Westworld Season 4 Episode 1 has just released on HBO Max, and we get an episode that brings
all the mystery back to this show. From the familiar, yet unfamiliar introduction of a new
version of Dolores in Christina, to the unknown plan of Halores and the Man In Black, and the
team-up of Maeve and Caleb after the events of season 3, there's a lot of questions to be
answered after this opening episode of season 4. In this spoiler review and explained analysis,
I'm going to be giving you my breakdown of Westworld Season 4 episode 1, entitled The
Auguries, alongside discussing my general thoughts towards it. But before I get into it, if you want
to see more videos on Season 4 of Westworld, then don't forget to support this video
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lets dive into my review and explained video for Westworld Season 4 Episode 1.
So seven years have passed since the ending of Westworld season 3, and with the show previously
playing secret time jumps and flashbacks in the past, there's an openess and mystery to
everything going on here, that could be a sign that showrunners Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy are
ready to do something like that all over again. The episode title "The Auguries", very much
suggests that there may be a workings of the future in order with Season 4. And I'm speaking
of the introduction we get to this new Dolores that happens to be in a similar situation to
what she found herself in back in season 1. But before we get to that, we do open on another quite
mysterious situation, and it surrounds what I believe is the host version of the man in
door will be opening there later in the season according to a previous trailer, then maybe
we might see sort sort of flooding at the end similar to what we saw in Season 2. But that's
just something to keep in mind surrounding the location and if the door eventually ends up
closing here. But coming back to the events of the opening scene at this particular location,
we get introduced to a man looking out at the barren city, before he eventually goes to a
business meeting with host Man in Black from season 3. Host William gives the businessman
an offer in that he will either sell him his land today, or he’ll take it himself tomorrow. The
businessman and his men, which according to William are apart of a cartel choose the latter
option, in turn, rejecting his offer. But once the man returns to his rich home, later on, he
come across a swarm of flies that soon attack him and results in him passing out. Maybe the
theory going around that the flies from the trailer may be controlled by Holores and host
MIB could turn out to be true, and if we consider what happens next,
it seems like that might be the case. That's because during the next day,
the businessman is seemingly under host MIB's control, and he kills all of his co-workers,
signs over the land to Host William, and then finally kills himself. That’s about all we
see from host William in this episode, but it definitely seems like he's going to be carrying
out something important in this location in the coming episodes, and when relating to that
trailer footage of the door potentially being re-opened there, it seems like it's all going
to be leading here. And possibly it's to do with the future of the hosts. But let's now get to the
rest of the episode, which involves two new narratives and a lot of mystery.
Firstly, we are reintroduced to Evan Rachel Wood, who is now playing a character called Christina.
It's key to note that her new name is one that references an early inspiration for
the design of Dolores, which is the painting that is called 'Christina’s World'. There is a theory
going around that this could be the real-life inspiration for the Dolores we knew from
Westworld, and while that would allign with the inspiration idea of the painting, the clues and
introduction of her character in this episode, points to there being something else going
on. She's either in this place during the same time as everything else going on,
or shes in some sort of simulation or real part of NYC that's keeping or training her there. Coming
to this new character's journey, Christina works at a video-game company called Olympiad
Entertainment, with a logo that reminds you of Delos, and base of work that also relates to
Westworld too. At this company, Christina creates games based on Westworld storylines.
We learn that she mainly writes or programs NPC's, which some players might consider as cannon
fodder. She also lives in a futuristic NYC with her current roommate Maya, played by the rising
actress Ariana DuBose. And we learn that her roommate is supportive, quite comedically
relaxed, and yet also concerned about Christina's love life a little bit too much. I'm guessing that
this connection will be explored further as the episodes go on, but right now it seems
that something is definitely up with her roomate, and like I said, she seems too concerned about
Christina getting a date then a normal person would. And with Christina's life seeming too
traditional in other aspects, we soon realise that this isn't the only thing that seem's to
be off in her every day life. She starts to get threatening calls, numerous people talk about
'the Tower' in a quietened manner, and the man who has been constantly ringing her and
accusing her of controlling people in the world via the games she's building, is actually named
Peter, which could be a brief reference to her own father, Peter Abernathy, from Westworld. He asks
her to be set free, and of course, Christina is quite confused and doesn't know what
he's talking about. He says that all of these people do what you want them to, and in turn,
it gets us asking various questions surrounding where, when and who this new Christina
character is. Of course, she has the body of Dolores, but she currently doesn't have the
original pearl because that original one was wiped at the end of season 3. But if she’s living
through a modern version of the Dolores narrative from Westworld, the big question is, what is the
purpose of this? Is it Halores punishing her in this new dystopian version of Westworld,
is it someone trying to bring Dolores back and help her re-discover who she was, or is it a
completely different time and person altogether? Well, I think one particular tease does
confirm that this is definitely in a controlled world, as when she walks to work, some of the men
who pass her say, “This place is fing wild, I can’t believe this is your first time”.
