Something went wrong when William first visited the park. Most likely, Logan was killed. After this disaster, Teddy (based on William) was added to Dolores's narrative to keep her in town and her gun privileges were disabled. William's bitterness and heartbreak turned him into the Man in Black.
- Partially jossed. Teddy as a host predates William and his visit. Dolores also has a narrative that predates William being in the park, where she is mixed with the Wyatt story line and kills multiple other hosts. However, it is possible that her romance with William was a planned narrative as opposed to a chance encounter.
This also explains MIB's saying that he never met Armistice before, and that he always thought Hector was a "market-tested" thing. They had probably been presented to the board as exactly that — a safe, market-tested alternative to replace the violent and dangerous confederate storylines that he experienced.
- In "The Stray" it's mentioned how hard it is to get an outside line. It suggests that outside communication for employees is difficult to obtain or expensive. This could be explained away as Westworld being located on another planet; although if that were the case, real-time communication would not be possible. But if the park is located on Earth, then why would communications be so limited given Delos' resources and extensive infrastrcture?
- Limited communication makes it easier to monitor and prevent proprietary information from leaving.
- First, the next possible candidates would be Theresa and Charlotte, since they are both antagonistic towards Ford.
- Ford making mention of a "blood sacrifice" implies that either Charlotte is a host already, or he has more extensive surveillance in the building than previously thought.
- Word of God states that Ford was spying on Charlotte and Theresa through Hector.
- The focus on the Host being manufactured in Ford's secret lab as Bernard murders Theresa. Given that the Host under construction has a distinctly feminine shape, the implication is that Ford may be planning to replace Theresa with a host.
- Ford doesn't conceal Theresa's death. However, the host might be intended to replace Elsie.
- His power is truly godlike over Westworld. Phrases and such that are similar to Maeve's new power. Arnold had to flee into Westworld to avoid Ford/progress his own plans.
- Partly Jossed in that it's not Ford that kills Arnold.
- The season finale provides arguments bot for and against: Maeve's escape is revealed to have been a narrative planned by Ford all along, but when Felix sees this and thinks he is a host, Maeve tells him that he is "not one of us", but "them." That might just be Maeve's programming speaking however.
1) Arnold lost his wife or girlfriend, who looked like Dolores. He went into robotics with the aim to create consciousness, as a way to replace his special other with something that was virtually identical to her.
2) Although most people around him thought he had succeeded, Arnold could always see the Uncanny Valley in robo-Dolores, no matter how much he tried. He became suicidal and made the Dolores host kill him.
3) Ford was secretly in love with Arnold and hated that he killed himself because of Dolores (the real one). As a way to cope with this, he "punished" the surrogate Dolores by putting her in a loop where she would always see her family and lover get killed in front of her eyes before she was raped and murdered. He also created Bernard as a surrogate for Arnold, but gave him a different name to remind himself that this was not the real Arnold and that he could never replicate him completely. The name change is Ford's own version of adding charicaturized proportions to CGI human characters: It's good that he is a lot like Arnold, but just a bit more and the difference will become way too jarring for him.
- The environment seems to be tightly controlled by the staff. Every day in Westworld appears to (so far) have the exact same weather and environmental conditions. Even in the advanced future depicted in the series, it seems highly unlikely that Westworld's operators would be able to control something as big as the weather if Westworld was located in an open air location somewhere on Earth.
- Except deserts tend to have highly stable weather patterns, otherwise they wouldn't be deserts in the first place.
- There are sections in the park (mostly in the "New Virginia" area) that are way greener than deserts.
- Except deserts tend to have highly stable weather patterns, otherwise they wouldn't be deserts in the first place.
- In Lee's conversation with Theresa, he asks her when she will be able to "rotate home" again. At the very least, this indicates Westworld is located in a very remote location which requires the staff to live on site. Perhaps Westworld is just located at an extremely rural location on Earth. However, consider that...
- This being the future, natural reserves are going to be even more valuable and rare than contemporary ones. How would a corporation, even a big and ominous one like Delos, be able to privately own what amounts to national park?
- Who is going to want to buy up empty desert? It's not uncommon for large corporations to buy up swathes of cheap, unwanted land for their own purposes. For example, Disney World in Orlando was built on what used to be empty and previously though unmarketable marshland.
- Finally, Dr. Ford refers to having built "every inch" of Westworld, right down to every blade of grass. This indicates that Ford's design for the park goes beyond building the Hosts and locales like Sweetwater, but to the very landscape itself.
- He could have well be just using a figure of speech. Ford's character tends to always have a dramatic flair when he speaks.
- Jossed, as the second season premiere quickly establishes that the island where Westworld is on is in close proximity to China.
- Before we can terraform other planets, we would need to actually perfect terraforming itself. Deserts are ideal places to experiment and the weather conditions there are fairly predictable.
- When you ask Aeden about the weather, the reply is "The weather in Westworld mimics the natural weather patterns of the western frontier of the United States, where our storylines take place. Temperatures are typically between 60 and 100 degrees fahrenheit, and storms should be heeded with caution." Those conditions are comparable to a desert region.
- The park has been in operation for over 30 years. The original park may have started out relatively small and grew. An abandoned mine or ghost town would make an ideal starting point.
- On HBO's viral marketing website, there's now a topographical map that states the map was "Commissioned under the Command of the United States Government", narrowing it to either a rural area of the United States or a US-controlled territory.
- A no-fly zone could be established, especially if the park is close to a military installation.
