Westworld takes major steps forward with its Christina/Dolores mystery in season 4, episode 5. Here's every big reveal explained. Westworld season 3 concluded with Evan Rachel Wood's Dolores making the ultimate sacrifice, giving her life to liberate the human race from Rehobaom. Permanently killing a host is damn near impossible, but Rehoboam thoroughly wiped every last shred of data from Dolores' pearl, meaning the character Westworld audiences watched evolve across three full seasons had surely been lost forever.
Well, not forever, obviously. Evan Rachel Wood returns in Westworld season 4, this time as "Christina." A painfully normal city worker, Christina shares an apartment with a close friend, struggles with dating, and earns a living by writing NPC narratives for a video game company. Christina has no idea she's a host, and no memory of everything that happened between Westworld seasons 1-3. Christina's presence posed umpteen questions. Who created her? What purpose does she serve? And most important of all, what connection does Christina hold to Westworld's original Dolores.
Westworld season 4, episode 5 ("Zhuangzi") goes a long way toward answering all of the above. Teddy helps Christina finally understand the truth of her reality, while coffee with a surprise "friend" teases the secret behind Christina's creation. A reference to Dolores even links Evan Rachel Wood's two Westworld characters directly for the very first time. This is how Christina's plot thickens as Westworld season 4 begins spilling its beans in earnest.
Dolores Is Within Christina In Westworld Season 4
Westworld season 4's premiere episode showed Christina spit-balling game character outlines at her desk, dictating an idea that sounded suspiciously like Dolores' WestWorld persona - the innocent but aspiring country girl living with an "infirm" father. Christina's writing dropped an early hint that Dolores was rattling around somewhere inside her mind... and Westworld finally confirms as much with "Zhuangzi."
James Marsden's Teddy - who seems to have a pretty good idea of what's going on in Westworld season 4 - tells Christina to ask herself who she truly is, before admitting he's an "old friend" - two hints that Dolores and Christina are one and the same. Back at her office desk, a nagging seed of curiosity prompts Christina to search the name "Dolores Abernathy" on her system. Since this moniker has been scrubbed from all official records and isn't uttered by Teddy, the "Dolores" name must've surfaced from deep down within Christina.
When Evan Rachel Wood returned in Westworld season 4, opinions split over whether Christina was a reprogrammed Dolores, or a completely new character occupying Dolores' body. Christina's lingering memories of a "Dolores Abernathy" and her interactions with Teddy rule out the latter option, and Westworld must now explain how Dolores' code is still active. It's unlikely anything was salvaged from the original host Rehoboam destroyed, so maybe Christina is programmed from the "Dolores" bits of Charlotte Hale's code. Alternatively, Christina could be a modern-day version of Dolores' WestWorld base code, explaining why she remembers her wild west farm, but nothing later.
Christina IS Controlling Hale's City
Christina's stalker, Peter Myers, accused her of ruining his life by writing a video game story where he lost everything and jumped from a rooftop. Westworld then hinted Peter was telling the truth, as Christina appeared to mentally sway a group of construction workers at the abandoned Hope Center for Mental Health. Westworld season 4, episode 5 confirms this theory beyond doubt. Teddy demonstrates how Christina can control everyone in the city with a single thought by using two nearby strangers as an example of her power. Christina then discovers narratives she designed dotted all across the city, proving her NPC character stories were intended for use upon the human population.
Westworld hasn't explained exactly how Christina is controlling people, but her ability doesn't come across like the same sound manipulation technique other hosts use to make humans dance themselves to death or wait hours at a restaurant table. Even Teddy describes Christina as a "God," suggesting her power is completely unique. The control parasite must still be the root cause, but the larger scale of Christina's influence might be the key difference here. Charlotte Hale and the Man in Black can make humans do as they're told, but only on a localized level. Christina, on the other hand, seems to be dictating an entire population at once.
Hale Watches Christina (& Probably Created Her)
Whether or not Charlotte Hale knew a Dolores doppelganger was swanning around her city remained ambiguous before Westworld season 4, episode 5, but any uncertainty quickly lifts after "Zhuangzi" unveils Tessa Thompson's villain as the friend Christina planned to meet for coffee. Christina has clearly been programmed to believe she and Hale were roommates in college, but their regular catch-ups are actually a way Hale can check for abnormalities and warning signs. Is Christina developing subversive thoughts? Are elements of Dolores beginning to poke through? Has Christina deviated from her loop?
Charlotte Hale posing as Christina's old friend surely answers the mystery of Evan Rachel Wood's return. Hale must've created Christina using some remnant of Dolores to achieve domination over mankind - perhaps because Dolores was the only host powerful enough to enslave an entire population at once. Hale building Christina explains why searching for "Dolores Abernathy" triggers a massive system alert, since Delos absolutely would've ensured Christina couldn't discover her true identity. The theory also makes sense of Teddy's shocking revelation from Westworld season 4, episode 5's final scene. Christina asks, "Who built this? Who did this to me?" and Teddy replies, "You did." Marsden's character doesn't elaborate, annoyingly, but he's most likely referring to how Charlotte Hale began as a Dolores clone.
Teddy Is Definitely Sentient In Westworld Season 4
Despite less-than-subtle hints during his date with Christina, Westworld hasn't been completely transparent with regards to Teddy Flood's sentience upon returning in season 4. "Zhuangzi" definitively proves that James Marsden's charming (former) cowboy is fully self-aware, knowing exactly who he is, who Dolores should be, and plenty of other handy details besides.
The more important questions are why Teddy lives within Hale's city when he should be safely tucked away inside the Sublime, and how he knows so much about Christina. The way Hale impatiently tries to make Christina reveal the name of the person she met the night before strongly suggests Teddy isn't anything to do with Delos. Teddy could be a product of Dolores' imagination, but shortly before his date with Christina in Westworld season 4, episode 4, he shares a brief interaction with Maya, debunking that theory.
Given every detail Westworld season 4 has provided so far, the best guess is someone brought Teddy back from the Sublime. Maybe his purpose was to aid Christina/Dolores from the very beginning, or perhaps Teddy went through the "maze" process off-screen during Westworld's apocalyptic time-skip.
Westworld continues Sunday on HBO.