Another week, another batch of Westworld fan theories. Last week's episode definitely asked more questions than it answered (so the Man in Black is a good guy in the outside world?), and our intrigue is amped up to 11. Here's what the internet is saying this week.
Ok, this isn’t so much of a theory as a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it fact. It’s not immediately clear, but watch the fourth episode a couple of times and you’ll see that the hosts who were a big part of Lee’s rejected ‘Odyssey on Red River’ storyline are now essentially slaves working on expanding the park for Ford’s new storyline.
This theory via Slash Film reckons the Man in Black is actually a board member at the park, based on the fact that The Man in Black knows about Arnold - the so-called co-creator of Westworld - and, of course, the amount of freedom he has to roam in the park. The theory continues that the photo found by Abernathy is of the Man in Black’s wife.
This popular Reddit theory is based on Dolores’ answer to Bernard’s question: “where are you?”
“I’m in a dream”.
What if the conversations between Bernard and Dolores all take place digitally? It makes very little sense for Bernard to continue to smuggle Delores out of the park for their off-the-record meetings, so why not access her via ‘remote desktop’?
Ok, ok, bear with me. This theory is based on the fact that we never actually see the outside world, and has been rationalized quite convincingly on Reddit. The 28 day guest limit, for example, could be in place due to potential radiation exposure if they were to stay any longer, and a nuclear disaster could explain the lack of any other animals (aside from flies) in the park. This would also explain the radiation suits the park workers wear when removing the host’s ‘bodies’, and the fact that Delos is so far underground. There’s more to support this theory - check out the whole thread.
This is one of our own theories. In a TV series where every last detail is intentional, it’s very interesting that Jeffrey Wright’s character Bernard never wears anything other than black. Coincidence?
Uh...maybe.
As always, add your own theories in the comments below!
Welcome back to our weekly round up of the crazy (and not-so-crazy) fan theories on what’s going on in HBO’s latest sci-fi series, Westworld. Episode 3 gave us a little more information on certain members of management’s intentions - I don’t know about you, but I’m developing a real soft spot for Bernard - yet there’s still plenty of mystery to sink our teeth into here. Here’s what the internet is saying this week.
Spoilers ahead for ALL AIRED episodes of Westworld to date.
Currently information on the identity of Ed Harris’ violent guest is scarce, but The Wrap theorises that Westworld co-creator Arnold is not dead, as Ford claims, but walking round the park bashing hosts’ heads in. Why? Because Arnold wanted to bring hosts to consciousness - as the Men in Black arguably appears to be - and it’s a sound explanation as to why he’s allowed so much freedom.
I know we reported the ‘Bernard is a host’ theory last week, but Uproxx has doubled down on the idea and come to some interesting conclusions. The site believes Bernard is modelled after Ford’s (presumably) dead business partner Arnold, and the fact that he has a ‘backstory’ - like all the hosts do, and none of the other humans do - is evidence of this. His dead son provides Bernard with looping grief that keeps him grounded in the illusion of his own humanity.
While it seems like last week’s theory that The Man in Black and Billy are the same person was debunked in episode 3, there’s still plenty of evidence to suggest the show is set in alternate timelines. As The Verge noted, Delores’ awakening could actually be leading up to the disaster of 30 years ago’ events ago, and Billy’s odd ‘past’ with her might be linked to the fact that he plays a part in this. After all, it is kind of weird that she finds so much time to talk with Bernard outside of her regular narrative loop.
Jimmi Simpson as Billy.
A very smart Reddit user believes that the maze in Kissy’s skull is actually a cross-section of a spherical maze that’s located underneath Westworld - as underground as Delos itself. To find it, one must follow the big river that runs alongside Westworld - as ‘Arroyo’ is stream in Spanish, and Lawrence's daughter in episode 2 said "follow the Blood Arroyo to where the snake lays its eggs". The theory continues that the ‘snake’ part in her cryptic guidance relates to the constellations the rogue host obsessively carved in episode 3, and there’s a constellation called ‘Serpens’ in the Northern Hemisphere, with a Serpens Cauda (tail) that points to the east. So? Follow the river until one is under the Serpens Cauda constellation, and there will be the entrance to the maze.
This Reddit theory suggests that Arnold as ‘human’ is a red-herring from Ford, and he was in fact, a host who started awakening the other hosts...30 years ago. He and the rest of the sentient hosts had to be deprogrammed after the disastrous event, and this would explain why Bernard had not heard of Arnold before, and why Ford insists on treating the hosts as robots. Which leads us to…
This theory comes courtesy of Comicbook.com, and suggests that one host slipped under the radar after a bunch of them became conscious - the Man in Black. This theory also suggests that he was one of the tougher models, with thicker skin and more expensive, hardier wiring, part of an ‘original’ group of hosts that were subsequently recalled. After all, the pilot episode which focused largely on The Man in Black was called ‘the original’ - perhaps he is the model the title is referring to.
