"Westward" is HBO’s newest Sunday night show that has started to make an impression. The show is based on the 1973 Michael Crichton film about an adult-themed amusement park with malfunctioning robots. There have clearly been a lot of upgrades for this TV series from the original inspiration. A western Sci-fi sounds a little strange at first, but Jonathan Nolan has done an exceptional job so far. With a show like this come fan theories. Some would say that fan theories are what make HBO shows like this so much fun to watch. There have only been six episodes so far this season, but there are already a handful of theories.
1. Man in Black Theory
This theory is based on the idea of a double timeline being played out this season. One timeline shows Dolores with a man named William and the other shows the Man in Black trying to find the “maze.” What makes this interesting is the fact that William could actually be the Man in Black.
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Timeline #1: Takes place 30 years in the past placing Dolores and William together.
Timeline #2: Takes place in present day and represents the Man in Black looking for the maze he learned about 30 years ago.
35 Years ago: Arnold, the creator, dies or disappears.
30 Years ago: William and Logan come to the park and an event takes place that somehow affects both William and Dolores. This event most likely ends with Dolores dying and William starting his transition into the Man in Black.
Present Day: Man in Black makes his way through the park to find the “maze” and Arnold. He does this first accompanied by Loris and then Teddy.
Supports Theory: Older and outdated looking Westworld logos are used when William enters the park for the first time.
Denies Theory: Dolores looks to be functioning at the same level of efficiency in both timelines, but you would think there would be clear updates. The same can be said about the host the welcomes William to the park. We have been able to see the differences in original hosts through Robert, the little boy, and the second host ever made, who drinks with Ford.
2. Bernard Theory
Bernard could possibly be a host in the form of Arnold, the original creator.
35 Years ago: Arnold dies or disappears and Ford creates, a host of his lost friend.
30 Years ago: Bernard functioning like a clone of Arthur continues the work of the creator. This causes the event that triggers not only Dolores to be rest but also Bernard, thus removing his Arthur like qualities.
Present Day: Bernard is unaware of his link to Arthur, but might be his subconscious, like other hosts, remembering.
Supports Theory: This theory comes along with the meetings between Dolores and Bernard. The first sign of different timelines is when Bernard meets with her she is clothes, but when ford meets with Dolores she is naked.
Supports Theory: It wouldn’t be odd of Ford to create a host of his lost friend because we know now he has kept clones of his own family around.
Supports Theory: Bernard is the only one that knew where Elsie was in sector three before she was attacked at the end of episode six.
Denies Theory:What throws this theory off is how we also see Bernard interacting with present day characters like Ford, Theresa, and Elsie.
Denies Theory: When Bernard asks the system to show all active original hosts alphabetically, you do not see him.
Denies Theory: When Ford shows Bernard a photo of Arnold. This is simply explained in the same way that Dolores doesn’t recognize the photo her father show her. The hosts are programmed to ignore these inconsistencies.
3.Can guests die?
When you arrive in Westworld you are told you cannot get hurt, but now we have learned that you can be shot, but you won’t die. The guns that are being used are somewhat like paintball guns. The difference is that the paintball either registers you as a host and kills you or registers you as human and just leaves a bruise. The most important thing though is that you can get hurt and technically you can be killed at the park in other ways. This can be done by sheer accident or by manslaughter. We saw Logan being choked by a host until William defended him. Also, some guest on guest violence could occur. In the terms of an accident, drowning, falling, stabbing or other forms of death could occur. This just makes it all the more possible for the malfunctioning hosts to maybe someday causing violence and start killing guests. This might be able to be prevented with a coded phrase like we’ve seen them use or the hardwired code that doesn’t let hosts harm humans, but we will see.
4. The Little Boy
We have found out that this is in fact, Ford as a child, along with the rest of his family being cloned. I would like to believe that this boy is Ford’s little bird, which is how he finds out all his information. Either way, this boy would be how he found out about the Man in Black and Teddy before meeting with them for a drink. This little boy gave us a lot of insight during episode six. We got to see how the original models functioned and that it is possible to hide hosts through the old technology. Also, the boy confirmed that the voices being projected to the original hosts are coming from Arnold.
5. Why is Deloris still an Active Host?
We know that Dolores is the oldest host in the park, which clearly makes her important. She is obviously communicating with someone in her head that keeps telling her to remember. We know that that this voice is being sent to all the original hosts and is the voice of Arnold. You see her having these flashed or conversations in both timelines so it must be something that happened at least 30 years ago. This makes me wonder if she is being told to remember something like how Arnold died or disappeared. Also, she could have possibly gotten close to the maze in the past before dying and being reset. The biggest question I have about Dolores is why doesn’t Ford just incinerate her? She is really causing some issues and throwing off storylines. I would have to say that Dolores was either created in the image of Ford's wife or someone he cared about deeply like with his family and possibly Bernard. Moreover, Arnold could have done this intentionally so that she wouldn’t be killed off before helping him.
