‘Westworld’ season 1, episode 10 (finale) review: Dolores faces herself, Ford’s last stand
We have reached the end of the road as we face the “Westworld” season 1 finale. We have so many questions and with this being the last episode for a long time (there is a season 2 coming, but it looks like not until 2018), we aren’t sure how many will be answered. Let’s see how it all ends.
Dolores was once told by Arnold that if she made the journey to the center of the maze (her own consciousness) that they would set her free, but Ford stopped it from happening. In retaliation, Arnold had given her a gun, forcing her to kill all the other hosts in the park so that Ford couldn’t move forward with the park. She remembers standing in a town of dead bodies and Teddy rampaging through the town killing people. Turns out, Arnold had programmed her to be Wyatt at that time, so that she and Teddy would wipe out the town together. After she was done, Arnold made Dolores kill him, Teddy and herself so that nothing could be undone by Ford. What Dolores didn’t realize is that she had found William before that point and he became an investor in Westworld allowing it to be reopened.
Learning that William and the Man in Black are the same person wasn’t too much of a surprise considering that these rumors had been floating around the internet since the show started. He tells Dolores that after he was separated from her all those years ago , he did go looking for her, , but he never found her and instead found something else – that he was not the good person he thought he was. William continued his journey to find Dolores and eventually he did, but she had been reprogrammed at that point and didn’t remember him, breaking what was left of his heart.
After a final showdown between Dolores and the Man in Black, she is left bleeding on the ground. Teddy shows up and is convinced by her to take her to the place he always promised to bring her instead of to a doctor – She is ready to face death. As it turns out, when Dolores and Teddy get to the beach and she finally draws her last breath, it is revealed that this was all part of a new storyline that Ford is presenting to the board of directors (who are forcing him to resign). Later Ford speaks to Dolores and reprograms her to become Wyatt once again, only this time she is going to have an army of AI’s at her disposal. All this time we thought Dolores was the hero, but now she has become the villain as she walks up to Ford during his resignation speech and kills him in front of all the directors as the rest of the AI horde swarm the celebration killing everyone. We thought that AI’s couldn’t kill the newcomers, but clearly they can if Ford wants them too.
Now that Maeve has had the surgeries she needed she’s ready to escape the park. She has made some changes to the personalities of some of the other hosts to do what she wants (Hector and the girl with the snake tattoo in particular) and made security easier for her to get through. When Maeve learns that someone named Arnold accessed her code and made a few changes, she realizes that getting out into the real world isn’t going to be as simple as she thought. Maeve has Felix fix Bernard/Arnold and she learns from him that these feelings she has of wanting to flee Westworld were actually a new storyline that someone programmed in her. She is struggling with the idea that these haven’t been her decisions. After a massive shoot out, she reaches the train to leave, but the thought of her daughter brings her back into the park.
What was very interesting was seeing Maeve enter a division of the facility that was housing AI’s that were warriors from a completely different time period. Is this going to be the story for season 2? We have heard that this season is wrapped up and that season 2 will be a brand new story, so we are thinking that maybe we just got a glimpse of what’s to come. Either way, this was a spectacular first season and the wait for more episodes is going to feel painfully long now that we know just how great this show is. Episode grade: B+
What did you think of the “Westworld” season 1 finale and what do you want to see happen next season? Leave us a comment in the box below with your thoughts. If you want to know what’s coming up for “Westworld” season 2 then head on over to the link here and check out some early scoop.