‘Westworld’ Season 4 Episode 4 Spoiler Review — “Generation Loss”

Following the previous episode of Westworld Season 4, our beloved characters inch closer to a new truth. The fourth episode of Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy’s hit HBO dystopian science-fiction drama series is titled, “Generation Loss”. It is written by supervising producer Kevin Lau & story editor Suzanne Wrubel and is directed by Paul Cameron.

In this review, I will be discussing Westworld Season 4 Episode 4. There will be spoilers here, as the title of this article suggests. Please read ahead at your own discretion if you have not yet seen the episode.

It should be noted that during the writing of this review, I watched the fourth through sixth episodes of the season ahead of release to properly understand the wider context of the narrative.

Plot Synopsis

According to WarnerMedia, here is the synopsis for Westworld Season 4 Episode 4—“Generation Loss”.

Should auld acquaintance be forgot and days of auld lang syne?

WarnerMedia

Discussion

At a near 51-minute runtime, “Generation Loss” is a well-paced episode that briskly juggles a few different yet related subplots. The primary part of the episode focuses on Caleb Nichols (Aaron Paul) and Maeve Millay (Thandiwe Newton) as they deal with Dolores Abernathy (Tessa Thompson) — in the form of Charlotte Hale this season — as well as the Host version of William (Ed Harris). This subplot provides some background to Nichols and Millay’s time together between the events of the Westworld Season 3 finale and the Season 4 premiere.

The episode’s other portion, albeit smaller, follows Bernard Lowe (Jeffrey Wright) and Ashley Stubbs (Luke Hemsworth). Here, they are taken into the custody of the rebels. The purpose of this part of the plot is to further complement Nichols and Millay’s story. It ties them together by the end, allowing to understand where both the Nichols/Millay narrative and the Lowe/Stubbs narrative belong in the season’s bigger picture. To contrast that in a couple of scenes, we have Christina (Evan Rachel Wood) set up with a blind date (James Marsden) to get her mind off of living through a nightmarish reality.

Seklir, Comperchio, and Sabinsky did a neat job at editing the scenes that oscillate between the Nichols/Millay and Lowe/Stubbs subplots towards the latter half of the episodes. However, before I get into analyzing that, allow me to first dive into Christina’s subplot.

Metaphysical or Physical?

Something beautiful comes from Christina’s subplot of the episode. We see her wake up in bed, as she has in other episodes of Season 4 in which she’s appeared. She and her roommate, Maya (Ariana DeBose), speak about nightmares they have both had. Maya speaks of how flies invaded her family picnic, pursuing both of her parents, then her. As we have noted during the previous three episodes of the season, flies are important symbols of Dolores Abernathy/ Charlotte Hale’s (Tessa Thompson) control of human beings. Christina’s roommate refers to these nightmares as “anxiety dreams”, but viewers of the show know better than that.

In this same scene, Maya says she has set Christina up with a date. Since we know that Teddy is neither a human nor a Host under Dale’s (let’s call her that for now) control, could it be safe to say that Maya’s role is rather innocuous? She is doing a friend a favor and it is not as if Teddy is a bad person, so there could not be a conspiracy transpiring behind the scenes. Maya’s parents might have suffered a similar fate as had the politician and his wife in “Well Enough Alone”. The question, then, would be: Is Maya a human under control or a human who is free? We have yet to find out…

Christina shows Maya her painting of a spindle-like tower structure in black ink superimposed over her drawings. However, neither of the two women knows what that tower is meant to be. The flies have taught us that they function to turn humans into one hive mind. The tower exists but they just do not see it.

Pink + White

Around the halfway point of the episode, a piano instrumental of Frank Ocean’s “Pink + White” plays in the background of Christina’s next scene at the restaurant. Here, we see Teddy pick up her lipstick, reminiscent of his actions in Westworld Season 1. He tells Christina about human routines: “Rinse and repeat like a train circling the smallest track”. This hints at the use of spirals discussed in the season’s previous episodes.

What is important about Christina’s subplot is the juxtaposition between beauty and ugliness, between life and death. (Ocean’s song previously appeared in an early episode of Issa Rae’s HBO comedy-drama series, Insecure, so this is not new.) What is important about the song is the lyrics’ message, the first verse’s two lines being: “That’s the way every day goes/ Every time we’ve no control”. Ocean says we have no control over the way things are in life. However, outside of this world ruled by Dale and her flies are characters who struggle to fight them off.

Metaphors to the New Spiral

In a flashback, Nichols asks Millay what she believes will happen after the war against Rehoboam. She tells him they will return to their “regular lives”. After seeing him nearly die and what mortality means to human beings, Millay leaves and allows him to have a family of his own — something to fight for — and to live a new life. Let’s refer to this as Nichols’s first spiral of the season.

Returning to the present-day events of Westworld Season 4, Millay senses that Dolores’s Hale is up to no good again. She reunites with Caleb and recruits him back into the war, which never really ended. This time, the spiral is uncanny. With Nichols waking up in Dale’s world, a return to normal living may not be feasible. In probably one of the best third acts of the season so far, we have Nichols waking up to a reality of controlled human beings — or humanlike figures — a la The Matrix (1999). In Dale’s “reality”, everything about life is fixed.

To combat this, we have Lowe’s side of the overall narrative. Last week, the Host met Akecheta (Zahn McClarnon) in The Sublime, where the Native American man had told him, “The world is limitless”, but that in Westworld, simulations and worlds of possibilities are created. He continues, “All paths end in destruction. You must intervene before then if there’s any hope [of survival]”.

The Crew of Westworld Season 4

Westworld is created by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy and is based on the film of the same name written by Michael Crichton.

