With season 4 of Westworld on the horizon, the HBO series has plenty of questions it has yet to answer. In the show's three previous seasons, showrunners Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy have not shied away from giving Westworld a convoluted plot and timeline, challenging viewers to figure it all out. From major character deaths to looming conflicts, the show's next chapter will be rife with unresolved matters from season 3.
Created by Nolan and Joy, Westworld premiered in 2016 and has since gained a large following, as well as critical acclaim. The Emmy-award-winning sci-fi drama draws its inspiration from Michael Crichton's 1973 sci-fi movie of the same name and revolves around an American-Western-themed amusement park where humans are free to indulge their every desire without consequences. Westworld's core events occur when the human-like robots populating the park — known as "hosts" — begin deviating from their scripts. Seasons 1 and 2 of the show focused on world-building, as its main characters explored themes of human consciousness and free will.
Westworld season 3 brought a different atmosphere to the show in that it mostly took place in futuristic Los Angeles rather than limiting the bulk of its setting to the wild west theme park as was the case in seasons 1 and 2. At the end of season 3, Westworld left off with Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood), Maeve (Thandie Newton), and Caleb (Aaron Paul) coordinating to erase Engerraund Serac's (Vincent Cassel) omniscient AI known as Rehoboam, while The Man In Black (Ed Harris) ceased to exist as a human. While it resolved the aforementioned affairs, season 3 also posed new mysteries for viewers to ponder ahead of the show's next outing. With Westworld's season 4 currently in production and expected to premiere in 2022, here are the most prominent questions that need answers.
Will Evan Rachel Wood'sDolores Return?
A burning question on many viewers' minds heading into Westworld season 4 surrounds the shocking death of Dolores in the season 3 finale "Crisis Theory." Lifeless after destroying Rehoboam, and in turn, erasing her existence, the character of Dolores (as the show's audience knows her) appears to be gone for good. However, showrunner Nolan implied in an interview for Variety that Wood is slated to return to Westworld in a different role. Therefore, it's likely that Dolores' likeness will return in Westworld season 4 with the conscience of another character. This would be fitting, given the series' frequent use of doubles. At the end of season 2, Dolores made numerous copies of her conscience and implanted one of them in Charlotte's host body. As Dolores' conscience continues to operate in the body of Charlotte, she may attempt to reconstruct Dolores as a host once again and dedicate her to her cause.
How Will Host Man In Black Fit Into The Storyline?
The human version of William, also known as The Man in Black (Ed Harris), was in a hallucinatory state and remained institutionalized for much of season 3. William was killed in the Westworld season 3 finale (during the post-credits scene) by a host version of himself, which also implied that the host in question was a creation of Charlotte's. What exactly lies in store for the character's new persona remains to be seen, but all signs indicate that host William will collaborate with host Charlotte in her plan to take over society by creating an army of hosts, continuing what Dolores started.
What Are Charlotte's Plans?
The human version of Charlotte Hale has been deceased since season 2's finale "The Passenger," but her host implanted with Dolores' consciousness, commonly referred to as Halores, currently serves as the architect of the hosts' plan to overrun humans in the real world. In the Westworld season 3 finale's post-credits scene, Charlotte was revealed to be manufacturing more hosts to assemble an army with an all-out battle between the hosts and regular humans looming. That, coupled with Charlotte's reversion toward her titular character's memories instead of her supposed Dolores persona, make her future development particularly compelling, hinting at a major shift in host Charlotte’s character. Westworld has yet to reveal Charlotte's next move, which will be an intriguing development in season 4.
What's Next For Caleb?
Westworld season 3 introduced Caleb Nichols as an unstable war veteran and occasional undertaker of criminal heists. The show initially kept Caleb's existence as either a human or host under wraps. In episode 7 "Passed Pawn," it was revealed that Caleb was the human product of a reconditioning effort to eliminate societal outliers like himself through mind control, effectively making him a hybrid. After erasing Rehoboam, Caleb now has free will, which positions him to have a key role that could lead him to meet with host Charlotte.
What Happened To Maeve's Daughter?
Ever since Maeve became self-aware in season 1, she has been on the search for her lost daughter. After turning down the opportunity to escape Westworld in the season 1 finale "The Bicameral Mind" due to her conviction to find her daughter, Maeve was at last reunited with her in season 2, episode 6 "Phase Space." Later in episode 7 "Les Écorchés," she sees her daughter taken away by Ghost Nation warriors, who attacked Maeve. In season 3, Maeve made a point to find her daughter once again, but the show has not made it clear where exactly that conflict stands. Considering new factors, such as Caleb's freedom and the incoming clash between humans and hosts to come, Maeve's quest for her lost child will be a lot more complicated in Westworld season 4.
What's Going On In The Parks?
Westworld season 3 traded the open landscape of the American West for the more futuristic backdrop of 2052 Los Angeles. In doing so, the show strayed from its origins and left its audience in the dark concerning the theme park's current state. Although no longer essential to the show's plot, given that nearly all the major characters have escaped to modern society, the confines of Westworld remain a core foundation of the series' premise. Additionally, there are other Delos theme parks in Westworld, such as Shōgunworld, War World, The Raj, and Park 5 — which the season 3 finale revealed had been used by the U.S. Military for training exercises. It's up to Westworld season 4 to further explore the mysterious theme parks and provide answers on what has happened to the locations and their characters.