We Think We Know What Caleb (aka Aaron Paul) Is Hiding on ‘Westworld’
*Warning: Spoilers ahead*
Last night’s episode of Westworld left us with several burning questions, but there’s one in particular that stands out from the rest: What is Caleb (Aaron Paul) hiding?
Season three, episode five, titled “Genre,” picks up right where we left off in last week’s installment, with Caleb and Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) continuing their abduction plan with Liam Dempsey Jr. (John Gallagher Jr.).
By accident, Caleb gets dosed with a “party drug” called Genre, which alters his perception of reality. This means the character’s mind wavers between a number of movie types, from a black-and-white noir film to an action-packed heist thriller.
During his trip, Caleb experiences a series of confusing flashbacks, all while trying to help Dolores gain access to Incite’s supercomputer, Rehoboam. While we could easily go on and on about how the plan will probably lead to disaster, we can’t stop thinking about Caleb, who isn’t as innocent as we originally imagined.
In fact, we’re starting to think that Caleb could be a host, and it has everything to do with what Liam sees when he reads Caleb’s file.
The problem is we don’t know what’s in Caleb’s file, since Liam refuses to spill details. However, there are a few key details that are leading us to believe that Caleb isn’t human.
First of all, Liam doesn’t trust Caleb. During the episode, Caleb asks Liam to read his file, pleading, “Tell me who I am!” When Liam does, he suddenly becomes afraid of Caleb, saying, “You don’t even know who you are. You’re the worst of them.”
This doesn’t mean much at first, but as the episode progresses, it becomes obvious that Caleb’s flashbacks aren’t a coincidence. There’s one scene in particular that Caleb repeatedly sees, which shows the death of his war buddy, Francis (Scott Mescudi).
As the flashbacks became more clear, we started to question the legitimacy of Caleb’s visions. It almost looks like Caleb was brainwashed to believe that he was a military war hero, when in reality, there’s a lot more to his origin story than he remembers. So, are the memories real? Or are they a glitch in his simulation?
If it’s a simulation, this would mean that there’s an underlying connection between Caleb and Serac (Vincent Cassel). The relationship makes sense, since we find it very hard to believe that Serac would let Dolores befriend a new partner-in-crime in the midst of his revenge mission against her.
Since we already know that Serac is trying to enlist Maeve (Thandie Newton) to find and kill Dolores, we can’t help but wonder if Serac programmed host Caleb with Maeve’s memory pearl, ultimately creating a secret weapon within Dolores’s inner circle.
This just got really interesting. Westworld returns to HBO next Sunday, April 19.
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