And that is reminiscent of the guests in the park from the previous seasons. Of course this could
be just a projection of fake guests if were going to go really out there with theories,
but right now, there's currently too many questions and contradictions to figure out exactly
where and when this is, alongside who Christina actually is herself. She does also find an
image of the maze from season 1 on her fire escape, so that suggests that this is likely
after the events of season 3 and it's apart of the world Halores is in control of. She might
have turned New York City into a dystopian version of Westworld, but again, there's nothing concrete
to really state at this current time. But as we learn more about her character and
the relationship she grows with another re-introduced individual later on in this episode,
we should start to connect the dots more and more. And I'll come back to that individual after
we discuss the other narrative that this episode focuses on.
That storyline is to do with the convergence of Maeve and Caleb, 7 years after the collapse of
Rehoboam in season 3. We first come to Maeve, who is now apparently living in the snowy
woods, seemingly gone on the run and trying to life a more peaceful life. We see her searching
through her own memories, viewing those of her daughter, the death of Hector, and also some
interesting events after season 3 with Caleb that I'm sure we'll revisit more over the course of
this season. Those memories were quick flashes of what looks to be them fighting together
in the war and amongst the chaos that followed those riots and the collapse of Rehomboam in
the season 3 finale. But in this current time, Maeve is alone in this snowy location, and
she'll soon be thrusted back into the war that she becomes determined to finish. She comes in
contact with a man working at a general store, and he tells her that men are looking for
her. And once she comes across them at her mobile home, she takes them all out and beheads one
of them with an axe, revealing that they were hosts that were after her. The one she beheads
is actually the Colonel Brigham of the Confederados from season 2, and he was killed via
the dynamite explotion that Dolores set off at the fort. Maeve searches through his host memories
and finds out that Host William had sent these men after her. The only person she can now turn to,
and someone who we find out has also been targetted, is her newly-found human friend
Caleb. But before that happens, we learn more about what Caleb's been up to and it turns out
that he is once again working in construction in LA. He also now has a wife named Uwade, and
a daughter called Frankie, who I actually think could be a grown up character from the season 4
trailer. In the scenes with him, Caleb’s wife talks about the end of the war in season 3,
and worries about his PTSD getting in the way of them and their family. And his daughter Frankie is
trained by him to shoot targets using a toy gun, in the case that the war begins once
again, which Caleb frequently worries about. Coming to that theory, if you remember from
the trailer, we see a character played by Aurora Perrineau who looks an awful lot like a grown up
Frankie and she is going to be starring alongside Bernard in whatever his future timeline
appears to be. I think this is her fighting for survival in a future timeline, but again it's
something we'll just have to see and know more about when we get do eventually get to that. Also,
in one of the scenes between Caleb and his daughter, he reads a book to her, and that
book is called My Father’s Dragon, and it's one which is narrated from the future by a
protagonist’s child. So that fits completely with Caleb's daughter being that new character who
grows up to fight in Bernard's timeline later on. But after we get to know his family and understand
that Caleb for one, still suffers PTSD and worries about an upcoming threat, that
threat soon becomes real. This is because, maeve arrives and saves Caleb and his daughter
from being shot by one of Halores and Host MIB's men right outside of his own home. She kills
them and it's the moment that confirms Caleb's suspitions about a war coming back to haunt them.
Caleb decides to leave with Maeve to finish what they intially started, and it's the kind
of clarity that this season needs, because the other narratives surrounding Christina and that
of Halores's Plan seem to be really secretive so far. But whatever mission Maeve and Caleb
do go on, the next episode is going to be an eventful one,
with the trailer for episode 2 showing them entering MafiaWorld.
