It’s been two long years, but Westworld is finally back for season four.
And, as per usual, you might be left scratching your head wondering what just happened in
the season four premiere.
But don’t worry, this video will breakdown everything that happened, and offer up some
theories for what will happen going forward.
Who is Christina?
What is the Man in Black doing?
We’ve got you covered.
The episode starts seven years after the season three finale, with the Man in Black attempting
to purchase a giant server lab housing the secret location of the Sublime.
Also known as the Valley Beyond, that’s the idyllic host utopia Dolores uploaded Teddy,
Akecheta, and several other hosts to in the season two finale.
When the cartel who owns the lab refuses to sell the lab to the Man in Black, he uses
an army of flies to control the cartel leader, who then kills his men and turns over control
of the lab to William.
And don’t forget, this version of William is actually a host working for Charlotte,
who herself is an evil host-copy of Dolores.
The real William had his throat slit at the end of season 3.
Whether this host version of the Man in Black was created based on the original’s mind
or was actually a different host, like another clone of Dolores, has yet to be confirmed.
Charlotte and William also send an army of hosts to kill Caleb and Maeve.
You might recognize the man who attempts to kill Maeve as Brigham, a soldier from the
Confederados seen in season 2.
The host who attempts to kill Caleb is Walter, one of the milk loving hosts who repeatedly
murder Dolores’ parents in her season one loop.
Last we saw Maeve and Caleb, they were teaming up following the death of Dolores to help
liberate humans and hosts alike.
Rehoboam had been destroyed, and humanity had discovered they were living in their own
predetermined loops.
After rioting and overthrowing Rehoboam and the company Incite, humanity now had free
will.
While Caleb’s new co-worker doesn’t think all that much has changed, we see that couldn’t
be further from the truth for Caleb.
Rehoboam had written him off, restricting him to a dead-end job with no real future
prospects, predicting he would soon commit suicide.
But now Caleb was happily married and raising a young daughter, proving that life could
be better when humans were allowed to think and act for themselves.
We also catch some glimpses of Maeve and Caleb’s adventures in the intervening years, including
what looks to be a pretty serious injury for Caleb.
I wouldn’t count on this setting up a future twist where Caleb is revealed to be a host,
as it’s very important for the series to have an actual human character amongst its
ensemble of hosts.
And that leads us to the final, and most important storyline of the premiere, following the newly
introduced Christina.
Christina looks a lot like who we know to be Dolores.
Dolores was killed at the end of season 3, when her mind was deleted while the villainous
Serac looked for the key to the Sublime.
That key, as a reminder, was secretly placed in Bernard’s mind by Dolores before her
death.
So, who is Christina?
Well, there seems to be three possible options.
One: that Christina is a human that looks like Dolores.
Two: that Christina is a new copy of Dolores, but without her memories.
Or Three: Christina is a new host in a body modeled after Dolores.
That third option has the least interesting narrative possibilities, so we’re going
to push that one to the side and focus on the first two.
So let’s dive into Christina’s story from the premiere to really analyze this.
We are first introduced to Christina waking up in bed, framed exactly the same way as
when we were first introduced to Dolores in the season one premiere.
We are then introduced to Christina’s roommate, Maya, who asks Christina which shoes she should
wear, white or black.
This is a similar question posed to guests at Westworld, who are asked whether they want
to wear a white or black hat.
Notably, Christina chooses the white, and therefore heroic shoes.
The world around Christina appears to be an idyllic and almost utopian vision of the future.
While walking to work, Christina passes by a group of strangers who marvel at the sights.
One stranger says he’s never been here before, and another says there’s an area they need
to see.
These lines evoke a lot of the same sentiments guests felt when entering Westworld for the
first time.
Human or host, it certainly feels like Christina is living in a brand new, city-sized park.
Futureworld, perhaps?
And if it is a park, is it even a physical one?
Or could it be a virtual park that guests could enter, similar to the Valley Beyond?
Christina works as a video game writer, with the stories she’s writing echoing the life
of Dolores.
The first story we hear her tell is that of a young girl caring for her father, and longing
for romance and adventure, an obvious callback to Dolores’ life as a rancher’s daughter.
Christina’s boss later remarks about a story she wrote involving a poor schmuck who lost
everything and drowned his sorrows by stalking a girl, resulting in everyone dying.
You might recognize that as the story of William.
Christina specifically writes storylines for the non-playable characters.
The type of characters that the players can attack, befriend, kill, or romance with no
regard.
You know, like the hosts in Westworld.
Throughout the episode, Christina receives several calls from an angry stalker named
Peter, blaming Christina for the events of his life and asking her to help change it.
He also references “the tower”, which seemingly controls him and the other residents
of the city.
Eventually, Peter attacks Christina, slicing her arm before an unseen stranger saves her.
The next day, Peter kills himself.
As the episode comes to a close, it’s revealed that Christina’s savior was now watching
her.
And that savior just so happened to be Teddy Flood.
So, is Christina a human?
If you believe the showrunners, Dolores is dead, and if you believe actress Evan Rachel
Wood, Christina is a human.
If Christina is a human, it’s likely this entire storyline takes place in the past,
pre-dating the opening of the Westworld park.
Christina’s job as a video game writer would likely lead to her being hired by Robert Ford
and Arnold Weber to write storylines for the hosts, and those storylines would turn into
the story of Dolores Abernathy.
And from there, Arnold would have based the design of Dolores on her writer.
The title of the premiere episode is “The Auguries”.
The definition of augury is a sign of what will happen in the future, or an omen.
Could the art, Dolores, be imitating the life of Christina?
But there are a lot of other elements to the episode that point to the showrunners and
Evan Rachel Wood lying to hide the season’s biggest twist.
Christina being another clone of Dolores has a lot of evidence to back it.
It seems likely she’s living in a park.
Arnold basing Dolores off of Christina’s likeness is one thing, but also basing Teddy’s
likeness off of Christina’s real heroic savior feels like a bit of a stretch.
And then there’s all of those hallmark park elements we’ve seen in Westworld.
Not just the choice between white or black shoes, but also the image of the maze drawn
on Christina’s balcony, either by Teddy or Peter.
But why is there a new version of Dolores without her memories?
Well, Charlotte and William are on a mission to gain access to the Sublime.
Thinking Dolores has that key, Charlotte could have created a new copy of Dolores and set
her on a new storyline, hoping to somehow jog her erased memories.
The arrival of Teddy could be a cruel trick by Charlotte to help further jumpstart those
memories, or Teddy was sent by Bernard, the one who actually had access to the Sublime.
Upon discovering this new copy of Dolores, Bernard could have recruited Teddy from the
Valley Beyond to save his old love.
So, what do you think?
Is Christina really a human, or is she another copy of Dolores?
Let me know in the comments below.
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That does it for me in this video, but I’ll see you in the next one.