Westworld (HBO/Sky Atlantic) [** Spoilers **]

yabadabado

I'm still watching it but it's can be hard work.

Imagine if they had just done one season,it's could have gone down as one of the greats.

BruteStock

CW Batwoman had better ratings than Season 4. Ouch!

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119370157#Comment_119370157

Batwoman is a network show though, whereas Westworld is on HBO.

Not sure what to make of things. William and Maeve are just so overpowered that there's no real danger with either of them. I was looking forward to Bernard coming back but now that he pretty much knows the future his story feels like it's going to be boring, because again there's no real danger. And Caleb dies and Hale brings him back as a host.... why? And now that Hale has won and is essentially controlling the world, we know she's going to lose at the end of the season.

I'm guessing that as Hale is really a version of Dolores, she created Christine and Teddy to let a version of herself have the kind of life she dreamed of in her new world, but will have to see how she plays into the overall story.

Homelander

The viewership is shockingly bad this season, it's effectively collapsed. There's no buzz about it, little traction online either.

Usually bigger HBO shows usually either increase viewership or at least stabilise throughout a run, but Westworld is on a solid downward trajectory that gets more severe each season, to the current point which is non-viable really given the enormous cost of the show.

It's gone from 2m, to 1.6m, to 800k, to 300k average viewers through S1 to S4.

HBO are normally pretty decent about committing to things and seeing them through to a conclusion of sorts, and apparently they've already greenlit a S5 before this season even aired, so at least we should get a conclusion.

BruteStock

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119370270#Comment_119370270

The rating for Westworld are still in the crapper. Among HBO's recent shows it doesn't even make the top 10 anymore. Having one of the biggest budgets means its unlike to be coming back for Season 5. The characters in the show now don't resemble the same characters they were 3 seasons ago. Its awful. Time to wrap it up and send the writers over to the CW

steve_r

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119370426#Comment_119370426

I'm amazed that it gets the funding it does - I saw Lisa Joy's film as well was a commercial failure.

It's been said many times before but the writing has really held this show back - excellent cast, fantastic production values but a storytelling manner that seems to delight in tricking/confusing viewers, and a sense that they don't really know what type of story they actually want to tell.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119370426#Comment_119370426

I don't deny the ratings might be bad (haven't looked them up). I'm just saying comparing them to a network show isn't a fair comparison, regardless of how good or bad those ratings are.

corkie

https://westworld.fandom.com/wiki/Zhuangzi

https://www.slashfilm.com/932713/westworld-season-4-episode-5-explores-the-nature-of-reality/

No Bernard or Meave this week, but we get more details about Christina, but leaves us with a big question HOW?

BruteStock

Another dud episode. this season is turning out to be the worst yet and I did not think that could be possible.

The budget has been slashed considerably too. It was very noticeable this episode.

CastorTroy

So a single timeline but how is the man in black there?

corkie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119386549#Comment_119386549

There is the host version and the original kept in cryogenic sleep.

Spoiler Warning

William the host goes to see original William, unfreezing him from his cryogenic sleep and asking him questions about who he (host William) actually is. Human William teases the host and is deliberately obtuse, as always, saying things like "I used to ask myself the same thing ... jury's still out." The host wants to know if he is William, since he was made in his image, and William laughs, saying "you'll never be me."

pjcb

would the desert outlier group not have cyborg detectors?

Penn

Hale really continuing to make stupid and non-sensical decisions. Keeping the original William alive. Keeping a variation of the original Dolores and giving her so much power. Creating a host version of Caleb. Leaving Maeve's body for others to find even though she wasn't buried that deep and has incredible powers worth taking or studying. Meeting the version of Dolores for lunches.

For someone who came up with a plan to take over the entire world, she sure has "exhaust port on the Death Star'd" herself at every available turn, to the point where unless the final episode twist is "losing was actually her plan all along" she's just a f*cking moron.

sioda

I loved every bit of that and I've no real idea why.

I know it's rehashing of old ground but it's grabbed me. Must be the lack of other sci fi out there

DrZeuss

Wow, Westworld has become boring.

Just thinking back to the conversations Anthony Hopkins had in season 1 and comparing it to the "conversations" in this season....such a massive drop in quality.

The bigger question.....why in the hell am I still watching this, maybe I need to question my reality.

Slydice

4.5: Oh that was so freakin good! That was it, that had to be the zenith!

Spoiler Warning

Everythings all gotta start decaying and crashing down from here.

Delores finding herself. Bernard, the rebels and Maeve all coming from the other side. The man in black!

Oh the perfect final line. I said "you did" out loud just before he did. Brilliant.

It all just fit!

Anyway.. I thought I'd be on raving about Perfect Day..

