't understand.

[Spockydog]

.

Stupid edit function

[Corvinus85]

30 minutes ago, Spockydog said:

Can someone help me out here.

The scenes at the dam do not take place in the real, physical world. They are in the Sublime, or some other digital landscape. I mean, it has to be, because, otherwise, wtf was that big fissure in the sky?

But, then again, is this not the very same dam that William acquired in the first scene of the season when he killed that cartel dude?

Also, the scenes taking place in the Sublime have a letterbox aspect ratio. However, the scenes with the giant fissure in the sky do not.

I don't understand.

We saw that fissure before in season 2 when many of the hosts went into the Sublime. The hosts are the only ones that can see it, humans wouldn't be able to. So I would say the dam scenes were in the real world.

[Jen'ari]

19 hours ago, Ran said:

That makes the 6th Radiohead song Djawadi has covered on the show. Clearly someone on the production team is a huge Radiohead fan. Actually, Djawadi says they are all fans (meaning him and the producers, I guess).

(The other five songs: Fake Plastic Trees, No Surprise, Exit Music (For a Film), Motion Picture Soundtrack, and Codex.)

I know Nolan is a huge fan and so is Djawadi, which I’m not surprised about.

They do seem to really appeal to other musicians a lot(as well as lots of non musicians too of course),I’m guilty of it as well, I’m a huge fan. Djawadis version of Pyramid Song was a next level of excitement for me because it’s my favourite song of theirs, there’s just something incredibly calming and peaceful about it( the original) but his cover was beautiful.

The cello is such an emotive instrument and he uses it so well, I thought the same about his GoT compositions too and I’m hyped to see what he’s come up with for House of the Dragon.

 

[karaddin]

18 hours ago, Corvinus85 said:

We saw that fissure before in season 2 when many of the hosts went into the Sublime. The hosts are the only ones that can see it, humans wouldn't be able to. So I would say the dam scenes were in the real world.

That's the only interpretation that makes sense to me as well for the exact same reasons.

[Ran]

16 hours ago, Jen'ari said:

Djawadis version of Pyramid Song was a next level of excitement for me because it’s my favourite song of theirs, there’s just something incredibly calming and peaceful about it( the original) but his cover was beautiful.

One of the best, most unique missions in Cyberpunk 2077, where nearly all missions are named after songs, is "Pyramid Song."  Was just reminded of that when you mentioned the song's peaceful sound.  (I thought the glimpse of the LED-screen covered Times Square-alike near the end of the episode looked really similar to bits of Night City in the game, too.)

On 8/15/2022 at 11:47 PM, TormundsWoman said:

So I have an existential question: how is she running simulation from the sublime on real humans left in the world who will eventually be according to Clementine “pockets of outliers” who do NOT play the game Dolores is setting up? Is this a game just for the hosts AI uploaded in the Sublime? I need to see this all over again.

I admit it sounds odd. Christine talks explicitly of all sentient life being dead, but... the outliers? Does she not know about them? Or does she just mean within the cities she served as Storyteller for? 

I admit a lot of the last couple of minutes was (deliberately) cryptic.