Westworld season 3 ends on an underwhelming note

Let’s be straight: we always knew this was going to be a difficult year for Westworld. The show began as a story about androids in a theme park going off the rails and murdering the guests…but what happens once you leave the park behind? What consequences would there be once the androids escaped into the real world?

Tonight, we found out in the Westworld’s season 3 finale, “Crisis Theory.” And while it had a few memorable moments, I can’t help but feel that the overall result was pretty underwhelming. Given that the episode clocked in at a hefty hour-and-sixteen minute, there’s an awful lot to talk about…but it was a far cry from Westworld’s best.

Last week’s episode, “Passed Pawn,” left us with some pretty big cliff-hangers, and the finale wasted no time in settling them. Unfortunately, the issues began right with that opening scene, as the camera pans around Dolores’ inert body to reveal that Caleb has cut open the back of her head and taken her pearl, saving her from falling into Serrac’s clutches after her duel with Maeve ended with an EMP blast.

How does Caleb have the know-how to even think to do that? While he’s displayed an aptitude for a variety of tech this season, there’s never been anything to suggest that he’s so savvy that he would know where a host’s consciousness is stored. You would think that sort of thing would be a Delos company secret or something.

But if Caleb was suddenly displaying a new skillset, the Man in Black was returning to the one he knows best. His crusade to kill all hosts kicks off with him shooting Stubbs in the chest, but before he can finish the job Bernard pulls out his handy Hulk-out switch and puts a stop to it.

It’s here that we’re treated to our first real twist of the episode, as a van full of what seems to be police officers shows up, headed by none other than Lawrence (Clifton Collins Jr.).

We got a glimpse of Lawrence in “Decoherence” when William was in the asylum, but it wasn’t clear if it was actually him or just one of William’s delusion. Tonight we found out that it really was Lawrence, and that he was likely there at the behest of Charlotte. He leaves Bernard with an ominous suitcase, which we later learn has a headset he can use to access the Sublime, where all the hosts who escaped at the end of season 2 are stored.

Photograph by John P. Johnson/HBO

With our two cliffhangers from last week handled, “Crisis Theory” quickly moves into the action-laden set-piece that makes up the bulk of the episode. After seeing Dolores passing as a human for so long this season, it was such a cool moment to watch Caleb find her old, metallic body. The special effects were top-notch here (I can’t be the only one who shivered when Evan Rachel Wood’s face closed together).

But if the special effects were memorable, the dialogue was perhaps less so. When questioned about her motives, Dolores quickly shoots Caleb down…and he just decides to go along with her yet again, this time to the Incite building with the goal of uploading a new strategy into Rehoboam that will ensure its downfall. In an earlier episode, this sort of an exchange might have been excusable…but this late in the season, the ambiguity was frustrating.

The pair’s flight through a rioting L.A. is engaging, but unlike some of the season’s tighter action scenes, like last week’s fight between Dolores and Maeve or the car chase in “Genre,” most of the action falls a little flat. It’s hard to tell what the root cause is — odd camera angles, exhaustion from watching Dolores kill yet more people with seeming ease — but for some reason the tension just wasn’t there the way it was in other action sequences. I was never actually worried that Dolores, Maeve or Caleb would make it through the scenes (relatively) unscathed.

Photograph by John P. Johnson/HBO

Of course, there were a couple of stand-out moments, like when Dolores catches Maeve’s sword with her arm, revealing the strength of her older, more robotic body, a relic from before hosts were made to be more human-like. Or when Giggles (Marshawn Lynch) takes a bullet for Caleb, seemingly going out in a heroic fashion that conflicts with the Rehoboam-predicted fate Liam Dempsey Jr. revealed to him in “Genre.”

The projection of Charlotte appearing to Dolores was another interesting development…but it’s also one that stretched my disbelief. I guess that Charlotte took the initiative to mess with Dolores’ old-school robot body in anticipation that one day Dolores would use it again? Some might call it foresight. Some might also call it a little over-convenient.

Photograph by John P. Johnson/HBO

Regardless of any distractions along the way, Maeve eventually takes both Dolores and Caleb captive and delivers them to Serrac. And the reveals come fast and heavy.

