Westworld: Is Bernard a Host?
Bernard is totally a Host, isn’t he?
Westworld continues to get more and more complex, and the more it does the harder it is to parse character motivation. After the past several weeks Ford has actually become more clear — he’s a man with power and he’s not afraid to wield it. He also has a fear of his presumed dead partner, Arnold. Bernard, on the other hand, has become more difficult to read.
Bernard began as a relatively boring character with a deceased child. But the more time we spend with him the less human he seems, but not only that, his potential narrative seems more obvious. Part of watching Westworld is learning to second-guess what we see and what we’re told, and Bernard is the perfect example of that. A man with a tragic back story, living at the facility (as they all do,) emotionally detached and close to Ford. It’s also worth noting that Ford is the only character that seems to know all of the personal details about Bernard’s life.
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In the previous episode, Bernard came face to face with the robots recreations of Ford’s past. He was dismayed, which is understandable. It is, after all, incredibly creepy. Bernard couldn’t control them like he could the other Hosts, though it’s possible that Ford really did program them to only follow his commands. It’s also possible that Bernard’s influence, as a Host, doesn’t extend quite that far.
Ford is a cold, calculating man, and it would make perfect sense for his closest confident to be a Host. Someone that he could trust and raise-up without having to worry about the failings of actual humans. Bernard narrative casts him as a brilliant, damaged outsider. His affair with Theresa could also have been programmed; wouldn’t Ford want his right hand man to know all about what Delos is up to?
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As it stands there is simply too much evidence going for the theory that Bernard is a Host. Westworld could be trying to trick us, but that seems unlikely. If anything, Westworld is trying to trick is into believing that Bernard is human and not the other way around. If Bernard is a Host, he obviously isn’t aware of it.
Either way, he does make for a simple Halloween costume.