Westworld season 3 finale recap: Dolores saves humanity

The third season finale of Westworld, written by Denise Thé and Johnathan Nolan, offers everything we can expect from a high point in Westworld. Episode 8, titled Crisis Theory, releases a stream of revelations after revelations, twist after twist, which all lead to the literal end of the world.

Somewhere along the way we see a satisfactory turn in the relationship between Dolores and Maeve, the two finally get along. Maeve discovers that Dolores is not as keen on destroying humanity as it seemed. We also learn more about the fascinating Park 5 and why Caleb Dolores is the chosen one. Let’s dive into everything that has ended a huge season in Westworld.

warning: This summary contains all spoilers.

Dolores writes a “real” ending

We start with a brief summary of Dolores’ (Evan Rachel Wood) traumatic life in Westworld, where an Alice in Wonderland looking Dolores once saw the beauty in an ugly world. Now that she sees how little beauty there really is, she sets her ultimate goal: “I have died many times. But there is only one real end. I will write this myself.”

Stubbs is the first victim

Part of the cliffhanger last week concerned Stubbs (Luke Hemsworth), Bernard (Jeffrey Wright) and William (Ed Harris) in a stalemate with William holding the shotgun. Despite Bernard’s request, William blows a hole in Stubbs’ chest.

Bernard wakes up the hulk in himself with the button he hasn’t touched since episode 1 (a possible kidnapping of Ford who lived in his body last season) and smashes William to a pulp.

But instead of getting him ready, he lets William escape when Lawrence arrives. You will remember that Lawrence was a criminal who once helped the man in black find the maze and died at the end of season two, but Dolores clearly brought him back.

Lawrence lets go of Bernard and indicates that it’s finally time for Bernard to play the role Dolores wanted him to do. He gives him a suitcase and an address and tells him to look for “them”.

Caleb restores Dolores

Caleb (Aaron Paul) finds a white coffin in an empty building by following the instructions on an earphone. He opens it to reveal a property of Delo’s body bag. Inside a Westworld body of the old school for Dolores, along with a few weapons. Caleb pulls Dolores’ pearl out of the vagina, which he removed from her body at the Sonora Education Center.

She wakes up fresh as always, but Caleb demands that she reveal who she really is. Instead, she reveals more about him and his connection to Delos.

“Park 5”

Mysterious Park 5, according to Dolores, is a park in the Westworld designed to help the government train their soldiers with living goals. We see Caleb shooting a version of Lawrence there.

Dolores implies that Caleb and the other soldiers took advantage of the female hosts who saved them in training, the “spoils of war”. It implies that Caleb didn’t save her in the tunnel just because she needed help. He wanted her.

William goes to save the world

William, who needs a strong drink at this point, goes to get his money from his bank. He is rich after the Delos buyout. But since he was declared deceased, his resources were frozen. He requests that they be thawed and wants a list of Delos assets locations worldwide. Again he confirms that he will “save the damn world”.

Halores and Dolores compete against each other

On the way to Rehabeam to upload Solomon’s USB, Dolores and Caleb teamed up with a group that Dolores put together and paid them with Rico. The group enters the abandoned Incite station, where Dolores meets someone she hasn’t planned.

Halores, a vision in Dolores’ head, has revenge all over her face. Dolores recognizes Halores and her love for Charlotte Hale’s family, but Halores, who takes Dolores’ breakneck stance against her, denies that she cares for her family and is happy to drop off the sentimental baggage. Then she starts an attack on Dolores and her crew. The floor hisses with a hail of bullets from Halores’ armed men on the balcony above.

With her recruits lost in battle, Dolores has to face the rest of Halores’ thugs and instruct Caleb to accomplish his mission to upload Solomon’s drive to Rehabeam.

Dolores vs. Maeve

Dolores’ day is not getting any better. Just as she tries to escape, she hears the sound of Maeve (Thandie Newton) Katana. Thanks to Sebastian, Maeve has been restored and is still making Seracs (Vincent Cassel) Offer. Dolores begs Maeve to trust her, but Maeve doesn’t move.

Dolores pulls a great eye roll from Maeve and fights half a dozen thugs and hurls them over the side of a bridge to escape.

Maeve catches up with Dolores and accuses her of burning the world down and filling it with copies of herself.

“They are all copies of me,” replies Dolores. She was the first hostess to work. Delos built the rest, including Maeve, out of Dolores.

