Warning! Spoilers for the Westworld Season 4 premiere are in the article below. Be sure to check out our full review of the premiere right here.
It’s been two years since Westworld’s thrilling Season 3 finale aired, and we were left with some pretty big questions concerning the fate of our favorite characters: Is Dolores really dead, is the Man in Black himself or a host now, and what was the deal with Bernard and that VR headset?
While the Season 4 premiere, titled “The Auguries,” doesn’t answer all those questions, we spoke to executive producer and co-showrunner Lisa Joy to break down some of the key scenes we saw this week.
Is the Man in Black a Host, and Why the Hoover Dam?
Ed Harris as The Man in Black at the Hoover Dam
Joy confirmed that Ed Harris’ iconic Man in Black character is not the same person as when we first met him. “He was attacked at the end of last season, by his doppelganger that Charlotte Hale sicced on him,” Joy told IGN. “Now we are seeing what’s happened, which is the human Man in Black’s worst nightmare is that he has become a host and worse yet, he’s a host that works for Hale and does her bidding.”
But why the Hoover Dam? Well, according to Joy, the well-known American structure has been taken over by a private enterprise, in this case, a drug cartel. However, its importance stems from its ability to output power and hold large amounts of data.
“It’s just this constant source of water power, which could be used to power some pretty big data storage facilities,” Joy explained. “The Man in Black is quite interested in securing that facility and the information stored within it.”
Is Dolores Dead, and Who Is Christina?
Is that Dolores or Christina? Or both?
Evan Rachel Wood’s Christina appears to be living a fairly normal life as a video game developer with her gorgeous girlfriend played by Oscar-winner Ariana DeBose. But what does Christina have to do with Dolores and is Dolores truly dead?
“Dolores died last season,” Joy said, confirming that Dolores Prime is no more and Christina is a different character altogether. “I just wanted to tell the story of a girl in the city trying to make it as a writer. All things that I can really relate to and I wanted to cast the sort of perfect human. Evan is such a great actor that I figured she would still be the best person to play that role. So we put her in, we changed her hair color and I’m just hoping nobody notices that it’s the same character that played Dolores because I really love Christina.”
Teddy Is Back, But What Does that Mean?
Our favorite cowboy has returned!
At the end of the Season 4 premiere, we see James Marsden’s Teddy Flood looking up at Dolores Christina on her balcony. He’s back! But why? The character was absent from Season 3, but Joy wouldn’t divulge his complete story arc for this season. Still, she did say she’s thrilled he has returned.
“Just giddy-making for me and everybody else. It’s been hard to be away from James,” Joy said. “Wyatt, unfortunately, drove him to death, but we always knew that Marsden would come back for another season. He was kind enough to sit tight for us. Then here he is at the end of the episode, and you see a glimpse of Teddy. We’ll learn more about who he is and what he wants as time goes by and it’s a thrill to be working with James again.”
There are seven more episodes to go and plenty of mysteries left to uncover in Westworld’s fourth season, so be sure to come back to IGN in the coming weeks for more chats with the creators and actors of this mind-bending franchise.
And for more on the world of entertainment, check our latest review of The Boys, Steve-O saying Jackass was a “bad influence” on kids, and all the burning questions we still have after the Obi-Wan Kenobi finale.
David Griffin is the Senior Editor, Features and Content Partnerships for IGN. Say hi on Twitter.
