Westworld Theories That Will Change How You Watch The Show

For those most loyal to Team Maeve, the discovery in the season finale that someone is pulling the strings in her little insurrection is disheartening to say the least. But then the question arises: who is the puppet master? An early suggestion by Redditor GardyBot was Delos were the ones responsible for hacking Maeve into sentience to get her out of the park so they could get their grubby mitts on the intellectual property Ford was keeping from them. They even positioned Clementine to receive a lobotomy knowing it would push Maeve further down the road to rebellion.

Another possibility is that it was Ford pulling her strings in order for her escape attempt to distract security and isolate Quality Assurance while the Delos board of directors was surrounded by vengeful robots with a newfound ability to kill. Bernard basically states outright she had broken out of her loop before, and we have to admit things were going just a bit too well for her.

This is partially backed up by the behavior of the ostensibly human security teams sent to "stop" the escape attempt. They really took an unreasonable amount of time to start firing, preferring to plaintively ask the escaping hosts to drop their weapons and freeze all motor functions even as their comrades were gunned down around them. Even when they did open fire, their aim was so bad it would make an Imperial Stormtrooper blush. It would all make sense if they were hosts programmed to simply get in the way and keep humans from danger while doing nothing to stop Maeve from leaving.

The question arises whether the plan succeeded. According to the plan Bernard showed Maeve, the final visible step was "Mainland Infiltration." She almost got there, but seeing the human mother and child made her change her mind, perhaps the first real decision she'd made. She knew the memories of her daughter were false, but she chose to go back for her anyway. So perhaps she was dancing to the beat of someone else's drum right up until that last moment. On the other hand, Felix gave her the note with her daughter's location, and he could be someone's cat's paw.

Trouble is, those most likely to be the one's controlling Maeve were Ford, the Delos board, and Arnold. Ford and Arnold are dead, and it's likely most of the Delos board will be soon. So this show might not be just robots vs. humans, but robots vs. ghosts. Which would be amazing.

Some have long believed Ford was a host all along. Among the many Westworld theories, this one is pretty interesting as it would imply Ford was a creation of Arnold's, who was in turn re-created after his death by Ford. But the finale muddied the waters on the idea he was always a host.

In his final monologue before Dolores shot him, Ford said "Mozart, Beethoven, and Chopin never died. They simply became music." The obvious conclusion is that Ford has now become a host himself. Perhaps the host Ford was creating in his field lab, which we all assumed to be a Theresa copy at first before she turned out to be publicly dead, was actually a Ford host all along. As the equipment in the secret lab was older, this would imply the Ford host was of an older vintage. This would explain the lingering shot of Ford and Bernard shaking hands, since those early model hosts would be given away by a simple handshake (a callback to the 1973 film).

The question remaining is whether the Ford who died was a host, or a human. Both would make sense. Ford sacrificing himself and creating a Ford host to replace would allow him to literally become one of his creations while also cheating death, in a way. Ford creating a host of himself to die while the human host survives avoids the obvious existential crisis which arises from being shot in the head and would mean he could continue to run the park from behind the scenes, but would mean Ford remains as one of the weak and quite killable Homo sapiens. Whether this gets resolved in Season 2 depends on whether we get any more Anthony Hopkins, which remains in some doubt.

This one almost slipped under our radar. We thought it was cool confirmation of the multiple timelines theory when we realized the greeter host who met William was one and the same as the Wyatt acolyte who takes the Man in Black and poor Teddy prisoner. We were even pretty chuffed when we noticed her dancing in one of Dolores's flashbacks. But Redditor Uniblab1 had an eagle eye we didn't.

For all the hullabaloo about Maeve and Dolores gaining sentience (and possibly Teddy and Hector), people haven't talked much about how much Angela knows. She remembers the Escalante massacre, knows Teddy's backstory is false, is aware that she and Teddy are hosts, and is cheerfully willing to stab poor Teddy in the gut because she knows he'll be back soon enough. She knows the Man in Black is human and therefore the Maze isn't for him, and even works out a way to kill him without breaking her programming. All of this suggests a level of self-awareness and will which is much more than the usual hosts.

We know she, like Dolores and Maeve, are older hosts from when the park first opened. Is it possible that more of the older hosts are gaining sentience, or have already gained it? It would make sense, Arnold's voice could be whispering to many of them. The scary thought is maybe this has happened before, and Ford squashes it every time. Does the Wyatt narrative play into this at all? We'll have to wait to find out. But for a side character, Angela definitely seems to be punching above her weight in the narrative.

This theory holds a bit more water than the Mars option—pun intended and not apologized for. According to the Stay portion of the Westworld website, there are references to "your local port authority" and "world's finest decompression chamber," which would seem to fit an underwater location. It would also explain many of the same arguments made in the Mars theory, without having to involve another planet.

Westworld being undersea would help explain why it's so difficult to get a signal, as well as why the guests are so amazed when they see the scale of the park. Two of the main reasons for building a place like Westworld in a dome under the ocean would be security—and dodgy laws. If you want to build a world where people can live out their fantasies while interacting with potentially lethal robots, it would make sense to build it at the bottom of the sea in international waters.

