“ | Welcome to the end of the game. | ” |
"The Mother of Exiles" is the fourth episode of the third season of Westworld, and the twenty-fourth episode overall.
Synopsis[]
“ | The truth doesn't always set you free. | ” |
–HBO |
Plot[]
Host Charlotte Hale[]
Hale checks voice messages on her phone.
Man in Black and Emily[]
The Man in Black, William, is in a version of his living room surrounded by broken furniture and other debris. He is disheveled and unshaven; he is shooting at various things in the room with a handgun while raving that he knows what's real and what's not.
Dolores appears in her Season One blue dress and tells him she knows what's next. He watches a mixture of blood and water drip from the ceiling, similar to when his wife killed herself, and he suddenly emerges from the same bathtub and falls onto a flooded bathroom floor. Emily appears, telling him that everyone he cared about is dead because of him, and there's no one left. He continues to insist he made his own choices. She asks if he is "free and evil" or "blameless and helplessly enslaved", continuing to question his perception of himself and his reality. She hands him a shard of glass and asks him to finish the game.
Just as he's about to cut into his arm, Hale appears. She appeals to get his head back into reality and and warns him about Serac's move to take over his company. She reminds him that William sold data to Serac's startup twenty years ago and that now he wants the data from the project in Sector 16. William is surprised Serec knows about this data, and he blames her for her failure in allowing a data leak, a mole, in Delos Incorporated.
Hale tells him that she has a new investor but needs William's support to take the company private at an emergency shareholder meeting that evening. She asks him to come back to the company - and to himself.
Dolores Abernathy & Bernard Lowe[]
In simulation, shown by aspect ratio, they look through his empty home. It flashes to moments of their previous interactions.
Bernard & Ashley Stubbs[]
Outdoors, no longer in simulation, Bernard watches two rockets land tail-down and then another take off.
He enters a hotel room where Stubbs is sitting on the bed cleaning a handgun; he complains to Bernard about the lousy room and his shoulder injury, made worse by them swimming five miles to shore. Stubb sees Bernard has an image of Dolores at the event with Liam, he is tracking her down.
Bernard demonstrates a small device on Stubbs, it freezes nearby hosts. Stubbs resents it and says so. They talk about what they call Dolores' "kill and replace" plan; it becomes obvious that they think she has already replaced Liam Dempsey Jr. with a host and wants to go for him first.
Bernard says that he used Liam's car service to find out where he'll be, and tells Stubbs that they're going to have a night out on the town.
Dolores & Caleb Nichols[]
Dolores is buying clothes for Caleb; he's not comfortable with a new look but Dolores tells him it's necessary to fit in - if he wants to get to the person who took his future from him.
Liam Dempsey Jr. & Martin Connells (host)[]
Martin Connells (host) goes into Liam Jr.'s office and forces him to transfer a hash key to him for offshore money to cover up the deaths of the men Dolores Abernathy killed. Liam initially rebuffs him, but Martin reminds him of his true place and privileges that he enjoys. Martin refers to her as "Lara" to Liam.
Dolores & Caleb[]
Out on the street, Dolores and Caleb are walking and pass a man, Michael. Dolores bumps into him and apologizes. She pretends to recognize him so she can knock him out and take a blood sample from his neck. She tells Caleb it contains an encryption key they need for the transfer, and he reluctantly allows her to injects the blood into his arm.
Engerraund Serac & Maeve Millay[]
At a hotel bar, Serac brings Maeve back online. Serac tells her that they are in Singapore. Maeve says Paris would have been better to impress her. Serac tells her there's nothing left of Paris because of a thermonuclear event (mentioned in the Divergence Timeline). Maeve asks why he wants Dolores, and Serac says Dolores has the only key to some data he needs. He was building a data set to "protect" humanity from itself, and it turns out Robert Ford had in possession a more complete portrait of human nature - and Dolores' key will give him access to that data. He offers Maeve the choice of spending eternity with her daughter in the Valley Beyond if she helps him, or eternity without her daughter. He says that he wants to show her something, and then she can go back to Westworld if she chooses.
Serac takes her to Arnold's House, which he calls "The Diverge" where the future that he had planned ended. The system had traced a divergence to this house three months ago. Inside is a host 3D printing machine, and Maeve realizes that Dolores must remade herself there. Serac tells her that Dolores took five Control Units, pearls, when she left the parks as she needed allies.
In another room a bloody man is tied to a chair. Serac explains that Jiang is an identity broker who had received a payment from a wealthy man who drowned in his own swimming pool, presumably Gerald. Serac has connected this with Dolores establishing her new identity, and tells Jiang to tell him about Dolores. Jiang refuses to talk and Serac puts a pair of glasses on showing him what becomes of his family if he helps them or refuses to talk.