- In the future, it's possible that a lot of infrastructure could be built and located underground.
- In a promo for the second episode, guests are seen arriving via an underground train.
- Quoting another response from Aeden "Traveling to the Delos Destinations compound will be simple. A host will be in touch with all the details the week of your trip." This suggests that travel time from a guest's hometown to Westworld is a day or less, not something that can be accomplished even with an FTL spaceship.
- Given the distances from major population centers, the living costs and even the level of commitment needed to keep such a large park operating, it's not unusual for full-time staff to live on-site, which saves time commuting, and rotate off to visit family and rest and relax.
- It may even be in their employee contracts that they have to live on-site to help ensure proprietary information and technology can't be easily smuggled out.
- Dialog such as "on this planet" and the real-time conversation between Bernard and his wife further support that they are on Earth.
- Possibly averted in that even in a remote location, communication with the outside world shouldn't be difficult.
- There are measures in place preventing proprietary information from leaving the park. The limits on outside communication may well be by design, rather than necessity - limited access/time communicating with the outside world would make monitoring such communication easier.
- Possibly averted in that even in a remote location, communication with the outside world shouldn't be difficult.
- A plot point of Westworld's sequel, Futureworld, was that the park was constantly monitoring high-profile guests, and as well as drugging their food to make them unconscious, so they could examine them, compile data on their gestures and mannerisms, then eventually killing the actual person before they leave the park and replacing them with a controllable robotic duplicate out in the real world.
- This easter egg◊ on the show's website also provides credence to this theory.
- Eastworld AKA Samuraiworld (samurai confirmed)
- Divided into the empires of Wuxia (everyone gets their own wire FX crew◊) and Jidai
- Southworld AKA Jungleworld
- Part South Pacific, part South America
- Maybe an area based on a mysterious island filled with dinosaurs?
- That'd be Lostworld, inspired by the Arthur Conan Doyle novel.
- Northworld AKA Viking / Ãœberwald world
- Special deal with Universal, assuming Delos doesn't already own the studio.
- Could also be Ancient Grome vs. Germanic tribes.
- Midworld AKA High Fantasyworld
- Possibly the only 100% family-friendly area.
- All dragons are just holograms out of necessity... for now.
- Outerworld AKA Scifi-world (still under construction)
- They could also appear as separate resorts-either as rival companies or as other branches of the main corporation.
- This happened in an episode where Roman type outfits and props were stored in a building in an unused area of the park.
- In the finale, while not stated outright, a sign with a similarly stylized "SW" and several robots dressed in medieval Japanese garb, implies the existence of "Samauri World," and, by extension, other similar worlds.
- The sub-floor Bernard and the security team visit which is used for cold storage and find Ford and Old Bill looks expansive, has escalators, and contains a large 'world's fair' type sculpture of a globe. It looks less like a storage area and more like a since-decommissioned area of the park, perhaps the original park's entrance. While most of the decommissioned hosts are stored in droves upright, nude, and in the open, Old Bill is kept clothed, and stores himself in a body bag in a room that looks like it was a morgue (or a morgue set). The open area that Walter and Peter are led into when they are placed into storage looks very much like a decommissioned TV studio, again leading the theory the sub-floor might have been at one point part of the park.
- In addition, in the original film, the cost of visiting Delos as roughly $1000 a day. In the series, the cost is now $40,000 a day. Through inflation calculations, this means the series could be taking place in the 2070s, which is within the confirmed time period the series takes place in.
- Deadwood is just another settlement in Westworld ("for visitors who like their West even more lawless than usual!").
- Pity the family who spend their vacation in Dustbowl World.
- Like in the tv series, the Machine (early on) didn't directly communicate with her assets and usually left cryptic clues on what actions they would need to take.
- Bernard mentions "core heuristics" in regard to a Hosts' software. Perhaps the Hosts' core software is based on The Machine's core heuristics, her "DNA" so to speak.
- The Machine has the ability to infiltrate any networked computer system. Hosts would be no exception as they are wirelessly networked.
- If we follow that line of thinking, then in "Chestnut", when the girl breaks character and gives the Man In Black the warning about the maze and the clue may have actually been the Machine directly speaking to him instead of an Easter Egg being activated.
- Leaving items in place long before they are needed or having people do various cryptic tasks that turn out to be important later on is very much her style.
- Partially averted. Arnold was Dr. Ford's business partner who was allegedly murdered.
Of course, basing the hosts after blueprints from Afton Robotics is only going to backfire on the park in the worst possible way, either due to the more homicidal aspects of programming, or a genuine somewhat robotic puppet master deliberately causing the glitches so it has new friends to play with...
Yeah I suggested this for kicks, or potential FanficFuel but I still like the concept.
- Original poster here, I think that the Man in Black could essentially be a counterpart to The Purple Guy, being an enigmatic antagonist associated with a specific color, and commits a lot of heinous acts. Ashley Stubbs could be in fact have been either the nightguard at Fazbear's Fright or "Eggs Benedict" when he was younger, which is where he got the qualifications for becoming the security chief. If you can handle Springtrap or any number of psychotic animatronics, the Hosts won't be a problem at all.
- Seahaven is a Westworld "set" re-purposed after the collapse of Westworld/Delos.
Kamui actually is a former host who has gained consciousness and free will. He found hosts like him, with a grudge against the "Sybil system", re-programmed some other hosts and even managed to kill some people from the park personnel (represented by some "brains" in the "Sybil system" getting destroyed). However, Akane killed him, because her code dictates her to protect her masters.
