Westworld season 4's Christina plot shares many an eerie parallel with Neo's story from The Matrix Resurrections - here's why. Evan Rachel Wood's Dolores debuted in Westworld as a host on the verge of sentience, and after escaping from her theme park prison in season 2's finale, she helped liberate humanity from the evil Rebohoam AI. Dolores gave her life in pursuit of this goal, but not just her artificial body - her soul, memories, and sentience were all systematically deleted. Evan Rachel Wood returns regardless in Westworld season 4, now enigmatically known as "Christina."
Much remains unknown about Westworld's Christina mystery, but she appears to live an ordinary existence in the modern world, completely oblivious to her robotic former identity. Christina has a housemate, a job, a stagnant social life, and a fear of dating, but her story is rife with parallels to 2021's The Matrix Resurrections.
Westworld and The Matrix are, in many ways, natural bedfellows. Both rest upon a man vs. machine premise, both play on a duality between real and illusory, and both obsess over artificial intelligence enslaving humanity. While HBO's TV series and the Wachowski sisters' sci-fi movie franchise both share a wheelhouse, however, Westworld season 4's parallels to The Matrix Resurrections are easily the most obvious yet. Here's why Dolores' story is pretty much Neo's from The Matrix 4.
Dolores & Neo Are Both Reborn Heroes Trapped Inside Fake Lives
Westworld's Dolores and The Matrix's Neo each start their journeys from similar beginnings. Both are plucked from mundane obscurity to become powerful revolutionaries, ultimately giving their respective lives to liberate humanity from machine enslavement. Neo sacrificed himself to free mankind from the Matrix; Dolores offered hers to bring down Incite's controlling Rehoboam algorithm. Any number of fictional protagonists fit this mold, but the comparison becomes way more specific in Westworld season 4...
In The Matrix Resurrections, Neo is mysteriously revived under the pseudonym Thomas, living a regular city lifestyle completely ignorant to his true nature. In Westworld season 4, Dolores is mysteriously revived under the pseudonym Christina, living a regular city lifestyle completely ignorant to her true nature. Both heroes should be dead, but are returned to their franchises under new, non-heroic guises without immediate explanation.
The Westworld/Matrix 4 duality grows stronger still, as Christina and Thomas each influence their environments. In The Matrix Resurrections, Neil Patrick Harris' Analyst uses Neo as the foundation of his new Matrix. The One is literally sustaining his simulated environment. Although Westworld hasn't yet revealed how Dolores returned or who's responsible, Peter (the stalker) accuses Christina of unknowingly controlling his life. Wherever Christina might be in Westworld season 4 - a Delos park, a simulation, real life - she possesses some deeper connection to her environment.
Dolores & Neo Both Make Video Games Based On Their Former Selves
Had Westworld season 4 stopped peeking at Lana Wachowski's homework there, the crossover might have gone unnoticed, but Christina's fictitious occupation makes the comparison impossible to deny. When The Matrix Resurrections introduces Keanu Reeves' Thomas, he's working for a video game company called Deus Ex Machina, and has turned Neo's exploits into a best-selling video game. Everything Neo experienced in the original Matrix trilogy is a virtual fantasy in this fake world. Westworld season 4 pulls virtually the exact same trick with Dolores' Christina, who works for Olympiad Entertainment - also a video game company. Just as Thomas transposed Neo's adventures into digital fodder, Westworld's season 4 premiere ("The Auguries") sees Christina pitch a story where a girl in her late teens lives at home with her "little infirm" father dreaming of a bigger life - a description identical to Dolores from Westworld season 1.
In both instances, old memories are bleeding through the new personalities because Neo and Dolores' consciousnesses are still rattling around, but these visions are misinterpreted into fiction. As in The Matrix Resurrections, Westworld's protagonist feels a discomfort she can't quite place, becoming increasingly suspicious that something's amiss. Neo's inner conflict was mistakenly attributed to his mental health, and Dolores gets the same diagnosis from a date in Westworld season 4.
Westworld even borrows elements from Jonathan Groff's Smith. The iconic villain features in The Matrix Resurrections' simulation as Deus Ex Machina's CEO, and demands Thomas write another "Matrix" video game because that's what the studio wants. Though Christina's boss (probably) isn't a villain in disguise, he does demand she write violent, sexy, action-packed stories because that's what consumers want. Neither Neo nor Dolores is happy with their narrow creative brief.
Teddy's Westworld Return Mirrors Matrix 4's Trinity
The Matrix Resurrections is essentially a love story between Neo and Trinity. Keanu Reeves' character awakens first, and embarks on a mission to trigger the same identity epiphany within his former love. Westworld season 4 appears to be heading in exactly the same direction with James Marsden's returning Teddy. Both were protagonist love interests in their former lives and, like Trinity, Teddy appears in "The Auguries" having mysteriously defied a prior death. Roles are somewhat reversed in Westworld's version, however. Whereas Neo awoke first in The Matrix Resurrections, Teddy appears to have attained sentience in Westworld season 4. Instead of Neo doing his best to help Trinity remember her true self, therefore, it seems Teddy will be working his magic on Dolores. Nevertheless, the basic principle of one resurrected lover helping the other rediscover themselves remains intact.