“Westworld” Hits Pause After a Showstopping Twist (Season 4 Episode 5 Review)

After the sucker punch of timeline-oriented reveals in the previous episode, Westworld is back in full force with “Zhuangzi,” the fifth episode of the marvelously inventive fourth season. You’d think that with momentum that strong, the season would keep on trucking to deliver whammy after whammy of big news — but bafflingly, “Zhuangzi” grinds to a halt for just about half an hour.

Image courtesy of HBO

Revisit the Violent Delights of “Westworld” with a Mind-Bending Return to Form (Review)

At this point, it’s inevitable that the basic functions of humanity will be replaced by the technology we’ve created. Thus, “Adapt or Die” is the decree that the fourth season of HBO’s trippy Westworld has for us. Building on previous seasons’ themes of consciousness and control, the long-awaited entry into the series’ sprawling and oft-confusing canon takes the best elements of its predecessors and unites them in a satisfying amalgamation that advances the story, while also bringing it back to its roots.

Image courtesy of HBO

Seven years after the events of Season Three, when former Westworld “Host” Maeve Millay (Thandiwe Newton) and human Caleb Nichols (Aaron Paul) stopped an AI from “preventively” ending mass amounts of human lives, we’re thrown headfirst into the new lives of our main characters. Many of them are in drastically different roles than before, including cast member Evan Rachel Wood, whose traditionally-villainous character Dolores seemingly died permanently at the end of Season Three. Now, she plays Christina, a digital story designer who can’t help but wonder if there’s more to life than fabricating the tales of others. It’s not entirely clear why she looks exactly like an android Host from the now-defunct Westworld, but it makes enough sense for now.