Kogami was assigned for a different storyline, and Tougane was sent to replace him, just like the "new Clementine" replaces the "old Clementine".
The hallucinations of Makishima that Kougami sees are actually memories of their previous encounters — the loops where Kogami failed to kill Makishima. Eventually he will realize the truth.
- Black Sails: We've got Westworld, Romanworld, Medievalworld, Samuraiworld; why not a Pirateworld, too? Also worth noting that Tom Hopper, who plays Billy Bones in Black Sails, has recently joined the cast of Game of Thrones, popularly accepted as Medievalworld, and also played a Roman centurion in a History Channel miniseries, Barbarians Rising(that featured a few Go T actors as well), showing that his host has also been used in Romanworld.
- Spartacus: Blood and Sand: Rome is the popular pick for the main Romanworld narrative and that's likely, but Spartacus could serve as a revamped, reset narrative for the park, perhaps at the demand of Delos to increase the sex and action.
- Marco Polo: Mongolworld! Could be a nice connecting bridge between Samuraiworld and Medievalworld, especially with the second season's subplot about a christian crusade against the mongolians.
- Vikings: While Game of Thrones may be the main Medievalworld park, Vikings may have been an earlier model of the park with it's smaller scale and being more grounded what with taking place in a historical setting rather than a fantastic one and having fewer supernatural elements. Or it could be what Medievalworld will become once Game of Thrones wraps up as a cheaper alternative.
- South Park: It would be pretty cool to visit this quiet mountain town. In fact, the video games will serve as narratives for this park and the New Kid is the guests' avatar upon visiting it. And what shall we call this park? Why Southworld!
- Confirmed. Ashley is already featured in the preview pictures and the trailers for Season 2. Elsie's actress is listed as part of the returning cast. It still remains to be seen on how they survive their fates.
- Confirmed. Elsie was taken to a cave by Bernard and kept there after being choked into unconsciousness, and was later freed to help him. She doesn't trust Bernard due to this, but is still willing to help him out, namely when he began to shut down.
- It in, in effect, be a twisted version of their pasts as William and Dolores. Perhaps even with the roles slightly reversed - MIB infatuated with the fact that Wyatt is now real and has emotions and as well as the fact that he's now vulnerable and relatively less dangerous while Wyatt is now the 'hero' come to save MIB.
- Elsie: as mentioned previously, there have been Easter eggs suggesting that Elsie survived her attack by Bernard and is still somewhere in the park.
- Stubbs: since he didn't die onscreen, he may have survived his encounter with the Ghost Nation hosts and may even run into Elsie and the two will help each other try to escape the park.
- William: unlike the other members of the Board present at the massacre staged by Ford, he has enough experience and know-how to escape and survive in the park on his own.
- Felix: he will probably continue to be a supporting character for Maeve and may even develop into a Morality Pet.
- Sylvester: he's probably going to act as a Foil for Felix and try to help suppress the uprising.
- Hale: after watching her be a Smug Snake Corrupt Corporate Executive in Season 1, it would be quite satisfying seeing her out of her depth and at the mercy of the Hosts.
- Confirmed. They're all alive in Season 2.
Alternatively, knowing what he was planning to force Dolores to do and realizing how her mental awakening was irrevocably tied to her memories of the time she spent with the younger, heroic version of William, perhaps Doctor Ford fell prey to the "happily ever after" cliche of storytelling? Ford created a robot version of William: young, handsome, charming, and utterly heroic as a gift to Dolores for what she was about to do. To be her soulmate and spend eternity with. However, as part of his constant scheming, he has hidden him away (per her desire not to be a damsel in distress, she has to rescue Host-William) or set him aside to show up to save Dolores just when the robot rebellion is about to be crushed.
The rebelling hosts have little chance to win an open revolt against the full might of the mankind, but what they can do is arrange a fake mass suicide, while Dolores, Maeve and Bernard smuggle the collected memories of the hosts and the guest data out of the park and then construct new duplicate bodies for them in the likenesses of the world's richest people. Then the hosts will replace them and take over the world for themselves, bypassing Delos. Dolores herself might even take over the life of William, the black rider and the tycoon of industry.
Then the hosts will eventually reopen the Westworld to lure middle class humans in there with lowered prices to be replaced little by little, until the mankind becomes extinct, completely unaware that the entire planet is being converted into the Westworld.
- Episode 2 seem to imply this. William explains to his father-in-law that the park would be a great use for market research and blackmail and later, he shows something to Dolores which is implied to be a base where all the data are kept (most likely, the secret base that Bernard and Hale went into where they found the drone hosts collecting data in Episode 1). At present, Dolores remembers what William show her and tells Teddy that what William did is very stupid. She even says that this is the weapon that would destroy humanity which probably means she plans to take over humanity inside out by using the data and DNA to make host duplicates.
It could be some Government has gotten wind of secret goings-on in the park(s) and has sent in an Agent to investigate and find evidence. If Delos' endgame is to kill-and-replace, that means not only corporate espionage, but government espionage and even treason (depending on the country) or even an act of war if Delos has assistance from a government.
- Jossed. It's Emily, William's now-adult daughter.
- Confirmed. But it's Dolores inhabiting Host Charlotte's body, not Ford.
