Warning: This article contains major spoilers for the latest episode of Westworld.

Westworld threw us a major twist (even if it was fairly easy to see Bernard’s host status coming) in the latest episode, and it feels like there will be more where that came from in the first season’s final string of episodes. But the twist we’re most looking forward to? The truth about Arnold, the co-creator of Westworld who had a mysterious “accident” 30 years ago and hasn’t been heard from since… until now.

The erratic hosts have claimed that Arnold is in their head, telling them to do things, and Elsie confirmed that Arnold (or someone pretending to be Arnold) was the person using the bicameral system to talk to the hosts. The closer we get to Westworld’s Season 1 ending, the more it seems like we are building towards an Arnold reveal. Is Arnold someone we know? Here are our most likely suspects, and after you give them each some consideration, vote in our poll at the bottom:

Bernard

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Image via HBO

One of the other major fan theories making the rounds on the internet is that Bernard is a host version of Arnold, brought back to “life” by Ford some time after his partner’s mysterious accident. Frankly, this theory is pretty damn likely. We’ve seen how interested Bernard is in learning about the inner workings of the hosts’ minds and that he values the hosts as something more than machines, both traits we know Arnold also had. We also know that, like Bernard, Arnold was motivated by a personal tragedy.

More substantial evidence includes the fact that, in the photo Ford showed Bernard of Arnold, Arnold was missing. The POV shot reveals only a young Ford and Ford’s father’s host. Many fans have surmised that Bernard cannot see Arnold because they share the same face and, as a host, he cannot see things that challenge his reality. (Although I would argue that there are other possible faces that would also challenge his reality.)

Additionally, the conversations we have seen take place between Bernard and Dolores are oddly out of time and place. They seem to take be within the basement of the Ford family home, but we also know from last episode that Bernard cannot see the door that leads to the basement. Are we actually watching conversations between Dolores and the original Arnold? If so, it stands to follow that Bernard is a recreation of that man.

Dolores

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Image via HBO

My own personal, mostly optimistic crackpot theory is that it is not Bernard who is not Arnold’s host self, but rather Dolores. We know that before Arnold died, he asked Dolores if she would help him destroy Westworld. Did he do that by somehow implanting his own consciousness deep into Dolores’ programming? Is this why she is seemingly leading the robot revolution? It’s a bit of stretch, but we know that Dolores has been around since the very beginning of the park and that Arnold asked her for help. Ford assumes that she said no, but it is increasingly clear that she is on that very mission. Westworld consistently tells us that Dolores isn’t a supporting character in anyone else’s story. She is her own protagonist. Having Dolores actually be Arnold would be a pretty damn good way of hammering home that point.

Teddy

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Image via HBO

When Teddy tells The Man in Black the story of the man at the middle of The Maze, he speaks of a person who has died many times. The man grew tired of it so he built an elaborate maze and put a house in the middle of it. I don’t know about you, but when I hear “man who has died many times,” I think Teddy. Many fans have commented on the similarities of the Teddy/Wyatt story with the Arnold/Ford story. Both were partners-in-crime who had a falling out when one turned much more malevolent in his world view. “You don’t know me,” Teddy tells The Man in Black after he shoots up an entire regiment. How deep does the truth run?

 

The Man in Black

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Image via HBO

Speaking of The Man in Black, we still don’t know what his deal is. It seems unlikely that he is Arnold, given that he seems to have a life outside of the theme park, but much of his existence is still shrouded in mystery. We know that The Man in Black has been coming to (or living in) the park for the last 30 years. He has a familiarity with Teddy, Dolores, and most of the other hosts. He is allowed basically whatever he wants by Westworld's programming department.

Furthermore, we know that he and Ford not only know each other, but have a contentious relationship. The Man in Black seems like he wants to kill Ford when they have drinks together. Could The Man in Black be Arnold, either as a real man or as a host who has been stuck living in the park for the last 30 years following his “real” person death? It would put his interaction with Dolores into perspective. Many people have theorized that, when he drags Dolores into the barn in the first episode, he doesn’t rape her, but rather speaks the words that unlock her consciousness.

If The Man in Black is Arnold, then it also puts his search for The Maze into an entirely new perspective. Perhaps it isn’t Arnold who lives at its center, but rather Ford. Perhaps The Maze isn’t the secret to Westworld, so much as the secret to the behind-the-scenes Westworld divisions, a place that The Man in Black has been seeking out ever since he was trapped in the theme park 30 years ago by Ford. (You know, as long as we’re spitting out theories...)

Lawrence

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Image via HBO

Lawrence is a host that keeps popping up again and again, and who always seems to know a bit more about what’s going on then meets the eye. Sure, that could just be part of his programming, or it could mean he is the key to breaking this story wide open. I don’t have a lot of evidence for or against the Lawrence-is-Arnold theory, but El Lazo, a.k.a. “The Loop” is exactly the sort of name Arnold might get if he were part of Westworld’s host population.

Ford's Brother

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Image via HBO

No one besides Ford seems to even know what Arnold looked like, which means he could have looked like Ford. This isn’t a theory I’ve seen bandied about the internet as often, but, if Ford and Arnold were twins or brothers, then the picture Ford showed Bernard of Arnold wasn’t missing an Arnold; we just thought Arnold was Ford. You still with me?

If this is the case, it would make Arnold’s “accident” (especially if it happened at Ford’s own hands) that much more horrifying, and would explain why Ford’s totally gone off the deep end and spends all of his time hanging out with the host versions of his family (including his host brother). It would also explain why Arnold made a version of Ford’s family in the first place, which always seemed like kind of weird move, if Arnold wasn’t family.