Warning: spoilers ahead!
If Episode 9 of “Westworld” didn’t look like anything to you, you might want to check your programming.
While shows like “Game of Thrones” and “Walking Dead” are fun to speculate about, fan theories and predictions often don’t come true. No big deal, right? All crazy theories must die.
But that’s not what happened on Sunday night’s “Westworld.”
After a season of teasing us, HBO’s new show finally revealed its deeper game, and it cuts deep.
Congratulations, “Westworld” fans! The show has now basically confirmed all of your major theories. Even if you saw them coming, the reveals were pretty mind-blowing:
1. Bernard is Arnold
After Maeve (Thandie Newton) revealed to Bernard (Jeffrey Wright) that he is a host, the latter seemingly cornered Ford (Anthony Hopkins) and forced him to reveal his past. While traveling through memories, Bernard came to the realization that he was created in Arnold’s image.
Of course, Ford then revealed that he has a backdoor into the code and has Bernard kill himself, but not before we got to finally see that photo of Arnold for what it really is.
Here’s the photo as we see it earlier in the series:
Here’s the photo now that Bernard understands he’s Arnold:
Hmmm ... still doesn’t look like anything to us.
2. Dolores killed Arnold
While going back through her memories, Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) also comes to a realization that fans already predicted. She killed Arnold.
At this point, we don’t know the reason why, but the speculation is that Arnold had Dolores kill him so she could reach self-actualization.
3. The picture Abernathy found was of William’s fiancée
Fans predicted it at least a month ago, but the picture that Dolores’ dad Peter Abernathy (Louis Herthum) finds, which seemingly causes him to start accessing his past builds, is actually a picture of William’s (Jimmi Simpson) fiancée, aka Logan’s (Ben Barnes) sister. Logan shows it to William to get him to snap back to reality.
Why Logan is carrying a picture of his sister around Westworld is perhaps the bigger mystery.
4. William is the Man in Black (basically confirmed)
As if we needed more proof, Episode 9 reinforced that William is the same person as the Man in Black. They’re just 30 years apart.
Earlier in the series, we hear the Man in Black say he once saw a host opened up before they became more flesh and blood. In the latest episode, we see Logan show William that Dolores has mechanical insides by cutting her open.
That incident basically confirms William’s story is set in the past.
We also know that William’s company is considering a major stake in Westworld and that the park might not be doing great financially.
In the episode, we learn that the Man in Black is on Westworld’s board and he kept Ford in business years ago.
So yeah, do we actually need any more proof?
5. Bernard Lowe is an anagram for Arnold Weber:
Somehow fans came up with this months ago, and in Sunday’s episode it was finally confirmed.
Bernard Lowe is an anagram for Arnold Weber.
The disturbing thing is you know some character’s name secretly spells out Lord Voldemort.
After the episode, more theories began popping up, like one that says the maze was originally Arnold’s way for the hosts to become sentient and now it’s Ford’s way of keeping the hosts trapped. All the other theories have been correct, so why not this one, too?
Now we just have to hope Bernard is somehow going to revive himself to come back and save the day.
He’s the chosen one: The Bernard who lived.
The season finale of “Westworld” airs Sunday at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.
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