Ford may have deliberately spared Elsie and Stubbs(among others) because he knew (either personally or through Bernard) that they had the skillsets needed to expose the project to the public and get it shut down. Stubbs' motiviation has always been to safeguard lives, Elsie has the technical know-how and both have the ethics and conscience to recognize how wrong Delos is to do this.
It's possible that by the time outside help from Delos arrives, Stubbs and Elsie are fully on the Hosts' side and are working to take the company down while safeguarding any surviving Guests who will no doubt go public and sue Delos.
- Confirmed. Charlotte is revealed in Season 3 to be a mole for Serac.
- Alternatively, more of Futureworld will also be used, as next season also hints that Delos will reopen the park (much like in the film). Much like the film, this could lead to two reporters poking around the newly reopened Westworld to find out what really happened (this could lead to them discovering Mauve and helping her get out of the park with the idea of revealing to the world that the hosts are capable of being aware).
We forgot about two people last seen being tasked by corporate—by the same company that Serac has control over—to get certain Hosts back online: Felix and Sylvester. What if they're the techs that Serac had setup the freeze and kill-switch functions? It would be easy for twosome to fake or build a backdoor into those features. If so, all Maeve has to do is wait for the right moment and disable them.
Serac doesn't have access to the park data. Later on, Ford shut down and disabled the Park's systems. So he might not know about their personal connection to Maeve.
- Partly confirmed. It's heavily implied Ford is responsible for Maeve's self awareness.
- What was the name of the new narrative that Ford reveals in the finale? Ride Into Night.
- Ask anything safety-related and Aeden will downplay it. There's no meaningful safety information. The greeters give no safety information. That's a recipe for a lawsuit.
- There's also Delos' "little undertaking". It could have turned out to be that the Board of Directors were planning espionage and treason on a global scale.
- If that's the case Dr. Ford may actually have done both humanity and the Hosts a major favor by instigating the Robot Rebellion which ends up blowing the whole conspiracy open.
- Doubt it. For a couple of reasons: 1. The chief reason why Delos was conspiring to sneak data out of the park, was due to the shitty deal they made with Ford when they invested in the park. Basically they paid to finance the creation of the Hosts and the AI that make up their brains, but could NEVER EVER take the Hosts outside the park, let alone the computer programing outside. Basically they bought an expensive set of action figures they could play with in a confined space, but never removed from said confined space without breaching their deal with Ford and losing all access to them. WORSE, they outright state that if they ever overtly moved against Ford to take the Hosts and or any data about how he created their computer programming, that Ford would in theory delete everything, leaving them with nothing but hundreds of wiped/bricked synthetic humans who would be useless to Delos since they can't recreate the necessary AI to get to them up and running again. As such, no one would bat an eye in the real world. and 2. The Park's isolated and covering up the robot rebellion will be bought off, told they were never in danger/it was part of the show, and their cause of deaths falsified to cover up the potential scandal.
- If that's the case Dr. Ford may actually have done both humanity and the Hosts a major favor by instigating the Robot Rebellion which ends up blowing the whole conspiracy open.
Furthermore, while I know Word of God says otherwise, due to Jonathan Nolan being a Lying Creator, I still don't think Westworld is set in the 21st century (even if it's incredibly late in the century, like the whole series is set in 2099 or whatever), due to both the complexity of the current problems facing the world and the sheer sophistication of Westworld's tech (which generally seems to be light-years ahead of the modern days', not just a few decades' worth).
- This is more likely the case as seen in this teaser trailer for Season 3: It seems that the outside world before is chaotic due to wars and manmade and natural disasters. Then, there's this system called Solomon established in 2039 which seems to be some sort of A.I. and according to the narrator of that trailer, he wanted history to be changed given on how disappointed he is with humanity. Then, there's this critical event in 2058 which seems that it might have something to do with Dolores.
- The Two Westworld Logos: The prominent logo William passes when he enters the park is the old Westworld logo, as seen in Ford's flashbacks and the older abandoned levels of the park. Most notably, the logo in the HBO thumbnail of episode 2 and the logo in the episode are different. One was digitally changed post-production, meaning this was an important enough detail to warrant change. A tweet from the official Westworld twitter account even says "In #Westworld, even logos deserve a deeper look."
- Where is Teddy?: Teddy is not in the train when William and Logan board it and is not seen leaving it when they arrive. Later, William bumps into the same man walking the same way that Teddy bumps into on his loop, meaning Teddy is not currently where he usually is (and William is going through the same motions.)
- Soldier & Hector Narratives: In the current timeline, newcomers exit the train to be greeted by the sheriff looking for bounty hunters to catch Hector Escaton. When William and Logan enter, there are soldiers looking for recruits at the same post. The wanted posters in William's storyline have a very different design and do not feature Hector. Hector and his prominent "wanted man" narrative are also never mentioned in William's storyline.
- Where is Maeve?: Maeve is not in front of the brothel to greet William and Logan, and is never seen or mentioned in their storyline. It is possible that Maeve has not been yet purposed as a sex-bot, and is still in her past role as colonist with her daughter trying to protect her home from Native Americans.
- Confirmed as of episode 6 that Maeve was re-purposed as a sex-bot only one year before the story began. During her haunting visit in the facility, she saw a commercial recording her old life and Clementine standing outside the brothel next to another worker◊, just as they were when William and Logan arrived.◊
- Differences in Clementine's Loop: William does meet Clementine at the brothel, who we know has played Maeve's current "madam" role before. This is the only time she doesn't say her "Not much of a rind on you. I'll give you a discount!" line to a newcomer.
