Evan Rachel Wood's Dolores reappears as Christina in Westworld season 4 - here's why she might be trapped inside a Delos park. Poor Dolores didn't fare well in the final moments of Westworld season 3. Though she achieved her goal of liberating humanity, the oppressive Rehoboam AI system scrubbed every last piece of data from Dolores' pearl - the spherical brain that contains the "soul" of every host. This is tantamount to death for a Westworld robot, and by the time season 4 begins, everyone from William to Caleb believes Dolores perished that fateful day seven years prior.
Christina is a young woman who looks, sounds and acts very much like Dolores, but who dwells in near-future New York. The white bubble vehicles, communication earrings and glass cellphones are all in-keeping with technology seen throughout Westworld season 3, seemingly placing Christina's timeline somewhere around the show's present day (approximately 2060). Westworld lets audiences believe Dolores has been reborn during the seven years since season 3, then parachuted straight into a brand new life among an unsuspecting human population... but something is clearly amiss.
As red flags pile up, Christina starts questioning the nature of her reality all over again, but maybe the real problem is the world around her. Is Christina's home city actually a Delos Westworld park? Here's all the evidence, and what it could mean for Dolores in season 4.
Every Clue Christina's City Isn't Real In Westworld Season 4
The first - and biggest - clue that Christina's world is a Delos park comes during her walk to work. Evan Rachel Wood's character strolls past a group of men who audibly utter lines like, "I can't believe this is your first time" and "This place is f**king wild." Those are pretty lofty appraisals for simply walking down the street, but similar lines have been spoken previously... by guests visiting WestWorld. Immediately, this scene implies Christina's world is a fabrication, and she's just a background character... an NPC, if you will. Hammering home that very point, Christina's occupation in Westworld season 4 is programming NPCs for a video game company. There's an echo of irony when Christina describes her job during a date and valiantly champions the importance of NPCs for creating a realistic user experience...
Westworld season 4's second major hint is Peter. Stalking Christina's home and leaving constant phone calls, Peter is convinced Christina's video game scripts control his life, and holds her responsible for his tragic downfall. Christina's boss secretly confirms this is true, as he describes a project from several months prior where "some schmuck loses everything." Delos park narratives are usually written by human employees like Lee Sizemore rather than the hosts themselves, but perhaps Christina is subconsciously using the power Maeve developed in Westworld season 1, where hosts could be controlled via voice commands. Christina does record all her pitches out loud, after all. Intriguingly, Christina's boss demands she generate material filled with sex and violence... almost as if she's catering for the exact same clientele as WestWorld.
Westworld's ominous "Tower" mystery represents another huge clue that Christina's New York environment is synthetic. First glimpsed in sketches drawn by a homeless man Christina passes on her journey to work, the Tower's strange design is also echoed by the street lamps in this world - all miniature versions of the same distinctive shape. Thanks to Westworld's season 4 trailers, we already have a pretty good idea of what the Tower could be. Promo footage shows a full-size version of the homeless man's drawing (and the street lamps) looming over New York City. A second shot (almost certainly taken from inside the Tower's circular summit) then shows Christina encountering a red 3-D city layout eerily similar to the map from WestWorld's control room in seasons 1 & 2. Piecing the clues together, the Tower must be the central hub where everything inside Christina's world is regulated.
As if all that wasn't evidence enough, several snippets of dialogue from Westworld season 4's premiere foreshadow Christina's city being a Delos theme park. In her very first scene, Evan Rachel Wood's character describes a sensation of being "watched" to her housemate, Ariana DeBose's Maya. When the pair go out that same evening, Maya boldly proclaims, "Take a look at this, nobody wants easy... or natural." These words are like glowing neon signs pointing towards Westworld's New York being a secret park.
Why Christina Must Be In A Different Westworld Timeline
Let's assume Christina is trapped inside a Delos park in Westworld season 4. Why would anyone pay large sums of money to visit a recreation of a world that already exists? Delos has faithfully recreated the wild west, British-occupied India, feudal Japan, and the American prohibition - all periods of history that tickle guests' nostalgia. If Westworld season 4 includes a park based on 2050s/2060s New York, therefore, the real world must be at least 50 years ahead. Christina's city simply wouldn't be a worthwhile attraction otherwise.
One key detail from Westworld season 4's premiere supports the theory that Christina lives in the far future: hers is the only narrative that doesn't confirm a time frame. When William visits Hoover Dam, he mentions eight years passing since Dolores stole the Forge data in Westworld season 2, while Caleb's co-worker references a seven-year anniversary since the riots of season 3's finale. At no point does Christina or Maya acknowledge Rehoboam's downfall, the revolution, or anything that could pin down when these scenes are happening. Westworld has pulled this trick before, of course, with season 1 showing the Man in Black during both his innocent younger years and the present day.
Westworld has actually been threatening a far-future time jump since 2018, when season 2's finale showed a William host undergoing fidelity tests at a long-abandoned Forge underneath WestWorld - conducted, no less, by his dead daughter. As far as audiences know, this still hasn't happened in Westworld season 4's present. Another tease then came in season 3's post-credits, when Bernard awoke from the Sublime covered in dust. Jeffrey Wright's human-friendly host looked to have been sleeping quite some time, though season 4 hasn't yet addressed the character's fate. Maybe Westworld's Christina arc will finally pay off William's fidelity tests and Bernard's awakening by dragging season 4 into the future.
Who Made Christina's World, Where Is It & Why?
Christina's New York City being a Delos park would answer many questions, but pose even more - starting with who built it. Delos is currently owned by Charlotte Hale, a host evolved from a copy of Dolores, and she's accompanied by a robotic Man in Black. Westworld season 4's Hoover Dam scene proves they're now making moves, and possess the resources to make their ambitions reality. If any new parks get built in Westworld's future, this dastardly digital duo will almost certainly be responsible.
Westworld might've subtly revealed where the park is located already. When William meets the cartel in season 4's "The Auguries," the mobsters discuss how Delos has been busy purchasing useless scrub land around Arizona and Nevada. Large expanses of dry, seemingly-useless land are perfect for building new theme parks, so maybe Hale constructed a fake New York near Hoover Dam. Having said that, the Westworld season 4 trailer's shot of the Tower off New York's coast looked eerily like the real thing. Has New York City itself been transformed into a park?
The biggest question is "why?" Assuming Hale and William are the ones behind Christina's world, why would hosts be enslaving other hosts? One possibility is Hale using the NYC park as a prison for robots who reject her vision. The likes of Dolores, Bernard and Maeve all hold staunchly pro-human opinions, and turning them back into mindless hosts could be a punishment for dissension. Another explanation is that Christina's world is populated by both hosts and humans. Maybe the likes of Peter and Maya are genuine flesh-and-blood humans, trapped within a theme park for the entertainment of robots (the group of men Christina walked past, perhaps?) in a 180-degree flip of Westworld's origins. Any troublesome hosts are then thrown into the park to unknowingly perform admin functions... like writing narratives for the NPCs.
Westworld continues Sunday on HBO.