Jiang begs Serac to make it stop. Serac removes the glasses and Jiang he says that Dolores wanted five identities so he sent her to The Mortician. Serac thanks him and shoots him in the head. Serac repeats again his offer to Maeve. When Maeve asks why shouldn't she join Dolores, Serac reveals that they built an off-switch into her body controlled via a remote, which can shut her down earlier. He explains that Dolores and the other five have a head start on Maeve. Maeve leaves.
Man in Black & Hale[]
William is shaving with a straight razor, Hale offers to him. They talk about who the mole in Delos might be. Hale said only a handful knew, but most were killed. William questions perhaps it is her. She continues the lie that most of the data had been destroyed, but he thinks he might still find traces of it if she had not covered it up well.
Dolores & Caleb[]
Dolores and Caleb visit a very exclusive bank to steal Liam Dempsey Jr.'s money using the access key now in Caleb's blood. Dolores' backup plan is to do it the "old-fashioned way", meaning she kills everyone. The bank representative has misgivings about transferring all of Liam's balance, and also requests a second authentication. Finally, after a tense moment, it's approved and they leave.
Maeve[]
Maeve is looking for The Mortician. As she walks through a crowded street with food stalls, electronic signboards becomes fuzzy and crackle as she passes. She politely asks the guards outside a club. They are dismissive until she knocks one out and shoots another in the crotch. They call The Mortician and take her there with the wounded guard.
The Mortician doesn't want to give Maeve information about Dolores and one of her guards tries to shoot Maeve - Maeve kills him and then overloads The Mortician's earbud device when she tries to call for help.
She tells Maeve that she gave Dolores the blood, the identity, of a woman called Lara Espin and sent her to the Yakuza to smuggle the five bodies.
Maeve persuades The Mortician to introduce her to the Yakuza.
Liam Jr. at The Masked Orgy[]
Liam arrives at a masquerade party and dons a mask. Roderick and Penny come over and offer their condolences on Dolores' supposed death, and Roderick says that the party is about self-gratification. They check the men and women on display, and Roderick offers Liam a vial of a drug, Genre, which plays memories in the user's mind. Liam takes it, and Penny puts on a mask and says that she's going to take in a show. Roderick assures Liam that all the prostitutes are registered, and the money goes to charity.
Dolores and Caleb come in as guests and don masks. She tells Caleb that she'll take Liam when he's alone, while Martin watches them from a balcony above and notes their arrival.
Maeve & The Mortician[]
The Mortician takes Maeve to the Yakuza HQ in a distillery. Maeve overrides the electronic park with her power and the gate opens. She leads the Mortician in, and the Yakuza thugs inside draw their guns. Maeve says that she wants to talk to their leader, Sato, and they try to shoot her with their self-aiming smarty guns. She takes control of the leader's when it refuses to respond to his orders. She knocks him down and forces the other guns to shoot their wielders. The last thug standing draws a short sword and charges at Maeve, who disarms him and kills him with his own blade. Maeve then goes into Sato's office.
Hale & Man in Black[]
Maeve & The Mortician[]
Bernard, Liam Jr. & Caleb[]
Man in Black & Hale[]
Maeve and Musashi[]
Man in Black & Hale[]
Caleb, Liam Jr. and Dolores[]
Maeve and Musashi[]
Man in Black and Dolores[]
William exits his mansion to find two men waiting by a Delos taxi. In a passing conversation with Hale, he realizes that something is different, and it quickly becomes clear to him that it is not Hale. The two talk a little longer and it becomes clear to William that Hale has been replaced with a Host version of Dolores. Dolores tells the two men to restrain William and explains that they work for a mental institution. Dolores explains that with William institutionalized, his voting rights will pass to the acting director, her; she intends to use these to further her bid to take Delos private.
Later in his room at the institution, William sees Dolores once again in her signature blue dress. She explains that they've been playing a long game and that William should feel excited having finally reached the center of the maze; now, he has met his downfall.
Cast[]
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Trivia and Notes[]
The title[]
Title referenced to sonnet by American poet Emma Lazarus "New Colossus" which is about the Statue of Liberty. But in this episode it refers to Dolores. She is the woman seeking to liberate her kind the huddled masses.
General[]
- Viewership for this episode was 0.779 million.[1]
- It is revealed that the five Control Units Dolores stole from Delos were used to create alternative-versions of herself:
Mistakes[]
Quotes[]
Music[]
- Hunter (originally by Björk). An instrumental cover plays at the bar where Maeve and Serac talk.
- Higher Speed Club (by KnowKnow & Higher Brothers feat. BABYBO). Plays when Maeve asks a guard outside a club for the Mortician.
- Wicked Games (originally by The Weeknd). An instrumental cover plays at the masquerade party.
Image Gallery/HBO Episode Stills[]
This gallery is automatically generated and contains images in the category Images from The Mother of Exiles". Images added to that category turn up in the gallery after a short time.
External links[]
- The Mother of Exiles at the Internet Movie Database (rating 9.2/10)
- The Mother of Exiles на Rotten tomatoes (rating 82%)
- The Mother of Exiles at en.wikipedia.org
- The Mother of Exiles at HBO