Perfect Day (from "Westworld: Season 4")

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJf12I7SO-I

but to be fair I went straight to Freeze All Motor Functions

Freeze All Motor Functions · Ramin Djawadi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5Hcto0fedk

Oh I really liked how the "Talk" had such a subtle call-back to one of the oringal "Talks" with the nature of reality line 🙂

CastorTroy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119386648#Comment_119386648

I meant the host version that supposedly died with Maeve. Seems Hale either got him back or created another copy.

pjcb

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119386684#Comment_119386684

what is her plan she doesn't seem to know.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119387244#Comment_119387244

1. Take over the world

2. Spend half your time creating ways you can be defeated

3. Spend the other half your time checking that the ways you can be defeated might still defeat you

4. Make chairs out of women

corkie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119387170#Comment_119387170

From previous episode: -

Spoiler Warning

Charlotte then stands up, revealing that she was never restrained at all, and notes that this is the 278th time that Caleb has died during their interview. She explains that twenty-three years have passed, and that Delos has already won and conquered the entirety of humanity.

So some time has passed between the explosion and current timeline. So they either dug him up and left Maeve behind, or there is multiple host copies of him. Bernard only found Maeve, weren't they embracing when the explosion went off?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfT9lksucWs

sioda

Did they not just print a new William?

ejmaztec

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119387376#Comment_119387376

Is it possible that the original Caleb was patched up, as it does look like he's aged a tad, although it didn't look like he'd aged 23 years? He could also have spent some time in a cryo-chamber, only to be occasionally fished out when Charlotte was bored.

Perhaps Maeve was left behind because they assumed that she was a goner and irreparable, and that Caleb was a lot more valuable to them for some reason?

corkie

@ejmaztec It was Maeve and Man In Black (host), that should have been buried in the explosion.

Spoiler Warning

Caleb was killed and we are seeing a host version of him now.

"The infiltration mission that he had been on with Maeve? Merely a memory being replayed in the consciousness of his now host body that is being tested for fidelity by Hale. Maeve, more invulnerable than the once human Caleb, was buried under the sand."

https://collider.com/westworld-season-4-caleb-death-what-happened/

Galwayguy35

Yeah its not as good as series 1 but its still entertaining enough to pass an hour on a Monday evening.

corkie

https://westworld.fandom.com/wiki/Fidelity

More & More of Caleb. Maeve is back in action. The weekly back and forth from different story plots is tiresome.

Only 2 more episode to try an tie up the whole season.

https://www.slashfilm.com/946922/in-westworld-season-4-episode-6-everyones-fidelity-is-put-to-the-test/

ejmaztec

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119390229#Comment_119390229

Whoops, I must have nodded off 🤣

DenMan

Another brilliant episode tonight!

sioda

Loved the market Caleb's along the way.

Gonna take a lot to tie this all together.

Overall I'm enjoying this season think the fact I'd binged the previous seasons lately helpwd big time

Homelander

I have to admit the last two episodes, 5 and 6, drew me back in a bit and I'm enjoying it again.

Also, as mentioned above, I really should have re-watched S1-3 prior to this season, as once I started caring a bit more and went back a bit to recap in a general sense, there was a lot of stuff I'd forgotten, and minor stuff I barely remembered at all, that does have significant meaning.

Do have some questions though, like why exactly is Dolores-Hale breaking down and degrading? Why isn't she replacing her body to avoid this happening? Also why and how, in 20+ years, has she not grasped that it isn't a literal infection killing hosts?

That part I do not understand, it doesn't seem to make sense. That scene where she's on the roof looking over the edge gave me the impression that she's very much struggling to keep herself together, almost flirting with the idea of taking the leap.

Why did Dolores-Hale create Christina in the image of original Dolores? Also, who created Teddy again, Dolores-Hale as well as part of more experiments?

Is there still a version of Caleb still alive, as in, his original human self, in the same way that William is still alive?

Doloroes made Dolores-Hale in her image but she developed her own personality that has little in common with original Dolores - so how "Dolores" is Christina, really, aside from visually for us, the audience? And we're seeing something slightly similar happen with Man-in-Black host version of William, he seems to be veering away from his original image.

It's all very headache-inducing. But I am enjoying it again. Ep6 was the best one hands down so far, Aaron Paul put in a great performance as well.

Slydice

4.6: I liked the Matrix get-out-of-the-Matrix type feel in the flashback. Then after that, I liked the Caleb story.

The rest felt like it was ticking the story along and that felt fine so they could focus on Caleb.

Don't know what's going to happen next but I do want to know!

Spoiler Warning

I don't think it'll be a Maeve showdown but it does feel like they are hinting at it.