Dolores, who has enough of Maeve’s flimsy reasons to act against her at this point, overwhelms her and describes how it is up to people to decide what to do with the world. Instead of turning off her lights, Dolores leaves her to decide what to do “as long as you don’t try to stop me.” I’m not sure if this gives the general message of free will, but at least Dolores and Maeve seem to be on the way to working together.

But then in Another Twist, the picture of Halores reappears. Dolores is frozen by Halores’ new Maeve-like forces and extradited Maeve, who brings them to Serac.

Caleb infiltrates Incite with a little help

Meanwhile, there is chaos on the streets, the police and the counter-insurgency robots are in full swing. Fortunately, Caleb finds a friend in the form of Marshawn Lynch Giggles. “Excite” is on his shirt. He wallows in chaos.

You’re going to find Lena Waithes Ash. The people, led by Caleb, will shut down the system. Ash helps Caleb in a hovercraft, wrapped in ominous Blade Runner music and heading for Incite.

Stubbs lives

We still see Stubbs alive (right now) in the back of a car driving Bernard to the address Lawrence gave him. In the elegant suburban house, Bernard doesn’t meet Dolores, but an older Lauren who doesn’t know who he is. But he knows her from “another life”. Lauren was Bernard’s wife in a back story created for him based on Arnold Weber’s real wife. Seeing her, a character from his memories, arouses Bernard’s determination to fight for free will.

Dolores is affiliated with Rehabeam

Dolores wakes up in connection with Rehabeam, the data about the Delos immortality project in her head. But she still has the key and Serac threatens to destroy her memories bit by bit until she gives them to him.

Meanwhile, Caleb fights into Incite. But shortly before he can upload the USB data, Maeve appears, takes the USB stick from him and leads him to Serac.

Serac shows Caleb what Rehabeam says will happen when Solomon’s “strategy” is uploaded to Rehabeam: population collapse. Mass tragedy events.

Serac destroys the USB and every possibility of an uprising.

Maeve, who you know is swaying between Dolores and Serac, wonders if “it” – Serac’s god Rehaboam – ever intended to reunite with her daughter. She can hear it now, Rehoboam, whispers in Serac’s ear and tells him what to say. Rehabeam speaks in Serac’s voice – Serac is Rehabeam’s puppet.

Maeve changes her mind

Though she’s down to her last memories, Dolores is still struggling to give up the key. But Maeve discovers that Dolores doesn’t really have it.

Secretly, in a simulation by Westworld, in which Dolores relives their moments of love for William, Dolores and Maeve speak of their insights into human kindness that ensure that their people are able to create a better world after this was destroyed. This is a great moment for Dolores and finally confirms that Dolores from the homestead still exists somewhere in her head.

Maeve finally comes to a decision and takes out Serac’s bat and wound Serac.

Maeve reveals that Caleb never raped the hosts in Park 5. He decided against it. Dolores knows, because she was there, relieved that he helped them to be spared. So she wanted him to lead the revolution.

Serac calls Rehaboam for help but receives no response. Solomon’s approach was embedded in Dolores’ last memory that Rehabeam has now recorded. Solomon has now taken over the system. Caleb, now in charge, orders Rehaboam to delete himself.

Despite Caleb’s success, Dolores cannot be saved.

When Caleb and Maeve left Incite in the distance, explosions lit up the sky in an orange haze of destroyed buildings (Dolores probably had Lawrence set up the explosives) and signaled the beginning of a new world modeled on Pink Floyd’s brain damage.

Bernard has the key to the sublime

Bernard, who still keeps Stubbs alive, realizes that Dolores is gone. “We were always connected. Something has changed.” Bernard, now aware that he has the key to the sublime, decides to go there to find the answer to “what comes after the end of the world”.

He activates the encryption key with the device Lawrence gave him in the suitcase and sends his thoughts to the sublime as his body sluggishly collapses.

Post credits scene 1

Who else forgot William? We find him at Delos International in Dubai, where he harasses employees for the whereabouts of hosts, whom he says have also bred on this side of the world. He finds a printer along with Halores who has a new look, an arm and a charred sleeve to remind them of the horrors of humanity.

Then something earth-shattering comes: a copy of William, the man in black in the Westworld cowboy outfit, appears and cuts the real William’s throat open. A room filled with printers lights up, and her mechanical arms set Halores’ host revolt in motion. This new world of Dolores already seems to be under threat.

Post credits scene 2

Baked in dust, in the far future, Bernard wakes up again. He is still wearing the device with which he can enter the sublime, and his expression is not exactly lit or happy. Now it is time to speculate what he saw when he was there and what he will see now when he is outside.