What Happened This Week On 'Westworld' Season 3: "Passed Pawn"

We're in the endgame now, people. There's only one more episode of Westworld season 3 left, and I don't know about you, but I'm so ready for the end. This season has been a wasted opportunity, with the promise of starting fresh almost immediately obliterated by the series falling back into bad habits. So let's take a look at what happened on Westworld season 3 this week.

And so is Hanaryo, the Shogunworld host with the tattoo on her face. In an intro that is never brought up again (I guess we have to wait until next week), the burned-up Charlotte Hale sends Clementine and Hanaryo to kill Musashi. Of course, both Charlotte and Musashi are both host bodies with Dolores' cloned pearl inside their heads, but it appears that the Charlotte-bot has officially turned against the main Dolores (Dolores Prime, if you will). But who the hell is inhabiting the bodies of Clementine and Hanaryo? Are they supposed to be the originals? If so, how did they get out of the park? And do you even care at this point?

After discovering him in the mental asylum last week, Bernard and Stubbs spend almost the entire episode walking around the building with William. They discover that Charlotte injected William with some sort of virus. He's also been declared dead. And while it looks like the three of them are going to team up to go stop Dolores, William eventually finds a gun and turns the tables on the two robots. How are Bernard and Stubbs gonna get out of this crazy mess?!

What a twist! I guess! We finally learn some stuff about Caleb this week, and as it turns out, he's one of those outliers that drove Serac's brother bonkers. No matter how great the Serac brothers made their A.I. machines, and no matter how accurate those machines might be in predicting human behavior, there were always outliers who managed to defy those predictions. The solution: reprogramming. As a result, Caleb – and other outliers – had their brains scrambled to make them "better versions" of themselves. Conveniently, Caleb didn't remember any of this until this episode. Also: William is another outlier, and he was receiving the same treatment as Caleb.

All this time, Caleb – and the audience – have believed that Francis, Caleb's old army buddy, was killed in combat. As it turns out, Caleb killed him, because he was worried Francis was going to turn on him while the pair were engaged in a kidnapping plot – a plot spurned on by that crime app that Caleb uses, and that Serac actually controls (because of course he does). The murder was erased from Caleb's brain, but now he remembers, and he's pissed.

Before there was Rehoboam, the current giant A.I. that's been running everyone's lives, there was Solomon. And this A.I. is still active, housed in a trashed warehouse. Oh, and of course, the machine talks in a monotone HAL 9000-like voice, because Westworld doesn't have an original thought left in its head. The machine has inherited Serac's brother's mental illness – "an insane A.I." as Caleb calls it – but this is all part of Dolores' plan. I think? In any case, she's lead Caleb here because she wants to use the truth to force Caleb to end the human race. Why doesn't she just do it herself? Bernard says it has something to do with Dolores' "poetic nature" or some horseshit like that.

The series has been teasing a big Maeve vs. Dolores stand-off, and now it's here. Maeve arrives at the end of the episode and she and Dolores engage in a big battle, with Maeve first using a sword, and then later getting some drones involved. It culminates with Dolores losing and arm, and then Maeve and Dolores both seemingly being shut down. I guess they're both dead forever and will never be back! Just kidding. There's a final episode – and a recently announced fourth season – to deal with, after all.

And I have never identified with a line of dialogue on this show more.