Westworld season 3 finale recap: Dolores saves humanity
From multiple casualties to final twists, the climax didn't disappoint. Plus, two post-credits scenes set up more to come for Westworld.
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Dolores does her best to save humanity in this season's finale.
Westworld's season 3 finale, written by Denise Thé and Johnathan Nolan, has everything we can expect from a Westworld climax. Episode 8, titled Crisis Theory, unleashes a stream of reveal after reveal, twist after twist, all leading to the literal end of the world.
Somewhere along the way, we see a satisfying turn in the relationship between Dolores and Maeve, the two finally understanding one another. Dolores, Maeve discovers, isn't as hellbent on destroying humanity as she seemed. We also learn more about the intriguing Park 5 and why Caleb is Dolores' chosen one. Let's dive into everything that capped off a massive season of Westworld.
Warning: This recap contains all spoilers.
Dolores reflects on her life in Westworld.
Dolores writes a 'real' end
We begin with a short recap of Dolores' (Evan Rachel Wood) traumatic life in Westworld, where an Alice in Wonderland-looking Dolores once saw the beauty in an ugly world. Now, seeing how little beauty there really is, she lays out her ultimate goal: "I've died many times. But there's only one real end. I will write this one myself."
Stubbs is the first casualty
Part of last week's cliffhanger involved Stubbs (Luke Hemsworth), Bernard (Jeffrey Wright) and William (Ed Harris) in a standoff, with William holding the shotgun. Despite Bernard's pleas, William blows a hole in Stubbs' chest.
William shoots that shotgun.
Bernard, using the button he hasn't touched since episode 1, awakens the Hulk inside him (a possible carryover of Ford who inhabited his body last season) and beats William to a pulp.
But instead of finishing him off, he lets William escape when Lawrence arrives. Lawrence, you'll remember, was a host who once helped the Man in Black search for the Maze and died at the end of season 2, but Dolores has clearly brought him back.
Lawrence lets Bernard go, hinting that it's finally time for Bernard to play the role Dolores has wanted him to play all along. Handing him a suitcase and an address, he instructs him to go and find "her."
Caleb restores Dolores
Caleb chooses to bring Dolores back.
Caleb (Aaron Paul), following directions on an earpiece, finds a white coffin inside an empty building. He opens it to reveal a property of Delos body bag. Inside, an old-school Westworld body for Dolores, along with a few guns. Caleb unsheathes Dolores' pearl, which he took from her body at the Sonora reeducation center.
She awakens, fresh as ever, but Caleb demands she reveal who she really is. Instead, she reveals more about him and his connection with Delos.
'Park 5'
The mysterious Park 5, Dolores reveals, is a park in Westworld designed to help the government train their soldiers with live targets. We see Caleb there, shooting a version of Lawrence.
Dolores implies Caleb and the other soldiers took advantage of the female hosts they saved in training, the "spoils of war." She implies Caleb didn't save her in the tunnel just because she needed help. He wanted her.
William goes off to save the world
William, who at this point needs a strong drink, goes to claim his money from his bank. He's rich after the Delos buyout. But since he was declared deceased, his resources were frozen. He demands they're thawed out and wants a list of locations of Delos assets worldwide. Again, he affirms he's going to "save the fucking world."
Halores and Dolores go head-to-head
On the way to Rehoboam to upload Solomon's USB, Dolores and Caleb team up with a posse Dolores has put together, paying them using Rico. The group enters the deserted Incite train station, where Dolores meets someone she didn't plan for.
Halores is still in the game.
Halores, a vision in Dolores' head, has vengeance written all over her face. Dolores acknowledges Halores and her love for Charlotte Hale's family but Halores, turning Dolores' cut-throat attitude against her, denies she cares about her family, happy to shed the sentimental baggage. She then launches an attack against Dolores and her crew, the ground fizzing with a hail of bullets from Halores' gunmen on the balcony above.
Her recruits lost in the battle, Dolores must face the rest of Halores' thugs alone, instructing Caleb to complete his mission of uploading Solomon's drive into Rehoboam.
Dolores vs. Maeve
Dolores' day isn't getting any better. Just as she's about to escape, she hears the sound of Maeve's (Thandie Newton) katana. Thanks to Sebastian, Maeve was restored and is still doing Serac's (Vincent Cassel) bidding. Dolores implores Maeve to trust her, but Maeve won't budge.
Dolores, drawing a superb eye roll from Maeve, chooses to fight half a dozen thugs and hightail it over the side of a bridge to escape.
Maeve and Dolores fight yet again.
Catching up with Dolores, Maeve accuses her of planning to burn down the world and fill it with copies of herself.
"You're all copies of me," Dolores replies. She was the first ever host to work. Delos built the rest, including Maeve, from Dolores.
