Evan Rachel Wood a Bright Spot in Unspectacular "Westworld" Season Finale

Evan Rachel Wood’s character, Dolores Abernathy, from “Westworld” has undergone as much change throughout the show’s three seasons as the show itself. When the series first aired Dolores was an innocent, sweet hearted, farmer’s daughter in a wild west style amusement park. By the start of the third season Dolores had become a ruthless, violent, one-woman army in neo-Los Angeles set in the year 2058. The far venture from its original premise and the loss of subtlety in the plot throughout the third season has drew much criticism from fans. And while the season three finale is added fuel to those same critics’ fire, it did show that the philosophical musings about free will that have been a part of the show from the beginning are still there.

This season finale differs from the two that came before it. While the season one and two finales left us with dozens of unanswered questions, the season three finale answered every question that persisted throughout the season, although where exactly the fourth season will pick up is a mystery. It reinforces the criticism that the plot became much more straightforward in the third season, and some parts of the story and character development do feel rushed compared to the first two seasons. The shortened season, eight episodes from the previous norm of 10, may have something to do with that.

But a bright spot from the season finale is Wood, who still manages to come off as heroic and whose motives seem justified despite all of the mayhem we have seen Dolores cause over the season. We also see a return of the young, naïve Dolores that we were first introduced to. It’s a testament to Wood that she is able to pull off the completely different natures of old Dolores and new Dolores in the same episode. Which Dolores we will see moving forward is anyone’s guess.

While it’s easy to make the case that the show is beginning to go stale and revert into a run-of-the-mill sci-fi show, there is still hope for it when it continues. The excellent performances of Wood and Emmy-award winner Thandie Newton, who portrays the cunning Maeve Millay, along with the moral questions the show forces you to ask yourself are still there, even if everything else around those strengths have taken a turn for the mundane. We’ve seen other recent shows stray far from the original concept and still find success, most notably NBC’s “The Good Place.” “Westworld” has earned the benefit of the doubt that the third season may just be a bump in the road moving forward.

Photos courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Report: Michael Rosen