As we approach the 90-minute season finale of Westworld this coming weekend, we realized that Bernard is at the center of two major plot twists.
First, Bernard (Jeffrey Wright) was revealed as a host created by Dr. Ford in a rather heartbreaking and tragic scene. This moment hit the audience hard, as the show is written to make us empathize with the hosts and not the humans.
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It was a sad moment when Bernard was forced to kill his lover Theresa, and when we learned that his tragic backstory of his son dying was completely fake. Ford made Bernard suffer so his mind would be full of a painful memory instead of possibly evolving into sentience.
Second, Bernard was revealed to be an exact copy of Dr. Ford’s old (and dead) partner Arnold, which was shocking to say the least.Ford created Bernard in Arnold’s image, but left out the characteristics of Arnold that he wasn’t fond of, thus creating a perfect partner for himself.
Oh, and then Ford forced poor Bernard to kill himself…
If we have learned one thing from Bernard’s shocking reveals, it’s that Ford is the most selfish, abusive, and mean-spirited character on Westworld.
In a recent interview with THR, Jeffrey Wright had a few things to say about having to keep the secret of play two characters:
“Like most of the secrets with this series, it’s been pretty tough trying to dance around what in some ways is the obvious. I know people have been very excited about discovering the secrets through various theories, but everything has been shown really from the beginning. In some respects, these things were obvious. I think they’ll become more so when you trace the breadcrumbs back to the beginning. But we’ve been strangely open about these things.“
He described how Arnold is warmer than Bernard and how their characteristics differed the entire season.
“I think there are subtle, tonal shades and differences between the two characters. That lives within the writing. Almost reflexively, I found that Arnold was a bit warmer. He’s a bit more available. We only see him in his relationship with Dolores. But it was odd, really. There’s more of a glow within him. There’s a smiling heart there. It was a very subtle shift. Whereas with Bernard, although he’s empathetic and empathizing, he’s still somewhat detached and somewhat more clinical. Obviously not to the extent that Ford is, but there’s something slightly less humane about him.”
And finally, he spoke about the scene where Bernard was forced to put a gun to his own head after discovering the entire truth about himself, Ford, and Arnold.
“I can say that the epicenter of all of that is this kind of interrogation and quote-unquote “self-exploration” scene with Ford in the lab down in the bowels of this place, behind this army of defunct hosts. We spent several days down there on those scenes and I was ready to get out of there by, like, the fourth day. It was pretty … you know. I love acting when it’s right and it’s fun, but I was ready to move on from that scene. (Laughs.) Anthony Hopkins was sitting there on the other side of the room, kind of grinding Bernard into pretty much oblivion. It was good stuff, but … you know what it was? It really called on, as Evan has described, dredging up a lot of the themes in the mirror reflection that the show plays on. Who are we? Why are we? Are we missed? Are we not? How much of our personality is self-created and how much of it is organic? What makes us up? Not to be overblown about it, but it was pretty trippy in that regard. You’re basically as actors replicating to some extent what these hosts are tasked with doing. It was fun in that regard. I think as well, when the mirror reflects back on the audience, ideally they empathize, yes, but also recognize it as a metaphor for their own looks into the mirror at times.“
When asked about the season finale, Jeffrey Wright responded with, “Is there a finale? No one mentioned it to me.“
But…is Bernard going to come back? We’re sure the body shop has fixed hosts with fatal gunshot wounds before!
MORE WESTWORLD: 90-Minute Finale Will Have Answers / Arnold’s Identity Revealed / Arnold’s Killer Revealed / How The Man In Black Is Connected To Westworld / Who Is Arnold / The Man In Black’s Backstory Revealed / What Planet Is Westworld On / Logos May Reveal Two Seperate Timelines
Westworld airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.
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