Review of 'Westworld' 4.1

Westworld was back on HBO Sunday night with the start of its fourth season, and I liked it. It had a leaner feel and storyline than the previous season, which worked well with the meanness at large in every season. Plus, it had a wallop of a surprise at the end.

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

Maeve is in great shape, forced out of some kind of retirement in the snowy woods because a team is out to kill her. Like a hit woman or agent who hasn't lost her touch after all of these years, she disposes of them easily. But of course there'll be more to come. She needs to create her own team, and she starts with Caleb. This almost could be a Liam Neeson movie were it not for the first three Westworld seasons.

Caleb is relatively happily married, and he has a daughter who looks like Maeve's daughter, but I assume she's not. In contrast to Maeve's steely resolve, well-played as always by Thandiwe Newton, we have the mentally conflicted Caleb well played by Aaron Paul. This part was a little trite, but, then again, the opening story with the Man in Black making like a mobster was even triter.

Not trite at all is Christina, once Delores, who is now in New York writing stories. If she ends up writing a story about sentient AIs that would be ok in my book. Evan Rachel Wood is great, as always, and so far she's the most interesting character, storyline wise.

Which leads to that surprise at the end: Teddy's back! Which I think is a fine move, not only because I'm sure we'll get a good story about how he ends up now in New York City, after -- how many years? we last saw him in Season 2 -- but because, hey, I like to see some true love in a story, as you readers of my reviews should know well by now, and Westworld certainly needs some.

See you back here next week with my review of the next episode.