Westworld Review: Crisis Theory (Season 3 Episode 8)

Hope can come in many forms, but on Westworld Season 3 Episode 8, “Crisis Theory,” hope comes from taking matters into your own hands.

The comparison between William and Caleb is one that’s slowly been building over the season, the kind man with a heart full of violence coming to her aid. But where William ends and Caleb continues is that there is choice to Caleb’s violence, not a necessity, and so where William zigs, Caleb zags.

Caleb does as he intended by wiping the algorithm from existence, and while he may question Delores’ own intentions at the finish line, her inner monologue to Maeve does provide us with a lofty ideal that now the world can be reborn beautiful again in its ashes. It’s an intriguing place to bring both Delores and Caleb, as they haven’t questioned each other up to this point.

But Caleb also probably feels a little used, not knowing the full picture about hosts while one pushes him toward an uncertain destiny.

His choice is to still do the right thing despite the consequences, and while the initial flashback to the park simulations he’s put inside make him out to be a villain not unlike William (with the threat of assault), he proves again that choice is inside of him, and goodness will win out in some form.

Delores, though, the one we know from this season, may be gone. There appears to be plenty of Delores copies, both in other hosts and in Delores bodies, so it may not be a gone forever sort of thing. Serac may have burned all of the host bodies at the Delos headquarter, but Charlotte’s post-credits scene shows how easily they can be made in Dubai, and likely elsewhere around the world.

The episode perfects the sense of chaos and violence that is erupting both on the street level and inside of Delos. Hired guns turning on their own team over money is a nice touch, showing how even in tough times, loyalties can turn at the drop of a dollar.

Even when some parts of the show don’t feel like they’re working, the production is always top notch and eye-popping. The score, too, is top notch here, but it’s the use of Pink Floyd’s “The Dark Side of the Moon” that resonates most.

Charlotte’s vendetta against Delores is somewhat truncated, mostly being a foil on the lead-up to storming Incite. The post-credits sequence is far more robust of a plan, though the implication is that she is making an army of William’s when the intention is likely that she’s just making an army, and so that needs some clarification.

Charlotte is now driven by her anger, but it’s strange that she considers her loss as a weakness when she clearly started caring for them. Unless this is some form of coping, her anger is started by their loss, thus they mean more than being a weakness. But her story more sets up the potential of the fourth season, where a world reborn is now for the taking for both human and host alike.

Though it’s wildly anticlimactic how William is disposed of. He takes back his destiny from Bernard and Stubbs, only to be cut down by a host version of himself at some point during the future.

This comes as a surprise, as William is being tested for his baseline by a host version of his daughter during the second season finale, and so for him to die now leaves that scene as a host version being tested, rather than the original human William.

There’s also the fact that William’s arc over the third season is to face his actions and to basically accept them rather than face their consequences. To be cut down in such a flat way doesn’t feel like the comeuppance he deserves. Maybe he will be explored further in host form, but for now, William’s arc feels rather incomplete, or potentially has gone past its point of no return.

The episode does knock it out of the park with its returning faces from seasons past.

Lawrence’s return, even though brief, is a fun reminder that Delores’ copies are still out there in some form beyond the ones we see. Hopefully, since he makes it under the guise of SFPD, we get to see Clifton Collins, Jr. appear again down the line, as he’s a great part of the show that’s sorely been missed.

But Lauren Weber turns out to bring the most impact, as it not only brings closure to Arnold from the previous seasons, but brings a sense of acceptance to Bernard. It’s certainly a strange circumstance to close an emotional door for the person you’re created in the image of, but it’s a moment of clarity and kindness, where both Lauren and Bernard accept the losses they have faced, even if if for a moment (as Lauren’s caretaker mentions that this is one of her good days).

The ideal of holding someone in your heart rather than letting them go is a touching and poetic notion that speaks volumes of this season.

One aspect of the show that’s been nagging a bit is the incredible lack of cover when facing down hailstorms of bullets. It’s believable if it happens a time or two, but it’s becoming a large trend on the show that’s hard to ignore. When it’s a host and they don’t consider themselves as expendable as a human, that’s understandable; but Caleb faces it while standing next to Delores an awful lot, and it hurts the show’s logic a little when it’s happened many a time on this season.

There’s also Maeve’s motivation. While Thandie Newton is still fantastic in the role, Maeve is mostly left in a locked loop of doing whatever Serac tells her to solely because he promises her a way into the Sublime to see her daughter again. As it turns out, that’s a lie, and so her entire arc all season is to be his sword-wielding henchman instead of gradually taking on a proactive role for herself.

It’s fine, but leaves Maeve as less of a persona throughout the season as she mindlessly goes from one boastful fight to the next. When her powers are essentially a god mode for hosts, though, her role needs to be dialed down some to have a fair fight, but it loses some of her character’s drive when she can get where she needs to be on her own, like Charlotte, than as another adversary for Delores to concern herself with.

There’s also the fact that Caleb and Maeve leave Serac alive. He is fairly wounded from where he’s clutching his chest, but still very much alive. Is this to keep him around as a nemesis, or because they know he’s done for? Leaving villains barely alive is never a good idea, no matter what.

Part of what makes Serac so interesting is that he has noble ideals despite the very clear villainous things he does. He may be trying to keep everyone on their loop, a new Ford but for the human race, but he is no more than a mouthpiece for the algorithm, even letting it speak for him. He’s accepting his own future and because he doesn’t make a choice for himself and rather rely on the likeliest of outcomes, it’s ultimately his downfall.

While all of these may be complaints, Westworld Season 3 Episode 8, “Crisis Theory,” still manages to do so much right around the edges of those bits and pieces. The overall arc for Delores and Caleb lands with purpose and a sense of hope, despite that hope being locked in an apocalyptic future. It’s giving the opportunity of choice, and at that end, the episode completes the arc the season has been striving for with a deep sense of satisfaction.

Some of the other pieces may have suffered along the way, but the main story thread, along with Bernard’s smaller journey of discovery, help to make the season work. Combined with the impressive, large scale beauty of the show, Westworld closes its third season with a chance for hope.

A rather optimistic tone for a show that’s dabbled in despair and violent ends, perhaps, but it’s in optimism where humanity and host alike are given a chance by Caleb, Maeve, and Delores. Where the show possibly goes from here is even more exciting, as a future with a Charlotte army, Caleb seeking a new life for himself, and Bernard armed with the knowledge of the Sublime leaves hope as a possibility, and no longer a fool’s dream.

 

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Westworld airs Sundays at 9/8c on HBO.

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