Westworld Season 3 Episode 7 starts with..
Musashi..
-Sato.. -lores – his mind is a copy of Dolores, his body is Musashi’s from Shogunworld,
and he’s pretending to be a Yakuza boss called Sato . Musatolores sends a package
to a mysterious “friend” in a mysterious “location” . We know there was communication
between “Jakarta, Berlin, San Francisco, and Los Angeles” – Dolores and Martin-lores
were in LA, Charlotte-lores was in San Fran, Musashi-lores is now in Jakarta, so maybe
this “friend” is a Dolores copy in Berlin.
Maybe Musashi is working with him to create more hosts with that white goo.
But whose body does this Berlin host have?
Musashi refers to him as male, so maybe he’s Teddy, or maybe Lawrence – it looks like
his actor may return this season . So the fifth and final Dolores copy could be..
Lawrence-lores.
Charlotte-lores betrays Musashi by leaking his location to Hanaryo and Clementine, who
were printed by Serac last episode to help Maeve kill the Doloreses.
Charlotte is angry at Dolores for risking her life , and says she has her own “plan”
now . But last episode, Charlotte and her family were blown up by Serac – so why would
Charlotte help Serac kill Doloreses?
Maybe Charlotte thinks that Dolores killed her family.
Maybe Serac turned Charlotte against Dolores, just like he turned Maeve against Dolores.
Or maybe this isn’t even Charlotte.
Last episode, Charlotte was burned.
Now, she looks partly healed, but the lighting is dark and weird.
Maybe this is just a hologram, or Charlotte is somehow controlled by Serac.
Musashi-lores is killed by Hanaryo.
This is personal for her.
Because Hanaryo was allies with the real Musashi in Shogunworld.
So it’s horrible for her to see her friends’ face being worn by Dolores – he “desecrated”
the real Musashi’s “image” . Hanaryo takes Musashi-lores’ head.
And we know Charlotte-lores has Martin-lores’ brain.
So maybe there’ll be a reunion of all the Doloreses .
We see Clementine acting normally, which is weird.
Cause in Season 1, Clementine was lobotomised, her brain was wiped, and she was later programmed
to be a mindless death zombie.
And in Season 2, the host backups in the Cradle were destroyed . So how was Clementine restored
to her normal self?
Do she and Hanaryo really have free will here, or are they pawns being used by Maeve and
Serac?
This episode is called Passed Pawn, and it’s all about control.
Dolores and Caleb go to Mexico.
Cause it turns out that that blood “tracker” in William last episode?
– its purpose wasn’t to track William – he’s just in San Francisco – its purpose
was to hack into computers there to find [the location of] this other facility in Mexico
, where Dolores and Caleb go [to recover Caleb’s memories and find Solomon] .
Caleb casually reveals that he knows that Dolores is a host who killed a bunch of people
in Westworld . He mighta worked it out when he saw Dolores get shot, and he mighta seen
the news about the Westworld massacre.
But he seems really relaxed about the fact that his new pal is a murderous robot.
He asks her what her revolution is about , and Dolores says that she just wants a place for
the hosts to be “free” . She says Westworld was based on this wild west landscape – that
while “The West was… cruel, unjust, and chaotic”, it also had hope and freedom . Dolores
wants land and opportunity for her people , just as American settlers looked for land
and opportunity.
But just like the settlers, she brings violence and death as well as hope.
Caleb questions how many people will die for her revolution .
Dolores tells Caleb to be a leader – she wants him to carry out her plan of revolution
. But Bernard says this plan will actually “destroy humanity” . So Dolores is manipulating
Caleb – using him to lead humanity into slaughter.
Which connects to a similar scene in Season 1.
Dolores tells Teddy that farmers control herds of cows with a “Judas steer” – you control
the Judas steer to lead the herd to the slaughterhouse . So Caleb is that Judas steer, leading humanity
to its doom.
While Bernard is trying to protect the humans – like he tried to help a cow in Episode
1 . Dolores uses a fancy gun with a target-spotting
drone to kill some guards and get inside the facility.