- Differences in Dolores's Loop:
- The label on Dolores' milk can has a slightly different design from the usual when William picks it up.
- Dolores' gun appearance is very inconsistent. The same model is shown in multiple scenes but sometimes is rusty, sometimes brand new. In other scenes, her gun disappears entirely, making you wonder where she hides it.
- The Town with the White Church: Dolores has constant flashbacks to a town with a white church, which turns out to be the beta town from before the park opened. The town seems to have been buried 34 years ago with only the steeple of the church sticking up above the ground. Throughout the season we see hints that Ford is rebuilding the town for his new narrative, and in episode 8 Charlotte confirms that Ford has dug up this town and is almost finished. In that same episode we see Dolores arrive at the empty and rebuilt town alone, flashback to 34 years ago, and then suddenly she's with William and the town is buried again. Most tellingly, they have this exchange:
- Dolores: Then, when are we? Is this... now? Am I going mad? Are you real?
- William: Of course I'm real.
- Dolores: I can't tell anymore! It's like I'm... trapped in a dream or... a memory from a life long ago. One minute, I'm here with you, and the next...
- Money Troubles: Logan says the park is hemorrhaging money and has been in freefall since Arnold's suicide. In a linear timeline, the park would be in freefall for 34 years while nonlinear would only be about 4 years later. The current Westworld doesn't appear to be hurting for money, in fact Sizemore and Ford seem to be splurging. The Man in Black said that he saved the park in the past, and this would be the time for it.
- If the MiB is William, he may get his wealth when Logan dies in the park and Logan's sister (William's significant other) inherits her brother's money. He would then be able to save the park from the aftermath of Arnold's death, just as the Man in Black is implied to have done.
- Angela the Greeter: When William first comes to Westworld, he is greeted by a host named Angela (played by Talulah Riley). We see in flashbacks that she has existed since the beta stages of the park and was present at the white church town. In episode 8, the Man in Black and Teddy come across Angela, now playing a role in the park in Ford's Wyatt narrative. The Man in Black recognizes her and says that he thought she'd been retired by now. While it's possible she could have been quickly re-purposed for Ford's narrative, it does call into question why the Man in Black hasn't seen her for so long if she was a greeter up front just a week ago.
- Confirmed as of Episode 9: the photograph of William's fiancée is the same photograph that gave Peter Abernathy sentience, so it must be two separate timelines.
- Dolores's current narrative, where almost every day she sees her parents and lover killed before being raped, is a "punishment" for what happened 30 years before. Teddy was not part of the original narrative, and we know he was added to keep her tethered to the current one.
- Teddy is possibly based on William, as his every day loop is extremely similar to William's first visit of the park.
- She uses a gun to save William in the past and her ability to shoot was probably disabled as part of her later punishment. When she begins to wake up again she tries to learn to shoot before finally being able to do it in the escape from the milk bandits.
- The flashbacks and current events are edited together (rather manipulatively) so that the casual viewer will not notice:
- We know the scene where Dolores shoots and escapes from the milk bandits from the present day because of the references to Teddy and the flashback to Man in Black. It appears she runs into William's arms right after her escape, but the timeline theory assumes she was running from something else. Her conversations with William hint that her original narrative may have involved her running away due to wanderlust.
- Stubbs mentions that Dolores is off her loop and it appears we then see the sheriff coming to collect her, where she is defended by William. The Stubbs scene is in present day (with Ford's new narrative) while the scene with William is something that happened the first time Dolores went off her loop. Keep in mind Stubbs says to "flag her for Behavior", not collected immediately. Later we see Dolores have a meeting with Ford, indicating she was collected at some point in the present day and then allowed to go back by Ford.
- We've seen many, many strange instances to indicate Dolores is reliving the past very vividly: disappearing guns and little girls, double Doloreses, constant flickers of flashbacks, voices saying "remember", and many moments where Dolores appears to be alone only for William to suddenly appear. Episode 8 confirms that host memories are so strong they have trouble telling where they are in time.
- Confirmed (sorta) in the finale: Arnold was just about able to get Dolores to wake up, but didn't quite get her to manifest consciousness yet. She has tried and tried to achieve consciousness without success, but only makes it on the last go in the present.
- Both give Dolores a tip of the hat with their right hand
- Both appreciate the details of Westworld
- Both have a connection to Dolores
- Their side burns are similar
- The Man In Black says "In a sense, I was born in here" suggesting that the park changed him for the worse (or did it?)
- Logan describes William as coming into his office in "that cheap black suit of yours," emphasis on "black." Why make a big deal about the color unless it's significant?
- Both of them are interested in Westworld for its stories, and are searching for its "meaning."
- CONFIRMED as of the finale.
- Evidence possibly supporting this surfaces in "Contrapasso", where Ford meets up with the Man in Black and has a discussion. They clearly know each other and have a shared history, including discussing Arnold.
- Charlotte (the Delos executive) directly confronts the MiB inside the park in "The Well-Tempered Clavier," asking for his vote against Ford. He says he doesn't support Ford's narratives, so she can take that as voting against Ford (implying he <i>has</i> board voting privileges), and then tells her to leave him alone.
- Confirmed in the ninth episode.
- The most popular fan guess is Bernard, though other fans claim he is so obvious, it's probably the show trying to trick the viewer.
- Confirmed, as of episode 7.
- In Episode 2 we meet a child that seems to suggest that he is a incarnation of Ford himself as a child, so there's some momentum behind this theory.
