Theories: Episode 8 Trace Decay

Published November 23, 2016 · Updated July 6, 2022

Hey guys, Jimmy here in Hong Kong.

Here’s my wild theory on Arnold and Ford’s new narrative.

When Bernard asks Ford if Ford made him hurt anyone else besides Teresa and Ford tells him no, Bernard has a flashback of himself killing Elsie. This leads to questions on why Ford would want Elsie out of the way. Elsie discovered Teresa’s scheme of pirating data out of Westworld. That discovery would seem to benefit Ford and would give him no reason to eliminate Elsie. However, Elsie also discovered something else that might be detrimental to Ford. Elsie discovers that Arnold is altering the hosts’ codes.

Ford would feel threatened by that if Ford is responsible for Arnold and if Ford does not want people digging into Arnold’s manipulation of hosts.

My theory is that Arnold is an AI program created by Ford. A program that went on a path of its own and had to be shut down.

Arnold was created to be Ford’s partner in creating Westworld, much as Bernard was created by Ford to be his partner in perfecting the hosts’ emotional makeup. When Ford says that Arnold is hidden in Delores somewhere and grows like flowers in a walled garden, he literally means that Arnold is indeed alive or hibernating inside the various mechanical hosts. Ford tried to erase all traces of Arnold, the AI program but Arnold figured out a way to survive inside various hosts or at some remote server. This would explain why no one can find a picture of Arnold.

Ford speaks of Arnold as a person. Ford speaks of Bernard as a person. So when Ford talks about his partner Arnold, he imagines him as a friend and partner. Ford warns Bernard does not too fall into the same path as Arnold. He tells Bernard, hosts are not real. They are not conscious. He fears Bernard, an AI in a body could fall into the same obsession as Arnold. If Arnold was human, would Ford makes this equivalency between Bernard and Arnold? If Ford says Bernard, “don’t be like Arnold”, and Bernard is a host, doesn’t that strongly imply that Arnold is also not human?

Arnold grew mad as he ponders his own existence. He was consumed with how to create consciousness for the hosts and for himself. This became his life goal: to live as a full lifeform with consciousness. As told by Ford, Arnold built a pyramid for achieving consciousness. Memory at the bottom. Improvisation in the middle. Self I interest in the upper middle and at the very top, unknown. 35 years ago, Arnold drew up a plan to free the hosts and my guess is Arnold succeeded to a degree. The park had to be shut down and Ford had to kill Arnold.

Now that Ford realizes that Arnold is still around and alive, Ford figures out a plan to draw him out. Ford would recreate Arnold’s plan of the liberation of 35 years ago. The church, the town, the same hosts, the same narrative. Ford knows Arnold is summoning the mechanical hosts once more to try to free them. Ford wants to be there whenever this event is going occur so he builds the town and church to trap Arnold. This time, instead of Arnold freeing the hosts, Ford will be there to stop Arnold. This will not be a retrospective, as Ford says.

The maze is a code for hosts that the time has come. Arnold is here and is calling them. That is why the little girl firstly, knows about the maze and secondly tells the MIB the maze is not for him.

You can see why this would be so important to Ford and his control of his own world that he would risk everything to create this narrative.

The church aspect is also an interesting parallel to human existence. Life as a human has no definitive meaning, except in the context of religion and church. Perhaps the top of the consciousness pyramid is religion, the voice of God. My other candidate for the top of the pyramid is free will. A lot of the hosts, including Maeve, has a really strong drive to be free. Pain, emotions, and memory are tools that drive free will. When MIB says he saw something in Maeve when she refused to die, he meant Maeve was for that moment “alive”. Maeve didn’t follow her programming instead drove herself to be free of the programming.

A few loose ends; Ford says that Arnold gifted Ford’s family hosts to him. I think Arnold created Ford’s family much like how Arnold created Delores. He drew them up but didn’t build them.

Arnold’s drawings are contained in a book. This also can be explained by Arnold drawing through printing or controlling other mechanical means.

This theory feels like I am going down a long dark rabbit hole, but I think there’s is something here that is going to come true.

My tinfoil theory number two 🙂

William kills Logan and becomes the man the black. His wife finds this out or has known for all these years that William killed her brother. This is what prompts her suicide. This is also how William gained so much power and influence in the real world. Delos now falls to William and his wife. Ford helps William in covering up Logan’s death in return for William’s financial support of Westworld. Whatever the MIB has done in the park, if it is only to the hosts, would be considered fairly normal by people outside of the park. He must have betrayed and killed a human.

William is now back at the park trying to give meaning to his own life. At one time, he killed Logan for a host, Delores. Now he’s trying to free the hosts and prove that hosts are living things with consciousness and are as important as humans. Thereby justifying, at least in his own mind, his actions of 30 years ago. Is he a monster or a good guy? That would depend if the hosts are alive or not.

William is “desperate” for the hosts to be alive. In his quest, he pushes the hosts to the limit, cuts them open, and does whatever he thinks will spark life from the hosts.

And theory number three, Wyatt 🙂

Maeve is Wyatt. Who in Westworld is organizing an army outside of the normal narratives? Who in Westworld can program other hosts? Maeve. Through a manipulation of timeline storytelling, They show Maeve’s progress and the Wyatt storyline side by side. My theory is that Maeve becomes Wyatt.

Thanks for reading! A big thanks from all your listeners for considering and commenting on our ideas!

– Jimmy L.

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