Editor's Note: The following contains Westworld Season 4 spoilers.In the most recent episode of Westworld, the show that has been slowly redeeming itself from its prior season, we got to see what the consciousness that is still Caleb (Aaron Paul) now must endure. Following a significant revelation back in episode four, all that he is remains trapped in a future where he failed his mission with Maeve (Thandiwe Newton) after he “died” years prior. Held in confinement where he knows enough about himself and his daughter to want to get a message to her, we see how he now goes through dying on a loop just trying to escape. We learn this in horrifying detail as he stumbles upon the other versions of himself bloodied, scarred, and dead on the journey he takes. It is as gruesome and horrifying as the show has ever been, another example of how this season is willing to push into new directions when it needs to. As we witness that this miserable state of existence is all that Caleb’s life is now, going on for months if not years, the show effectively conveys the grim depths of his fate. It does so subtly, communicating this horrifying reality visually when most of what the terrifying Charlotte Hale (Tessa Thompson) says to Caleb is a complete lie.
Yet she still seems to want to keep him around as a plaything of sorts, torturing him and using him for conversation. The multiple versions of Caleb, all trapped in adjoining cells where they can see each other, are doomed to a life of suffering. The death of his mortal self was a mercy by comparison as it was over quickly. Now, he is forced to relive that agony over and over again without any real chance of escape. Even the triumph he gets in sending a message to his daughter falls short as it is cut off before all of it can be received. It was all a test that Hale had put him through, morbidly curious by what he would try to say to her. A concluding conversation for this version of Caleb atop a building rooftop is devastating. As he slowly gets closer to expiring once more, he is rebellious and resistant to her control. However, it all is futile as he is going to be killed once more and put back through whatever misery she wants to inflict on him. As Hale taunts him, Thompson remains as outstanding as ever as she chews through the scenery. She's made Caleb’s life a living hell and shows no signs of stopping.
Praise must also be given to the visual effects team for creating such a nightmare in one key shot. While we always tend to spotlight the work of VFX artists when they do massive landscapes, the more intimate terror they have created within this confined set of a cell is also worth highlighting. Seeing Caleb looking at multiple dejected versions of himself is what brings this all to life. Sure, there are the majority of moments where body doubles and careful framing make this all work. Still, the scene where the camera pans around to reveal all of the various Calebs occupying the same frame is where the gut punch of the moment is conveyed visually. It is one of those shots that sticks in your memory as we see the anguish of his existence reflecting back at him in all the versions in varying states of decay. It is a brief yet decisive moment that establishes the full stakes of what he is facing down. While the version we identify with is still clinging to hope, the rest of them are completely robbed of it. This inevitable descent is what he will also have to face down, over and over and over again.
This is where Paul just gives all of himself to the scenes he gets and makes them feel all the more impactful. Even just the physical aspect of his performance in how he begins to be overcome by tremors as his body begins to shut down is deeply affecting. When it begins to take over his speech, making his words feel halted as he fights to get them out, Paul imbues each utterance with a sense of pain. It is all done gradually, beginning with small hints of what will soon completely consume him. There is bravery in Caleb continuing on that we see in Paul’s eyes, though this is still one of the most dour moments in the show as we feel his anguish at the looming potential of failure at every turn. Even when he manages to find a way out and get a brief glimpse of freedom, we know it will all end the same way with him back under Hale’s thumb. Even just the final scene the two share together where Caleb comes back online, unaware of what he just endured, is quietly horrifying. It shows how he is doomed to go through this until either Hale is finally overthrown or she just mercifully kills him off for good.
Whether that comes is still up in the air as the show continues to build to an inevitable conclusion where not everyone will come out unscathed. What is clear is that the direction the show has taken Caleb is a thread that has been as unexpected as it is macabre. When we first reconnected with him at the beginning of the season, he was doing everything he could to protect his family from having to face down the horrors he himself was running from. His failure not only doomed them to a life of always being on the run, but it has also left him in a cycle of constant suffering with only fragments of his memories to cling to. Even as this episode had various other characters working through their own challenges, this was the central core that cut the deepest. While there is the hope that Caleb can find some sort of permanent salvation or escape in the final two episodes, it is likely that there is no returning back to the life he once had. His experience has changed whatever is left of him, both physically and mentally. The way both Paul and the show writ large have brought this to life makes it one of its most engaging storylines this season precisely because of how completely consuming it is. Whether it can stick the landing remains to be seen, but the unshakeable feeling we have gotten from this new horror is certain to remain no matter what happens.