Arnold Is Not Real

Published December 2, 2016 · Updated July 6, 2022

Happy Wednesday, Gentlemen.
2 weeks left. You guys must be so ready for a break from the madness!

Speaking of which, for this week I’m going full on crackpot! Anything to make the top 20 . I’m so sorry these emails are so long I just can’t stop myself.

For starters, it’s fairly clear that Bernarnold is a distant dream. All those people on Reddit searching for an anagram of Bernard Lowe and no-one thought of a St. Bernard.

So we still don’t know who Arnold is?

I think that the conflict between Arnold and Ford was regarding time. Arnold wanted to bootstrap consciousness whereas Ford saw it as a longer journey of evolution and self-discovery. If that’s the case, it helps to understand the deal that he made with Delos. It seems that he agreed to give them data that they desperately want, but he’s been holding it hostage ever since. A bit like a stalling tactic to continue to get funding to continue his true work.

And now for the cracked pot I believe that Arnold is not real, but a personality of Dr. Ford. He is the bi-cameral mind. He had to kill or supress that part of himself while the more pragmatic Ford took over.

• There are so many shots of Ford with a reflection, showing his duality.

• There is the line do you remember the man I used to be

• Often he refers to Arnold as the creator, and other times he refers to himself as the creator

• He speaks of great tragedy in Arnold’s life, but the creepy ghost-hosts suggest that perhaps Ford is the one who has suffered a tragedy

• He wears a pocket watch with chain, which could represent the self-devouring snake (ouroboros) on The Magician card. It is said that he slays himself and brings himself to life, fertilizes himself and gives birth to himself

• In the shot of young Dr. Ford at the lab, he is not wearing the chain. Ditto for the flashback with Maeve. It’s possible he just had a fashion epiphany or something.

I’ve been looking at Tarot symbolism. The Fool and the Magician cards seem to correspond to the hosts and Ford respectively. There is another card called The Hanged Man which represents a willing martyr who has chosen the path of sacrifice to suspend action and achieve a greater good. That kinda sounds like Arnold. Though if Ford killed him, I’m not sure how willing a martyr he was. This also ties in with the Through the Looking Glass references. The Red King slept while Alice had a long journey to move across the board and win the game for him.

The opposite of the Hanged Man is The World card. It represents achievement of the ultimate goal, bringing infinite success. In the top right corner, we see the eagle. This represents connection to the divine (the creator) and that messages will arrive to help guide and achieve success. The name Arnold also means eagle

Lawrence seems to fit with the Hanged Man:

• Pretty much always shown with a noose around his neck

• He [was] sacrificed for the sake of Teddy and continuing the journey

• The whiskey with St. Lawrence on the label. St. Lawrence was a martyr

• Friar Lawrence delivers the speech containing the words these violent delights have violent ends in Romeo and Juliet, which is about slowing things down

• When William and Dolores first meet El Lazo, she has a flashback to the same square-dancing (umm) square that we saw in this episode on what I assume is the day Arnold died

There is a possible link based on imagery, but I can’t figure out how it plays out in the story.

Ultimately, I think Arnold is nowhere and everywhere. Because he is Ford’s alter-ego, he exists in the original code that Ford wrote. Like Ford has built his own fatal flaw into his creations.

In other news:

• Charlotte picking Abernathy was one hell of a coincidence. It could be because he is the last decommissioned host with no bullet holes so he’ll have the least wet-rot, but it still seemed rather convenient.

• Since we think Logan and William are from Delos, and Delos is a family empire, is Charlotte Hale related to Logan?

• I found Felix’s behaviour to be especially odd and I am more prone to believing he was planted there to help. In Through the Looking Glass doesn’t Alice think one of her kittens was the Red King? It could just be that Tweedledee/dum tried to convince Alice that she wasn’t real.

• I still hold out hope Elsie lives

• Can we all agree that the use of the word moist in this episode was deeply disturbing?

Cheers guys!
Jez*

*Eagerly awaiting the moment I can do my William=MIB happy dance!

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