"Paul Levinson's It's Real Life is a page-turning exploration into that multiverse known as rock and roll. But it is much more than a marvelous adventure narrated by a master storyteller...it is also an exquisite meditation on the very nature of alternate history." -- Jack Dann, The Fiction Writer's Guide to Alternate History

Monday, May 4, 2020

Westworld Season 3 Finale: Redemption, Less or More



Well, an at-once instructive and provocative Season 3 finale of Westworld just on, which pretty much redeemed a lot of the frustrations and incoherence of the rest of this season, which had its moments nonetheless.

Some highlights (with spoilers, of course):

  • Dolores is likely dead.  Charlotte (who started as a Dolores) is still alive, proudly carrying some of her wounds rather than going in for repair.  But, as she explains to the living Man in Black, no longer in black, she started out the same as Dolores, but living or whatever the exact right word it is for hosts who move through this world, that very process makes you go your own way - analogous, if you think about it, to human twins, who are totally identical only at birth.  The process of life inevitably makes identical twins increasingly slightly different.  That's just a fact of life. (I suppose there could even be some slight differences that emerge during gestation.) Further, back to Dolores, there's the possibility that one or more of those nugget brains of Dolores are still out there, who knows where, which could be inserted in a host and lead to another Dolores someday, in some future season.  All of which is to say, Dolores is not dead, she's just likely dead.
  • Speaking of the Man in Black, he's finally back, just as a host.  But I'm glad the slightly or more insane William, who was an annoying character this season, and one of the frustrations I referred to in my opening paragraph, is gone.   And since he was human, there's a good chance in his case that gone is really gone.
  • Maeve finally found herself.  She was too smart to think that going with Serac would get her back with her daughter.  It took way too long for her to find herself, but better late than never.  I look forward to her having a much more satisfying and satisfactory role in the next season.
  • Caleb's story was also predictable, but kudos for the nice touch of having Dolores choose him not for his violence, but for his sense of beauty aka humanity.  Again, we saw that throughout this season, as of course did Dolores from the first time when we saw them meet not that long ago at the beginning of this season.
  • I thought Bernard's story was excellent, both throughout this season and tonight, where we first see him finally come to terms with the loss of his son (actually, Arnold's son), in one of the most tender, beautiful scenes of the entire series, so far, and then see him sitting on the bed like a Buddha, or a big Yoda, as he glimpses some ultimate or closer-to-ultimate meaning...
That we'll have to wait until next season to get some further glimpse of, but, hey, that works for me,








They're coming out into the open, for the first time in centuries ....


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