Westworld 405 is the fifth instalment of the fourth season of an American dystopian science fiction television series created by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy. The first two seasons were loosely based on Michael Crichton’s Westworld movie where android hosts in a Western theme park rebelled against their human masters. The third season explored the world in which this theme park were set in, thereby rendering the title irrelevant. At the end of which, the status quo of the world had been altered when Rehoboam, the A.I. that controlled and ordered the world was destroyed.
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Entitled “Zhuangzi”, Westworld 405 presents to us, finally, the new world order that Christina is currently living in, all this while. Zhuangzi, of course, was the ancient Chinese text that questioned the nature of reality in the pivotal story, “Zhuang Zhou Dreams of Being a Butterfly”, wherein it is not clear whether it is the protagonist dreaming or the butterfly itself. Yes, real mind fuck territory.
READ OUR ANALYSES OF WESTWORLD.
Which reflects accurately the narrative of Westworld 405 as Christina (a.k.a. Dolores) comes to realise – with the help of Teddy – that she is in fact creating the lives of the humans around her in the city. Hale has successfully transformed the world into one gigantic theme park with the humans now being the servile automatons and the hosts are now in charge. Embedded within this world is the “game” – where hosts seek to win in order to transcend onto the next stage. This, of course, holds strong religious connotations and reminiscent of the Cylons in Battlestar Galactica.
Hale has effectively become Ford in this new world order as she wields absolute control over humans much like Ford in Westworld – the parallels are unmistakable. But there’s a fly in the ointment so to speak, when the William android is “infected” by his interactions with an outlier that cause him to experience existential angst. Very intriguing.
With Westworld 405, the series’ rehabilitation is almost complete. The big question is whether Westworld can stick the landing.
Now streaming on HBO Max.
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