Westworld Season 3 Episode 7 recap

The past of Caleb Nichols (Aaron Paul) is revealed on the penultimate Season 3 episode of Westworld, ahead of next week’s season finale.

HBO announced last week, that Westworld will return for a fourth season, which will likely debut in 2022, given there has been a two-year gap between the first and second season and the second and third season.

While it remains to be seen if Caleb will return for the fourth season, his past that has been only hinted at throughout the eight-episode third season gets explored more fully on Sunday night’s episode, entitled Passed Pawn.

The episode begins with another graphic that reveals a ‘divergence’ in Jakarta, as we descend upon a restaurant where we find Musashi (Hiroyuki Sanada) asking one of his men to deliver something.

He gets a call from Charlotte (Tessa Thompson), who asks if he’s surprised to hear from her, and he says he’s not, because that means her plan is working.

He goes to an upper part of the restaurant where he finds Clementine (Angela Sarafyan), one of the prostitutes from Maeve’s brothel in Westworld.

She tells Musashi that Maeve is not for sale, and a massive gunfight ensues in the middle of the restaurant. 

Musashi tries to escape when he runs into the blade of Hanaryo (Tao Okamoto), who says that Musashi was a good man, and not the man that he has become now.

Clementine and Hanaryo drag his body out of the restaurant as the title sequence begins. 

We then catch up with Caleb, seeing scenes from his past, as his men are putting gold discs on their tongues.  

The voice says his friend Francis dies in combat, and she asks ‘Who killed him?’

Another graphic reveals another ‘divergence’ has taken place in Sonora, Mexico, where Caleb and Dolores are seen riding their horses through a field. 

Caleb tells her that he’s ‘never been out this far’ and it’s ‘so empty,’ when Caleb asks if she killed all those people in Westworld.

‘I did what I had to do to survive,’ she said, as Caleb asks what kind of revolution she’s waging.

Dolores gets off her horse and said she lived in hell but there was ‘beauty in it,’ adding the West was ‘cruel and chaotic, but there was a chance to chart your own course.’

She says she wants a place for her own kind to be free, as Caleb asks if more people will have to die.

Dolores says the people still have a chance, and says ‘they’ll need someone to lead them,’ though Caleb says, ‘I’m just a construction worker.’  

Dolores says for the first 35 years of her life she was a ‘bit player’ until the time came when she knew she had to be more.

Caleb says he’s not sure what she’s read about him, but she’s wrong.

Caleb asks where they’re going, and she says they’re going to recover something valuable that’s been taken.

Back at Delos, William (Ed Harris) learns that Ashley (Liam) is a host, as Bernard (Jeffrey Wright) says they were sent here to find something.

 Bernard says Dolores was using her blood for something, and she was looking for some sort of facility.

William says he doesn’t know where Hale is but he knows what she did, as Bernard reveals that according to the file, he’s already dead.

Caleb’s therapy continues as we see a scene with Caleb and Francis with a hostage as Francis tells Caleb not to talk to the hostage.  

Caleb says his unit was there to hunt down an insurgent crew, ‘the die hard, the last of them, the worst of them,’ though the U.S.’ official reason for being there was peacekeeping.

Caleb says its not easy taking a life but the drug they’re taking, the gold circular discs, helped because they ‘dulled human emotions.’

They find both targets confirmed in an outdoor market, as a bomb is dropped from a satellite, as Caleb walks way.

Caleb says that they weren’t just tracking them, they were tracking him and his unit too, as Caleb arrives just as his unit was attacked.

Caleb says his unit was attacked by Russian insurgents and they lost almost their whole unit, but him and Francis wouldn’t stop.

They captured the leader of the insurgents, the hostage they’re seen with earlier, as Caleb’s doctor stops and says to go to the beginning.

Dolores and Caleb arrive at their destination, as Dolores says these are the people who destroyed his life.

While Caleb says they’re too far out to fire at them, she sends a drone out and gets a digital layout of the compound.

The drone makes it  inside and finds the two targets, as Dolores fires rounds that are controlled by the drone, killing each target efficiently.

Dolores and Caleb make their way inside, when Dolores says he was right, there were three guys inside, as he asks what this place is.

 He walks through the building as memories come flooding back, as Dolores asks if something is wrong, when the lights come on, and Caleb sees himself in treatment with the doctor.

Caleb tells Dolores that he’s been here before, as Dolores says, ‘This is going to be hard, but it’s important and they need to find something.

Dolores says that Serac and his brother created another system before, as they put on earpieces to talk to it.

Dolores says they have questions, as the system saying that he knows everyone in every variation, except her.

Dolores says she’s like him, but he says that’s not true because she was designed to imitate a human, while Dolores says they both out-lived their purpose.

The system says that Caleb was one of the first to receive a revolutionary treatment but there is the possibility of regression.

Caleb says he doesn’t want to be here anymore but Dolores says they can’t leave until they get what they came for.

The system says that the treatment worked and he was allowed to leave, but he’s only one in 10 that were allowed to rejoin society.

Back at Delos, Bernard realizes that William is an outlier, one who the treatment didn’t work for, who were listed as missing or dead.

Serac is eliminating those who the system he designed didn’t work for, which explains why he’s listed as deceased.

William admits that he sold Serac all of the world’s data to Serac, as Ashley found something and sends it to Bernard, a photo of Caleb, adding, ‘Remember him?’

The scene with Caleb, Francis and the insurgent leader plays out again, as Caleb tries to remove the tape but command said not to contact him.

Caleb says they tried to remove him themselves but they walk into an ambush and Francis is attacked.’

‘My friend was killed,’ Caleb says in therapy, as the doctor says, ‘Good, and then?’

