(Warning: this post contains spoilers for all of “Westworld” through the November 27 episode.)
The ninth episode of HBO’s “Westworld” was covered in reveals, both big and small — but the main one that has been of interest to fans thus far is the confirmation that some of the narrative threads we’ve seen over the course of the season take place years apart.
Many fans have believed for weeks that the story of William (Jimmi Simpson) and Logan (Ben Barnes) takes place decades before that of the present-day story because we haven’t seen them interact with any of the other human main characters. Some have taken that theory a step further, claiming that William is, in fact, the younger version of Ed Harris’ character, the so-called Man in Black.
The latter theory still hasn’t been confirmed to our satisfaction, but the former was proven true to some extent this week. “The Well-Tempered Clavier” actually suggests that the William/Logan story and the present-day stuff aren’t the only two eras we’ve seen on “Westworld” so far.
The confirmation that William and Logan are having their Westworld adventure before present events came via a photo that Logan whipped out as he was yelling at William for taking the park too seriously. That photo was of Logan’s sister, who is also William’s fiancee. We’ve seen this photo before, way back in the pilot episode. Dolores’ (Evan Rachel Wood) father, Peter, found it on the ground, and the memories it triggered broke him. So, at some point, William or Logan will lose that photo while they’re in the park, and it’ll be recovered by Peter some time later.
The other big reveal is that Bernard was built to look like Dr. Ford’s (Anthony Hopkins) long-dead partner Arnold, and that those many scenes in which we believed Bernard was speaking privately with Dolores actually were scenes in which Arnold was speaking with Dolores. See, Arnold had been testing the hosts for true sentience in a secret underground area hosts could access through the confession booth in the church.
Arnold was dead by the time William and Logan arrived at the park, which means those scenes took place even earlier — which gives us at least three separate time periods for the show so far.
In the eighth episode, the Man in Black revealed to us what is likely another discrete time period — when he killed Maeve (Thandie Newton) and her daughter before Maeve was reassigned to be the madam at the Mariposa. Maeve has been the madam since we first saw her, so that whole thing must have taken place before the first episode. Plus, we see Ed Harris committing the murder. So if the Man in Black is actually William, that would put those events some time between the two main story threads.
And there could be more. We’ve seen Dolores remember moments that could have occurred at any number of unknown times… but there’s at least three, probably four, and possibly a number of others.
The finale, this Sunday, will likely make the picture a bit clearer.
'Westworld': Who Else Might Be a Secret Robot? (Photos)
(There are, obviously, spoilers for "Westworld" throughout this gallery.)
As is the case with every movie or TV show about robots that look like humans, the seventh episode of "Westworld" revealed that one of the people we thought was human was actually a secret robot the whole time. That opens the door to, well, anybody being a robot. So with two episodes left in the season, let's take a look at our possible Secret Robots.
HBO
The big reveal in episode 7 was that Bernard (Geoffrey Wright), the head tech guy at the company that runs the Westworld park, is actually a robot enforcer working, unknowingly, for the villainous Dr. Ford. This has us feeling pretty paranoid, because if any character on the show could fit the label of "protagonist" thus far it was Bernard. Suddenly, everybody's motivations are in question.
HBO
Everybody talks about Arnold as if he were human. Arnold was Ford's partner in creating the Westworld android technology who allegedly died in the park 35 years earlier after coming up with this Maze that everybody is obsessed with. And yet a bunch of the robots in the park can hear him talking to them. If Arnold was himself a robot, it's not a huge stretch to think he could have transferred his consciousness into a server somewhere.
HBO
However, it could be that Arnold was human and Ford (Anthony Hopkins) was himself a creation who rebelled against his human creator. Ford has talked lately about their ideological differences, leading to some sort of falling out before Arnold's supposed death. Plus, now that we've seen Maeve's robot-controlling skills at work, there's no reason to think Ford's command of the robotic horde eliminates him from consideration.
HBO
Bernard murdered Theresa (Sidse Babett Knudsen) and framed it up as an accident, leading the others to discuss what she might have been doing and why she was doing it. Ford describes the death as the end of "her story," and security dude Ashley Stubbs makes a comment about it not being "in her character" to have been in the odd location in which she was found. That is, as you know, how these people talk about the robots.
HBO
Several episodes prior, Stubbs (Luke Hemsworth) and Elsie went into the park to find a stray, and Elsie was enamored by a pattern that a malfunctioning robot had marked on wood carvings. Stubbs identifying the pattern as the constellation Orion and quipped that maybe he only knows that because it's in his backstory. Does Stubbs just flippantly act like people are robots as a joke or some kind of weird habit, or is there some deeper meaning to that?
HBO
Whenever Felix (Leonardo Nam) has the chance to shut Maeve down as she's been making her power play, he has a look that's reminiscent of when a host tries to shoot a host in the face but can't because their programming won't allow it. And if Maeve's ascension is part of Ford or Arnold's grand scheme, it would make sense to put a tech in a position to help out.
HBO
Sylvester (Ptolemy Slocum) and Felix's conflict over what to do with Maeve could be the struggle between Arnold and Ford playing out in microcosm. Also, Maeve cut Sylvester's throat but, apparently, that can be easily patched up with the same tools they use to patch up the robots.
HBO
We've seen some fan theories positing that Westworld is really just a simulation for some kind of experimentation, meaning that both the guests and the hosts would be robots. That would make William (Jimmi Simpson) and Logan (Ben Barnes) -- and the Man in Black (Ed Harris) -- all robots participating in that simulation. Essentially, robots who are playing by different rules from the host-bots.
HBO
The way Ford treats Lee Sizemore (Simon Quarterman) -- the lead writer of the story arcs in the park -- is akin to how guests like to mess with the hosts. Ford has torn down everything Lee has tried to do since the series began, and now he's got him working, apparently, on a villain character who won't even be used.
HBO
There's no real evidence that Charlotte Hale (Tessa Thompson) is a robot, but it seems plausible that she's another tool in the Arnold-Ford War. She definitely doesn't know she's a robot, if she is.
HBO
Elsie (Shannon Woodward) could be a robot, right? She works for Ford, but also he killed her, so I don't know. I have to include her, for reasons I'll explain on the next slide.
HBO
Maybe everybody on the whole show is a robot. The setting has been totally contained thus far, never extending beyond the park. Westworld could be some kind of elaborate artificial intelligence experiment with the people who run it also, perhaps unknowingly, the outer layer of the experiment. I would bet on this one. But if it's true, I wouldn't expect it to be revealed for a couple more seasons.
HBO
1 of 13
We already know about one, and there’s no reason to think there aren’t others as well
(There are, obviously, spoilers for "Westworld" throughout this gallery.)
As is the case with every movie or TV show about robots that look like humans, the seventh episode of "Westworld" revealed that one of the people we thought was human was actually a secret robot the whole time. That opens the door to, well, anybody being a robot. So with two episodes left in the season, let's take a look at our possible Secret Robots.
HBO
HBO
