Oh, you thought just because Westworld’s third season ended, we wouldn’t have any wild-yet-completely-plausible theories to obsess over during the show’s hiatus?
The world is on lockdown. Productivity is a thing of the past. Showers have become optional and months of the year are now 80 days long. We have nothing but time when it comes to falling down the Reddit theory rabbit hole and since Christopher Nolan and Lisa Joy are taking a break, we’re writing our own premise for season four.
Here are some hypotheticals we’re working with. As always, get your bullshit meter back online.
1. Dolores Is Only Kind Of Dead
The show’s third season ended with Dolores Prime sacrificing herself to save the world, having a quick heart-to-heart with Maeve before Rehoboam erased her memories, effectively killing her … for good. It was heartbreaking and bittersweet and exactly the kind of stakes the show needed to introduce in order to justify the chaos of season three. But, let’s get real for a second, this show is not going to throw away an actor as talented as Evan Rachel Wood. Luckily, Westworld’s already laid the groundwork for Wood to come back in some form — but it probably won’t be as the enlightened hero she went out as this season. Remember, Dolores still exists, at least partially, in her clones which include Charlores, Lawrence, Mushashi, and Connells (their pearls haven’t been shown to have been destroyed so we’re going to remain uncharacteristically optimistic). And though Maeve seems like a good choice to lead Caleb in this restoration of humanity project, eventually those two will need Dolores’ help in dealing with the enemies she created this season. We’re guessing she’ll pop up a few episodes into season four in some capacity, though don’t expect her to be as “woke” as she was at the end of this episode.
Read the full thread here.
2. Charlores’ Revenge
Tessa Thompson really put in work this season, first playing a confused and terrified clone of Dolores before shifting into one of her more dangerous adversaries. Halores was meant to infiltrate Delos and prevent Serac from buying the company, but she struggled with the influence of her host and the emotions tied to pretending to have a son and husband that she loved. Eventually, Halores chose them over Dolores’ plan and her reward was watching as her family became barbecued casualties of the bigger war. That trauma forced Charlores — look, we don’t make up the nicknaming rules, we just respect them — to effectively disassociate herself from her emotions. She popped up in the season finale a colder, more bitter version of herself, one intent on destroying humanity and manufacturing a robot rebellion. There were serious Wyatt vibes being thrown off by this new iteration of the character and that, coupled with the show’s crazy after-credits scene seems to suggest Charlores will be the big bad next season. Again, that would necessitate a Dolores comeback — who better to face off against her than herself? — but it’d also give Thompson more time on screen and present an interesting dilemma for Caleb in this new world he’s trying to build.
Read the full thread here.
3. Return Of The Gunslinger
The Man In Black has had one of the more complex and, let’s face it, confusing storylines this season, first going mad trapped in his mansion, conversating with his dead daughter, then being forced out of his own company and sent to a reprogramming center. There, he confronted past versions of himself, eventually killing them all and emerging as the Man In White. His mission: kill every host and save the f*cking world. Well, it didn’t turn out too well for this heroic version of the character, but Ed Harris is probably happy with where Nolan and Joy seem to be taking William next season. Now that his clone has killed off the character’s human iteration, it looks like he’ll be taking a decidedly darker path to reshape this new civilization — one that sees him act even more ruthlessly than before and all in the name of Charlores’ master plan. Well, it does if you believe Reddit.
Read the full thread here.
4. Aaron Paul Is Out / Bryan Cranston Is In
Look, by the thickness of dust currently coating Bernard’s body, a lot of time must have passed between the events of season three and what’s to come in season four. Now, the show could solve that problem by presenting multiple timelines so that Aaron Paul’s character can simply look the same, or they can age him up with make-up. Still, he can’t live forever so if we’re wanting to jump even 70 years in the future, it seems like Caleb’s mortality might present a problem. We don’t have an answer for how the show should handle that to be honest, but if Paul doesn’t want to sport the prosthetics, Reddit knows who should take his place. After all, Westworld and Breaking Bad do exist in the same universe. This is a confirmed fact.
Read the full thread here.
5. Stubbs In The Tub
Stubbs has really been through it this season but if we take into consideration just how terrible the show has treated him, we’ve got to assume he’s still in that damn motel tub, probably rotting away because the ice has melted, screaming “Eff you, Bernard” because his “friend” couldn’t be bothered to stitch him up real quick before taking a decades-long nap. #JusticeForStubbs
Read the full thread here.
