Westworld Season 4 episode 3 ending explained: What happens in Annees Folles?

Westworld season 4's third episode, Annees Folles, aired this week and sent shockwaves through the internet. Directed by Hanelle M. Culpepper and written by Kevin Lau and Suzanne Wrubel, the episode was packed with anticipation and excitement as our heroes undertook some gallant tasks, a familiar face resurfaced, and things turned deadly at the new theme park.

The episode saw Bernard waking up and being guided by a white horse through a number of hellish scenes before arriving at a White Tower where he found Akecheta. Following an explanation from Akecheta, Bernard and Stubbs took to the road, where they met a mysterious woman who took them to the desert.

Meanwhile, Maeve and Caleb discovered that the company is making parasites. In a ploy to get Caleb attacked by flies, he comes face-to-face with his alleged daughter. It remains to be seen why he was targeted in this manner.

Westworld is a sci-fi fantasy series about a fully immersive Western-themed amusement park where visitors can go and interact with robots called "hosts." However, all hell breaks loose when the robots start malfunctioning.

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A glimpse of Bernard in the latest episode of Westworld

The newest episode of Westworld finally takes us back to Bernard, who has been “asleep” for years. He was last seen slumped forward on a bed collecting dust while the world went to hell around him. The episode begins with him opening his eyes in the Sublime, with his son Charlie whispering to him and asking him to wake up.

Father and son now make their way through a nearby door and into a vast expanse of sunlit hills where suddenly a tree bursts into flames before their eyes, transporting Bernard to a place resembling Westworld, with bodies littering the dusty streets, flames rising and a wolf darting out of a nearby shop to inspect the dead. As Bernard takes in the scene unfolding before him, a white horse gallops through the carnage.

The scene changes again, but now the white horse guides Bernard. Following the horse, he appears at a tower — the one that writers have dropped hints about this throughout the season.

Oddly enough, this structure resembles the drawing Christine glimpsed at the mental health clinic. Bernard enters the place only to find that the horse has led him to Akecheta, who explains everything to him. Bernard then hits the road with Stubbs.

We then find Stubbs and Bernard blindfolded and taken by a mysterious woman into the desert. She guides them through a series of traps and safeguards before introducing them to other members of her group. Bernard then reveals to everyone that there is a weapon hidden in the desert and that he can help them find it.

But what is this new weapon?

In Bernard and Stubbs' timeline, the human resistance is better organized than during the times of the Incite riots, which means his timeline is happening further into Westworld's future than Caleb and Maeve's.

If so, then the weapon could be a host - a robot who's active in season 4's present. Or it could also be that Dolores left something behind before she died, to liberate humanity just in case the revolution she started was compromised.

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New discoveries made in Westworld

In other news, Maeve and Caleb navigate Delos’ new 1920s-inspired theme park, which is a narrative set-up park where every choice made, or every host helped, triggers a meticulously plotted and controlled chain of events. Thus, when Caleb reaches for a can rolling past him in the street, Maeve stops him and steers him away from one of the park’s pre-set storylines.

The two then go and wait at The Butterfly Club. However, a group of mobsters storm in, forcing them to hide amongst the piles of dead hosts brought back for repair. As they navigate the building, they find themselves caught in another level of the game. Maeve and Caleb also make an important discovery — the company is developing a kind of parasite.

Thus, the true purpose of Golden Age is revealed. Caleb comes face to face with his daughter, who isn't really his daughter and is merely a ploy to get Caleb attacked by a swarm of flies. The flies play an important role.

The drone hosts create a black tar-like substance which is then imbued into flies. When these infected flies enter the human body, it makes the humans subservient. This explains the fate of the Cartel gang members, Whitney and Navarro. Below the Golden Age is a testing facility for this, going under the title Project Chrysalis. Navarro is a guinea pig in this project.

The entire set-up with Maeve kept busy in combat with William, and Caleb being distracted by his "daughter," was a ploy to get a fly inside Caleb. But why was Caleb targeted? It could be because of his closeness with Dolores or his potential to put together a revolt against the on-going project.

Alternatively, it could also be because he can unlock the Sublime data believed to be stored inside Hoover Dam.

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Catch the next episode of Westworld on HBO on July 17, 2022 for more answers.