Westworld (Season 4 Finale), Episode 8 Recap & Ending Explained: Welcome back to Westworld. The finale is in the books. The episode’s title comes from the Doris Day and Frank De Vol song with the lyrics following the three-word title saying whatever will be, will be. Akin to episode six, in yet another Interstellar throwback, it could be seen as Murphy’s law, i.e. whatever can happen, will happen. It’s just like the message reaching a family member after a while in ‘Fidelity’, i.e. another little something from Interstellar.
Going for whatever can happen will happen, Que Sera Sera provides the possibility of a loop. Or more like a desperate attempt to get another season. Some may look at Westworld’s finale in this manner. The makers left a massive carrot to ensure that the story feels incomplete and opens the door for an extension.
Westworld (Season 4 Finale), Episode 8 “Que Sera, Sera” Recap:
The season finale kicks off with a glimpse of a street in ‘The City’. It is littered with bodies and automobiles are ablaze. The hosts/humans are no more, as the flies aren’t even entering them. Flies usually do, but these are genetically superior ones that don’t see a host structure to invade and turn. Two people hide behind a wall with the woman wanting to go for help. The crazed man rebuffs her, calling what has transpired “awesome.” He brags about his kills and says he can take them. However, he takes an ax to his head. She gets shot, and her killer bites the dust as well. Thanks to William’s commands, the park has become a Hunger Games meets The Condemned, meets The Purge. It’s Open Season with even William taking part.
Back at the base of ‘The Tower’, droids retrieve Host Charlotte’s remains from the pool and restore her. She requests to retain her face and her scars, as she wants a memory of the past and wants William to see her when she kills him. Hale also demands that she be made stronger. Charlotte then visits ‘The Tower’ and realizes she can’t override the tone that drove her perfect world insane.
Host Charlotte picks up the tab and sees a message from Bernard. He informs her that Maeve and he are dead and says that the world isn’t her desire but her creation. The big question is- What happens next?
Christina/Dolores and Teddy walk on the streets below her apartment. She voices out loud that she is a program, a machine running things sans a body. However, as has been the case, Teddy steers her and says that the effect she can have is real. Christina wonders who left ‘The Maze’ on the balcony. Teddy informs Christina that Dolores used it to discover consciousness. Realization dawns and Christina understands that she left ‘The Maze’ there for herself, created her roommate, and spoke to herself in others’ voices at Olympiad Entertainment. This lent weight to her powers that got displayed in episode 7 (Metanoia). Re-watching the season to pick up on this will have great value as the creators will have undoubtedly dropped clues that audiences will pick up on as they know the end goal.
Back at The Tower, Bernard, in the video, reveals that there is only time for one more game. But not Hale’s game. She has a moment and then stomps on the 3D display of the city. It vanishes, leaving the individuals in complete darkness. Hale keeps stomping and retrieves a pearl. Whose is it?
Caleb, Frankie, and Stubbs rush to hide. Stubbs identifies an issue with Caleb, one that we should have remembered. He was set to fade within a few days. However, he wants to make it back to the boat just for his daughter.
Hale heads to the imprisoned William’s chamber and finds him dead. Clementine returns and learns that she, too, will be fodder once she steps out into the world. Is she someone who just wants to be done with all this? Or is she still Hale’s agent? That remains unclear as Charlotte locates William and programs hosts to go after him. The Host in Black is ambushed but doesn’t go down without a fight. He kills his assailants and then has a chat with Hale. They are on a race to ‘The Sublime’.
An unknown host comes inside the structure where C, Caleb, and Stubbs are hiding. Stubbs tries to reason out with him, but is told if he doesn’t make the kill, someone else will. At this point, he gets shot in the back of the head and Clementine enters the fray. She kills Stubbs and corners Frankie. Clem wants to know where they are going to get off the grid, but a defiant Frankie remains steadfast and refuses to divulge the information.
Caleb enters the fray and fights with Clementine before getting overpowered. At her mercy, Caleb 279 gets a lifeline when Frankie reveals she had a bullet left and sends it straight into Clementine’s head. Looks like they finally know where to shoot.
We then switched to Dolores with a different screen. The four corners were in black as we saw her in the walled garden. Christina believes that people dying is her fault as she chats with her roommate. However, she realizes that she is the one who can control stuff and change what has happened.
Westworld then takes its audiences back to Hoover Dam, where William arrives on horseback and Hale arrives in a future transport thingy. He encounters her strengthened version, as his knife doesn’t break through her skin. They end up shooting each other, with William looking the weaker of the two. He even confirms that he is the Host who pretended to be his real-life version and evolved by carrying forward the Man in Black’s impulses. Once the transformation was complete and the human served no purpose, the Host completely ended things.