Joy, Nolan, Ben Stephenson, Denise Thé, Alison Schapker, Richard J. Lewis, Athena Wickham, and J.J. Abrams serve as the executive producers. Jordan Goldberg, Matt Pitts, and Mark Tobey serve as the co-executive producers. Don Bensko, Jay Worth, and Noreen O’Toole serve as the producer. Kelly Calligan, Halle Phillips, Skye Wathen, Caleb Duffy, and Susan Ekins serve as the co-producers.

Peter Flinkenberg serves as the director of photography. Andrew Seklir and Ali Comperchio serve as the editors for the episode. Thomas Sabinsky serves as the assistant editor.

Suzanne Wrubel serves as the story editor. Alli Rock serves as a staff writer on the show.

Ramin Djawadi scores the music for the series. Benjamin Cook is the sound designer, while Christopher Kaller serves as the music editor. Trygge Toven is the music supervisor.

Jon Carlos serves as the production designer. Jay Worth is the visual effects supervisor, while Elizabeth Castro serves as the VFX producer. Chris DiLeo, Amelia Brooke, Rachel Aguirre, and Rebekah Scheys are the art directors. Michael Navarro, AJ Cisneros, Jeanine A. Ringer, and Elaine Jen are the assistant art directors.

Debra Beebe serves as costume designer. Margaret Robbs serves as the assistant costume designer.

Jose L. Zamora is the department head hairstylist. Michael Buonincontro and Lori Fenton serve as key hairstylists, while Dorchelle Stafford and Sandra Avila-Valencia are additional hairstylists. Elisa Marsh is the department head make-up artist.

Andrew Hull, Daniel Jennings, Sally Thornton, James Bolenbaugh, and David Chow serve as the set designers. Dan Caplan is the storyboard artist. Julie Ochipinti serves as the set decorator.

John Papsidera and Kim Winther are the casting directors of Westworld. Maddalena Zuppetta serves as the casting assistant. Sande Alessi is the extras casting director, while Shayne Hartigan is the extras casting associate.

In the New York unit, Barbara McNamara is the extras casting director. Rachel Musson is the extras casting associate, while Patrick Kline is the extras casting assistant. Geoffrey Ehrlich is the art director, while Lucy Pope is the assistant art director. Candice Cardasis is the set decorator. Ashleigh Williams is the head of the make-up department.

The Cast of Westworld Season 4

Evan Rachel Wood stars as the protagonist of Westworld, Christina.

Thandiwe Newton portrays Maeve Millay, while Aaron Paul portrays Caleb Nichols. Ed Harris portrays William, also known as the “Man in Black”.

Jeffrey Wright, Tessa Thompson, and Angela Sarafyan are credited as their respective characters, Bernard Lowe, Dolores Abernathy (previously Charlotte Hale), and Clementine Pennyfeather. Luke Hemsworth plays Ashley Stubbs, while James Marsden portrays Theodore “Teddy” Flood.

Ariana DeBose makes a guest appearance as Maya. Aurora Perrineau portrays adult Frankie “C” Nichols, Caleb’s daughter and now a member of the resistance. Daniel Wu plays Jay, the leader of the rebels. Rodrigo Santoro is credited as Hector Escaton, Maeve’s former love interest in Westworld.

Morningstar Angeline portrays Odina, adult Frankie’s partner and a member of the rebels. Nozipho McLean and Celeste Clark are credited as Uwade and young Frankie, respectively. Hannah James plays Temperance Clementine.

Gabriel Sousa co-stars in the episode as an alpha bro. Chris Rickett plays a suited G-Man, while Anthony Traina plays a gangster in handcuffs. A.J. Hierro plays a pedestrian, while Victor Winters-Junco plays an armed guard. Jasmyn Rae appears as Maeve’s daughter.

Performances and Character Developments

Paul has delivered a mighty fine performance as Caleb Nichols thus far. Although, this episode seems to take the cake. In one of the most wicked scenes the season has given us, his scene at the construction site initially had me bewildered. This is a character who has seen friends die and now he has a family to worry about. The fact that Dolores’s Hale took this away from him again means his sanity will be tested once more. It only makes me wonder if Nichols is bound to face the fate that Incite has for him, albeit one that has been postponed.

Nichols goes well with Newton’s Millay. She shares a similar background with him, having fought in “wars” before and even losing a daughter herself. What makes these two characters excellent together is their chemistry. This partnership is an example of the writers bringing something meaningful to the series, something that Westworld Season 3 might have lacked in terms of emotion.

While neither get the happy ending they were searching for in this episode, we do learn more about Perrineau’s character. She is revealed to be the older version of Nichols’s daughter, Frankie. Unfortunately, we currently don’t know what happened to Uwade (Nozipho McLean). The only good thing to come out of Frankie’s subplot is the excavation of Millay’s Host body. What next? We leave that up to the writers to find out.

Final Thoughts on This Episode of Westworld Season 4

“Generation Loss” is a tale of spirals and loops where even our smallest actions are lost to history. Whereas Caleb Nichols loses his family over the same mistake Maeve Millay made all those years ago, we see Wood’s character having to fall back into love again. It’s tough to see these characters having to find themselves again, especially with all that they have endured. Keep an eye out for these characters’ three subplots because the writers do manage to unite them in one neat path.

While I did see Episodes 405 and 406, I cannot say that they are in the same timeline. As Lowe was told in the previous episode, there is a world of infinite possibilities. I am curious how the writers’ room will wrap the season up in its latter half. For now, your guess is just as good as mine.

Westworld Season 4 is now airing on HBO and streaming via HBO Max!

Have you seen Nolan and Joy’s series? If so, then what are your thoughts on it so far? Let us know! For more Westworld updates as well as drama and science-fiction-related news and reviews, don’t forget to follow The Cinema Spot on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!