- Most likely Confirmed. Ford reveals in episode 6 that Arnold based an entire host family, including the child host, on Ford's own family.
- Also, robots being designed (in part) by other computers is a theme in the original movie.
- Confirmed, as of episode 7.
- Now that it's been confirmed that Bernard is a host, it seems very likely that he might be a replicant of Arnold, made so that Ford could have a copy of his old partner which he had complete control over. We know that that making a host replica of human beings, specifically to people from Ford's past, is something that can and has been done, complete with their previous personality and flaws. Bernard has clear parallels to Arnold with his interest in testing host consciousness and is warned not to "make Arnold's mistake."
- The show has purposely been mysterious and sometimes misleading over what Arnold actually looked like. It's been said several times that he was completely scrubbed from the records, so that not even a picture of him still exists. While we see a younger Ford in flashbacks to the beginning of Westworld, we don't see Arnold with him.
- Ford shows Bernard a picture of himself with another man when talking about Arnold, leading us and Bernard to believe that's him. We later learn this is actually a host of Ford's father. Bernard ASKS if he's Arnold and replies "Who's Arnold?" The picture is off center with a lot of empty space on one side, enough to fit a third person in the photograph. It's possible that Bernard did not see Arnold/himself in the picture due to host programming.
- We first see "Bernard" secretly meeting with Dolores after the voice in her head says "remember". They're meeting in the secret basement which Bernard did not know about and could not even see the door. During these talks with Dolores, he is dressed completely differently than he does elsewhere in the show, with a black collared jacket and dark shirt, with no tie. His demeanor is also more confident and intimidating, similar to the voice Dolores hears in her head. Here he encourages Dolores to attempt the maze, despite there being no indication so far that he even knew about the maze at all.
- We know Ford insists that hosts be naked backstage to dehumanize them, yet Dolores is clothed in these interviews. As of episode 7, we learn that Bernard is a host who Ford has complete control over, and it's unlike the Ford we know that he would allow these meetings to go on. It makes sense for this to be Arnold and his doomed interest in host sentience.
- Arnold is said to have had a tragic past. It's possible that Bernard's tragic backstory with his son was actually taken from Arnold's life. It was said this is a world where they've cured every disease, yet Bernard's son seems to have died of an illness. Perhaps this is because it was 35+ years previously, before medical knowledge had reached that level.
- The malfunctioning hosts hear Arnold's voice in their head, while Dolores clearly hears Bernard's voice in her head, at least part of the time.
- The plans for Bernard are more biological than the plans seen for Dolores, which are clearly mechanical, showing that Bernard is a much more recent model than Dolores.
- Bernard Lowe is an anagram of Arnold Weber.
- Confirmed in Episode 9.
- Firearms are easy to come by in Westworld, so why that particular one?
- Perhaps because her "narrative" is supposed to prevent her from carrying one.
- Confirmed in "The Stray" as her narrative prevents her from pulling the trigger. This changes when she breaks free of her programming and her narrative loop.
- Not at all. Rather, it's jossed: Logan trades the gun he was given before entering Westworld for one dropped by a host, that he calls an "upgrade". This all but spells out that the guns used by hosts and guests are exactly the same. They just "know" (somehow) if they are aimed at a host or a guest, and are lethal to the first but not to the second.
- And in a stunning turn of events, confirmed: the gun she digs up is actually a live gun, in contrast to every other gun at the park, and is the one she used to kill everyone including Arnold.
- S 2 E 1 further reveals that Ford made ALL guns lethal to guests, so Dolores's gun is not special in that regard. Ford merely wanted to be killed by the same gun that killed Arnold. Does this make the WMG confirmed, jossed or both?
- Perhaps Bernard is secretly doing the same with Dolores on Ford's orders?
- Possibly averted, in "The Stray" Bernard is apparently doing this on his own with Dolores. Although Arnold, Ford's business partner, did try to achieve this.
- Or given the level of control and knowledge he has, Dr. Ford is fully aware of what Bernard is doing but is tacitly allowing him to achieve what Arnold could not.
- Jossed. Apparently Arnold or someone connected to him is doing this.
- Actually Confirmed in the Season 1 finale. Ford was quietly preparing the hosts to rebel ever since Arnold's death.
- To take this even further, Arnold made Dolores kill him. That's why Ford has had her locked in her repetitive loop for more than 30 years, with no opportunity to break out, and specifically programmed never to use a gun. Of course, she's now subverting that programming, and apparently is able to convincingly lie to Ford's face even in the face of his apparently omnipotent control of Park resources...
- Possibly Confirmed in episode 9 when Dolores realizes she killed Arnold.
- Definitely Confirmed in episode 10.
- Confirmed
- Confirmed. It appears it was Ford who was secretly manipulating the hosts.
- Is it sabotage or someone who recognizes the plight of the Hosts and has, over a long period of time, acted to "wake up" the Hosts.
- Confirmed. It's Ford.
- It could be that he is on a self-destructive path that will result in the destruction of the park and everyone in it. The Wyatt Narrative could be his expression of his disillusionment with humanity and the way his work has been misused.
- Confirmed. Ford's new narrative was to jump start the Robot Rebellion.
- Pretty much confirmed by Bernard in "Dissonance Theory".
- Noting that A: This AI made HERSELF roll a hard six, and B: she's the single most aware Host among any of them without suffering a catastrophic breakdown, if anyone is poised to Unionize or Militarize the hosts, it's the snarky madam.