I will be breaking it down in a seperate video in the coming
days and hopefully will be getting a lot more info on what they will actually be
doing on this new mission. But this now brings us to the
ending of episode 4, and we get some brief reveals surrounding Christina
and all the mystery linked to her character's world. In the ending scene as composer
Ramin's new version of Lana Del Rey's Video Games begins to play, Christina begins a new pitch about
a girl searching to fill the emptiness in her life. She gets discouraged and tells
herself that nobody cares about that kind of story. And Peter, the man who confronted her in
the street the following night, commits suicide right outside her apartment, following the
night before where a mysterious figure beats him to a pulp after he threatens here. After
Peter jumps off the roof of apartments, it left us wondering what made him do that and who was
giving him the beating. Well as the music plays and Dolores recites her lines, looking up at
her apartment the next night is none other than James Marsden's Teddy, confirming at the least
who that mystery figure was. It's a beautiful and poetic scene that reflects the moonlight
imagery we got at the end of season 1 between Dolores and teddy on the beach, telling us that
were also going to see the return of some familiar faces in this currently unknown narrative.
Of course we last saw Teddy in the sublime, having been uploaded by Dolores to it in the
Westworld season 2 finale. So it makes his return, just like this new Dolores all the more
intriguing. This Teddy may look like the original, but there's no guarantee that his pearl is
the one that operates this host body. But since he was the mystery man who apparently saved
Dolores from Peter, it would make sense that this is him in some sort of capacity. It's also
interesting to point out that he still has that brutal side to his code that we saw
in Season 2 when he throws a beat down on Peter, so that may be hinting at this being that same
version of him before he was put into the sublime. But whether this version of Teddy is still in
the sublime, or this Christina is a copy of Dolores or not, it's still a mystery after
this opening episode. Of course, with the signs of Christina reciting key aspects of Dolores
from the park, and imagery that reminds us of that character, is difficult to not look at
this new character and feel like Dolores is not in there. And if I had to put a current
guess on what this all means, I would say that Christina and this version of Teddy must be some
sort of recreation of those Westworld figures, which are based of their original deceased selves.
The question that needs to be answered is who is in control of whatever this world is,
and when is it. The reason I question that is because a description of the Christina's World
painting is described as "a portrayal of a state of mind rather than a place". And that does
make me think that this is somewhere seperated from the New York City we are going to see
Halores in. We'll have to see, but I really love all the mystery and questions that this has
brought up surrounding what we are going to see unfold over the course of this season.
But what did I think of Westworld Season 4 Episode 1. Well, I thought this was a solid
re-introduction to this story using familiar but also new aspects too. Of course, there's still a
lot to pick back up on like with the characters we know are going to be featured in the next episode.
We've got all the questions surrounding Bernard, who potentially wakes up from the
Sublime in a future timeline. And we need to see Halores and host william to really get a
sense of their bigger plan and what grasp they have over this futurescape. But I think this
first episode does well at building the mystery of this new narrative and it really takes us
back to sort of journey we had in season 1. It definitely has the potential to grow and
really give us a meaningful and hopefully new evolution of these characters going forward,
yet also be one that keeps the core essence of Westworld intact. I like that they are actually
focussing on the humanity and the current struggles of these characters,
whether it be with Caleb's PTSD from his shared war with Maeve following
the collapse of Rehaboam or Christina's Dolores-esque questions towards the nature
of her reality. Coupling that with the sublime production and especially the score by Ramin,
and we've got an opening that seems like it will only develop as each episode arrives. And if that
trailer for episode 2 is any indication, we'll have some big developments taking place next
week. We'll have to see, but episode 1 definitely got me interested in where this
season's narrative is going to be heading, and I have many questions going into next week.
But that was my spoiler review and explained analysis for Westworld Season 4 Episode 1.
The Auguries is an episode that brings a sense of the familiar and unfamiliar all at once, making
us once again question the nature of reality in this show. While some of the dialogue and
moments of overly-quick cut to black editing hurt the pacing of this episode, the fascination
over the where and when with Dolores, and the future plans of Hale make me interested in
where all this is going in future instalments. The mystery is back and Episode 1 does a great job
of re-establishing the core themes and tone of Westworld from season 1 and 2. I'm excited
to see what they do in the next few episodes, but this is a good start when it comes to outlining
where certain characters are and what the season is going to be building on. I'm giving
Season 4 Episode 1 of Westworld a rating of 8 out of 10. I will doing a trailer breakdown,
predictions and theories video for episode 2 tomorrow, so keep a look out for that and stay
tuned to my channel each week for breakdowns on every episode of Season 4. But to those who
have already seen the episode, what are your thoughts on all the events that went down and
what do you think will happen in Episode 2? Let me know down below in the comments section.
For more videos on every episode of Westworld Season 4, then subscribe to the channel and
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