‘Westworld’ Season 2: The Meaning Behind Those Multiple Bernard Hosts Is Finally Revealed

When Season 2 of HBO’s Westworld premiered, a trailer was released that contained scenes from upcoming episodes of Westworld. One of those snippets showed a scene where multiple Bernards were revealed. Ever since then, viewers have been trying to work out what that meant. Now that Episode 7 of Westworld Season 2 has aired, viewers finally have the answer.

SPOILER ALERT: This article discusses Episode 7 (titled “Les Ecorches”) of HBO’s Westworld Season 2. Please proceed with caution if you have not yet viewed this episode and wish to avoid spoilers.

In Episode 7 of Westworld Season 2, Bernard Lowe (Jeffrey Wright) and Ashley Stubbs (Luke Hemsworth) were accosted by Charlotte Hale (Tessa Thompson) and Karl Strand (Gustaf Skarsgard) as they tried to unravel what has been going on in Westworld since Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) killed Dr. Robert Ford (Anthony Hopkins) in the Season 1 finale.

They had also decided that either Bernard or Ashley had something to do with the death of Theresa Cullen (Sidse Babett Knudsen) after her DNA was discovered at a location far away from where her body was found. Taking Bernard and Ashley to that location, a secret room was discovered which hosted a variety of Bernard hosts. While this automatically revealed the fact that Bernard was a host to Karl and Charlotte, it was the conversations had with Dr. Ford while Bernard was inside The Cradle that really explained things further.

In Episode 6 of Westworld Season 2, viewers were first introduced to The Cradle. Essentially, it is the cloud for the hosts of Westworld. However, if you want to know more about it, you can do so by reading this previous Inquisitr article about it.

In Episode 7, while Bernard was still inside The Cradle and talking to Dr. Ford, it was revealed that Bernard was created in Arnold’s image after Dr. Ford’s friend and Westworld partner died. However, with Dr. Ford wanting to create an exact replica of his friend, he turned to the most reliable person beyond himself in order to assess the host and decide how close a replica he really was. This person was the host called Dolores. As the Huffington Post points out, Dr. Ford and Dolores basically “reverse engineered” Bernard.

“She knew Arnold better than anyone, so she could verify whether my personality was faithful to his,” Bernard revealed in Episode 7.

Over the years, the Bernard host was tinkered with and altered as required. So, it seems likely that the room of Bernard hosts seen in Episode 7 of Westworld Season 2 were the earlier versions of Bernard. This is especially true considering one of the hosts is the oldest version that has been seen on the child replica of Dr. Ford himself, with a face that opens outwards.

This means that the potential is there that some of those scenes seen in Season 1 of Westworld showing Arnold quizzing Dolores might actually be Dolores performing checks on Bernard to discover if he was close to replicating Arnold yet. However, viewers will likely have to go back and rewatch Season 1 of Westworld to try and distinguish whether this is true or not.

Season 2 of Westworld returns with Episode 8 on Sunday, June 10, at 9 p.m. ET. According to Elle, this episode will be titled “Kiksuya.”