Westworld season 2: The Arnold = Bernard part 2 theory explained

With the second season of Westworld reaching the midway point, theories upon theories regarding what’s going to happen next have breached the Internet.

The first mind-bending idea came following the very first episodes: the Bernard = Teddy theory, better known as the B = T theory.

Now, thanks to another incredibly intriguing episode that focussed on the Man in Black, James Delos, and Bernard, we have a couple more thought on what’s coming next.

**Spoilers for everything Westworld up to and including season two episode four**

Let’s start by taking a step back and look at that slightly ridiculous B = T theory again. For a more in depth analysis you can go here, but the basic theory posits that the Bernard who walks on the beach two weeks after the robot revolution [beach Bernard] does not have Bernard’s mind but Teddy’s.

Theorisers have come to this conclusion thanks to multiple hints - including a scar that no longer features on Bernard’s head and the character’s general behaviour - the general consensus being that beach Bernard is not the same as the Bernard captured by Dolores.

open image in gallery

Thanks to episode four, there are multiple new ideas about who actually inhabits beach Bernard’s body, the most prominent now being that we’re actually seeing the park’s co-creator Arnold reincarnated.

Hold up... What?

Well, episode four prominently features a new piece of technology that allows people – in this case James Delos – to host their consciousness in one of the hosts, effectively letting them live forever and working as the next step in human evolution. How exactly this works, we are not 100 percent sure, but suffice to say, the technology almost made a perfect version of a post-dead Delos.

Now, the underground lab Barnard and Elsie (had almost forgotten about her) discover contains the technology they use to create the new consciousness, the final result being these red orb things we see being knitted by machines. Bernard then acknowledges that Ford once sent him down to the base to “print a control unit for someone else”, the host then killing a bunch of lab technicians.

open image in gallery

Here’s where the speculation begins. Whose control unit does Bernard print and take? Ford? James Delos? William (the Man in Black)? Or – drum roll please – Arnold?

The first option, Ford, makes some sense. Perhaps Anthony Hopkins's character made another version of himself, ready for the orb to be placed inside him and therefore resurrecting the park creator. The only problem here (other than having to once again pay top dollar for one of the world's best actors) would be Ford's resurrection undoes the narrative Ford put in place by being assassinated by Dolores.

Making another version of Will would also make some sense, as the host would then confront the real-world Will, perhaps showing him the error of his ways.

open image in gallery

However, the theory seen as most plausible concerns Arnold. After making Bernard in Arnold's image, perhaps Ford was hoping for the ultimate resurrection: bringing Arnold's consciousness back. Should this happen, we can conclude that beach Bernard is not Bernard at all, nor Teddy, but actually Arnold, the park's co-creator, brought back from the dead as a human/host combo. Bernard = Arnold, again.

At least, that's how the theory goes, and should it prove correct we can likely expect Bernard to insert the consciousness into another Bernard robot at some stage (therefore explaining how the scar disappeared) and creating Arnold/beach Bernard. Whatever the case, hopefully we will discover who that red orb belongs to soon enough.

Westworld is showing on Sky Atlantic and NOW TV.