Westworld Reveals SPOILER Has Been a Host the Whole Time

Season Three, Episode Two of Westworld was released on HBO tonight and followed Maeve (Thandie Newton) as she attempted to escape from the newly-revealed Warworld. While Maeve was trying to navigate out of her latest new reality, Bernard (Jeffrey Wright) returned to Westworld in order to find her. Bernard’s goal was to recruit Maeve into helping him stop Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) from taking over the human world. During his quest to find his fellow host, Bernard ran into an old friend, and it was revealed that a character who has been involved with the series since the beginning has been a host the entire time. Warning: Spoilers Ahead…

While fans have long suspected that Ashley Stubbs (Luke Hemsworth) was a host, the latest episode of the series officially confirmed the theory. Bernard came across Ashley, who had attempted to kill himself now that he no longer has a purpose, and ultimately gave new meaning to the worn-out host’s existence. Bernard patches up Ashley and recruits the former head of security to help him find Maeve.

At the end of season two, Ashley helped Dolores, who was inhabiting the host body of Charlotte Hale (Tessa Thompson), leave the park. During the moment, he says he’s worked at the park for a long time and has always been loyal to Ford’s (Anthony Hopkins) vision. He makes a point to say that his main responsibility has always been the host’s safety inside the park, with an emphasis on “inside.” In fact, he adds that it’s his “core drive.” After this, people began to speculate that Ashley was, in fact, a host. After the episode aired, the series’ co-creator Lisa Joy told The Wrap it was “safe to assume” Ashley knew Hale wasn’t really Hale.

“And there is a step further that you can assume, too,” Joy shared. “And we don’t say it explicitly, but if you are left wondering with all [Stubbs’] talk, his knowing talk about, ‘I’ve been at the park a very long time,’ and Ford designed him with certain core drives, and he’s gonna stick to the role he’s been programmed with; it’s a little acknowledgment of just why he might have his suspicions about what’s going on with Hale and then lets her pass.”

She added, “And doesn’t it make sense if you are Ford and designing a park and you have a whole master plan about helping robots that you would keep one Host hiding in plain sight as a fail-safe? Maybe the Host who’s in charge of quality assurance? And by the way, that was totally meant to be subtle [laughs].”

New episodes of Westworld drop on Sundays on HBO at 9 PM EST.