Westworld (season 4)

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File:Westworld season 4.png
Poster art
Starring <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
Country of origin United States
No. of episodes 8
Release
Original network HBO
Original release June 26, 2022 (2022-06-26) – August 14, 2022 (2022-08-14)
List of Westworld episodes

The fourth and final season of the American science fiction dystopian television series Westworld (subtitled The Choice)[1] premiered on HBO on June 26, 2022, and concluded on August 14, 2022, consisting of eight episodes. In November 2022, HBO announced it had canceled the series.[2]

The television series was created by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, and it is based on the 1973 film of the same name, written and directed by Michael Crichton. The fourth season stars an ensemble cast led by Evan Rachel Wood, Thandiwe Newton, Jeffrey Wright, Tessa Thompson, Aaron Paul, James Marsden, and Ed Harris.

Plot summary

The first half of the fourth season picks up seven years after the end of season 3 in 2060, while the second half takes place 23 years later in 2083.[3] The season is described as a "dark odyssey about the fate of sentient life on Earth."[4] The season includes an amusement park modeled after the Roaring Twenties.[5]

Humanity has lost the war, with Charlotte Hale's host copy having filled the power vacuum left behind by Engerraund Serac and his Rehoboam, ascending as the sole power over Delos after deposing William and replacing him with an identical host loyal to her. Charlotte succeeds in taking control of the world by removing world leaders and installing hosts in their place, simultaneously deploying a bioengineered virus that infects humans over the course of a generation, making them susceptible to her and other hosts' orders, effectively reversing the power dynamic between humans and hosts.

Two decades later, Christina, a woman resembling Dolores who works at a video game company writing non-player character (NPC) storylines and backstories, gradually begins to question the nature of her reality after she realizes that it appears her stories are somehow translating to the lives of people in the real world. In actuality, she is a program created by Charlotte to manage a largely docile humanity, with the hosts now controlling and managing their lives through carefully detailed and manufactured "storylines", which are transmitted directly to the minds and lives of humans through a series of radio-sonic transmission "tones" in organized metropolitan areas across the world. Humans now act out the storylines set by hosts.

Meanwhile, Bernard Lowe continues the mission left to him by Dolores, spending two decades simulating near-endless realities in the Sublime, where he hopes to find a path to saving both hosts and humanity. Having found the supposedly best course, he and Stubbs set out to enact that path. They discover a group of "outliers" – humans who have evolved immunity to the hosts' virus – and eventually reunite with Maeve, who had been left for dead in a confrontation with Charlotte decades earlier.

Together, they mobilize against Charlotte's regime, though Bernard eventually reveals to Maeve that their efforts will be futile, and the present world will inevitably go extinct, with hope only for “the next one”. The season climaxes with Christina accepting the reality of her existence and starting to release humans from their controlled storylines, as new host William descends into nihilistic insanity and corrupts the tone program, throwing the world into a chaotic extinction-level war between newly liberated humans and hosts around the globe. Realizing those who truly sought it already transcended their body-based existence in the Sublime, Charlotte loses faith in both humanity and the hosts that remain in the waking world and destroys William’s control unit once and for all.

Upon coming to terms with the fact that she cannot let go of her own human blueprint, Charlotte uploads Christina's code into the Sublime on Bernard’s posthumous advice, before proceeding to destroy her own control unit. At the conclusion of the season, Christina finally reacquires her sentience and realizes she is a reprogrammed and last true version of Dolores Abernathy. With humanity on the brink of an unprecedented extinction, Dolores decides to simulate "one last game" in the Sublime to determine if any part of human – or host – sentience may yet be preserved in “a new world”.

Cast and characters

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Main article: List of Westworld characters

Guest

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Episodes

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See also: List of Westworld episodes
No.
overall		 No. in
season		 Title Directed by Written by Original air date Prod.
code		 U.S. viewers
(millions)
29 1 "The Auguries" Richard J. Lewis Lisa Joy & Will Soodik June 26, 2022 (2022-06-26) 401 0.325[12]
30 2 "Well Enough Alone" Craig William Macneill Matthew Pitts & Christina Ham July 3, 2022 (2022-07-03) 402 0.350[13]
31 3 "Années Folles" Hanelle M. Culpepper Kevin Lau & Suzanne Wrubel July 10, 2022 (2022-07-10) 403 0.312[14]
32 4 "Generation Loss" Paul Cameron Kevin Lau & Suzanne Wrubel July 17, 2022 (2022-07-17) 404 0.312[15]
33 5 "Zhuangzi" Craig William Macneill Wes Humphrey & Lisa Joy July 24, 2022 (2022-07-24) 405 0.384[16]
34 6 "Fidelity" Andrew Seklir Jordan Goldberg & Alli Rock July 31, 2022 (2022-07-31) 406 0.394[17]
35 7 "Metanoia" Meera Menon Desa Larkin-Boutte & Denise Thé August 7, 2022 (2022-08-07) 407 0.321[18]
36 8 "Que Será, Será" Richard J. Lewis Alison Schapker & Jonathan Nolan August 14, 2022 (2022-08-14) 408 0.391[19]

Production

File:Lower Manhattan from Governors Island September 2016 panorama 1.jpg
The fourth season is largely set in New York City.

