Westworld Season 4 Episode 4 Review: Back To Season 1 Glory!

Westworld Season 4 had started on an underwhelming note and I was the first one to point that out. The first two episodes of Season 4 felt like HBO milking one of their best shows past its living days. The show didn’t feel like it had a story to tell which was unlike Westworld as even if the quality of the show had dropped after a mind-boggling Season 1, it always had a story to tell over the season. Well, the first two episodes didn’t give us that impression. However, last week’s episode was a significant improvement over the rest of the season and for the most of Season 3. There was only one concern I had after the episode, whether the season will be able to hold on to the momentum it had just gotten. A week later we have the answer – Episode 4 just dropped and boy it blew my mind! Warning: The article contains massive spoilers for this episode.

Review Marathon – Episode 1 / Episode 2 / Episode 3

Rating – ★★★★

Does Westworld Season 4 Episode 4 Take Us Back to The Good Old Days?

Episode 4 begins where Episode 3 had left us. Caleb has been attacked by the flies, Maeve is fighting William’s host-self and Bernard and Stubbs are searching for a weapon with a girl named C, who is part of a rebel group. The episode further shows us flashbacks of the gaps between Season 3 and Season 4. How Maeve and Caleb destroyed the last Rehoboam. Caleb faced certain death in that operation but Maeve saved him. The episode further extends on this flashback and explains why Maeve had ghosted Caleb for seven years.

We cut back to Caleb, where Maeve is able to get him out of the lab and they take Charlotte with them as well. The episode shows them trying to escape the park but this time the humans in the park are all in control of Charlotte as whoever that visits the park becomes a carrier of the parasite. They try to stop Maeve and Caleb from escaping. However, they do and get to a remote location in the park where Caleb calls for his teams and Maeve is attacked by William. She sacrifices herself to keep Caleb safe and kills William (host) in the process.

In the real world, C convinces her group to go on an excavation to find the weapon that will help them solve the world’s crisis. She believes Bernard. Christina’s roommate Maya convinces her to go out on another blind date but before that she describes a haunting dream to her about how a horde of flies attacked her and her family. The date Maya has set-up for Christina is with Teddy. They share a good moment together but nothing happens after that in this track.

Now these seemingly disjointed stories connect in this episode. Just when Caleb is mourning the loss of Maeve, Charlotte asks him a bunch of questions that reveal Caleb died in that park 23 years ago as Caleb’s team never arrived it was Charlotte’s men. This timeline was 7 years later the events of Season 3 while the track of Bernard and Christina is set 23 years later. C who is with Bernard is Caleb’s daughter- Frankie. She wants to find out what happened to her father in that park.

The desert where they’re searching the weapon was the Delos Park which was since destroyed as Maeve blew up the whole place. The weapon Bernard is looking for is Maeve. Mind Blown am I right? I mean I was just talking about how Westworld has given up on multiple timelines and mostly tells a story linearly. Well you never leave your old habits behind and why would you if that is your biggest strength? Charlotte has taken over the world long back, this is a park of humans controlled by Charlotte.

It seems like Charlotte reconstructed Dolores and Teddy just as she told she’d reconstruct William. She is allowing Dolores to get her happy life with Teddy as she herself is Dolores’ clone and she wants her mother to have a happy ending? I don’t know but that seems likely. Also, the company Christina works for- Olympiad, it seems like they do write stories that act as narratives for humans just like hosts did in the park. The man Christina met in the first episode was a human who got his consciousness back just like the hosts did.

Verdict

Westworld Season 4’s twist reminded me of Stranger Things 4’s twist in episode 7 but also the William and the Black Man twist in Season 1. The episode felt a bit directionless and more so like the first two episodes at the start however, the last 15 minutes where it all merged into a well formed story redeemed the entire show. It finally brought Season 1’s glory back. For the first time after Season 1 I’m actually excited for a Westworld Season. It finally feels like the good old days of Westworld are back.

This episode felt like a Season finale as it has left us with such a big cliffhanger. The mid point of this season nailed it as finally gave the show something it desperately needed- a life. This episode is the best episode of Season 4 and one of the best in the entire show. I was worried the show is not going to follow through with the promise Episode 3 offered us. Well, it definitely followed through for this episode, actually topped it. However, I still worry about the same thing again. I hope the show makes great use of this twist. I so want to love it again.

Westworld Season 4 Episode 4 is a clear winner and 4 out of 5 stars.

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