Westworld season 4's penultimate episode marks the biggest bloodbath since season 2's park massacre - but will any of these deaths actually stick? "Metanoia" almost feels like a season finale, with Westworld's protagonists launching a multi-pronged assault upon Charlotte Hale's Tower. Bernard and Maeve unlock the Sublime, Stubbs and Frankie rescue Caleb, and Dolores takes Teddy on a destructive tour of her former workplace. Bernard then records a mysterious video message while Maeve distracts Hale.
Somewhere along the way, the Mandroid in Black (a host programmed using William's cognitive scans, but not a hybrid like Caleb) breaks bad by betraying Hale and triggering one last command to humanity: mass violence. As chaos erupts, Ed Harris' host - now wearing a black hat to cement the transition - stabs his flesh-and-blood counterpart in the chest before shooting Thandiwe Newton's Maeve, Tessa Thompson's Hale and Jeffrey Wright's Bernard in quick succession. All four remain offline when Westworld season 4, episode 7's credits roll, but death is notoriously impermanent in Westworld. Are any of this unlucky quartet actually dead?
Beginning with the MIB's first victim (and the episode's sole human casualty), William takes a blade straight to the chest. He's left unconscious and bleeding heavily, but Westworld hints the nihilistic grump is somehow still alive. When Frankie stumbles across William's cryo chamber, she tells Stubbs, "We need to help him, get him down," clearly implying William isn't quite dead yet. Although Stubbs convinces Frankie to walk away, William is a natural cockroach who already survived a slit throat at the end of Westworld season 3. Anything less than a decisive kill surely won't finish him.
Are Maeve, Hale & Bernard Dead In Westworld?
A bullet to the head typically won't kill a host in Westworld. These robots were designed to be used and abused by rowdy wild west guests, and while the bodies need to be rebuilt after every messy demise, the inner pearl - the brain of the host - is protected by a tough casing. Bernard, Dolores, Teddy and numerous others have survived head-shots because their pearls were salvaged from broken bodies. In past Westworld seasons, crushing or wiping the pearl has proven the only surefire way to kill a host (and Christina proves even that doesn't always work).
Westworld season 4, episode 7 casts doubt upon the non-effectiveness of head-shots when Hale gloats, "A seven-gram bullet to your pearl WILL end you." Seven grams is fairly standard bullet weight, so William's gun shouldn't be significantly different to other weapons in Westworld. Hale must mean that a bullet to the pearl would knock a host offline, but the spherical unit would still be recoverable (she also says, "Next time I might not bring you back.") Maeve, Hale and Bernard should, therefore, still be savable. The stumbling block is that somebody must retrieve said pearl, repair it if necessary, then find a new physical body for that disembodied host.
The abrupt nature of Maeve and Hale's deaths also suggests they'll return in Westworld, and Maeve's chances of survival are especially good, with Caleb, Frankie and Stubbs all liable to revive her. The only death in Westworld season 4's "Metanoia" that maybe feels permanent is Bernard's. His goodbye with Stubbs and final vision of Charlie create an emotive farewell that implies this might be the last audiences see of Jeffrey Wright in Westworld. The decisive blow here probably isn't the head-shot, but Bernard's body getting caught in the Tower's detonation, which could destroy his pearl fully. If Westworld season 4 has proven anything, however, it's never count any character out completely, no matter how much damage they suffer.
Westworld continues Sunday on HBO.