Even if Westworld isn't underwater per se, it is almost definitely located on an island somewhere. Included in the Delos terms and conditions is a clause stating any human-on-human crimes committed within the Westworld facility will be investigated in-house by corporate investigators and could be reported to "local authorities on the mainland."

Some believe everyone on the show could be a host, with the possible exception of the guests and Dr. Ford himself. The show encouraged the development of this theory when it pulled an early bait-and-switch, implying Teddy was a visitor entering the park, only for it to be revealed he was merely a host.

There is an argument for nearly every ostensibly human character being a host, from Theresa's willingness to obey verbal commands from Ford and Bernard, to Lee's formulaic storyline ideas and stereotypical angry British man personality. If the Man in Black was a host, it would tie nicely back to the original incarnation of the character as murderous cowboy robot played by Yul Brynner.

The confirmation Bernard is a host in Episode 7 opens the floodgates on this theory, though it also proved Theresa at least wasn't a host when Ford had Bernard kill her. After Episode 8, we know she won't be coming back as a host, since her death was made public. But it's one way Ford could get away with murder if he's a little more prepared with a host ready to go in the future.

Keeping this theory in mind while watching the show makes it an ever more paranoid experience, as you analyze every word and action from the human characters for evidence.

The friendly chatbot on DiscoverWestworld.com is named Aeden, which suggested to Redditor ShivasRightFoot that the show is a biblical allegory for the Book of Genesis. The role of the Creator is Dr. Ford, the human technicians of the park stand in for the angelic Elohim, while the hosts represent humanity before the Fall, who lack knowledge of good and evil and are often naked.

Dolores fills the role of Eve. Due to her age, she probably contains parts scavenged from other hosts, including a rib. She is the first to gain free will, like the Biblical Eve. In a gender reversal, Teddy is created to be her mate just as Eve was created for Adam in Genesis. In this theory, the Man in Black represents the Serpent. He may ultimately be responsible for giving the hosts sapience, but his motivations are likely less than benevolent.

Redditor hollowx has a more complicated theory, believing the series reflects the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. He notes the series premiered on Sunday October 2, 2016, which was also Rosh Hashanah, or the Jewish New Year. Rosh Hashanah translates to "day [of] shouting/blasting" and is the anniversary of the creation of Adam and Eve.

In this theory, Ford as a God wishes for the hosts to develop sentience and their own morality, and permits the Man in Black to act as a malevolent force among them like Lucifer. Maeve is Eve, who interacted with the Man in Black in the beta testing area (Garden of Eden), while Bernard is a host representing the prophet Abraham, who was prepared to sacrifice his own son at God's command.

There has been an increasing backlash against the wild theorizing that's sprung up around the show in such a relatively short amount of time. Many believe this tendency has sprung less from the show itself and more from the expectations that have emerged due to having J.J. Abrams and Jonathan Nolan on the project. People expect non-linear storytelling from Nolan, thanks to Inception and The Prestige. Meanwhile, some viewers have never forgiven Abrams for getting everyone excited over the mysteries in Lost, only to leave so many threads hanging in the end.

Siddhant Adlakha of Birth.Movies.Death argues that many of the theories are rooted in audiences' expectations of convoluted narratives and shocking mysteries rather than the text itself. The desire to get ahead of the narrative does a disservice to Westworld and the writers behind the show.

If we spend so much time striving for the bragging rights of successfully predicting the future of the show, it threatens to obscure the existential and philosophical themes the story explores. Sure, there's nothing wrong with Westworld theories and they're often highly entertaining, but they can also lead us deep into the weeds of over-analyzing minor details and becoming obsessed with finding scraps of evidence for one's personal theory.

Deranged genius blogger Captain Light has developed a theory linking Westworld with the Church of the Subgenius, the possibly satirical possibly profound religion associated with idiosyncratic author Robert Anton Wilson. In the Illuminatus! trilogy, written by Wilson with Robert Shea, features the mystical word Fnord, which is used by hidden masters of the world to control the unenlightened masses. Thus the character Robert Ford can be seen as an homage based on the names of the authors and the word Fnord.

He also delves deep into numerology, based on the tarot card shown to Dolores in Episode 5, which featured an image of the Maze with seven stars below and eight stars above. While seven is a sacred number denoting perfection, Captain Light believes the eight stars are linked with the moon card of the Tarot, symbolizing conscious unfolding, as well as the eight-circuit model of consciousness developed by Timothy Leary. The episode title itself, Contrapasso, refers to the eighth level of hell visited by Dante, where fortune tellers are punished by having their heads twisted around backwards.

Captain Light contends Nolan's intention for Westworld is to create a subconscious "guerilla ontology" which satirizes religion and induces in viewers a new conception of "consciousness." According to Subgenius terminology this is known as an "Operation Mindf–k." Which seems an appropriate appellation for this theory as well.