In a matter of minutes, we find out that the “strategy” created by Solomon in the last episode would have led to the extinction of humanity, that Dolores isn’t the one who has the key to the Sublime, and that Caleb had once received military training at Delos Park Five. As Dolores’ memories are eradicated, she hints to Maeve that her plan wasn’t just to convince “one man” to fight…but also to convince Maeve to help out too. I guess it’s beside the point that when Dolores set all this stuff in motion, she had no idea that Maeve had even made it out of Westworld. Maybe she just adjusted on the fly?

There was a lot to take in throughout this sequence…but it was hard not to feel like it was too little too late. Had some of these reveals been spaced out throughout the season, they might have had a little more room to breathe. As it was, it ended up feeling like each one was drowned out by the others.

Photograph by John P. Johnson/HBO

In spite of that, this scene also had another one of the episode’s best moments. It didn’t come as a surprise that Dolores finally managed to convince Maeve to side with her against Serrac…but man was it satisfying. Between Dolores and Maeve’s final conversation, the belated shock as Maeve realized she’d stabbed the guard next to her, and the artsy gunfight in the dark, it was an all but perfectly executed turn.

By that point, however, there was nothing more to be done for Dolores. Her memories completely erased, the sympathetic android that we’ve been rooting for ever since Westworld‘s first episode seemingly succumbs to death. That she sacrificed herself to save humanity from enslavement, that she chose to “see the beauty” in it, just added to power of her final moments. Whatever issues “Crisis Theory” had, Dolores’ last moments was not one of them.

It’s difficult to fathom how much the loss of Dolores will spiral outward and effect events. I find it pretty hard to believe that this is the last time we’ll see Evan Rachel Wood on Westworld…but I doubt she’ll be part of the regular cast anymore. Dolores has died plenty of times, but there was something about this one that felt decidedly final, regardless of any slivers of her consciousness that might have passed into Rehoboam.

Photograph by John P. Johnson/HBO

Dolores wasn’t the only casualty of the season finale, however. In a post-credits scene we’re given a last look at William as he storms into a Delos building in search of hosts to destroy. As he bursts into the basement laboratory, William comes face-to-face with not only Charlotte Hale…but a host of himself.

This William, arguably the original villain of the series, dies at the hands of a host copy of himself. There is no one person who has perpetrated as much violence against the hosts as William; it smacks of karmic justice. Unfortunately, it also makes his arc this season feel kind of irrelevant, since practically all of it was about his personal journey and had very little effect on outside events.

This end credits scene left me with one other eyebrow raising question: how is Charlotte Hale going about building her veritable army of hosts in a Delos building, when two episodes ago she was ousted as a host in front of the whole Delos board of directors?

On the bright side, seeing that Charlotte is in a position to potentially become a main villain next season sheds a lot more light on her actions leading up to this. Suddenly, murdering Hector and Musashi makes a lot more sense for her character.

Jeffrey Wright Westworld Official Photograph by John P. Johnson/HBO

One of the finale’s final twists is that the key to the Sublime is actually hidden in Bernard’s head, not Dolores’. The reveal that Dolores entrusted the key to Bernard is one part of this episode that made so much sense. Dolores tells Maeve that she couldn’t trust herself with the Sublime…but Bernard, who has long been against Dolores? Of course she would think he’s the safest one to entrust it with. Really, it shouldn’t have been a surprise at all.

Bernard’s quiet moment with Arnold’s wife might have been one of the best, most moving scenes of the season. In spite of all Dolores’ attempts to understand how humans and hosts fit together, Bernard is the one who truly seems to be coming closer to a true grasp of humanity.

For as many ups and downs as this season of Westworld has had, I can’t help but feel like it ended up being a lot of set up for future seasons, a bridge between the old Westworld and the new. Despite its handful of stand-out scenes, “Crisis Theory” ultimately left things on an underwhelming note.

Not unlike Dolores, it sacrificed itself so that future seasons might flourish.

Episode Grade: C+

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.

Get HBO, Starz, Showtime and MORE for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels