Westworld, we're starting to realise, is a riddle wrapped in a puzzle clothed in an enigma and buried in the middle of a maze somewhere out in the desert. Without a map. We should have expected it, coming from the writer of Inception and The Prestige.
Much as we're enjoying the all-out mystification, we do have a number of questions…
1. Why did Ford cry when he told Dolores they weren't old friends?
One theory about Dolores is that the story featuring her and William at the edge of the map is set 30-odd years ago, and that William goes on to become the Man In Black. We know that something happened that almost brought the company to its knees around that time – and that it involved the death of the park's co-creator Arnold. So was her rising to consciousness the root of the catastrophe and the "birth" of the Man In Black? That still wouldn't quite explain Ford's emotional response to her asking if they were old friends, but…
2. Who was the guy in Ford's old photograph?
We're going to go further down the rabbit hole here: Ford showed Bernard a picture of himself with another man, saying that it was Arnold. Now we know Bernard is a Host, and that the other guy was the surrogate father Host that Ford built. (That drunk Scottish guy.) So… Who was he?
What to Read Next
It's possible we were seeing the photograph strictly from Bernard's perspective, meaning that he – and we – couldn't see anything that would cause him internal logic problems. If so, Bernard himself could have been in the picture too – we wouldn't see it if he had. So Arnold could actually be Bernard, standing next to Ford and an old Scottish Host robot. Which would mean present-day Host Bernard was an artificial recreation of Ford's former partner.
Or is the drunk Scottish Host a physical replica of the actual Arnold? This implies that Ford views Arnold as his "father", because he set him as the father figure in his little domestic tableau. Huh? Well, that would make more sense if Ford is himself a Host.
Yes, we're going there. Come with us, it's fun!
Let's posit that Arnold created Ford, the first and greatest of the artificial intelligences. Ford, with his superior intellect (we know from Maeve's experience that Hosts are capable of being smarter than humans) created Westworld with Arnold and continued the job after his death. His ultimate aim is to replace all humanity with artificial life, as a twisted sort of kindness (he explains the Hosts' lives as true freedom to Theresa).
If you think that's a bit far-fetched, consider that the show's creators have submitted a five-season outline to HBO. Global domination and the extinction of humanity sounds like a five-season storyline, no?
It also explains Ford's tears, if Dolores was responsible, however unwitting, for his "father's" death.
3. If there's another timeline, why did Dolores call El Lazo "Lawrence"?
Before we get all carried away, recall that Dolores called El Lazo "Lawrence" on the train in Episode 7.
If the show is taking place in two timelines (which underpins much of the above), then "Lawrence" didn't come into being (as a repurposing of the El Lazo Host) until after the events of Dolores and William's story. Which means Dolores couldn't have known El Lazo as "Lawrence".
And if she does know him as Lawrence, then maybe the two timelines thing is false. Which doesn't rule out Ford being a Host or Bernard being Arnold, but it does make Dolores's story complicated.
UPDATE: A keener-eared reader than us spotted that El Lazo tells Dolores she can call him Lawrence. Which explains that. El Lazo is just a nickname, which he chooses not to use all the time.
4. Who is Ford making in his secret lab?
So we've seen that Ford has a secret base, invisible to Hosts and secret from the Delos team, and that he's making Hosts in it. That's presumably where Bernard came from. He's making a new one right now – but who? Well…
5. Why did Ford kill Theresa?
Ford's skirmishes with the Delos board occasionally need a "blood sacrifice", he said, quoting from Charlotte's supposedly private conversation with Theresa earlier. (We have to assume Hector the sexbot was acting as a spy.)
What does that actually mean, though? How will killing Theresa keep the board off his back? Won't it just draw more unwelcome attention? Unless, that is, he's made a new Theresa, all ready to go. Then he has another ally and spy in the Delos camp and he's closer to achieving total control over his project.
6. Who else is a Host?
Well we've covered the possibility that Ford is one, so who else? Literally anyone could be, though we'd be surprised if Elsie was. Ditto William and the Man In Black. But the most likely candidate for the next reveal is Stubbs, the head of security. Isn't he a prime candidate for having abducted Elsie in Episode 6? And why would he do that unless he were working for Ford?
7. If Bernard is a Host, why did he have a video conversation with his wife?
File under misdirection. Maybe Hosts are programmed to think they're having conversations when really someone's just uploading code. Or they're being subjected to simulations that they're unaware of.
8. Are we all Hosts?
Yes. Reality is an illusion. Agent Smith is coming for you.
Editor, Digital Spy Chris has over 25 years' experience as a writer and editor, having worked as a journalist covering TV and movies since the '90s. Starting out as a TV listings editor at the Press Association, he was quickly hired by the nascent Heat magazine, where he rose to become Senior Editor, interviewing the likes of Simon Cowell, Boris Johnson and Paris Hilton. Over the years he has written about entertainment with clarity and wit for Heat, Elle, Q, The Telegraph and of course Digital Spy, and has served many times as a judge in the Royal Television Society awards. He has written and recorded a novelty single with Lord Lloyd-Webber, written scripts for the National TV Awards, made Noel Edmonds cry, accidentally punched an Inbetweener and stolen a small piece of rubble from the Battle of Hogwarts movie set. (They can't have it back.) LinkedIn