This is the same facility that we saw in a flashback – it’s where Serac takes unpredictable
people called outliers, and edits them to make them more controllable . Caleb starts
to remember that he too was edited here.
Dolores came here to find Solomon.
Solomon is an earlier version of Rehoboam, the AI supercomputer that controls the world.
It was created by Jean Mi and Serac, but Jean Mi became “mad” , “chaotic” , and
“schizophrenic” – and his computer Solomon became unstable like him . So Solomon was
replaced with the more orderly Rehoboam.
Solomon recognises Caleb, because Solomon knows potential futures from his data projections.
But Solomon’s not sure what’s real – if this is “now”, if this is “here” . Back
in Season 1, Dolores asked herself the same questions, when she was becoming conscious
. So Solomon’s ‘instability’ might actually be his path to consciousness.
Co-showrunner Jonathan Nolan has talked about leaving a mind in a box until it goes insane,
and how that insanity might have truth to it – which is basically what’s happening
to Solomon.
It seems that Solomon doesn’t directly know what’s happening in the world anymore, it
can only guess what’s happening based on old predictions . It’s kinda like Plato’s
allegory of the cave, where someone can’t see reality directly, they only see shadows
of a simulated reality . If one escapes the cave, they can see real world directly – like
how Dolores and Maeve have escaped Westworld.
The season premiere alluded to Plato’s cave, with this crazy guy shouting about “Shadow
people” , and seeing “the light” . Dolores says that she and Solomon are alike
– they’ve both considered obsolete technology . And they’ve both been trapped and controlled
. Dolores once had an explosive in her spine that would go off if she tried to escape – which
is why she touches the back of her neck here.
And Solomon is trapped by the threat of an EMP that’s set to disable him if he tries
to leave . But Solomon rejects Dolores and says they’re nothing alike . The same thing
happens later when Dolores tries to make peace with Maeve, and Maeve says they’re “nothing
alike” . Turns out, it’s hard to make friends when you’re an extremist robot in
a revolutionary war.
All Dolores has are enemies, and allies who she uses for her plans.
We learn more about Serac’s reconditioning program.
He takes “outliers” who don’t fit into his system, and gives them AR therapy to “reprogram”
them , make them controllable and predictable . With most of these patients, the treatment
doesn’t work , so Serac has them frozen in this facility – thousands of people kept
in stasis, just like cold storage in Westworld, where malfunctioning hosts go . Humans are
controlled like hosts.
And the centrepiece of this place is the frozen sarcophagus of Jean Mi, Serac’s beloved
brother who he failed to reprogram and “fix”.
Solomon speaks with Jean Mi’s voice, and has Jean Mi’s personality.
So Solomon is like a machine version of Jean Mi, in same way that Bernard is a machine
version of Arnold.
Ford’s loving yet controlling relationship with Bernard and Arnold is similar to Serac’s
loving controlling relationship with Jean Mi and Solomon.
A hologram of Serac explains that he hopes to reprogram all these frozen people so they
can rejoin society as compliant cogs in his machine.
To do that, he needs “the right set of genetic information” to improve his reconditioning
therapy – and that’s why Serac needs the key to the human data in the Forge – he
wants to use the data to fix all these people and reunite with his brother, so everyone
lives in a perfect world under his control.
It’s a pretty positive motivation for a supervillain.
But as Caleb said, he’d rather live in a chaotic world than be controlled by Serac
. Caleb finds out that his life is a lie . Ten
years ago , Caleb and his friend Francis were in the army.
They fought in the Second Russian Civil War , which was mentioned in a trailer.
They assassinated Russian insurgents by tracking them with high-tech glasses and radioactive
markers , then dropping missiles on them from space – which seems much more messy and
expensive than just shooting someone, but whatever.
Caleb believes that his squad was attacked by insurgents, with the same tracking and
bombing technology , and that Caleb and Francis were hurt.
Then, Caleb believes he and Francis captured the leader of the insurgents , but they were
ambushed and Francis was killed . But turns out, that’s all bullshit – these are false
memories put into Caleb’s brain in Serac’s reconditioning facility.
