Ha, wow, really? So when shot in the head, they're basically programmed to turn off? I can understand a shot to the head screwing up their vision or certain motor functions or whatever, but it shouldn't completely incapacitate/temporarily "kill" them. Especially once the hosts gained control of their own powers. That's so dumb.

A shot to the head more or less kills that body, but does not destroy the pearl. I think they made up some kind of "control unit" or something that can be damaged beyond operability. But when Teddy shot himself I think we literally saw the bullet pressed up against the casing.

But that's another thing that made this episode so weird. Hale and Maeve are clearly not permanently dead, which is fine I guess, maybe William just wanted them out of the way for a bit but not permanently gone or something, but it doesn't make sense that Bernard is.

TCTTS said:

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Ha, wow, really? So when shot in the head, they're basically programmed to turn off? I can understand a shot to the head screwing up their vision or certain motor functions or whatever, but it shouldn't completely incapacitate/temporarily "kill" them. Especially once the hosts gained control of their own powers. That's so dumb.

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It made sense when they were in Westworld, for the guest experience.
Not so much now

Exactly. I should have clarified better. I totally get it for the park. But after the hosts took over and took control of their own code, that should have been a thing of the past.

bobinator said:

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A shot to the head more or less kills that body, but does not destroy the pearl. I think they made up some kind of "control unit" or something that can be damaged beyond operability. But when Teddy shot himself I think we literally saw the bullet pressed up against the casing.

But that's another thing that made this episode so weird. Hale and Maeve are clearly not permanently dead, which is fine I guess, maybe William just wanted them out of the way for a bit but not permanently gone or something, but it doesn't make sense that Bernard is.

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Yeah, I vaguely remember that now.

But Hale explicitly warns Caleb that a shot to the head would kill him.

I think Hale specifically made Caleb easy to kill. I actually thought they were hinting that some his builds were meant to degrade quickly also.

Interesting.

Yeah…

Because we also saw Maeve recovered from a damaged pearl.

Also, glad to see William, who should be the most interesting character in the show, killed again with no personal growth or lasting effect on the plot. For like the 4th time in 3 seasons! Can't wait for host William to go out the exact same way!

Yeah she talks about the painful death over the course of a few days, and given the state of the other Calebs I thought that was kind of an indication that she was specifically making him so that he wouldn't actually be able to escape for long even if he managed it somehow beyond just her trap. But she definitely didn't outright say that.

This drives me nuts the more I think about it. We had the real William, still alive, who could have been used any number of ways, who is the one human most responsible for all events occurring on the show... Westworld itself, the state of the world today, the near-end of humanity, etc... all traced back to William's sins/actions. But instead of having him reconcile with any of that in any way, which could have been incredibly compelling going into the final season, they kill him off (for the third time!), and choose to follow the robot version of him, in the midst of a far less compelling identity crisis. It just makes no sense.

I guess this actually doesn't bother me that much. OG William was beyond redemption, but maybe new bot William is going to do something good. Evolve beyond the human he was based on, perhaps. I think that's potentially a halfway decent arc, at least compared to the mess every other character has going on.

I think William told us that there would be zero reconciliation for him. He's an evil SOB and actually wanted everything to die. He served his purpose

I didn't need OG William to be redeemed - like, at all - but I *did* want him to have to reconcile a bit more with what he's done. That said, I hear you, and I can get on board with the "evolving beyond" aspect, re: host William. It's just that right now it appears as if he isn't evolving beyond, but rather carrying out exactly what OG William wanted.

Yeah, that's more a prediction than anything we've seen yet. I just think there's still potential there. Unlike *gestures broadly*.

Yeah, I get that, but to what end? If host William is just going to become William, why not let the character just be... William? As in the OG human version.

I guess? Though I'm still confused if host William is another copy of Halores who eventually took on William's traits/tendencies, or if he was a *new* William who Hale made from scratch. Because those are two very different things, based on the history of the show.

TCTTS said:

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I guess? Though I'm still confused if host William is another copy of Halores who eventually took on William's traits/tendencies, or if he was a *new* William who Hale made from scratch. Because those are two very different things, based on the history of the show.

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I think that's a new William, based on human William but modified to be on the hosts side. OG William tells host William he has a piece of him inside him that's taking over. So my take is host William was created to be loyal to Hale but human William he's based on is taking over and winning now. End result is someone who doesn't give a **** about either side except himself.

Certainly it appears that the character arc this season for HostWilliam, and possibly the only character arc for anyone this season at all, is HostWilliam breaking free of Halores' control, going beyond the programming that Halores gave him, etc.

I'm reasonably sure that HostWilliam is going to turn out to be the "good guy" of this last episode.

On one hand, I think they are trying to say that every being is important, has meaning, can develop its own thoughts/personality, and it doesn't matter if they're a host or a human (though every human character we know is dead besides Frankie). On the other hand, it's confusing as a viewer and makes shooting Maeve and Hale in the head seem meaningless because we know that they can and probably will pop back up in the finale.

Horn honk to give away your location, rookie mistake

Maybe the best episode in a couple of years for me and much more in the tradition of when the show was good, But not nearly enough to save the season overall.

Anyone else still confused?

Rocagnante said:

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Anyone else still confused?

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Yeah, I have no idea wtf to think of that ending. I'm hoping some super smart folks will come along and lay it out for me.

What part didn't make sense? It seemed to make sense to me (beyond what we don't 'now about the season 5 set up if there is a season 5). But I could have missed something too.

I think a nice compromise would be a two hour movie next year to close it out. Honestly this entire season could have been I. Two hours if you got rid of all the needless fight scenes, circular plots etc.
But the basic concept of the only living memory of humans being in the hosts they created is interesting.

If it isn't renewed though I agree, they have no one to blame but themselves. Lots of lazy writing this year passed off as smart or slick.

oragator said:

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What part didn't make sense? It seemed to make sense to me (beyond what we don't 'now about the season 5 set up if there is a season 5). But I could have missed something too.

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Perhaps that is what im confused about. What this means for possible season 5 and if not the whole series. It was a loop? Also Frankie and the others make it out but Dolores is talking about everyone dying and playing a game in the sublime. I'm kinda like..uhh ok.

The final test is a redo of the original park? No humans left to go to the park, so is it just a simulation she's going to run in the sublime?