Editor’s Note: The following article contains spoilers for Westworld Season 4.Maeve Millay (newton) could be the best character of Western world. His battle for autonomy and freedom in the early seasons was incredibly engaging and his philosophical differences with Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) in their respective approaches made for some of the most thought-provoking parts of the series. Maeve is confident and with godlike powers to hack robots, she is a formidable force that anyone can deal with. When the story changed to her, you could always expect something interesting to happen. The problem is that, like most things in Western worldMaeve went bankrupt in Season 3. Her powers became central to what the story needed her for (unless it was to pull off some recorded pranks when needed), leading her to become more of a used plot device. to drive the narrative or other characters. her to her desired destiny instead of a free will agent with her own agenda.
A big part of the issue surrounding Maeve feeling static stems from the fact that the show’s main cast has changed drastically over the past two seasons. Tons of base characters were killed off or missing, especially the ones close to Maeve. Hector (rodrigo santoro), the technicians: Felix (leonardo name) and Sylvester (Ptolemy Slocum), Lee Sizemore (Simon Quarterman), and many of her other connections have been removed, meaning that all of Maeve’s connections were severed. Maeve was always a character motivated not only by her need to break free, but also by her ability to see the humanity in others. He allied himself with humans and hosts alike from the start, but self-preservation had become all he had left. In season 3, she spent most of her time alone hunting Dolores, and that made her feel much more like a robot than anything we’ve seen her do in seasons 1 and 2.
While Season 4 has been an improvement over Season 3 in countless ways, one thing that seems to have stayed the same is Maeve. Her powers make her a huge threat to almost any force against her, so the show must keep finding ways to make her obsolete. This season he is working to support Caleb (Aaron Paul) safe and is set to be the secret weapon that will take down Charlotte Hale (tessa thompson). It seems like the story happens to her instead of her being a part of the story now. She exists to preserve Caleb and use his superpowers to be the trump card that will win the day. Maeve’s power itself isn’t the problem, it’s something she’s used incredibly well from the start. But now it seems that history is not very interested in her outside of her powers. When she and Caleb travel to the new fake park and witness a re-enactment of the “Paint It Black” sequence, she has a few flashbacks and a sad look in her eyes, but the story moves on quickly. It feels fake for Maeve to return to a teasing recreation of her old friends’ re-textured versions of her, who were once prisons and puppeteers, only for her to barely affect her.
His powers will fail and will not work on Hale’s enhanced hosts, until he conveniently they can discovery. One would expect that against buffed enemies, Maeve would do what she has done in the past: connect to the system and download what he needs to gain the upper hand. Instead, she simply wishes for more until her powers finally kick in precisely when the story allows it. She spends too much time fighting silent computer screens. She feels as if Maeve is operating on training wheels, limited not by her abilities but by the story’s willingness to acknowledge them. It’s frustrating to see her ability levels seemingly fluctuate based on what the narrative wants to happen, rather than what we know Maeve is capable of.
There are glimpses of Maeve becoming a full character again in her interactions with Caleb in season 4 episode 4. She reminds him of his past and expresses her desire to keep him safe, to allow him to be with his daughter as she could. Don’t stay with hers, and we see how deeply she has come to trust him as well as how far he will go to keep it safe. This feels like Maeve going back to basics, using her powers because she has something to protect and a goal that she wants for her own reasons. Until she explodes. When she and William (ed harris) The hostess is buried, she becomes a MacGuffin, a key item for the other characters to dig up and use at an opportune moment. People looking for it in the desert call it a weapon, and at this point that is essentially what it is for. She is a powerful character who will be used to help this ragtag group of rebels stop Charlotte Hale’s reign of terror, regardless of her own welfare or involvement. Knowing Maeve, she’ll probably want to help stop this doomsday business anyway, but her choice in the matter has been completely eliminated. Maeve has become an almost mythical power, and that means the plot can’t allow her to do anything too quickly, otherwise the story would just end, so she’s busy moving like a chess piece and maneuvering to manipulate Caleb. instead of having a plot of its own.
The base to return to form is there. Caleb could be the first connection Maeve needs to make to start finding bonds again, to find something more important to worry about than survival or revenge. But with the plot moving at full speed and his powers being constantly unreliable for story reasons, he feels like a plot device, only relevant when he’s relevant to others. Maeve is a character who has always been strong, but it feels like Western world he has forgotten how multifaceted his strength is. It’s not just his extraordinary robot powers; never was his wit, his empathy and ability to connect with others have always been his strengths as much as his ability to disable a host or wield a sword. Maeve Millay is a character who, at her best, is the most powerful person in any room she walks into and she knows it. She just needs to have more skin in the game for her to feel like part of the story again. Maeve is a fantastic character who doesn’t deserve to be wasted as an accomplice to the story. I wish, Western world will put her back on the right path and instead of writing about her, will bring her to the forefront, not only as the secret weapon that will bring victory, but also as the confident character we know and love.