Passed Pawn (Westworld)

Charlotte calls Musashi with her belief that the original Dolores is leaving her copies to die. She announces that she has a plan of her own. Musashi is met by Clementine and Hanaryo - the two hosts that Serac brought to help Maeve, they begin to attack and kill Musashi.

Dolores and Caleb head to Serac's re-education facility in Mexico to look for Solomon, the AI that had been developed by Serac's brother Jean Mi prior to Rehoboam. En route, Caleb recounts his military mission to Crimea to deal with a rebel group using data tracking systems. His unit was one of the systems' targets. The entire unit was killed, except for Caleb and Francis. They subsequently captured a rebel leader, but when their planned evac failed to arrive, they made their own attempt to escort their captive to safety. Francis and the rebel leader were killed.

Once inside the facility, Dolores asks Solomon for its help to break Serac's system. Solomon reveals that Caleb was one of the few to have been successfully reconditioned by Serac, and that those who failed reconditioning were put into cryogenic sleep.[1]

Solomon further reveals that both Caleb and Francis had been in the military but were discharged after the Crimea attack. They subsequently became agents to serve Serac's system and round up other outliers. The Rico app was used to arrange these abductions. They were given special pills to create the false idea that they were still serving in the military. Flashbacks show the rebel leader that Caleb captured was really Whitman, the CEO of the pharmaceutical company that provided the pills. He was considered an outlier for asking too many questions.

Maeve arrives at the facility to fight Dolores. Dolores implores Solomon to change the story for the world to the one that Jean Mi had envisioned fifteen years ago before Serac put him away.

Caleb asks Solomon about Francis' true fate. Solomon says that Whitman revealed the truth to Caleb and warned him that Rico would likely tell Francis to kill Caleb. Caleb killed Francis first, which he was re-conditioned to forget.

Maeve gains the advantage on Dolores, and Solomon provides Caleb a data device with instructions on how to kill Serac. Dolores makes it inside the Solomon facility and activates an EMP that disables Solomon, Maeve, and herself.

Meanwhile, Bernard and Ashley discover similar information about Caleb being one of the few to survive Serac's reconditioning. As they leave the facility, William reveals he has come to find a new purpose: to rid the world of hosts.

Bernard dissuades Ashley from killing William because he believes that they will still need him. He warns Ashley that Dolores will likely use Caleb to destroy humanity. As they look for transportation, William finds a gun and prepares to kill Bernard and Ashley.

With this episode, Angela Sarafyan and Tao Okamoto were added to the main cast credits, reprising their roles as the hosts Clementine Pennyfeather and Hanaryo, respectively.

The title of the episode related to the chess term passed pawn; a pawn that can make it to the opponent's side of the board without being captured can be promoted to powerful piece but generally requires strategy and sacrifice to make this happen; in this case, Dolores' plan has appeared to involve significant sacrifice to get Caleb to engage with Solomon by the end of the episode.[2]

On Rotten Tomatoes, the episode holds an approval rating of 53% and an average score of 6.46/10, based on 19 reviews. The website's critics consensus reads: "'Passed Pawn' brings together the seasons' many threads, but the results are mild at best, opening a serviceable path for the grand finale that may leave audiences wanting."[3]

The initial broadcast was watched by 813,000 viewers.[4]

• "Passed Pawn" at HBO.com
• "Passed Pawn" on IMDb