The title of Westworld’s seventh episode is Trompe L’oeil, meaning trick of the eye, and this installment certainly lived up to it with the bombshell that Bernard Lowe (Jeffrey Wright) isn’t a man, but one of Robert Ford’s uncanny creations.
The episode kicked off with a tragic moment designed to throw us off the scent — the day Bernard watches his young son, Charlie, die in a hospital room. It turns out to be a dream, but between that memory and the video conversation Bernard shares with his estranged wife earlier in the season, the idea that he might be a robot seemed increasingly far-fetched.
Of course, we now know the writers were just playing with us all along. They left a few clues along the way, such as Bernard’s post-coital conversation with Theresa (Sidse Babett Knudsen), when he explains that the hosts are constantly talking to each other, because that is how they practice at being human. “Is that what you’re doing now?” She asks him. “Practicing?”
Some theorists have been playing I Spy with these hints from the beginning. The idea that Bernard might be a robot is no great shock for a lot of fans. (Nor would the revelation that there might be two timelines, or that the Man in Black is an older William or Logan.)
But that doesn’t mean the episode was without surprises. Theresa’s death was a huge shocker, as was the sickening way she went out — at the hands of Bernard, who was doing the bidding of Ford (Anthony Hopkins). We now know Hopkins is simply reprising his role of Hannibal Lecter, especially when he leans in to whisper into a frantic Theresa’s ear, “Like I said, I built all of this.” That explains why her phone isn’t working to call for help.
Ford reveals something else in his final confrontation with Theresa. He explains that, to restore things, “the situation demands a blood sacrifice.” These were almost the same words Charlotte (Tessa Thompson) said to Theresa earlier in the episode. Ford hears everything, like a god.
This episode was a game-changer because we not only learn something explosive about Bernard but also finally see the life or death stakes in this world. That’s a pretty big change after many episodes of seeing characters die and come back to life again and again, not to mention the human characters who are immune to the host’s bullets. We started to get an inkling of the shift last week when Elsie (Shannon Woodward) made the mistake of doing some recon all alone in a creepy, dark basement and got attacked.