Westworld – Season 4 Episode 8 Recap, Review & Ending Explained

Que Será, Será

The world is burning. Gunshots echo off the desolate walls while Host and Human alike lie dead on the floor. Welcome to the season 4 finale of Westworld!

With millions of Hale’s mind-controlled humans on the loose, the Hosts are being picked apart. A man up on a rooftop uses his sniper to try and thin out the numbers, eventually taking some car keys… and killed at the hands of William. It’s winner take all and, naturally, the man in black is coming out on top.

What does Charlotte Hale do after returning?

Meanwhile, over at Hale tower, Charlotte is brought back by a couple of her workers. She’s dead-set on tracking down and stopping William. The first step to doing that is understanding what he’s done to Hale City, which is currently burning and a play ground.

On top of the tower, things aren’t faring much better and her voice controls no longer work either. She’s been locked out of the city. Charlotte interestingly finds the video from Bernard too, telling her that this is the world she’s created. And he has one more game for her. “I hope you can accept that.”

How deep does Christina’s narrative go?

As for Christina, she notices a mat out on her balcony of the familiar maze sigil. She realizes that someone has put that there for a reason and that her moves have been orchestrated from the beginning, guiding her to this step. And that person? Christina herself.

She deduces that a part of her needed to make sense of herself so she created several characters of her own volition that weren’t actually part of Hale’s city, including her own flat mate. The reason for this stems from a need to branch out from Hale’s tyrannical grip, forcing Christina to create stories for her. These people happen to be a manifestation of her own subconscious.

As the world starts to crumble and the lights turn off, Christina is determined to stop Charlotte, believing this to be her world. However, Hale takes the core of the city from the 3D blueprint – one of those familiar little orbs we’ve seen before – and takes off through the city, seeing the devastation first hand.

Hale arrives before William, the one who was stabbed, and is approached by Clementine. She’s decided to leave and head off for the Outliers. Charlotte lets her go and wishes her luck.

Meanwhile, Stubbs and the others begin heading down to the docks, wanting to get a boat out of town. Caleb is struggling though, with his body breaking down.

What is William’s end-goal?

As for William, he’s on the hunt for the Sublime, killing anyone that stands in his way. He does manage to communicate with Charlotte though via some holographic glasses, pointing out that this was always a game but he’s cranked everything up to expert level. He doesn’t care if the Hoss are outnumbered, he just wants to play.

Speaking of which, Clementine shows up at the spot Caleb and the others are hiding out, patching each other up and taking a breather. Stubbs is killed for his efforts, while Clem follows a trail of blood to Frankie. She wants the location of the Outliers but Caleb shows up and the pair wrestle. Thankfully, Frankie manages to use her remaining bullet to kill Clementine.

What happens at the dam?

All roads lead to the Sublime, and thankfully that huge rip in the sky is a big enough beacon to bring William and Charlotte in. The latter has “evolved” with metal plates essentially serving as a bulletproof vest. Well, I guess a bullet between the eyes will suffice for her then!

As the pair engage in a game of cat and mouse, darting around the dam and trying to gain the upper hand, determined to kill the other, things escalate further.

And then, Charlotte runs out of bullets. William gives chase but she presents herself to him and points out that this isn’t the world she wanted. William lets his guard down but Charlotte has a trump card. Help from Bernard. It turns out he actually planted a pistol for her to find. She grabs it, kills William, and destroys his core.

Does Caleb go with Frankie?

Frankie and Caleb make it to the boat, but the latter decides against joining his daughter. “This is as far as I go.” Caleb says. He knows he’s dying and that her real father has been dead for a long time. He’s resigned himself to his fate, and is grateful for the opportunity given to see her grow up. “I love you dad,” Frankie says, and hugs her father goodbye.

As for Charlotte, she closes the portal over to the Great Beyond and instead, uploads a version of Dolores/Christina into the mainframe, whose codename is “Storyteller”. As we cut across to our protagonist, we see that actually, Teddy was just a projection too and he was never really there with her.

What is Christina/Dolores’ next move?

Christina awakens with a start, sitting up in bed, as Dolores happens to be there with her. She tells Christina that they’re a reflection of the people who made them. She believes that Teddy is in the Great Beyond.

After watching the Humans in Hale City, writing narratives and experiencing the best and worst of Westworld, Christina realizes there’s one more test she needs to conduct; a dangerous game that involves her remembering and going deeper than she’s been before.

How does Westworld season 4 end?

In the wake of this, we cut across to Charlotte Hale who releases herself, take the core from her own face and crushes it into rubble.

Now embracing her Dolores persona, Dolores heads out through the desolate wasteland of the city, passing numerous dead bodies as she does. She’s determined to survive and make it to the end.

“There’s time for one last game. Survival or extinction.” It’s going to end where it began, in a world that’s like a maze and testing who she really is. And as the fragments of the city peel away, we’re back in what appears to be Westworld. “One more loop around the bend.” She says. “Maybe this time, we’ll set ourselves free.”

The Episode Review

Westworld comes to an end with a cerebrally charged and enticing final chapter. All of our characters reach their dramatic crescendos, with Caleb deciding to stick around, Charlotte killing herself and Bernard gone. All that appears to be left now is Dolores/Christina, who conjures forth Westworld in an attempt to find herself – and the real Teddy.

This fourth season has definitely been a return to form for Westworld after season 3’s plotline and there’s certainly a lot to like with this. Personally, episode 4 has been the best chapter of the bunch; a shocking hour of TV that beautifully captures the essence of Westworld.

Since then, the show has moved into the second phase of this narrative, with all our characters desperate to find out the truth and set themselves free in one way or another.

It would appear that season 5 is going to answer these big questions and wrap everything up, but given the low ratings of this season – and Warner Bros’ recent spate of ruthless cancellations – it’ll be interesting to see what happens to this one.

Either way though, Westworld bows out on a high.