Westworld is the best show on television right now, and it’s not even a contest. Granted, there’s not much it’s competing with (Don’t give me your The Walking Dead bullshit), and part of the fun of the show is hopping on the subreddit and diving headlong into all the theories that fans have come up with.
One of the widest-believed theories was actually proven to be true in episode 7: Bernard is a host. But if the world of fan theories has anything to say about it, we haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of what lies ahead. So here are 5 of the Best Westworld Theories Out There Right Now. A word of warning, though: these can affect the way you watch the show and may contain future spoilers, so if you just want to sit back and watch the show without delving too far into it, you should probably turn back to Sweetwater right now.
5. The Varying Explanations of the Maze
This is one mystery of Westworld that doesn’t seem to have a prevailing theory; in fact there are several. Some say that the maze is an elaborate test for the hosts in order to gain full sentience. It could be that the maze leads to the real life Arnold or it’s a maze that Arnold built that could destroy the park. It could even be simply the way to get to the Westworld HQ. Time will tell if the Man in Black makes it there before season two or if this is going to be one long, drawn-out mystery that leaves us unsatisfied.
4. Everybody is a Host
Well, not everybody, but there’s a lot of theories bandied about that there are a lot of behind-the-scenes people that are hosts, including Robert Ford himself. As we’ve seen, we can no longer trust that anyone working for the park is a human, as we just found out that Bernard, the one behind-the-scenes guy we identify the most with, is nothing more than a creation of Ford, so literally everybody is fair game, even Ford himself.
Why Ford? Just look at the name. Anyone that knows a little bit about US History, or has seen a Brad Pitt movie can tell you that Robert Ford is the name of the man that killed Jesse James. This could be a pseudonym Ford gave himself or it could be the name that Arnold gave to him. You know, back when he built him and before Ford killed him. There is precedent for this, as well. In Futureworld, the sequel to the original Westworld film, the park is run entirely by automatons; this could be a nod, or this theory could be complete bullshit. Time will tell.
3. The Bernarnold Thoery
In this past episode, we received confirmation of a widely held belief, that Bernard was a host, but there’s another belief that expands on this idea: that Bernard is a host version of Arnold, Robert Ford’s old partner.
One of the biggest smoking guns is the picture that Robert shows Bernard when talking about Arnold and the early days in the park. Bernard and the audience are shown a picture of Robert standing next to a man, whom we believe is Arnold (we later find out that the man next to Robert in the photo could actually be his father, but that’s a whole other theory). But if you take a look at the framing of the photo, it looks like this could be a photo of three people, with Bernard’s programming “airbrushing” Arnold/Bernard (lovingly referred to as Bernarnold) out of the picture in order to keep him safe or having a crisis of consciousness.
2. There Are Multiple Timeframes Being Shown
This is the major theory that has come up in the series, and one that informs the final entry on this list. What this theory supposes is that there are at least two timeframes that are playing out in the show, but are being presented to us as simultaneous events. The first inkling of this is that there are two distinct versions of the Westworld logo that have been spotted in the show, which supposes that these events are taking place during two different times.
But the latest episode has thrown in the idea that there may even be more timeframes, as the basement Bernard and Theresa stumbled upon has been seen before, in scenes with Bernard talking with Dolores. Because these hosts don’t age, it’s hard to determine what is happening when. The guests do age, however, which leads to…
1. William is the Man in Black
William, played by one of the McPoyles, is widely believed to be Ed Harris’s character younger self on his first of many trips to the park. What we’re assuming is that, by the end of the William-Dolores storyline, he finds something or something happens that fuels his obsession with finding the maze.
The theory is backed up by the aforementioned multiple logos, one of which was seen in episode 2 as William was going through processing into the park. It’s also made clear that William and his future brother-in-law, Logan, have a stake in the park, which would explain an older William’s carte blanche throughout the park. While I tend to believe this theory, and do like it, there are times in which the two timeframes are stitched together to make the audience believe they are one, which I find a little deceitful, but it doesn’t take away from my enjoyment of the show.
Are there any other theories that you think we might see come to fruition in this show? Or do you think we’re just looking for the Yellow King all over again? Leave a comment with what you think is going on.
The Main Damie 
