“Metanoia” Westworld Season 4 Episode 7

If you have a fan favorite character, brace yourself…

The penultimate episode before next week’s season finale does a lot of heavy lifting with Bernard and Maeve going toe-to-toe with Halores and Host-William, but the endings leave us in quite the pickle for how anyone will survive.

Trust Goes Both Ways

Bernard has been trying to predict everything that will happen this season. But this episode finally shows us how he did that, using his thoughts of how characters would react to predict actions over and over again. We see Bernard and Maeve approach the Sublime center in the Hoover dam where his version of Maeve quickly realizes that she’s not real, but imparts the important lesson to Bernard: he can’t actually discover the truth until he tries. Trying to predict whether Maeve, a character who’s largely marched to the beat of their own drum, through simulations is pretty pointless; he’s got to have a bit of faith.

That faith is later rewarded when Maeve understands the problem Bernard was trying to communicate. Though he wasn’t upfront about how bleak their chances were to live (which were zero), he said that their actions may be able to save a small portion of humanity and the Sublime, which was enough for Maeve. She desperately wanted to be back with her daughter, but she ultimately understood the weight of the situation.

Tower Showdown

Host-William has one final conversation with original William, confirming that as much as he is a program designed by Halores, he has the same flaws as his original. Our original William sets him on a course of destruction, but it’s entirely possible that Host-William would have done so without this intervention. While his premise is wrapped up in a guise of “survival of the fittest”, its’ actually more of a nihilistic outlook on the brutality and purpose of life, which is where the crux of William’s belief actually lives. Because life has no value, he instills no value to it, thus he can do whatever he wants with it, and thus a new game is born. Host-William, assured of what he needs to do, kills the original and heads to the tower.

This is the worst scenario that Bernard saw coming; Halores had created the perfect scenario for a rogue Host-William to take over and implement the final version of his game. As Bernard and Maeve attempt to take over the tower, they are ultimately thwarted by Host-William as he shoots Maeve and Halores as they fight, and later dispatches Bernard as he was attempting to shut down the tower. He sends out a final tone from the tower inciting a fight between hosts and humans until there’s no one left standing.

Rescuing Caleb

While one team attacks the tower, Stubbs and Frankie head to save her father Caleb. Stubbs and Bernard have a good final moment together where it’s clear Bernard doesn’t think either one of them are going to make it, imparting some last-minute advice that might help him survive longer. They eventually find Caleb and need some time to talk him down (because this relaunched Caleb had just realized Halores’ elaborate plan and was questioning everything) but Frankie is eventually able to remind him of something only they would know together, his nickname for her “Cookie”.

Just as their escape is looking likely, Host-Williams’ sabotage of the tower kicks in, leaving the trio to fight off humans and hosts as they try to escape the city, resulting in Frankie getting shot in the leg, jeopardizing their chances even more.

Christina The Ghost

Still shaken up over her powers and trying process what’s happening to her, Christina dunks herself underwater to understand her differences (she can’t drown in the water) and has a transformative moment or in Westworld-speak, she has emerged from the maze. Afterwards, Christina and Teddy go to the tower to dismantle everything, she rewrites everyone’s narratives and get them out of the Olympiad building (even running into Caleb and giving him an assist). However, just as she’s making a progress, Host-William’s sabotage of the tower occurs, blocking out Christina’s power and also apparently making her invisible to everyone. But Teddy drops one little nugget: no one has ever been able to see her at all

Now that just doesn’t track. First, I thought they were in the Sublime, but we quickly figured out that they were inhabiting the same place as our current characters, but now that regular folks can’t see them, it raises a lot more questions, especially how can Teddy see her? Can everyone else see Teddy? Just what gives?

Final Thoughts

This is probably my favorite episode of the season; we get Maeve back, so many storylines finally converge and we know what Bernard was so terrified of. It wasn’t just his own mortality, but the perfect storm of situations that will likely eliminate the entire human race. But that leaves only a few questions for the finale; is there any hope for humanity in this bleak situation? Have we seen the last of Maeve and Bernard? And how does Christina play into this world if she’s not actively there?

Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Last Episode: Fidelity

Next Episode: Que Será, Será

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Kenneth Shipp

Kenneth “Commander” Shipp has had opinions on movies since he was a kid…even if that meant talking to himself. He loves tackling the issues involved with our modern blockbusters while still enjoying the deep dives into the films you may have glossed over. You may still see him comment on his other loves (video games and television) whenever he has time. You can catch all his movie reviews here and listen to him on our weekly podcasts when they start back in August!!

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