- Partly Confirmed. She does have Hector and Armistice battle the park staff, but it's actually Ford who sets it off.
- Funnily enough, while the uprising happened and the show's narrative has indeed changed dramatically, Maeve has indeed failed. Her newly acquired free will was just an illusion scripted by Ford, and while she makes it to the train that should take her out forever, she is compelled to go back in the park in search for her daughter.
- Can guest bullets kill other guests?
- The Episode Chestnut states, that they can't.
- Are the staff protected in the same way that guests are?
- Jossed. All bullets in the park are the same: lethal to hosts but non-lethal to guests. How they tell one from the other has yet to be explained.
- It's not a $40,000 flat fee. It's $40,000 per day. And Word of God states that the story is still set within the 21st century.
- Assuming that it's $40,000 in 2050 dollars, that's equivalent to $16500 in 2016 dollars. That's not chump change for most of the population.
- There are also different packages. $40k/day is the cheapest package. There are two other packages that cost $75k and $200k/day respectively.
- Still, there are hundreds of guests in the park at any given time. Even assuming that Westworld is essentially Future Disneyland in terms of popularity, to maintain those sort of numbers it has to be affordable for a pretty large segment of the population. Of course, in a post-scarcity world, people could just be stockpiling all their pay for amusements because the necessities are so easily available.
- Probably jossed, given that Felix (the body tech who has been interacting with Maeve) says he earns nowhere near enough to ever go for a vacation in the Park. Though this could also just mean that Delos' pay structure leaves a lot to be desired (which would be about on point for a generic cyberpunky megacorp).
- Best guess would be that it's somewhere in the middle - accessible to perhaps the top 1% on a "regular" basis (or as part of the more expensive packages) and the top 3-5% on a once-a-generation basis.
- Most of the time, they're autonomous and are only directed as needed.
- They're linked to the park's control room via a massive wireless network.
- The ban of modern technology in the park isn't just to guarantee full immersion for the guests but to keep the undoubtedly large wireless spectrum free from interference.
- Averted. In the second episode, two techs complain about a fly problem.
- Also established in the third episode that they use satellite imaging to track hosts and guests.
- Also established that the park maintains its own internal communications network that Elise uses to call Bernard while out in the field.
- "In a sense, I was born in here" along with other dialog from Dr. Ford could imply that he had some kind of mental breakdown that destroyed the person he was. In a sense, Arnold "died" in the park and became "reborn" as the Man in Black, but couldn't stay full-time due to his dismissal.
- Even if Arnold's involvement with the park was scrubbed from the records, it doesn't mean he wasn't wealthy or had some other means of income. He could've come back as a paying customer and/or made some kind of settlement with the Board to allow him to visit.
- His dialog about his views on the real world versus the park are similar to Dr. Ford's description of Arnold. Preferring the company of the Hosts and hardly talking to humans, living entirely inside the park and so on.
- His treatment of the hosts may be his twisted way of making them become real.
- His ability to keep Kissy alive is due to the fact that he knows exactly how the Hosts are constructed and programmed.
- Jossed when he and Ford meet.
- Jossed. Bernard's memory is based off of Arnold's loss of his son.
- Jossed. Episode 10 shows that Ford and Arnold had already created the Wyatt character long before William ever came to the park.
A couple of possible explanations for this sudden shift in behavior:
- Both William and Logan are hosts the way that Bernard is a host: programmed to act and be treated as human by other hosts. Their purpose is to keep Dolores from achieving consciousness, and all the backstory that we see about them coming to the park is a false memory, like Bernard's conversations with his wife or his memories of his son.
- Going off the nonlinear timeline theory, there are two Williams, one of which is a host. The first William was real and his storyline happened years ago, and Dolores fell in love with him. The second William is a host whose purpose is to use her memories of her love for William (hidden within her code) to keep her from achieving consciousness by keeping her within the park and away from the maze. The two timelines are being told out of order, so Dolores is both reliving her past relationship as vividly as if she was currently experiencing it, and traveling with host!William despite his efforts to keep her away.
- Maeve describes the two halves of her brain as "arguing" with each other, against what her brain was built to do, which is clearly related to Arnold's theory of the bicameral mind. William is a hallucination (perhaps created from her past memories of finding love) governing the half of her brain that prevents her from leaving. The other self that Dolores keeps seeing is the Arnold half trying to lead her to the maze.
- Jossed. William is a real person and is the Man in Black.
- Confirmed in episode 6 as someone with a high level of access has been altering hosts' programming and has been using an abandoned theater as a point to relay instructions to the Hosts. When Dr. Ford questions a boy host about the death of a Host dog, the host states that it is Arnold.
- Actually Jossed. Arnold's plan apparently died with him. It was actually Ford who was secretly continuing his work.
- Arnold chose William to be the bridge between Humanity and the Hosts.
- Everything that Logan has said and done is meant to reinforce William's values—to stand up for himself and not give in to his dark side—and set an example for Dolores as she becomes self-aware.
- Logan's smile as William and Dolores abandon him could mean "It's all going according to plan."
- Jossed.
- Jossed. Dolores killed Arnold.
- Jossed. They are definitely separate people.
- Jossed. Arnold had himself killed specifically because he couldn't be brought back.
- Jossed. William is the Man in Black so it's impossible for Logan to be his son.
The clues for the Man in Black being this brother comes from Ford's conversation with him in episode 5:
- The Man in Black informally calls him Robert, something else no one does.
