[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for Westworld Season 4, Episode 4, “Generation Loss.”]
Westworld continues to serve up its signature twists and turns well into its fourth season as the latest installment, “Generation Loss,” uncovered one of the chapter’s biggest revelations yet.
Along with confirming two timelines at play, the episode uncovers C’s (Aurora Perrineau) true identity as the now-grown Frankie, a.k.a. Caleb’s (Aaron Paul) daughter. While Caleb’s storyline may be set 7 years after the events of Season 3, C’s interactions with Bernard (Jeffrey Wright) and Ashley (Luke Hemsworth) are set decades later, 23 years after Caleb and Maeve (Thandiwe Newton) broke back into the titular Delos park where they both met a metaphorical end.
Led out further into the desert by Bernard with the promise of delivering C and her resistance organization a weapon to help in their mission of taking Delos down, they uncover Maeve’s long-hidden body which had been buried in the sand after Hale (Tessa Thompson) detonated explosives the night she and Caleb infiltrated the park. Presumably, the version of William (Ed Harris) that had mortally wounded Maeve that fateful evening is possibly buried as well, but unbeknownst to C is that her father Caleb is still technically alive, or at least a host version of him is under Hale’s control in New York.
(Credit: HBO)
“You’ll definitely learn some more,” teases Perrineau about her grown-up version of Frankie who has undoubtedly been through a lot in the years since Caleb’s disappearance from her life. Whether her new single-letter moniker is an ode to her dad or a symbol for something else will remain a mystery for now as Perrineau acknowledges an explanation “was something that [the creatives] were like, ‘We’re not sure if it’s going to be in the season or not.’”
First introduced in Episode 3, C meets Bernard and Ashley and despite not knowing who they are, agrees to take them to her base camp. Why she’s so willing to take Bernard’s apparent knowledge into consideration doesn’t entirely have to do with trust. “At the end of the day, she really wants something,” Perrineau points out. “When we really want something and that has to do with something we love, we do things that are not [always] in our best interest. I think C feels like she has the upper hand in that situation,” she admits.
Just as much as C is willing to test the waters with Bernard and Ashley for the sake of finding what she’s looking for, Bernard is trusting her to make the kind of decisions that will lead to the salvation of humanity. “It’s hard because I have to play it from a point of view of, I don’t know how he knows these answers,” Perrineau acknowledges. “It’s very strange that he keeps acting like he knows what he’s talking about. But he does have a very firm way of speaking that you’re like, ‘I guess maybe he knows what he’s talking about.’”
(Credit: HBO)
As viewers saw in Episode 3, “Années Folles,” Bernard’s precognitive functions allowed him to determine several possible paths for the future, admitting to Akecheta (Zahn McClarnon) that should he work to save humanity, it will be a suicide mission for himself. By following C’s lead, Bernard is willingly pursuing a path to self-destruction for the benefit of the greater good.
One such step in that path is the uncovering of a weapon that could help C and her organization in their fight. As the episode was reaching its final moments, the uncovering of Maeve’s body hints at an interesting story ahead. “C doesn’t know who Maeve is other than seeing her that one time when she was really young,” Perrineau says. So, there’s understandably some confusion on C’s part as to how this host will help. “It’s just about trying to put the pieces together and figure that out. And Bernard knows more than C does about what’s happening.”
An exciting thing to explore moving ahead is the outlook on the world at this point in time. On Caleb’s side of things, he’s seen firsthand the control that Hale and Delos have over society, but what kinds of changes has the resistance gone through over the years? “I can only speak from my character’s perspective,” Perrineau says, adding, “all this has been catapulted forward for her because of the fact that her dad left and she doesn’t know what’s happened to him.”
While Perrineau confirms that the show will fill in some blanks moving forward, she also acknowledges, that “there’s definitely trauma there” from Caleb’s absence. “I think that’s why she really needed to see if his body was there,” she adds, noting that there’s always this shred of hope for C that she’ll find Caleb. “People have a hard time letting go. So I think she has a very hard time with that.”
Beyond Caleb and beyond the bond that’s beginning to form between her and Bernard, C’s got relationships of her own in this timeline as was evidenced in her interaction with the organization’s members. “You’ll learn more about C’s relationship with Jay (Daniel Wu) and with Adina (Morningstar Angeline) and where that heated-ness [between them] is really coming from.” Apart from filling in some missing puzzle pieces to C’s story, Perrineau can’t say much more but admits, “I’m really looking forward to seeing Episode 6, I get to do some cool stuff there.”
Keep your eyes peeled and your thinking caps on as C’s story continues in Westworld and let us know what you think of the show’s latest twist in the comments section, below.
Westworld, New Episodes, Sundays, 9/8c, HBO