Westworldis back and, by the looks of it, the Season 2 premiere is up to some old tricks again.
Last season's big twist centered around the show taking place over multiple timelines experienced by Dolores, culminating in the reveal that The Man in Black is actually William and that Dolores killed Arnold before the park opened decades ago.
It would appear that now, in Season 2, Bernard is at the center of a new multiple timeline puzzle.
Or at least that's what they wantyou to think.
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Because Westworldmight be up to its old tricks again, but so is Reddit. These are the same crafty fans who figured out that there were multiple timelines happening in Season 1 by, like, episode 2. And they're notbuying that Bernard's confusing plot in the premiere only comes down to different timelines. Oh no. Now, we're probably dealing with multiple cloneversions of the Bernard host experiencing multiple timelines.
Is your brain juice leaking out your ears yet? Good, because it only gets more mind-boggling from here.
Let's establish some basic plot before going into theories, though. It's clear that that there are at least two timelines happening in the Season 2 premiere. Bernard washing up on the beach and being found by the Delos team, which takes place about two weeks after the massacre. But then there's also Bernard with Charlotte in the immediate aftermath of Ford's death. (Oh, and possibly a whole other timeline with Dolores in the opening scene -- but we'll get to that later.)
We're having critical brain failures too, BernardCredit: hbo
But multiple timelines are old hat for Westworld. So Redditors picked up on some key clues for what people are calling the multiple Bernard theory.
The first and clearest piece of evidence can be spotted in the trailer for what's to come in Season 2, where Charlotte finds three other versions of a Bernard host.
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But then there's also Bernard's differents outfits, and a magically disappearing and reappearing scar. We'll let PJsAreComfyexplain:
Black shirt Bernard has a scar on his right temple, presumably from when he shot himself in S1 and was patched up by Maeve's crew. He was at the gala with Ford (in the season 1 finale) and with Charlotte immediately after the gala until they enter the mysterious underground Delos installation.
White shirt Bernard has no scar. He is found washed up on the beach, is with the security team that finds the hosts drowned in the sea, and is shown in the main compound's map room when the hosts breach and massacre the humans.
Bernard with a zipper-front black jacket and no scar is talking with Delores about beach flood dreams and being scared of what's developing.
PHEW. Alright so we're probably dealing with 3-4 different Bernard clones (this post helpfully added screenshots to differentiate between black shirt, blue shirt , white shirt Bernard.) Then there's the added layer of multiple timelines, which could actuallyjust be different Bernards in the same timeline but in different parts of the park.
At this point, it's impossible to make sense of exactly what the end game is for the multiple Bernards plot device. But the new information about how hosts link up to each other in a hive mind or "mesh network" means he can experience scrambled memories from all the different versions of himself.
Then there's the likelihood that the Delos employees who found Bernard on the beach already know that he's a host, and are just trying to get him to remember what happened to cause the mysterious flood we discover at the end of the episode.
Many are also theorizing that the very first opening scene from the Season 2 premiere is on a whole separate timeline, and a reversal of the opening scene from Season 1. Now, Dolores is the one analyzing Bernard, giving him nudges to unlock the meaning of his dreams and consciousness. I mean, the beach imagery can't be a coincidence, can it?
Are you still with us? Good, because it gets crazier and more complicated from here.
The multiple Bernard clones isn't the only reason why we can't trust Bernard's perspective this season. There's also the fact that, while he's in the secret lab with Charlotte, the computer identifies several critical failures happening in his brain. The list includes: time slippage, cognitive dissonance, and prosopagnosia.
SEE ALSO:We finally (kind of) know where Westworld is
As one Redditor points out, prosopagnosia means he's suffering from "face blindness." So he's not justexperiencing confusion from different timelines and different versions of himself. He also can't really tell who is who. For all we know, the person claiming to be "Charlotte" could very well be Dolores (her change in outfits during the lab scene looks a lot like Dolores' getup in Season 1).
So to summarize, Westworldis back -- and the maze is bigger than ever.
While the writers might've underestimated how quickly Reddit fans would figure out their tricks last season, they didn't make the same mistake again. They've planted enough seeds to make it so we doubt just about everything we see.
Have you ever questioned the nature of your reality? Well you definitely should start questioning it now.