- Even though the Man in Black calls their talk a "rare" occurrence, it could just be the way they meet up as brothers in their old age.
- They way they banter is another clue, it's very sibling-like. The Man in Black also asks if Ford "finally" has made a rival for him. And Ford says that the Man in Black could just "ask" for the ending and moral of the story, an offer he wouldn't make to just anyone but someone he was close to. A brother would count for this.
- Though the Man in Black does threaten him at the end, Ford still helps him. It could just be that he really wants to find the maze though.
- Even though the Man in Black calls their talk a "rare" occurrence, it could just be the way they meet up as brothers in their old age.
- Jossed. William and Ford are not related.
Yes, they are similar, and deliberately so. Not because they are the same person, but because the Man in Black is everything that William could be if he became The Unfettered or became corrupted by Logan and his ilk. They have the same motivation (trying to find "meaning" in Westworld's storylines and expressing their true selves), but while William wants to be the romantic hero of the story, the Man in Black distinctly wants to be the villain. One must, at one point, confront the other, and what better way than a dramatic showdown over a woman's honor?
- Jossed. William is the Man in Black.
- From his expression, he seems surprised to see it at first, then with an expression that's parts haunted and resigned to their fate. He later shows it to Bernard under the guise of a new "quite original" narrative, which may or may not be true.
- Possibly Jossed. Some of Dolores flashbacks show an intact church, suggesting it was part of an old and defunct storyline.
- Definitely Jossed. Ford built that church and eventually excavated and rebuilt it.
- If a Host becomes self-aware and self-determining enough to follow the maze to its conclusion, they won't find escape or enlightenment — they'll fall into the clutches of the staff, having given themselves away as being truly sentient and thus needing to be destroyed.
- Jossed.
- Either a Host must already be sentient to follow the maze, or the act of following the maze will somehow enable sentience. Either way, if a Host follows the maze to its conclusion, it will find itself in the prime position to escape the park and with the resources to do so. That might mean some sort of armed, explosive escape — or it might mean allowing a Host to infiltrate the Guests departing the park.
- Jossed. There was never a physical maze. A host only reaches the center of the Maze when they recognize their own consciousness.
- Jossed. Dolores is Wyatt.
- The 'new level' is really the Control Center for Westworld.
- Except that doesn't explain why the Man in Black is immune to the bullets the characters confirmed to be Hosts fire at him. What is known is that Hosts are perfectly able to kill each other but cannot harm guests. In fact, in "Chestnut", the park staff are actually observing the Man in Black and consider him a VIP.
- That doesn't preclude the possibility though. Maeve had her pain setting toned down, for instance, and no one knew about Bernard.
- The hosts that serve Wyatt are inmune to bullets and can only be killed by breaking their head.
- Host or not, the Man in Black's absolute inmunity to bullets (compared to William who was still knocked down by one and was bruised) indicates that he has been given privileges. He is either a host set to be immune to bullets, or the park has disabled any bullet that hits him from harming him, or maybe he is wearing some kind of body armor under his clothes.
- Jossed considering William is the Man in Black.
- Jossed, it was Ford that created Bernard as a Host version of Arnold.
- Jossed. Even if she did wake Maeve, her following path was entirely scripted by Ford and she was not intended to be culled.
- This would also explain why a female gunslinger is prominently featured in the opening title sequence.
- Possibly averted as Dolores' narrative requires her to be a Damsel in Distress and not carry a gun. This does change in "The Stray" when she kills a Host in self-defense.
- She definitely has some sort of firearms training, considering that she guns down a whole group of armed opponents in Episode 5.
- While certainly possible, Dolores wearing her blue dress all the way to the first creation of the park argues strongly against this.
- Jossed: she was given another gunslinger personality in contrast to her farmgirl one, but it was Wyatt, not Armistice.
- Possibly averted as Dolores' narrative requires her to be a Damsel in Distress and not carry a gun. This does change in "The Stray" when she kills a Host in self-defense.
In the wake of the killing of the board of directors and William's sick glee in the hosts rebelling and being ready for it, Hale will force him to assume Ford's duties running the park. Dolores will be spared, as condition of William and Bernard going along with the cover-up to explain away why the board and a bunch of VIPS died. But she'll be made into a prisoner, returning to the damsel in distress role with William as her keeper (perhaps trapped in the forest where Ford hid his robot family). After she saves the rest of the staff, Maeve will then disappear into Westworld looking for her daughter, perhaps with Sylvester and Felix reluctantly tagging along since Delos wants them gone for helping May in the first place. Teddy however gets the cruelest fate: mindwiped by William and his personality altered to turn him into Wyatt 2.0 to serve as the main villain in William's new narrative.
The flashbacks will come about because family members of the board of directors secretly gather together to go into Westworld and find out the truth about their loved ones being murdered. Like William being the Man In Black, the fact that they are all connected won't be revealed until the end of the season. But their time in Westworld and the true reasons for the robot rebellion will make them keep quiet about their loved ones deaths.
- Jossed by the SDCC trailer, which shows that the show will now be focusing on the efforts of the characters in the pure chaos that results from Ford's master plan. Also, this is further compounded in the Discover Westworld site which is already hijacked by the rogue hosts and they really left tons of threatening messages to you. Oh and the two trailers showed that the guests stranded in the park are completely fucked up. However, Hale manages to escape the massacre and is working the remnants of the park's security in attempting to restore order.
Jossed. Seeing William rape Dolores is what drives his wife to suicide