Westworld: Who Is The Little Boy?

Westworld's second episode, Chesnut, left viewers with a multitude of questions in dire need of answering. What was the cross at the end of the episode? How many hosts can think outside thier programming? Will the Man in Black ever get through the maze?

Who is the Little Boy that was speaking with Dr. Ford out in the canyon?

The Westworld creator jumped into his creation for the first time in the series, and he did so using a method we haven't seen before.

Ford took an elevator from one of the deeper levels of their facility to the middle of the desert, far away from the rest of Westworld.

He seemed to be completely alone, with nothing else around him, but he is quickly found by a young boy.

Although the kid mentions that "the lady said we could do as we please" it's pretty much a lock that this kid is a host.

He's out on his own, further away from the core part of the park than anything else, and he doesn't seem the least bit concerned about his surroundings.

On top of all that, he and Ford are eerily similar. The two makes claims about their fathers, and agree that they were exactly the same. The boy shares a similar accent to Ford, as well as wildly adventurous intellect.

As the unlikely pair approach the vast nothing, the kid refers to it as "nowhere land." A child who was visiting Westworld for the first time could never react that way.

After Ford makes proves that the magic of the park lie in the hands of the magician, he spies the black steeple in the distance. Upon telling the child to go home, and never return, the boy's face goes blank. He drops his stick, and he walks away.

Having established that the child is a host, and not a guest, and that he bears a striking resemblance to Dr. Ford himself, it could be argued that the boy is actually a clone of young Ford.

When the Doctor needs to plan more parts of the park, he needs a voice to bounce things off of. He may trust Bernard, but only to an extent. Who is the only person he can trust with 100% certainty?

Himself.

It's also made clear throughout the first two episodes that the hosts have specific sentences that shut them down. Sometimes, these codes can also make them store their memories. The hosts have also proven they can recall specific conversations and interactions on the spot.

Is the kid a personal notebook for Doctor Ford?

By having someone he can trust to talk to, whose brain he can completely control, Ford now has a trusted advisor at all times. He also has a way to store his notebook, in a remote location where no one would even think to look.

Ford then tells the boy never to return to this location again. Although it's remote, he is planning on building more there in the future. He doesn't want his inner-most thoughts and plans to get into anyone else's hands.

If the genius of Doctor Ford wasn't fully understood yet, this should give you a clue. The man has made a clone of his younger self, hidden it in plain sight, and stored his most important notes inside of it.

That little boy is the most secure hard drive in Westworld.