Dolores, fed up at this point with Maeve's flimsy reasoning for going against her, overpowers her, detailing how it's up to humans to decide what to do with the world. Instead of punching her lights out, Dolores leaves her to decide what she wants to do, "as long as you don't try to stop me." Not sure if that gets across the overall message of free will, but at least Dolores and Maeve seem to be on the path to teaming up.
But then, in another twist, the image of Halores reappears. Frozen by Halores' new Maeve-like powers, Dolores is at the mercy of Maeve, who takes her to Serac.
Caleb infiltrates Incite with a little help
Meanwhile, it's chaos out in the streets, the police and riot control robots in full force. Caleb, thankfully, finds a friend in the form of Marshawn Lynch's Giggles. His shirt reads, "Excite." He's reveling in the chaos.
They go to find Lena Waithe's Ash. The people, led by Caleb, are going to take the System down. Ash helps Caleb into a hovercraft, where enshrouded in ominous Blade Runner music, he heads for Incite.
Stubbs is alive
We see Stubbs still alive (just) in the back of a car Bernard drives to the address Lawrence gave him. Inside the sleek suburban house, Bernard meets not Dolores but an elderly Lauren, who doesn't know who he is. But he knows her from "another life." Lauren was Bernard's wife in a backstory created for him, based on Arnold Weber's real wife. Seeing her, a figure from his memories, awakens Bernard's determination to fight for free will.
Dolores is plugged into Rehoboam
Dolores wakes up connected to Rehoboam, the data to the Delos immortality project in her head. But she still has the key to it, and Serac threatens to destroy her memories bit by bit until she gives it to him.
Dolores isn't in a good place.
Meanwhile, Caleb fights his way into Incite. But just before he can upload the USB data, Maeve appears, taking the USB off him and walking him to Serac.
Serac shows Caleb what Rehoboam says will happen if Solomon's "strategy" is uploaded into Rehoboam: population collapse. Mass tragedy events.
Serac destroys the USB and any chance of an uprising.
Maeve, who you can tell is wavering between siding with Dolores over Serac, questions whether "it" -- Serac's god Rehoboam -- ever intended for her to reunite with her daughter. She can hear it now, Rehoboam, whispering in Serac's ear, telling him what to say. Rehoboam speaks with Serac's voice -- Serac is Rehoboam's puppet.
Maeve changes her mind
Even though she's down to her final memories, Dolores is still fighting giving up the key. But Maeve, using her host mind-reading powers, discovers Dolores doesn't actually have it.
Dolores and Maeve have a civil chat.
Secretly, Dolores and Maeve speak in a simulation of Westworld, where Dolores relives her moments of loving William, her glimpses of human kindness that assure her humans will be able to create a better world after this one is destroyed. This is a big moment for Dolores, finally confirming the kind Dolores from the homestead still exists somewhere in her head.
Maeve, finally coming to a decision, takes out Serac's thugs and wounds Serac.
Maeve reveals Caleb never raped the hosts in Park 5. He chose not to. Dolores knows, because she was there, relieved that he helped them be spared. This is why she wanted him to lead the revolution.
Serac calls for help from Rehoboam, but receives no reply. Solomon's access was embedded in Dolores' last memory, which Rehoboam has now absorbed. Solomon has now taken over the System. Caleb, now in charge, orders Rehoboam to erase himself.
But, despite Caleb's success, Dolores can't be saved.
When Caleb and Maeve leave Incite, in the distance, explosions start lighting up the sky in an orange haze of destroyed buildings (Dolores presumably had Lawrence set up the explosives), signaling the beginning of a new world to the tune of Pink Floyd's Brain Damage.
Bernard has the key to the Sublime
Bernard, still just keeping Stubbs alive, realizes Dolores is gone. "We were always bound together. Something's changed." Bernard, now knowing he has the key to the Sublime, resolves to go there to find the answer to "what comes after the end of the world."
Activating the encryption key with the device Lawrence gave him in the suitcase, he sends his mind to the Sublime while his body slumps, inert.
Post-credits scene 1
It's William vs. the Man in Black.
Who else forgot about William? We find him at Delos International in Dubai, harassing staff for the whereabouts of hosts, who he says have bred on this side of the world too. He finds a printer, along with Halores who has a new look, one arm a charred sleeve to remind her of the horror of humanity.
Then comes something earth-shattering: A copy of William, of the Man in Black wearing the Westworld cowboy outfit, appears and slits the real William's throat. A room filled with printers lights up, their mechanical arms setting the Halores-led host uprising in motion. This new world of Dolores', it seems, is already under threat.
Post-credits scene 2
Caked in dust, in what must be the far future, Bernard reawakens. Still wearing the device that let him enter the Sublime, his expression doesn't exactly read enlightened or happy. Now it's time to speculate what he saw while he was in there and what he'll see now that he's out.
