Summary: Flashbacks reveal that Caleb has been reeducated by Serac. It's revealed that Francis was killed after the war by Caleb. Serac had tasked outliers like Caleb with recruiting other outliers for reeducation and eventually gave Caleb and Francis an offer to kill the other for a great sum of money. Caleb ended up killing Francis and was promptly reeducated to fit in better with society. In the present, Dolores and Caleb break into Serac's reeducation facility where Caleb learns what happened to him from an insane AI creation of Serac and Jean's called Solomon. Maeve arrives at the location and Dolores goes out to fight her. Caleb is revealed to be the heart of Dolores' plan, and she tasks him with leading the human revolution before leaving. Caleb accepts the task and is given instructions from Solomon on how to find and kill Serac. Dolores is defeated by Maeve but she activates an EMP, disabling herself, Maeve and Solomon. Meanwhile, Bernard and Stubbs discover that William was one of the outliers. They leave him alive as they may need him and they begin to track Caleb. However, William turns on them with a gun and prepares to kill them.
The Good: It was great to finally see Caleb's past and fully understand who he is. Caleb's story has been intriguing thus far though it never quite got me to feel for the character. Revealing his past here clears up the character's entire arc and makes me appreciate what the season did with him in retrospect. It's pretty strongly written and there are elements of tragedy that are incorporated very well into the story. What really sells it for me is Aaron Paul's acting, as he beautifully portrays Caleb's frustration and sense of betrayal throughout the episode. I think the ending reveal of Caleb being Dolores' master plan all along was very smart and it sets up the season finale in a very creative way. The Bad: Unfortunately most of this episode did not work for me. I'm still not invested in the show and that hurt the quality of this episode. Even though Caleb's story made sense and it was well acted, I still felt too much of a disconnect from the show to enjoy it to the fullest. Had Caleb's storyline been more clear from the start, I may have bothered to emotionally invest in him, but the show never earned that from me. Even though he was the most interesting part of the season, I didn't quite get to the point where I felt like I really understood him and his plight. Even this episode which fully centers around him doesn't quite get his story to resonate emotionally as much as it should. If anything, I found Caleb's reaction to learning about his past to be too subdued. It's well acted sure, but I never felt like his perspective of everything he's been through had been changed in the way that it should have. There should have been more time spent on how Caleb felt about being reeducated instead of just giving us the story about what really happened in Caleb's past. We need to see the characters react to these life-changing moments, just giving us these moments and not exploring them isn't satisfying enough. The Dolores and Maeve fight wasn't good. The action wasn't very well done unfortunately, and that was disappointing. I thought that the choreography was lacking and that the show tried too hard to make it futuristic and "cool" with both Dolores and Maeve having control of their very own drones during their fight. Furthermore, I still felt nothing while they were fighting, even though I really should have felt something. The entire season has been building to this climactic confrontation, and yet I still felt like I didn't fully understand why they were fighting each other and what the stakes were. Their hate for each other wasn't effectively established and that gave the whole fight scene a sense of meaninglessness. Disappointingly, this big climax ended up being rather boring. Bernard and Stubbs still have not done anything worth noting this season. They feel like a complete waste of time at this point as it's still unclear what role they are going to play in the climax of the season. I haven't been particularly engaged by their storyline and that continued here. William was okay here as he develops a new life philosophy post-therapy, but I didn't find anything he did to be particularly compelling. It was just average television at best. If EMPs can deactivate hosts this easily, why the hell weren't they used more often in the series? WHy weren't the Delos guards armed with EMPs? Clearly the guns did nothing, so they should have been using more electronic weapons if they are more effective. The big EMP blast at the end of the episode brings up this glaring plot hole and hurts the immersion of the show. The Unknown: How is William dead already? Was this because he was being reeducated? What is the virus that Charlotte put into him? What is William's overall goal? Is he going to kill Bernard and Stubbs? What's next for Dolores and Maeve now that they have defeated each other? How will Caleb try to kill Serac? Will he be stopped? Best Moment: The real story of Caleb killing Francis was very well done. The scene was engaging, well put together, and provided us with a logical story of how Serac has taken everything from Caleb. Character of the Episode: Caleb. Conclusion: This episode finally explained Caleb's past, and it did so in a pretty good way. But everything else that was going on was dull, sloppy, and unemotional, leaving me feeling indifferent going into the season finale. I'm unsure of who to root for and what to look forward to. The show has failed to get me invested in the story, and it has resulted in a deeply unsatisfying season. I don't know what to expect in the season finale (probably nothing special), but regardless of what happens, I think that it will be the last I watch of "Westworld". Score: 53
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
March 2024
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