When Westworld the TV collection set foot exterior of Westworld the park for season three, it was a essential step, albeit a particularly unsteady one. It’s not shocking, given the present needed to transition from its distinct setting and questions in regards to the sentience and rights of Hosts in comparison with its human company and creators right into a extra conventional sci-fi setting, in addition to a reasonably conventional query in regards to the viability of free will. The excellent news is Westworld’s fourth season feels prefer it’s on firmer floor—even when we will’t but see the stakes.

Those of you who love Westworld for its mind-bending philosophical questions, difficult narrative construction, and “mystery box” rewards would possibly discover the season 4 premiere a gradual burn. With one massive exception—okay, perhaps two—the storylines proven within the episode really feel uncharacteristically easy, helped by preserving the main focus solely on William (Ed Harris), Maeve (Thandiwe Newton), and Caleb (Aaron Paul), after which… Christina (Eva Rachel Wood), aka The Lady Who Looks Just Like Dolores But Is a Single Girl within the City Who Has Big Dreams and Longs for Happiness. But extra on her in a second.

It’s a lot simpler to recap the adventures of the opposite three first. Seven years have handed since Dolores launched Incite’s information predicting the longer term to their topics and Caleb advised Rehoboam, the pc that did the predicting, to delete itself. As a results of the following riots, it seems that the world has destroyed most of or all its robots, however in any other case returned to regular.

Of course, “normal” has by no means been a time period that may very well be used to explain William, aka the Man in Black, who the Host model of Charlotte Hale (who has Dolores’ corrupted thoughts inside; I nonetheless contend that is comparatively easy for Westworld) has enlisted in her plan to finally Kill All Humans. The episode begins as William arrives on the Hoover Dam, which is powering an completely huge array of laptop servers holding information—information William claims was stolen from him eight years in the past. Now he gives its house owners, a nondescript prison cartel of some variety, a proposal they will’t refuse: to promote their firm outright in the present day or give it to him without cost tomorrow.

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It’s an excellent, William-level risk, even when he’s at the moment following Hale’s orders. The cartel after all refuses, however when one of many members will get house, he’s greeted after which swarmed by a very upsetting variety of flies. When he wakes up the following morning, the person stabs the opposite cartel members to loss of life, passes management of the corporate to a grimly smug William, and cuts his personal throat. The query, after all, is what is that this information? Is it the Sublime, aka Host Heaven? Is all of it the info on the company that Westworld creators Delos had gathered? Something else? What do William and Hale need it for? And what the hell is up with these flies?

Likewise, why do William and Hale need Maeve and Caleb useless? Because when Maeve unintentionally blows out an influence grid whereas exploring her energy—you realize, the one she used to rewrite different Hosts’ programming on the fly and listen to Rehoboam because it talked to final season’s massive unhealthy Serac—William sends a troop of Host goons to take her out. It’s not even a detailed combat, which is enjoyable, however Caleb has a harder time on condition that he has a brand new spouse and cute youngster to guard. Luckily, Maeve arrives on the nick of time to kill the remaining goons and the 2 understand they should hit the street to cease William/Hale now. Again, why does Hale need Maeve and Caleb useless? And, based mostly on a flashback of the dynamic duo blowing up Rehoboam and Caleb trying fatally wounded, what had been they as much as following the occasions of season three?

These questions appear to be they might have comparatively easy solutions, though I doubt Westworld has both the need or restraint to maintain them easy for lengthy. But season 4’s actual thriller belongs to Christina, a author for a online game firm who desires to jot down easy romances with a cheerful ending however retains getting advised to jot down super-depressing homicide tales that promote nicely. She leads a lonely life within the metropolis, buoyed solely by her extra social pal/roommate, who convinces her to go on a blind date that seems absurdly terrible. It’s all extraordinarily cliché—pointedly so, I believe—excluding a stalker (performed by 12 Monkeys’ Aaron Stanford) named Peter, who accuses her of ruining his life and says she must cease what she’s doing as a result of “all these people do what you want them to. And most enigmatically, “The doctors think I’m crazy, but I know you’re real, just like the Tower is real.”

When the stalker, Peter, accosts her one night time, Christina is saved by a mysterious stranger who disappears along with her assailant earlier than she will see his face. The subsequent day, Christina will get one final name from Peter, directing her to lookup—simply in time to see him soar off a roof to his loss of life. That night time, Christina says extra wistful crap on her balcony and heads forlornly again inside her condominium… just for Teddy (James Marsden) to wander from behind a constructing, beaming (a bit unsettlingly) at the place she was.

Christina’s story is so extraordinarily trite that I believe it’s some form of simulation, very like the Warworld simulated park Maeve was trapped in initially of season three. It would clarify the presence of Teddy, who dedicated suicide on the finish of season two after discovering Dolores had reprogrammed him to assist homicide all of the people within the park. And the parallel between Christina’s sport story and the premise of Dolores’ again story is so apparent it could be a crimson herring.

But so far as mysteries go, that is the place Westworld season 4 firmly vegetation its “WTF” flag. What is Christina’s deal? What’s her relationship, if any, to Dolores? How is Teddy again, and likewise, is that this actually Teddy or some Christina-adjacent fake equal? Who drew the Maze on Christina’s fireplace escape? But most of all, what the hell is Peter speaking about? Is he just a few random disturbed one that’s a fan of Christina’s sport design (nearly definitely not), or does Christina even have some type of management over individuals (nearly definitely sure)? And what within the hell is the Tower?

While this season’s premiere felt weirdly low-stakes in comparison with season three’s, the (seeming) simplicity appears like a part of a course correction that I admire. Season three was so stuffed with twists and turns that the multitude of revelations hardly ever had the time to have a lot impression; I admire starting season 4 with firmer floor to face on earlier than Westworld ramps up into its ordinary insanity and mayhem. Because irrespective of how a lot Christina would possibly want for one, there’s little or no likelihood this has a cheerful ending.

Assorted Musings:

• Really, let’s simply name these “Assorted Questions.” Where the hell are Bernard and Stubbs, and what have they been as much as for the final seven years? I assume we’ll get a solution to this to a point in subsequent week’s episode.
• It’s good to see Aaron Stanford, who was the lead of Syfy’s wonderful 12 Monkeys TV present, one other science fiction collection. Here’s a query that I will be the just one questioning: did they rent him to be a one-episode visitor star, or will he have a bigger position to play in season 4?
• Caleb’s a Host now, proper? He died throughout that mission and Maeve introduced him again as a Host to dwell along with his new household?
• To be truthful to Christina’s boss, Christina’s first story—a couple of teenaged woman who has an infirm father—does not sound thrilling, even when it was the idea for Dolores’ story in Westworld. Assuming the Tower belongs to the story the place everyone killed themselves, may or not it’s a reference to the very tall, vertical fissure that the Hosts jumped by way of within the season two finale to enter the Sublime, leaving their our bodies behind?

Want extra io9 information? Check out when to anticipate the most recent Marvel and Star Wars releases, what’s subsequent for the DC Universe on movie and TV, and all the pieces it’s worthwhile to learn about House of the Dragon and Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.