Caleb lost Delores but wins the war - Maeve join the revolution [ Westworld Season 3 Episode 8 ]

Описание: Caleb lost Delores but wins the war - Maeve join the revolution [ Westworld Season 3 Episode 8 ]
Delores is destroyed by Serac.
Westworld Season Finale Recap: The New World
‘Westworld’ Season 3 Episode 8 Recap: A Grand Finale
Westworld season 3 finale recap: Apocalypse now

Westworld season 3 ended in a rather Westworld-ian way: By hitting its narrative control-alt-delete keys all at the same time for a potential re-re-reboot of the story for next season.

There were fistfights and gunfights and discussions about fate and free will and a lot of walking across pedestrian bridges at night.

The bottom line is Dolores got what she wanted, just like we always assumed she would: Her master plan was executed, uncoupling humanity from Incite's AI ball and bringing about the beginning of the end. Dolores did have a change of heart, however, and decided to once again see the beauty in the world, just like her original rancher's daughter programming mandated, and she explains that's why shutting down Incite won't bring global destruction necessarily because she believes humanity is perhaps capable of finding a better path. But everybody else on Westworld — and certainly the show itself — seems to continue viewing humanity in rather cynical terms: We're pretty horrible, so let's root for the robots. And certainly, those exploding skyscrapers after the AI ball switches off suggests that if we have enough technological power, everything goes to hell if we're left to our own devices for 10 minutes.

The finale comes at an interesting time amid the current pandemic. We see protesters in the HBO drama wearing face masks and the show seems prescient. And we are right now in the middle of the sort of "mass casualty event" the AI ball speculates will happen if we're alone left to chart our own course. And if you're a cynic, there are certainly recent headlines you could cite to make the case that humanity is indeed quite bad. But there has been far more evidence lately of mankind's civility. The vast majority of people have rapidly embraced an entirely new social contract, radically different patterns of behavior, in order to protect themselves and others around them -- look Westworld, we've broken our loops! Early in the pandemic crisis, there was a rush on gun stores by those fearing a surge in civil unrest, and some of the wealthy headed for isolated areas and bunkers. But during the last couple of months, crime has declined dramatically around the world. As Steven Pinker's 2011 book The Better Angels of Our Nature documented, humanity has been gradually getting less violent and chaotic over time, even though (and perhaps because of) our ability to document and share what's going wrong in society with others has dramatically increased (granted, much of our progress is due to the control systems we have put in place — such as law enforcement and a justice system, which are arguably primitive versions of Serac's AI ball — but since humanity collectively and largely democratically decided to put those systems into place and have kept them going, I'd argue that still counts as a win).

But, in general, even now during this crisis — and actually because of the crisis — I think Westworld underestimates the human side of the equation. Another pop culture reference that keeps coming to mind when watching this season is what Brad Pitt's idealistic David Mills said to Morgan Freeman's world-weary cynic William Somerset in Seven. Somerset kept saying he was quitting the police force because he couldn't handle the bottomless evil of its nameless rainy city, to which Mills replied: "I don't think you're quitting because you believe these things you say. I don't. I think you want to believe them because you're quitting. And you want me to agree with you, and you want me to say, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're right. It's all f---ed up. It's a f---ing mess. We should all go live in a f---ing log cabin.' But I won't. I won't say that. I don't agree with you. I do not. I can't." Of course, we all know how Mills' story turned out.


Westworld season 4 will be back in 2022, assuming the Hollywood production machine can resume in a relatively timely fashion. Maybe our current global event will be a distant memory by then, or perhaps we'll still be dealing with the medical and economic fallout. But I won't predict that we'll all be dramatically worse off than we are now. I won't say that. I don't agree. I do not. I can't.

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