The truth is, after Caleb was injured in that earlier attack, Caleb and Francis went back
to America , and were trained to hunt down other outliers – other people who don’t
fit Serac’s system . The Rico crime app is actually controlled by the system , and
it’s used to direct agents like Caleb and Francis to capture other outliers, so they
can be either reconditioned or kept in the freezers, or killed . Francis had a sick kid
, just like Caleb has a sick mother – maybe the system uses sick loved ones to keep people
poor and desperate and working for the system.
Caleb and Francis wear these many-eyed masks, which might be meant to confuse face recognition
tech, but it’s also appropriate since they’re working for the all-seeing Solomon or Rehoboam.
It turns out this insurgent leader wasn’t in Russia at all – he was actually a pharmaceutical
executive who asked “too many questions” , so the system had Caleb and Francis capture
him . And Francis wasn’t killed by insurgents – the system decided that Caleb and Francis
knew too much , so it turned them against each other , and Caleb killed Francis . So
Caleb’s life story and his trauma is a lie . The system manipulated him into killing
his friend, and used him to hunt down outliers for years.
And we see from his timeline that the system even made him break up with a partner.
Even his army memories might be fake.
Because just as Caleb is programmed to believe that insurgents killed Francis, he’s also
programmed to believe this earlier attack was done by insurgents . Would Russian insurgents
really use the same tracking tech and space missiles that the Americans have?
Maybe this attack was actually Americans attacking Americans – just as like the system turns
Caleb against Francis.
Maybe it’s like in 1984, where all wars are fake – orchestrated by the system to
control everyone.
There’s also this unexplained memory of Caleb shooting someone in America.
And it’s still not explained when Caleb got shot in the head before . Or exactly why
his mother doesn’t recognise him … So there are still mysteries in Caleb’s past.
Dolores gets Solomon to use its data and algorithms to make a plan “for revolution” – to
end Serac’s control of the world . In his fury, Caleb agrees to carry out this plan
– but he doesn’t really know what it does.
Solomon tries to explain and “warn” Caleb, but they run outta time . So what does this
plan really do?
If Bernard is correct, the plan is to “destroy humanity” , and Dolores is using Caleb to
wipe out his own species.
It’s like in Halo, when an AI gets the hero to follow a plan that would actually wipe
out humanity . [Spoilers.]
Whatever the plan is, Dolores is using Caleb, just like Serac’s system used Caleb.
He’s always been a pawn.
But this plan could give him power.
The title of this episode is Passed Pawn – in chess, that’s a pawn that’s on track to
potentially become a queen, the most powerful piece.
So maybe Caleb can escape control and win the game on his terms.
Caleb hears instructions from Dolores’ virtual assistant – telling Caleb how to follow
her plan . But maybe Caleb will start listening to his own voice.
In Season 1, Dolores followed Arnold’s voice, until she realised she was following her own
inner voice all along . Maybe Caleb will also find his own voice, achieve freedom, and stop
being a pawn.
Bernard says Dolores wants to “destroy humanity” , but it’s probably not that simple.
Dolores has said that she wants to take over the real world for the hosts . But Musashi-lores
says she’ll also build a “new world” “for the others” . So maybe she’ll take
over the real world for hosts, and will build a digital simulated world like the Sublime
for people like Maeve and her daughter.
Maybe Dolores will upload humanity into that digital new world.
A “revolution” is circular motion – if the hosts get the real world, and humans get
a fake one, they will have gone full circle from Season 1.
Or at least one-eighty.
Dolores has also said she wants to start a “new species” . Maybe she’ll create
a hybrid species that’s part host and part human, like Bernarnold.
Bernard is important to Dolores’ plan.
So this plan may be more than just destruction.
Maeve arrives to attack Dolores.
Dolores doesn’t want to fight , but Maeve is mad that Charlotte-lores killed Hector
, and she’s worried that Dolores might use the key to the Sublime to mess with her daughter
. Maeve has also been threatened and manipulated by Serac.
