There was no tale left other than to return to the park since Westworld had gone so huge with its robot apocalypse and even bigger with the idea that mankind was at an utter end. Reduce everything once again to something more compact. Give us more Westworld. The tale went so far beyond the park from the first two seasons (despite keeping it in the title) that this season and the one before it included new parks, merely to keep things seeming connected. It was almost funny how far the story traveled. Since there was no turning back from last week, “Que Será, Será” didn’t provide any huge surprises, but it nevertheless worked well as an “aftermath”-style climax that led us to the next and ostensibly last phase of the narrative.
The centerpiece of “Que Será, Será” was Hale’s confrontation with William in the penultimate episode, Caleb and Frankie’s flight, sorrowful farewell, and at finally Dolores’ actual significance in all of this. Although it was unimpressive, the Christina/Dolores revelation felt perfect. It wasn’t too difficult to deduce that she had dreamed up Teddy to help her awaken (particularly after they showed that she had also made Maya, her cruel employer, and even paranoid Peter), but that didn’t stop the feeling of the moment and the romantic moments between them from working. This is really the time their relationship has received the most attention. Dolores’ realm was technologically isolated from the rest of the world, which was the broader realization at play in this situation. A little circle of spirits had formed around her like a ghost.
It revealed that Bernard was communicating with Hale and that this message made Hale become a de facto hero for this last act, or if you will, a Maeve substitute. The pistol Bernard hid last week at the dam was in reality intended for her, and she was now on the prowl to prevent William from snatching the Sublime into his homicidal hands. As we left off, Dolores was in charge of a gigantic Westworld simulation that was located inside the Sublime. This simulation served as a “last exam” for both humans and hosts, or perhaps only the hosts because there isn’t really any way to get any people inside, am I right? As far as we can tell, though, the stories that are told in this new park will determine whether sentient life, rather than necessarily human life, gets to continue.
Stubbs came so close to success, damn! Last week’s episode included a slight but amusing surprise when Bernard died and Stubbs survived since Stubbs thought he would be the victim. It certainly seemed like he might survive this week, but Clementine clobbered him very rudely. Look, Stubbs was never a fully developed character. He was initially a blank slate before changing into the individual who was rolling his eyes at Bernard, but the fact that he had survived the initial purge last week offered promise. However, that is finished now. Even if Clementine never had a fully formed personality, at least she made one scary move before everything was said and done.
While also serving as a reminder of Jonathan Nolan’s love of David Bowie and Radiohead (which we already knew from Person of Interest, even though Nolan didn’t end up using “Heroes” in the POI finale), the use of music at the end of this final two Season 4 episodes really helped ground the story and give these lengthy chapters a landing spot. However, the musical rendition of Radiohead’s “Pyramid Song” by Ramin Djawadi (Game of Thrones, Person of Interest) was exquisite (pun intended!). It would be better musically if humans were to cease to exist. Again, having a song and a gloomy narration helps wrap it all up when there is a lot going on in the plot and the stakes are life or death.
