Westworld Season 4 reveals Caleb’s tragic fate, but all might not be lost for the HBO series’ hero – and his endgame has both positives and negatives.
The following contains spoilers for Westworld Season 4, Episode 4, “Generation Loss,” which aired July 17th on HBO.
Westworld‘s Charlotte has been working to control humanity throughout Season 4. Her master plan involves replacing America’s elites with robots/hosts to take over the country and assert dominance for her kind. But despite Charlotte brainwashing the inexplicably alive Dolores, the fight was coming to her doorstep in the early episodes of the season. Several familiar characters rallied against her planned new world order.
Bernard returned from the Sublime to save the world, which made him a fearsome adversary. But fans also assumed that Caleb would be a major thorn in Charlotte’s side — only for Season 4, Episode 4, “Generation Loss” to reveal that things had gone very wrong for him. But his fate might not be entirely sealed, and he could still have a huge effect on the season.
Caleb infilitrated the “Golden Age” (also known as the Mob World) along with Maeve; however, he was trapped by a bot that pretended to be his daughter Frankie and was later brainwashed by Charlotte. While Maeve freed him, she was killed as they tried to get out of the park, leaving Caleb bleeding out in Charlotte’s presence. But in “Generation Loss,” Charlotte revealed that Caleb had died — and she turned him into a bot. For 23 years, she’d been reliving that night with him, trying to pry information out about the rebellion. The realization of the truth made Caleb break down.
It’s a heartbreaking ending for the revolutionary. In Season 3, Dolores made the ex-soldier the “Chosen One” after realizing he was a kind human who didn’t abuse hosts when he was in Delos’ park. He showed compassion and empathy, which led to him helping Dolores bring down the Rehoboam A.I. Caleb’s heroism gave humanity freedom of choice and expression after Serac tried to curtail them, and he proved to be a leader. The rebels looked up to him and he was able to help Maeve finish taking down the remnants of Rehoboam, risking life and limb to finish the job in the seven years after Serac died.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t stop Charlotte — and Caleb’s death led to Frankie working with Bernard decades later. She could be the key to breaking Caleb out of Charlotte’s endless torture sessions while Bernard is trying to revive Maeve. If they’re able to contact Caleb and use Maeve’s powers to change his programming, he could transition from prisoner to an inside man. This would give the rebellion an edge because he may know the layout of her tower and other possible weaknesses.
But most importantly, the rest of Season 4 will be quite an emotional trip for Caleb because he missed out on so much time with his family. That sense of loss may push him over the edge. While he showed restraint before, the knowledge of everything he lost might make him willing to do anything to defeat Charlotte and exact his revenge. Westworld fans can rejoice in knowing that Caleb is still part of the story and has a major part to play, even if he didn’t succeed in his original mission.
Westworld airs Sundays at 9:00 p.m. on HBO.