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HBO returned western world Season 4 begins this Sunday night with new mysteries, new threats, and the return of a fan-favorite character we haven’t seen since Season 2.
Season 4 begins with a seemingly unharmed William/The Man in Black (played by Ed Harris) who may or may not be the host copy of the closing minutes of “Crisis Theory”/Season 3 finale. He arrives at a mysterious Canyon facility owned by a cartel-affiliated organization. Built over and around a vast lake, this location and its contents are of immense value to William. He claims the contents were stolen from him and he wants it all back. The cartel members reject his offer… and William has them all killed.
The focus then shifts to new character Christina (series vet Evan Rachel Wood), a video game writer whose aversion to fun irks her outgoing roommate Maya (Schmigadoon!by Ariana DeBose). It’s not unreasonable to assume that Christina is just another Dolores copy; Hector put it best last season: “Death is overrated for people like us.”
While it seems unlikely that Dolores survived the events of season three, there’s a layer in Wood’s performance that suggests just that. (Series co-creator Jonathan Nolan has insisted Dolores is dead, but who says he wasn’t referring to one of her copies rather than the original?) Predictably, however, the story switches to other POV characters before anything is revealed.
Seven years after he destroyed the data monster Rehoboam, Caleb Nichols (Aaron Paul) is finally living his life on his terms. Kind from. The supercomputer with the biblical name and its co-creator Engerraund Serac (Vincent Cassel) are no longer in the picture. Rehoboam’s destruction gave way to the New World, where “you can be whoever you want.” Apparently, Caleb’s version of “whatever you want” is a thankless gig, dragging electric coils across the tops of skyscrapers. He also now has a wife and a daughter.
Meanwhile, Maeve (Thandiwe Newton) has locked herself in a cabin in the woods. She cycles through many of the memories we know she struggles with, including the first memories from the first season at the park. She’s probably hiding after defeating Serac, who was looking pretty down when we last saw him. She goes to a nearby town for supplies and learns that people are looking for her. She rushes back to her hideout, where grumpy, mustachioed soldiers are combing every inch of the wintry forest. She kills them and confronts their leader, who turns out to be an android, before Maeve hacks him to pieces with an axe. She broods over his memories and discovers that William is looking for her, after which she torches the cabin and leaves.
When we return to Christina, we find that she is being stalked by a man who is begging her to “stop doing this to us.” There’s not much clarity there, but that’s not the show’s way. This is becoming one of the biggest mysteries of her bow.
After a night with Maya, Christina encounters the stalker personally and he attacks her before disappearing. The next morning, the man kills himself by jumping off the roof of their apartment building.
Maeve eventually makes her way back to Caleb, who is struggling to be content with his monotonous (but stable) life. She saves his daughter from an attacker and tells him that William is after them. Caleb and Maeve set out to intercept William’s next target: a California senator. Whatever William plans, it’s clearly trouble for the surviving characters.
The episode ends with a tearful Christina monologue on her balcony about how empty she feels, about not knowing why she feels so lost, and about wanting a happy ending to her story. When she gets home for the night, Teddy (James Marsden) looks up at her from the street below.
Maybe next Week we get some Bernard Lowe (Jeffrey Wright)….
what were you thinking/doing western world‘s return after more than two years? Stay tuned?
