Westworld Episode 4 Recap and a Preview for Next Week

Dolores is with Bernard in the lab. She remembers her parents getting killed, and she ran. Bernard offers to take the pain of those memories away, but Dolores doesn’t want that: “That’s all I have left of them.” She doesn’t know what she wants, but she thinks there might be something wrong with this world – or there is something wrong with her. Bernard wants to play a game with her, called The Maze. The goal is to find the center. If she does that, maybe she can be free. Dolores thinks she wants to be free. When Dolores wakes in the morning, she doesn’t find herself in bed. She is outside, a gun in her hand. William is offering her coffee. Clearly, she didn’t get her evening brain wipe. William wants to take her back to town, but Logan has little patience for his gentlemanly behavior. He thinks that the park sent Dolores to give William something to care about, increasing the experience and making Logan want to bump his stake in the place.

In the lab, a technician tells Stubbs that Dolores made a big deviation from her loop. Stubbs figures she can finish out the day; QA can pull her tonight.

Dolores, William, Logan, and their bounty hunter stop in a Spanish town, looking for Slim. She speaks with Lawrence’s daughter, who is drawing the maze in the dirt. A man grabs Dolores, claiming she is the missing girl and threatens to send her back home. Dolores insists her father is dead, and she isn’t going back. William interrupts the host, promising she isn’t lost; she is with him. The host is all smiles and lets Dolores go. The little girl is gone.

It is night when the group camps. Dolores doesn’t know where she is headed, but she feels like something is calling her, telling her there is another place for her. Sudden flashbacks come to her, showing the cleanup crew coming for her. She faints into William, then blames it on a chill. In the morning, they continue on their hunt for their bounty. William insists Dolores stay behind because he can’t get hurt, but she can. Logan opens fire gleefully on Slim and his crew, including a couple of innocent homeowners who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. One of the bad guys realizes that his bullets have no effect on Logan. Before he can use this information to his advantage, Logan beats him to death and takes his gun.

With Slim captured alive, William’s group prepares to take him back to town and collect on the bounty. Slim insists that his man will pay twice what the bounty will pay. Logan likes the sound of this and kills the bounty hunter, telling William that they found an “Easter egg.” He wants William to go “black hat” with him; take a trip into the dark side.

Theresa meets with Ford at the edge of a massive construction site. She suggests the board would be happy to delay unveiling the new storyline, but he insists he will be ready on time. They go to a lovely villa for lunch, and Ford confronts her. “You don’t like this place.” She doesn’t deny it; instead she says she admires the audacity of the park. Ford tells her about when he and Arnold were building this place, he thought it would be perfectly balanced. Ford made 100 hopeful storylines, and almost no one took them. Arnold had a more dim view, preferring hosts to people. Everyone around them – the staff and the vineyard workers – freezes, which puts Theresa on edge. Ford continues staring at her, intently. He has caused everyone to freeze, to better illustrate his point: “In here, we were gods.” He says that Arnold lost his perspective and went mad. Ford hasn’t. He has always seen things clearly. Ford warns her to be careful with Bernard; he is sensitive. “We know everything about our guests… and employees,” he says. The hosts return to their movements, perhaps to make his veiled threat less intimidating: “I will ask you nicely. Please don’t get in my way.” Theresa says the board will send a representative, and Ford corrects her – they already have. Ford assures her his narrative will be complete on time and won’t be a retrospective. In the distance, a massive excavator gets closer.

The Man in Black is still traveling with Lawrence, and he is annoyed. They are at the arroyo, and there are lots of snakes there, but none are the egg laying-type. Then he sees a woman bathing in the river, a huge snake tattoo coiling around her body. Her posse corners the two, and the Man in Black asks to join them in her quest to “retrieve something of great value.” He kills two of her posse, making room for he and Lawrence.

They are looking to break someone out of prison. The Man in Black offers to take care of it, just him and Lawrence, in exchange for hearing the story of her tattoo. She wants to know what is in it for him, and he explains that Arnold, the man who created this world, died in the park. He thinks he had another story to tell, and that her tattoo is part of the story.

The Man in Black and Lawrence get themselves arrested for horse theft and are taken into the prison. He gives the marshal escorting them a cigar, but he doesn’t allow the Man in Black to light up. Upon arriving at the prison, Lawrence is taken away. He is the most wanted criminal in three territories; he is going straight to the firing squad. The Man in Black goes to a cell, which he shares with Hector. The Man in Black promises he is his salvation.

That salvation comes in the way of a prison break. The lab gets a request for a minor pyrotechnic event. It is approved. The Man in Black shoves one of his cigars in the lock and lights it. It explodes, busting the door and allowing the Man in Black and Hector to escape. As they leave, the marshal lights his own cigar – and it blows his face off.

For the second time in the series, Lawrence shuts his eyes and waits for his death. For the second time, nothing happens. The Man in Black and Hector get to the firing squad before the firing squad can get to Lawrence. The trio returns to the snake woman, who shares her story. She was seven when “they” came into town, and killed everyone. They gutted her mother, and she covered herself in her mother’s blood so they would think she was dead. She now searches for the men who wiped out her village, and tattoos her body with the blood of these men. There is one left, the head of the snake, which is not yet filled in. Most know this man as Wyatt.

Maeve is in the saloon and she can’t focus on Clementine. She is remembering things. Blood, the shoot-out, getting shot in the gut, the cleanup crew dragging her away, the technicians working on her. She leaves the saloon and goes back to her room. She checks her abdomen and sees no wound, no scar, nothing. There is a spot of blood on her underthings, and she is reminded again of her visions. Frantically she grabs some paper and draws what she remembers of the technician in his smock and face visor. She goes to hide it under the floorboards, and she discovers a dozen more of the same drawing. She is terrified.

The townspeople watch a tribe of natives march by. A child drops a toy, that looks suspiciously like what Maeve saw. She runs after the child, frantic, begging to know what it means. One of the townsfolk says it is part of their religion, but they won’t talk about it.

The cloaked posse rides into town: the snake woman, the Man in Black, all led by Hector. Hector enters the saloon and Maeve puts a gun to him. She wants to talk. They go upstairs. She knows what he wants is in her safe. She will give him the combination in exchange for answers about the men in her vision. Hector says it is sacred native lore, a man that walks between worlds, one who was sent from hell to oversee our world. Maeve explains about her wound (or lack thereof), and about her dreams. She wants Hector to cut her in the same spot. He declines because the “dreamwalker” said it’s a blessing to see the man who pulls the strings. Maeve takes his knife and cuts herself open. He finishes the rest though, and reaches into her wound and pulls out a bullet. She isn’t crazy after all. They kiss as the cavalry rolls in.

You can watch a preview for next week’s episode, titled “Contrapasso,” using the player below!

The Westworld cast includes Anthony Hopkins, Ed Harris, James Marsden, Jeffrey Wright, Thandie Newton, Evan Rachel Wood, Tessa Thompson, Sidse Babett Knudsen, Jimmi Simpson, Rodrigo Santoro, Shannon Woodward, Ingrid Bolsø Berdal, Ben Barnes, Simon Quarterman, Angela Sarafyan, Luke Hemsworth and Clifton Collins, Jr.

The HBO series is inspired by the motion picture Westworld, written and directed by Michael Crichton. Westworld is produced by Bad Robot Productions, Jerry Weintraub Productions and Kilter Films in association with Warner Bros. Television. The series is executive produced, written and directed by Jonathan Nolan, executive produced and written by Lisa Joy, and executive produced by J.J. Abrams, Jerry Weintraub, Bryan Burk.