At this point, “Westworld” is feeling a lot like the intro to “Hey Arnold!”
We viewers are all Helga G. Pataki, looking around and calling out Arnold’s name to see if he’ll respond. Even Jeffrey Wright, as Bernard, got in on the act this week after he stumbled across some unmonitored hosts in the park and questioned whether one could be Arnold.
In “Westworld,” Arnold is the mysterious partner with whom Ford (Anthony Hopkins) supposedly created the theme park. The guy has been a big question mark ― until now, perhaps.
One theory states that Arnold has actually been right in front of our faces this whole time.
The theory: Bernard is Arnold.
This has come up on Reddit and various outlets, but Episode 6, “The Adversary,” gave us perhaps the strongest support to the theory that Bernard is a robot created in Arnold’s likeness.
We’ve seen hints throughout Season 1 that Bernard isn’t human. For example, Ford continually reminds Bernard about the loss of his son ― his sad “backstory.” In Sunday’s episode, Bernard discovers a house full of hosts supposedly designed in the image of Ford’s family. While there, Bernard is attacked by a host he suspects to be Arnold. Ford then seems to magically appear out of nowhere and stop the attacker, later revealing the attacker is actually modeled after his own father.
There’s no other door there for Ford to have gone through, and there’s no way Bernard wouldn’t notice his boss standing next to him in the room (if he were human ... dun, dun, dun).
If Bernard were a robot, though, he would only see what Ford wants him to see. And, if that’s the case, the best evidence that Bernard is a robot modeled after Arnold comes down to this photograph:
In Episode 3, “The Stray,” Ford talks about the early days of the park and reveals he had a partner. He hands Bernard a picture of what we assume to be the partner; we see young Anthony Hopkins with one other person, a man who looks like the host that later attacks Bernard (the host modeled after Ford’s father).
There’s no one else in the photo. Or is there?
Reddit user ndotny explains that Arnold was actually in the photo, but because Bernard is a robot modeled after Arnold, he couldn’t see him:
Bernard’s seeing himself in the image as Arnold wouldn’t have made sense to his programming ― and therefore “doesn’t look like anything.” A blank spot in the photo.
If we were hosts, our brains would probably short-circuit right about now.
As more proof, Redditors discovered that the name “Bernard Lowe” is an anagram for “Arnold Weber.” (Though, as one Redditor seemingly jokes, “Dolores Abernathy” is also an anagram for “Arnold Oesberathy.”)
All we know is that, if someone starts somehow spelling out “I Am Lord Voldemort” from these anagrams, shiz is gonna get real ― real fast.
”Westworld” airs Sunday at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.
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