After 4 seasons and a game-changing cliffhanger setting up a fifth and final season, the popular HBO television series Westworld was canceled (via The Hollywood Reporter). A series cancelation is often disappointing, but this one is particularly frustrating because the series only needed 1 more season to conclude its intricate and thought-provoking story.
Ending the story prematurely means that fans are left with many questions that are now left unanswered. Unless the series is unexpectedly revived in the future, fans will have to come up with their own answers to these questions for now.
Will Maeve, Stubbs, Or Clementine Be Revived?
While some hosts had their pearls crushed in the final episodes of season 4 and are therefore, permanently dead, other hosts only died physical deaths and have their pearls still intact, meaning that they could be physically revived in the future. This is the case for key characters, such as Maeve Millay, Ashley Stubbs, and Clementine Pennyfeather.
All of their deaths felt abrupt and most fans would argue were not satisfying conclusions to their stories. Given her prominence in the series, Maeve almost certainly would've been revived, although it is less certain for Stubbs and Clementine. Beyond being revived, there is also a question of whether these specific hosts would remain in the real world or if they would've joined Dolores' final "game" in the Sublime.
Will Maeve Reunite With Her Daughter?
The big question fans have been asking about Maeve since the season 2 finale is whether she will ever reunite with her daughter. In Maeve's most iconic Westworld scene, she sacrificed herself in the season 2 finale so that her daughter could reach the safe tranquility of the Sublime. Since then, Maeve has toiled and suffered to help both hosts and humans in the real world, while her daughter remains safe in the Sublime.
Given everything Maeve has been through and the role her daughter played in Maeve becoming an autonomous individual, it seems fitting that mother and child would finally reunite and live happily together in the Sublime. Maeve has more than earned that peaceful, rewarding, happy ending.
How Would The Final Game Have Worked?
The major cliffhanger at the end of season 4 was when Christina/Dolores revealed she would play one last "game" with the highest of stakes, a test that will determine the future of hosts and sentient life. In a full-circle, shocking Westworld plot twist, the beginning of the test in the Sublime was modeled to look like Sweetwater, bringing the audience back to where the story began in the pilot episode.
What fans don't know how exactly the test would work, beyond Christina/Dolores controlling it. It would inevitably have many parallels to the original Westworld park, but there would definitely be many differences as well to test the hosts and to see if they will finally be able to truly set themselves free.
Which Westworld Characters Will Appear In The Final Game?
After being uploaded as "the Storyteller" to the Sublime, Christina/Dolores could create anyone she wanted to be part of her test. This means that both dead human and host characters could've returned as part of this final game, from dead humans like Robert Ford and William, to dead hosts like Bernard or Chalores.
Hosts that have remained in the Sublime, like the real Teddy, Akecheta, and Maeve's daughter, could also have appeared. Many fans would certainly have been overjoyed to see a Teddy and Dolores reunion. The setup for the final game meant literally any character could've returned.
How Does The Man In Black End Up In A Fidelity Test With His Daughter In The Westworld Season 2 Finale?
The season 2 finale's post-credits scene showed the Man in Black being given a fidelity test by his daughter Emily (a scene that the showrunners said took place in a distant future). The show is now several decades ahead of the season 2 finale and in a future where Emily is dead, both the human and host Man in Black are dead, and the future of sentient life is being determined by a final game.
Season 5 likely would've returned to and paid off the foreshadowing from this post-credits scene. The fidelity test probably would've been part of the final game taking place in the Sublime, explaining how these version of the Man in Black and Emily came to be there.
What Are The Human Colonies Like?
Much of the real world in season 4 was controlled by Chalores and then the Man in Black host burned much of it down. Yet, there is still human life out there in the form of colonies made up of Outliers. It would be intriguing to see what these Outlier colonies are actually like and how they have survived.
There is also a question of whether these colonies fail given Christina/Dolores saying toward the end of the season finale that "Sentient life on Earth has ended" and "A few may escape death for a few months. Maybe even years. But ultimately...their kind will go extinct."
What Happens To C And Odina?
Frankie/C was one of the best Westworld characters introduced after season 1. By the end of the season 4 finale, C had become the face of the human storyline in Westworld. While the major cliffhanger involved the final game in the Sublime determining the future of sentient life, there was also the cliffhanger of what would become of C and her girlfriend Odina as they sailed away on a boat toward the human Outlier colonies.
It would've been interesting to see what C and Odina made of their lives and their freedom and if their story in the real world intersected with the final game in the Sublime. C may be the only human left who has the best interests of both hosts and humans at heart.
Does The Hybrid Caleb Survive?
After Caleb's death, Chalores created nearly 300 different versions of hosts modeled after the human Caleb. These were essentially human-host hybrids of Caleb and at some point they always began to deteriorate and eventually die.
However, the last version of Caleb had managed to survive much longer than the other versions and was still alive when he convinced his daughter to leave him at the end of the season 4 finale. It is possible that this version of Caleb will survive because like the regular hosts, he has a cornerstone to keep him going (his daughter). The hybrid Caleb may be the key to cracking the future of host and human hybrids, even if that future is in the Sublime and not on Earth.
What Happened To Felix And Sylvester?
Felix and Sylvester were two Westworld employees who played an important role in helping Maeve in seasons 1 and 2. Their last appearance was in a season 3 episode, but it wasn't really them as they were just part of the illusion in the Warworld simulation Engerraund Serac created.
The last time the audience saw the real human Felix and Sylvester was in the season 2 finale when they were still employed at Westworld and they were told to clean up the mess. At this point in the timeline, Westworld and Delos Destinations have been shut down for years, but the audience still never found out what happened to Felix and Sylvester and if they are among the still surviving humans. A reunion with Maeve in the final season would've been satisfying.
What Will Be The Outcome Of The Final Game?
The biggest question of all is what the outcome of the final game in the Sublime looks like. Some fans have wondered what happens when someone loses or wins the game, what true freedom look liked, and what was the final evolution and fate of the hosts and sentient life. This outcome surely would've been shown in a fifth and final season.
Instead, the fans are left with a more ambiguous ending where they will have to decide for themselves what the ultimate outcome was for the hosts after the arduous journey they went on throughout the course of the series.
Source:gamerant.com