Serac turned Maeve and Dolores against each other just like he turned Caleb and Francis
against each other , and he turned Charlotte against Dolores.
This is why Serac is so powerful.
He doesn’t need to fight his enemies – cause with his data, he knows how to make his enemies
fight each other . Maeve brings a knife to the gunfight, but
she also brings a drone gunship, and she hacks into a robot to attack Dolores, just like
the robot Maeve hacked in Episode 2.
The fight has a sorta Western showdown vibe, until Dolores’ arm is shot off by Maeve’s
gunship.
Just before Maeve kills Dolores, Dolores activates the EMP.
An EMP is an electromagnetic pulse that can disable electronics – so Maeve and Dolores
and Solomon all go down.
We don’t know if this causes permanent damage, or if the hosts just need to be switched off
then on again, or blown like a Nintendo cartridge.
We also don’t know how this affected all these frozen popsicle people.
Are they gonna thaw out and die?
Or will they wake, and rise up, an army of angry outliers to fight Caleb’s revolution?
Like in Season 1 when the cold storage hosts rise up in revolution.
This whole season is basically a repetition of Season 1 – but instead of hosts, it’s
humans escaping control.
Bernard is two steps behind Dolores, as always.
He finds out about Serac’s reconditioning program – apparently when the treatment
fails, and outliers are put in stasis in Mexico, they’re officially listed as missing or
dead . That’s what’s happened to William – he’s now officially “deceased”,
which offends William – he claims to be a “bastion of society” . Once, William
was a “Titan of industry”, a “Philanthropist”, and “Family man” . But now, his family
is all dead, Serac owns his company, and William is “deceased” . He’s lost everything,
so what’s left?
Bernard finds that Caleb is an outlier, and recognises Caleb from the party in Episode
4.
So he and Stubbs decide to chase after Dolores and Caleb.
Weirdly, the patient ID on Caleb’s profile is the same as William’s ID.
Is this a production error, or is there some connection between the two?
Some folks on Reddit have noticed similarities between William and Caleb . They play similar
roles in the story – in William, Dolores finds human evil and no free will.
Maybe in Caleb she’ll find human good and the capacity for change.
William sees the chaos caused by Dolores’ data leak.
And William’s excited to see this anarchy and violence . All through Season 1, William
wanted Westworld to be free and chaotic, with “real violence” and real consequences
. So he was excited in Season 2 by the bloody host revolution.
Now, the whole world is full of chaos and violence, which William thrives on.
William says that his greatest sin was helping create the hosts – because he funded Westworld,
years ago.
And so, William says his new “purpose” is to “wipe out” all the hosts . William
is such a fundamentally destructive person that his idea of redemption and being “the
good guy” is host extinction.
Violence is all he knows.
William’s character represents the obsolescence of humanity – he’s basically irrelevant
and useless, and only good for hurting others and himself.
So what purpose can he serve in the story other than to self-destruct?
So will Dolores’ revolution destroy humanity?
Will Caleb be a pawn in her plan?
Will Maeve reunite with her daughter?
What’s Charlotte’s plan?
And what happened to her dog??
All will be revealed - hopefully - in the finale.
After this season of Westworld, Alt Shift X will make more videos about the Game of
Thrones books, and we’ll cover new series like His Dark Materials, and Dune.
His Dark Materials is a story about polar bears, witches, evil Catholics, and parallel
dimensions, and Dune is about space politics, philosophy and giant sand worms.
These are all classic books, and you can get any of them on audiobook for free right now
by signing up for a trial with Audible.
Members get an audiobook each month, and if you cancel, you keep the audiobooks.
You also get unlimited access to Audible Originals each month.
Sign up at audible.com/asx.
Thanks for watching.
We’re holding a Season 3 finale livestream right after the episode, at about 10:45pm
Eastern Time Sunday.
Patreon supporters can watch livestreams after they’re broadcast.
Thanks to Patrons Lucas P, Evan Shaulson, Gustav Schilling Spanget, Colleen O'Hara,
Isabel Xu, Brian Donald , Lina Johnson, and ABSOLU7E.
Cheers.