Shortly before the finale of the show's third season in April 2020, HBO renewed Westworld for a fourth season.[20] Aurora Perrineau joined the cast in a recurring role,[21] and production was underway by June 2021[8] at the Melody Ranch Studio in Newhall, California. Filming was briefly halted in July due to a positive COVID-19 test but resumed after two days,[9] ultimately wrapping in December 2021.[22]

Music

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Westworld: Season 4
File:Westworld s4 soundtrack.jpg
Soundtrack album by Ramin Djawadi
Released August 14, 2022
Genre Soundtrack
Length 88:35
Label WaterTower Music
Producer Ramin Djawadi
Westworld music chronology
Westworld: Season 3
(2020)		 Westworld: Season 4
(2022)
{{{This album}}}
No. Title Key scenes/Notes Length
1. "Main Title Theme - Westworld"   Used for the opening credits sequence. 1:41
2. "Parasite"   "Années Folles" 4:03
3. "The Day the World Went Away"   "Zhuangzi": It was used in the official trailer for this season. 3:40
4. "Bad Acid"   "The Auguries" 3:37
5. "Olympiad"   "The Auguries" 3:36
6. "Video Games"   "The Auguries" 3:52
7. "Time to Transcend"   "Well Enough Alone" 2:18
8. "Welcome to the Golden Age"   "Well Enough Alone" 2:04
9. "Années Folles"   "Well Enough Alone" 1:07
10. "Bad Guy"   "Années Folles" 2:19
11. "Sweetwater Temperance"   "Années Folles" 2:18
12. "Enter Sandman"   "Années Folles" 2:40
13. "Outliers"   "Années Folles" 2:40
14. "Pink + White"   "Generation Loss" 1:02
15. "The Tower"   "Generation Loss" 1:31
16. "Hale's World"   "Generation Loss" 1:07
17. "Do You Have an Appointment?"   "Well Enough Alone" 3:05
18. "Knowledge"   "Zhuangzi" 3:06
19. "Winner Takes All"   "Que Será, Será" 1:51
20. "Perfect Day"   "Zhuangzi": It was used in the teaser trailer for this season. 3:31
21. "Wrong Exit"   "Fidelity" 1:21
22. "A Message"   "Fidelity" 2:50
23. "They Are After Your Hooch"   "Generation Loss" 2:46
24. "What We Are"   "Metanoia" 3:15
25. "No More Waiting"   "Metanoia" 3:23
26. "Ancient Wisdom"   "Que Será, Será" 2:15
27. "Host City"   "Zhuangzi" 1:51
28. "Watch You Grow Up"   "Que Será, Será" 2:58
29. "Finish What We Started"   "Generation Loss" 3:24
30. "Blue Dress"   "Que Será, Será" 4:52
31. "Pyramid Song"   "Que Será, Será" 3:22
32. "Set Ourselves Free"   "Que Será, Será" 1:27
33. "Sweetwater Reprise"   "Que Será, Será" 0:46
34. "Our World"   "Fidelity" 2:58
Total length:
 88:35

Marketing

A first look at footage of the season was released on December 22, 2021, in an HBO Max 2022 sizzle reel, providing glimpses of returning characters played by Ed Harris, Thandiwe Newton, and Aaron Paul.[7] HBO told Variety that the season would air in the summer of 2022.[23] The season received a premiere date of June 26, 2022, when its viral video trailer titled "It doesn't look like anything to me" was released in May 2022.[24] At the 2022 ATX Television Festival, the season's tagline Adapt or Die was revealed with the season's poster as was the return of Teddy Flood, when James Marsden showed up for the show's panel.[11]

Reception

Critical response

The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports an approval rating of 76% based on 48 reviews, with an average rating of 5.7/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Westworld's continued reliance on mystery will frustrate just as much as it intrigues, but this fourth season still offers plenty of gleaming and menacing insight into a brave new world."[25] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 64 out of 100 based on 18 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[26]

Ratings

No. Title Air date Rating/share
(18–49)		 Viewers
(millions)
1 "The Auguries" June 26, 2022 0.06 0.325[12]
2 "Well Enough Alone" July 3, 2022 0.05 0.350[13]
3 "Années Folles" July 10, 2022 0.07 0.312[14]
4 "Generation Loss" July 17, 2022 0.04 0.312[15]
5 "Zhuangzi" July 24, 2022 0.07 0.384[16]
6 "Fidelity" July 31, 2022 0.06 0.394[17]
7 "Metanoia" August 7, 2022 0.07 0.321[18]
8 "Que Será, Será" August 14, 2022 0.07 0.391[19]

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Credited with the main cast in the episodes in which they appear.
  2. ↑ Uncredited for his appearance in "The Auguries".
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Archive footage.

References

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  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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External links

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