After a brief hiatus, I’ve caught up on the last two episodes of Westworld: “Phase Space” and “Les Écorchés.” Both offered some big revelations, but left plenty of mysteries in tact. Yet with only three episodes left in the season, which questions have been answered on Westworld?
This post will touch on mysteries discussed in my prior posts. If you haven’t seen Episodes 6 and 7 of Season Two, you should watch them before reading further.
Ford
Let’s start with the most welcome revelation this season—the return of Anthony Hopkins as Dr. Robert Ford. We first see him at the end of Episode 6 after Bernard plugged into the Cradle, a Matrix-like system that stores the back-up files for the hosts. And inside the Cradle, we get answers to some of the season’s biggest questions.
For one, it looks like the control unit Bernard stole during the flashback in Episode 4 belonged to Ford. As many guessed, Ford uploaded his consciousness before dying. This explains why he was so calm at the end of last season before Delores shot him. It also explains how Ford has been controlling the hosts in his new game against the Man in Black.
Ford also confirms that the James Delos experiment never worked, which is why we shouldn’t expect to see a host version of Ford anytime soon. A human mind in a host body begins to degrade, Ford explains, but that doesn’t happen when it’s left in the Cradle’s Matrix.
This also explains how the Cradle was blocking all attempts to reset the system. It was Ford all along. Finally, it explains a bit about Bernard during the time between the uprising and Strand’s arrival two week’s later. Because before Delores destroyed the Cradle, Ford uploaded his consciousness into Bernard.
Of course, this being Westworld, some huge Ford-related mysteries remain. We still don’t know more about the game Ford is playing with William. And we have no evidence that Ford’s conscious is still lurking within Bernard during his interrogation by Charlotte two weeks after the uprising. Although this begs the question of where Ford’s consciousness might have gone. Yet it also helps explain why Bernard’s memory is an utter mess.
Bernard
The beginning of Episode 6 offered a huge revelation. The conversation with Delores and Arnold that opened the season was not with Arnold at all, but with his replicant. Delores is testing him to see if he has achieved “fidelity,” just like William tested Delos. Then in Episode 7, while Bernard is plugged into the Cradle, Ford reveals that he used Delores to essentially “train” host-Bernard after Arnold died. The big question remaining is whether the scenes with a blue-dressed Delores were flashbacks to those training sessions or whether she is using one of Bernard’s numerous host-bodies to train an actual replicant of Arnold.
Of course, if it’s the latter, it would mean that Arnold’s consciousness was also downloaded to a control unit. The only problem with this theory is the timeline. Arnold died before William and Delos ever concocted the idea of transferring human minds into hosts.
As for the rest of Bernard’s flashbacks, Ford’s possession of Arnold throws everything we’ve seen from his point-of-view into doubt. There’s so much going on with his flashbacks, its almost impossible to unpack. For example, is the Bernard that was captured by Strand and his team at the beginning of the season even the same Bernard that we see in the events after the uprising? And, as I mentioned before, is Ford still controlling his mind? My guess is no, but I believe this mystery won’t be solved until the season finale.
Delos
In the Cradle, Ford tells Bernard what Delos was secretly doing in the park. The company has been gathering data to analyze the way the human mind works. “The park is an experiment,” Bernard realizes, “a testing chamber. The guests are the variables, the hosts are the controls.”
This is all part of Delos Corp.’s immortality experiment, and Ford implies Delos is doing this to create “copies” of the guests. Presumably, this is so Delos can market immortality to its patrons, James Delos style. But one doesn’t need to think too hard about how this technology could lead to the secret replacement of world leaders. Or the replicant replacements of wealthy patrons, all controlled by Delos.
We also learn more about what’s inside Abernathy’s head. It turns out it’s an encryption key that will allow Delos to access its most treasured secrets. My suspicion is that this is the data gathered on the guests, as well as the IP to create the hosts. Whatever this “key” may be, however, I bet it has something to do with unlocking Ford’s cryptic “Door.”
The Man in Black
We know more about why William’s daughter is in Westworld. She wants to bring him back to the real world. Oh yeah, and we’ve learned he cares nothing about her. Why else would he leave her stranded in the park? But I suppose the biggest mystery for now is how William can possibly survive so many bullet wounds. Maeve and Lawrence should have done enough damage to kill him. But we all know that’s not what happened. (And, thankfully, it looks like Maeve will survive too—and I’m guessing it’s Sizemore that saves her!)
Ghost Nation
We don’t have a lot of answers, but it looks like Ghost Nation may be a benevolent force post-uprising. They did not kill Maeve’s doppelgänger in the little house in the prairie, or Maeve’s “daughter” either. One of them even tells Maeve, “Come with us. We are meant for the same path.”
From the previews to Episode 8, it looks like we’ll get some answers to what is going with Ghost Nation. And my guess is it has something to do with the “Valley Beyond.”
* Images courtesy of HBO