‘Westworld’ will be back, but where it goes after that finale is anyone’s guess
“Westworld” finished its third season on Sunday night, with HBO having announced plans for a fourth year of the show last month.
For those viewers who have found themselves wondering where the science-fiction series could possibly go from here — sticking with it more out of morbid curiosity than genuine enthusiasm — don’t worry, you’re not alone.
Executive producers Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy’s ambitious reboot of Michael Crichton’s creation has formally escaped the adult theme park, as various key players pursued parallel storylines this season that eventually intersected in the closing hours.
But the show has become increasingly incomprehensible, at least for anyone not willing to put in the work trying to remember all the assorted connections, further complicated by the fact that dying in “Westworld” is often not a permanent state of affairs, amid the questions about who’s truly human and who actually isn’t.
The finale, for example, seemingly spelled the end — again — for Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood), while setting up an uncertain future for Maeve (Thandie Newton) and Caleb (Aaron Paul), who emerged from the climactic confrontation into a chaos that the former described as “a new world.”
“Westworld” derived its interest in the early going from questioning the very nature of humanity, turning the tables to explore the issue of a new species of artificial intelligence from their perspective, casting the humans who manipulated them as the monsters.
That sort of clarity has been lacking in the seasons since, as the show careens from one violent episode to the next. Moreover, the nature of the key characters and their ability to keep returning tends to undermine the drama.
Given the long lapse between the second and third seasons, the series probably won’t be back for quite some time. In announcing its renewal, HBO stated in regard to the producers, “We can’t wait to see where their inspired vision takes us next.” (Like CNN, HBO is a unit of WarnerMedia.)
“Westworld” has exhibited a bold willingness to keep reinventing itself, including this year’s addition of Caleb as well as the mysterious trillionaire Serac (Vincent Cassel), who drove much of the story.
A fourth season is seemingly going to require another significant overhaul, and a core audience will probably be there for it. Still, if that doesn’t sound particularly appetizing after all the confounding twists up to this point, feel free to take yourself offline.