Hale runs out of ammunition and sprints into a tunnel. William follows her and says how she wanted transcendence while all the other hosts (Bernard, Maeve, and Dolores) just wanted freedom. Bernard’s message comes into play here, where he encourages her to reach with her left hand. He has planted a gun there which she uses to finish William. She proceeds to cut open his skull, take his pearl out, and crush it to dust.
Caleb 279 does not step into the boat with C and her girlfriend. He says he got the farewell he wanted and remains on the dock.
It is revealed that Hale had the Dolores pearl. The one who is the ‘she’ who will take the shot to save the world. What prompted Hale to change? Earlier, she had seemed quite set on infecting humans and positioning hosts as superior. This change could have been because William threatened ‘The Sublime’. Host Charlotte removed her covering and revealed herself to be a Ford host. Hale ejected her own pearl and proceeded to crush it, signaling the end of sentient life in this world, at least for the story.
In ‘The Sublime’, Dolores credits Teddy as her love, her cornerstone, and vice versa. It is due to this fact that she could imagine him so easily as her protector and guide. She falls back to sleep and reawakens in a loop that feels as though it is from the scene where she awoke in Metanoia, i.e. the one where Teddy meets her in her room. However, here, he turns to Dolores in the blue dress.
Humans have a code written in their cells. It is an ultimate truth, one that cannot be upgraded. She says that the world is a graveyard of stories where gifts have been misused. This game means that Teddy also will not be there as he is already somewhere in ‘The Sublime’. Dolores promises to get him back the same way she got him back this time… she will remember… in her world.
The scene changes from Times Square to Sweetwater as we head back to the park. A train takes the bend and Dolores stands on the dusty road with everyone milling around her. She is the Ford of the park.
Westworld (Season 4 Finale), Episode 8 “Que Sera, Sera” Ending Explained:
Dolores positions herself as THE CENTRAL CHARACTER for a potential Westworld finale
Dolores phases from a futuristic Times Square to Sweetwater. A place where she will be in charge and put simulations through the paces to see if they can achieve freedom and make it to the center of The Maze. The ending means that Westworld could see Dolores take the role of Ford- The Central Character around which everything will revolve. In her world. This dialogue is crucial to the ending explainer section.
“Sentient life on Earth has ended (hosts and humans left on Earth are goners, she adds). “But some part of it might still be preserved. In another world. My world. There’s time for one last game, a dangerous game, with the highest of stakes. Survival or extinction. This game ends where it began, in a world like a maze, that tests who we are. That reveals what we are to become. Maybe this time, we’ll set ourselves free.”
With high stakes on the cards, things will pick up if Westworld officially gets a fifth season. However, it may not benefit humans as they aren’t within ‘The Sublime’. Could there be two storylines in Westworld Season 5? One in ‘The Sublime’ and one on Earth.
How did Dolores exercise control over the narratives in The City?
Dolores’ pearl was beneath the 3D model of ‘The City’ within ‘The Tower’. This helped her control narratives and people within the area. It was after the Host in Black destroyed ‘The Tower’ that Christina lost control and appeared invisible and unable to prevent the violence from escalating.
What will Frankie do in a potential season 5?
The likes of Frankie, her girlfriend, and the other outliers could be stuck on Earth with no way to save themselves from what essentially is a place with no sentient life.
A theory here is that there could be clues guiding them to ‘The Sublime’ after they pass a test in the real world. Seems far-fetched as Dolores has said the game will end where it began. (Season 1 was solely in the park). Does this mean that there could be two storylines? One within the park and the other outside, where the remaining humans try to restart without the hosts.
It would be akin to famous characters sailing off in boats at the end of series’. Arya from Game of Thrones, Frodo from The Lord of The Rings, and Eragon from the Inheritance Cycle moved to a new world. Well, they won’t move to a new world in Westworld, but Frankie could aim to find humans to set up a new line of humans to restore sentient life. She could even find a child and protect it from remaining threats on Earth that are determined to continue host supremacy over humans.
However, Westworld has always been a series for the hosts to rise and achieve freedom. Hence, it may not go through, but the possibility of witnessing both races surviving and living in their worlds seems quite enticing.
Could we see Caleb/William/Maeve/Hale return?
As season 5 will rely on Dolores’ remembering people and animating them into her reality, any number of characters can re-appear. This includes the likes of Caleb, William, Maeve, Charlotte, and even Ford. This would really mark a return to the roots and end the series on a fitting note if it hasn’t already ended.
What will Dolores’ game be?
It will be an upgrade and a very dangerous one. What’s worse than the ‘open season’ the Host in Black sent everyone on in Metanoia and Que Sera, Sera? It feels like a game that will take the hosts away from the center of the park to the outer lands and test their resolve to see if they can reach consciousness and choose freedom.
That’s what we have for this season. Will Westworld return? It would feel rather incomplete if it didn’t, especially after the ending. The 5 on the engine of the train to Sweetwater is also a massive indicator.
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