Warning: the following article contains spoilers for Westworld season 4, episode 8, “Que Será, Será.“
Westworld season four has come to an apocalyptic end and multiple characters have met their demise. It’s been over two years since season three of HBO’s sci-fi drama, and a lot has changed for hosts and humans alike. Season four takes place seven years after audiences last saw them, and then makes another jump 23 years into an even more dystopic future. One thing that has stayed consistent throughout is the show’s high body count.
The story thus far has been filled with mysteries and intrigue. Dolores/Christina (Evan Rachel Wood) lives a seemingly normal life as a video game writer, Hale/”Halores” (Tessa Thompson) is in control of the Temperance Park using infectious flies and soundwaves to control its inhabitants, Bernard (Jeffrey Wright) has returned from the Sublime with future potentialities in his head to save humanity, and Caleb (Aaron Paul) and Maeve (Thandiwe Newton) search for Host William’s (Ed Harris) next target and uncover the master plan. The danger has risen to all-new levels, and sadly, that came at the cost of many lives.
Who died in the finale?
To properly detail the death count, it’s important to go back to the penultimate episode, “Metanoia.” Maeve has finally tracked down Hale in her tower where she controls her park with sound frequencies, and they get into a drag-out fight. Hale wants humanity to transcend, but Maeve has no interest in her domination. They crash through a window and fight in a shallow pool of water. They’re evenly matched, each delivering hard-hitting blows and taking them, but William’s host cuts in and kills Maeve with a bullet when her back is turned. He then shoots Hale in the head (though she’s not dead yet), then goes for Bernard who’s accessing information in the control room. Earlier in the episode, William’s host killed the human William who was imprisoned by Hale, but not before inspiring his host to kill humans because they’re a destructive species.
Season four’s final episode, “Que Será, Será,” begins with William’s host honoring that belief as he goes through the streets killing everyone he can. The park has turned to chaos because William’s host changed the frequency in the control room to make everyone kill each other. Clementine (Angela Sarafyan) finds Stubbs (Luke Hemsworth) in a pharmacy getting supplies to heal Caleb’s daughter Frankie (Aurora Perineau), and kills him by shooting him in the back ramming his face into a sharp metal object. Hardcore. Caleb and Frankie battle Clementine and Frankie uses her last bullet for a headshot before continuing to the extraction boat. They say their goodbyes and it’s revealed that Caleb is dying and they part ways.
Hale is revived by drone hosts and she suits up in battle armor to put William’s host down. She first retrieves Dolores’ original control unit with the original simulation of Christina’s world, which is beginning to break. Hale follows William’s host to the Hoover Dam and stops him from deactivating the Sublime. They get into a fight and just when it seemed like William’s host had won, she remembers a video message from Bernard and knew that he had a gun hidden nearby, which she used to kill him. She goes on to remove his control unit and uploads Dolores’ instead before Hale destroys her own, killing herself.
As the world breaks down around Christina and Teddy (James Marsden) and they enter the Sublime with the other hosts, she has a conversation with Dolores (her original form) that the people closest to her have been reflections of herself – Maya (Ariana DuBose), her boss Emmett (Michael Malarkey), and Teddy himself. Before this Teddy fully disappears, he tells her that the real version of himself is still alive and she has to find him.
Who could reappear in season 5?
The deaths included Maeve, Hale, Bernard, Stubbs, William, William’s host, Caleb, and Clementine. It has yet to be confirmed if Westworld will return for season five, but it’s safe to assume that if it does almost everyone’s still on the table. Many of these characters have died over the seasons only to come back as hosts, and it’s likely to happen again. Even with the control units destroyed, there’s no telling how many backups there might be. Teddy will definitely be returning since he’s been confirmed as alive, Bernard has seen all potential futures and he could’ve planned for his own demise, and with William being one of the show’s main antagonists he’s likely to return.
Dolores in season three was able to duplicate herself in other hosts, which is what created Halorus in the first place. Now that she’s rediscovered her past and on a mission back into the original Westworld Park, it’s likely she’ll want some familiar faces along the way. During the final episode, Christina is in the walled garden, separate from the rest of the world, where she speaks to Maya who tells her fictitious friend that she created her because she was afraid. That could foreshadow this happening again. It’s now a game of Dolores’ own making after all. “Sentient life on Earth has ended,” said Dolores, “but some part of it might still be preserved in another world.”