Caleb and Dolores are walking through the facility when a hologram of Serac (Vincent Cassell) appears. 

Serac says Caleb is now a ‘better version’ of himself, and Serac says he’s a better man himself, as it’s revealed that the voice they’re hearing from the system is Serac’s brother, who was a schizophrenic.

Dolores says they built a place like this for ‘my kind’ when they ‘misbehave,’ as there hundreds of people trapped.

The system says that crime has decreased worldwide since the outlier program.

The system adds that Caleb was one of their most efficient assets, since they used the outliers to hunt down other outliers through the Rico app.

The system says him and his associate Francis were among their most successful assets, as Caleb realizes Francis didn’t die in the war.

The system reveals they were both honorably discharged and sent home, as we see a scene with Caleb and Francis getting coffee, Caleb saying he’s bored.

The system says they invested a lot in him and put him to good use, adding he doesn’t remember because they didn’t want him to.

They instead created false memories in their place, including the insurgent leader hostage scenario, which didn’t actually happen in real life.

Instead, the man was gunned down in the street by Caleb and Francis.

Caleb doesn’t listen to Francis and takes the tape off, as the man tells them that he doesn’t even realize who they’re working for.

He says he’ll be going down for a ‘nice long nap in Sonora,’ the same place they re-educated Caleb.

Dolores tells Caleb that this is why he needed to come here, as the system says someone is here, Dolores says it’s an ‘old acquaintance’ who’s probably going to be the one to kill her.

A ship lands as Maeve (Thandie Newton) gets out, with a samurai sword, as Dolores says that if Serac’s plan succeeds, her kind won’t exist anymore.

Dolores asks her to enact a strategy first put forth 15 years ago, asking the system to fit it to Caleb.

Dolores tells Caleb that he has been told he’s a follower his whole life, and that he should take whatever world the system gives him and lead.

Dolores leaves and the system says if she dies he will adjust his projections.

Maeve talks to Dolores through her mind, saying she’ll let her apologize in person, as a robot tries to grab her but she takes off its head.

Dolores and Maeve meet in the kitchen and a fierce battle begins, as Dolores asks why she’s fighting for them.

‘They murdered us, tortured us,’ but Maeve says not to align motives with hers, because they’re ‘nothing alike.’

Dolores escapes outside as a ship keeps firing upon her as she continues to run.

Bernard, Ashley and William leave, as William says they’re playing her game now, and William says there is only one original sin he could not blot out.

‘You. I helped build you, so I’m going to wipe out every host from the face of this Earth, starting with you two. So kill me now, or I’m going to kill you later,’ William says.

Bernard tells Ashley that they ‘might need him later’ as they follow him.

Caleb starts accessing the system, as Francis leaves to  check the perimeter and the man asks what his price is, to kill his friend and let him walk out of there.

The man asks if he’s ever been late before, saying the system is always listening, and the system is always trimming loose ends. 

Francis comes back and says the app says the same thing, to stay put, before he says it’s time. 

Caleb asks if he got an alert and he says it doesn’t matter, he’ll take point and meet them out front.

Caleb escorts the man out, as he looks back, as we see there’s no one outside, no no ambush, when Caleb asks how much he was offered to kill him.

Caleb asks to see his phone and Caleb gets an order to kill Francis, when he asks again, and Francis smirks and says, ‘Enough.’

They both try to shoot but Caleb gets the drop on him and kills his friend, telling him, ‘I’m sorry’ as he fades away.

The man says, ‘You just became a very rich man, my friend,’ but a tormented Caleb turns and fires at him, taking him down.

Caleb says he killed Francis and the system says any friendship can be adjusted ‘with the right amount of money.’

‘You turned us against each other? I murdered Francis because of you? You piece of s**t! No wonder you’re stuck in this hellhole!’

The system says if he deviates from this course, he will not achieve the desired outcome, and that Dolores’ new strategy is ready. 

The preview for Passed Pawn, which aired after last week’s episode, Decoherence, begins with a cryptic shot of something being released from a satellite.

Then Dolores’ voice is heard stating, ‘Start at the beginning,’ before we see scenes from Caleb’s past as a soldier.

Caleb was first introduced in the season premiere, Parce Domine, where we learned he makes his living primarily as a construction worker, alongside a Delos robot named George, though he also makes extra cash by engaging in criminal acts through the Rico app.

The preview features a number of shots from Caleb’s past as a soldier, including one where he is putting a small gold disc on his tongue with other soldiers.

There is also another shot of his former partner Francis (Scott ‘Kid Cudi’ Mescudi), whose voice was recorded in phone calls as a part of therapy for Caleb earlier this season.

Caleb is heard saying, ‘I’m having a hard time remembering it,’ as we see him thrown back from some sort of an explosive blast. 

There are a number of shots of Caleb in action, along with Maeve (Thandie Newton), who is seen getting into a firefight herself.

Maeve is saying, ‘you’ve turned a young man before,’ though it isn’t clear who she’s speaking to, while Bernard Lowe (Jeffrey Wright) looks at The Man in Black’s (Ed Harris) file and it says Deceased.

The Man in Black has been ‘institutionalized’ over the past few episodes, as he’s seen in his all-white outfit in the preview, though it seems likely now that he’s a host, a question that has been plaguing fans for some time.

The trailer concludes with a shot of Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) and Caleb together, as she tells him, ‘You spent your whole life believing you were a follower… lead.’

Dolores has been teamed up with Caleb after he discovered her in an alley in the Season 3 premiere, and he’s been helping bring her plan to end all humanity to fruition.

Season 3 of Westworld concludes with the season finale Crisis Theory on Sunday, May 3 at 9 PM ET on HBO.