For last week's theories, check out the text below, and be sure to add your own in the comments!
HBO has only aired two episodes of its new sci-fi series Westworld, but it's proved the biggest water-cooler subject since it debuted that other series everyone talks about back in 2011. Westworld presents us with a much deeper rabbit hole than Game of Thrones, though, and audiences have come to some pretty far out conclusions as to what the heck’s going on at its bottom. Here’s a selection of some of the best, plucked from the internet hive mind and our own brains. We'll update this list each week as Westworld continues to present new mysteries.
For now, major spoilers for the first two episodes of Westworld ahead.
This explosive theory originated on Reddit: Earnest newcomer Billy (Jimmi Simpson) and the nefarious Man in Black (Ed Harris) are the same person, and exist in episode 2 in two entirely different timelines. There are several times when their behaviour is mirrored, while many are pointing to an older-looking Westworld logo appearing in Billy’s timeline than the one in ‘modern day’ scenes. Could The Man in Black be Billy’s final form, grizzled, desensitized, determined to crack Westworld’s meta game?
This theory is a no-brainer. Bernard claims the last park ‘failure’ was 30 years ago: could he be talking about the ‘infection’ that spread through the hosts in the 1973 Westworld movie, causing them to go against their programming at a devastating cost?
Another Reddit theory, this one claims that the church steeple that Ford keeps coming back to is the site of the old park, where the disaster occurred 30 years ago. Ford wants to keep this ‘old’ Westworld a secret as it reveals the truth of the hosts’ purpose, and one redditor believes that Lawrence's daughter's clue to the maze - "follow the Blood Arroyo (red river) to the place where the snake lays its eggs” - is actually at the church steeple. After all, we see a snake by Ford’s feet as he gazes down at it.
Vulture theorizes that the hosts are modelled on former guests, based on a plot-twist from Futureworld, the Westworld movie sequel. In Futureworld, the leads figure out that Delos is modelling its hosts in this way - could the same thing be happening here? Is Ford’s end-game to usher in immortality by transporting human consciousness into his androids? Which brings us to…
Everyone seems to have come to the conclusion that the little boy Ford talks to at the end of episode 2 is a younger version of himself. The kid - whose odd turns-of-phrase betrays his non-human self - could quite easily be a younger Anthony Hopkins, built as Ford’s confidant.
It’s fairly safe to predict that some of the Westworld workers we’ve met already may not necessarily be human: episode 1 already pulled off a bait and switch with James Marsden’s character Teddy. The most common theory after two episodes is that the driven head engineer Bernard Lowe (Jeffrey Wright) is not who he seems - after all, would Ford trust a human as the right-hand man of his empire?
Everyone knows that Bernard is up to something. His off-the-books interactions with Dolores (Evan Rachel-Wood) sees him weasling into the host-psyche, while he mentions his struggles with treating them as mere ‘robots’. Considering his emotional ties, it’s not crazy to suggest he would purposefully try to open the hosts up to their true selves - perhaps it was Bernard who planted the photo on Father 1’s farm, which is slowly but surely kickstarting a series of individual host epiphanies.
Because Teddy’s bullets couldn’t kill The Man in Black, it’s safe to assume he’s human. But what if he wasn’t? This theory claims that he’s actually a host-gone-rogue who has figured out how to manipulate his own programming.
“What if I told you, I’m here to set you free?” says The Man in Black in the Westworld trailer. This line has lead many to theorize that instead of a villain, The Man in Black is actually a Gandalf-like mentor, who wants to usher the hosts into sentience. This is a harder theory to swallow, but many are arguing that when he dragged Delores into the barn it was not to sexually assault her, but enlighten her.
This reddit theory attempts to answer the question: why is the Man in Black allowed to commit such atrocities without management being alerted? Because someone is allowing him his freedom. In episode 2 Ford expressed bemusement at the park’s hedonistic, violent direction - it’s not impossible to picture him as the master manipulator of the Man in Black, with the maze at the end of his grand narrative, allowing sentience for all hosts and the implosion of the park as it currently stands.
What are your favourite Westworld theories? Add them in the comments below!
Lucy O'Brien is an editor at IGN’s Sydney office. Follow her ramblings on Twitter.
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