This 'Westworld' Theory About Bernard & Teddy Will Literally Make Your Brain Explode

Westworld has proved to its fans that it's a show that simply cannot be trusted. After the domino collapse revealing twist after twist in Season 1, few are willing to take anything at face value for Season 2, and with good reason. It doesn't help that certain scenes already seem off-kilter from the very beginning of the season. Now the theories are growing wilder by the second. The newest one comes as fans see Teddy learn the true nature of his existence in Episode 2, making fans ask: Are Bernard and Teddy the same person? Wait, what? Spoilers for Westworld Season 2 follow.

Here's the issue: The scenes with Bernard in episode 1 are definitely off. Part of it is due to the fact that Bernard is malfunctioning. As I noted after the premiere, Bernard is leaking brain fluid, and his system is already overloaded. Nothing about what we see from his point of view can be trusted.

But fans have gone one better. This new theory claims the man waking up on the beach at the top of Episode 1 isn't Bernard at all. It's Teddy, whose consciousness has been implanted into Bernard's body, a switcheroo that happened between the time we saw Bernard with Charlotte, and the arrival of Strand and company to fix the park.

This week on Westworld, Teddy became something of a convert to Dolores' cause, though her willingness to shed blood so easily still doesn't sit so well with him. Still, what we know of Teddy is that he is faithful and loyal. If Dolores tells him to murder people, even all the hosts, he will. He's done it before. His shock and horror at the site of the Delos labs under the park have awoken him to the reality of the situation.

That's partly where this Reddit theory ties into Bernard. Last week, at the very end of the episode, upon seeing all the hosts drowned in the water, he says "I killed them." Bernard? Kill all those hosts? Without having Ford order him to? That doesn't jive with what we know of him. Teddy, on the other hand, has surprising killing capabilities, as the Man In Black learned in Season 1.

How did Teddy's personality get in Bernard? Was he uploaded? This theory believes that the showing of the brain stems (those things that look like the compact CFL bulbs) is a clue that entire hosts can be swapped around from body to body.

Then there's what Bernard is wearing in the opening scene. All throughout Season 1, Bernard typically dressed like this:

In the scenes from Season 2 directly after the massacre, Bernard is dressed like this:

But on the beach, Bernard is dressed like this:

You know who dressed like that? Teddy.

If it's Teddy inside Bernard's body, he would most likely dress like he's used to dressing, instead of thinking to dress the way Bernard does.

And finally, there's this image:

This is a shot from the Season 2 trailer. In case it's a little dark, that's Charlotte, standing in front of not one, but three copies of Bernard. Whatever happens, his secret isn't going to stay that way.

But who is she looking back at? Fans assumed it was Bernard, and that this was Charlotte gaining a serious hold over him. But what if the person she's looking back at is...Teddy?

What if this scene in the Westworld rickroll, where Bernard is walking through Sweetwater and rides into town on the train and sees Dolores, is actually one of those Bernards, with Teddy's mind inside, remembering his old loop?

It's a fascinating theory and one that might be worth keeping in mind as the season continues.