Westworld Season 4 Ending Explained: What Happens to Dolores?

Thanks to Bernard’s pre-recorded arguments, Hale comes to realize that the only hope for sentient life to continue is if Dolores leads and guides it. That’s why Dolores, the last remaining main character alive after Hale kills herself, is tasked with entering the Sublime and assisting humanity’s only remaining children: hosts. 

“Sentient life on Earth has ended but some part of it might still be preserved in another world. My world,” Dolores concludes. 

What Is The Sublime?

The Sublime, as a concept, has been kicking around Westworld since the early days of season 2. To put it as crudely as possible: the Sublime is robot heaven. Built by Westworld creator Robert Ford (Anthony Hopkins), the Sublime is a digital infrastructure (made up of 1.2 exabytes) where host’s data or “souls” can go once they’re finished with all the torments the Delos Corporation has for them.

At the end of season 2, many hosts (including Teddy and Akecheta) choose to enter into the Sublime, also known as The Valley Beyond and Makȟóčhe lé čha yÁ ki to live out their days in what they hope is peace. Of course, we don’t really know what life in the Sublime is like but Hale was clearly still invested in it as a robotic afterlife, having maintained its servers with the massive electrical power generated by a dam. 

In the Westworld season 4 finale, Hale brings Dolores’s pearl to the dam and uploads her into the Sublime. If sentient life is to have a future, it’s not going to be on Earth – it’s going to in the Sublime with all of the hosts’ data. Based on the changes that Dolores makes, including bringing Times Square back to a primitive Westworld-style tableau, it’s clear that she wants to start from scratch with her new charges. 

Will There Be a Westworld Season 5?

Our best guess is that no, there will not be a Westworld season 5. The season 4 finale presents by far the most complete ending presented on the show yet. Indeed, it’s hard to work around the ultimate end of all sentient life on Earth. Still, if HBO wants Lisa Joy, Jonathan Nolan, and new showrunner Alison Schapker to give it a shot, there is one potential route a fifth season could take.