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Maeve may be one of the most compelling characters on Westworld — and one of the most confusing. Many viewers now rank her as their favorite character in Season 2, and her popularity is only going to increase after watching Episode 5. Maeve is kind of like Nero of the Matrix — she has more power than even she realizes. Here are the top theories and clues about Maeve now that “Akane no Mai” has aired. This post will, of course, have major spoilers for the fifth episode of Season 2 of Westworld.
Maeve May Be the Most Powerful Character in Westworld
When Maeve couldn’t get the Indians to do her bidding last week, this was an unexpected twist. Up until then, it seemed as if Maeve’s power was equal or just slightly less than Ford’s: with just a word, she could get anyone to do whatever she wanted. But her power didn’t work last week, and now we know why. Maeve simply hadn’t realized what triggered her powers and hadn’t fully grasped how to control them.
Now she does, and she’s pretty much unstoppable, it seems. She can not only control one individual host, but she can control an entire room full of hosts. She can make them kill each other or kill themselves. Her power is practically limitless in this world.
But Bernard Has Power Roughly Equivalent to Maeve’s
Here’s an interesting twist to Maeve’s story. We were introduced in a dramatic fashion to the knowledge that Maeve has an overarching power in Westworld. But last week, we learned that Bernard has the same. He was able to say simple words to the drone hosts and make them not only kill all the people in the lab, but also kill themselves.
The main difference is that Bernard’s power seemed to happen when he was programmed and something else “took over” his host mind. So Bernard himself may not fully realize his own power and his own potential. He likely has access to the same kind of power that Maeve does, but he can’t control it like Maeve does.
Some viewers are wondering if Bernard might now have Arnold’s consciousness within him, which might account for the power he has.
YA’LL. What if Bernard was carrying Arnold’s/his consciousness at the end…What if Delos did succeed in making someone “immortal” #Westworld
(Others, however, think that the control unit that Bernard took was Arnold’s, and it will be used for a new Arnold model.)
Her Power (and Bernard’s) Mimics Ford’s Power
Meanwhile, both Maeve’s power and Bernard’s power directly mimic what Ford could do. In Season 1, we saw Ford was able to freeze an entire room of hosts with just a word or a shake of his hand. Now, Maeve can do this with just a thought. It was left unclear if Ford could control hosts with just a thought too. It seemed like he could not.
However, some viewers have always had a theory that Ford was secretly a host himself, created by Arnold. If that’s the case, then perhaps Ford programmed Maeve to carry on his mission, once he knew that he (as a host) was going to die. Of course, the state of Ford’s body when Delos found him seems to go against that theory, but a well-made host body might also decompose if left by itself for weeks.
Meanwhile, some viewers think that Ford was indeed a person, but now Bernard is carrying his consciousness in a control unit, and Ford will soon become the host that many thought he was.
It’s Still Unclear How Much Is Maeve’s Own Autonomy & How Much Is Programmed By Ford
Me trying to understand Ford’s plan. #Westworld
Last season, we were left with some interesting questions about Maeve that we’re still trying to uncover. When it comes to Maeve (and even Dolores), just how much is self-awareness and sentience (a la Arnold’s bicameral mind program), and how much is Ford’s narrative (a new game for William.) Is Maeve self aware and autonomous, or just being programmed by Ford? Bernard said last season that someone named Arnold had infiltrated her code and uploaded an escape narrative. And the clues all pointed to that being Ford. Can Maeve only control the hosts that Ford allows her to control in his code?
To at least some degree, Maeve’s uprising was really part of Ford’s narrative. She wanted to activate all the hosts in cold storage, and she did. The code loaded by “Arnold” was an escape narrative. Maeve refused to believe that she was following a narrative in Season 1, and wanted to believe that she had free will. Her tablet that Bernard was holding had a mention that she was going to “infiltrate mainland.” But it’s unclear what that meant. When Maeve didn’t end up leaving the park after all at the end of Season 1, was that a free choice or part of her script? We still aren’t clear on that.
Maeve Might Be One of the Contenders in Ford’s Game for William
MiB’s “play it (Ford’s game) to the BONE” seems to hint at some kind of foreshadowing #Westworld
In fact, all of this might be part of an elaborate game that Ford has created for William. Remember, William observed last week that he wasn’t the only contender in Ford’s game. If you want to believe that Dolores and Maeve both do have autonomy and sentience, then perhaps they are all contenders in that game. That would leave William, Dolores, Maeve, and perhaps even Bernard as contestants in some kind of new and elaborate game created by Ford, where only one can “leave” the park.
Why Is Ford’s Game Focused on a Door?
One interesting theory is that Ford’s Game is about finding a host-with-a-human-consciousness that won’t have a cognitive meltdown like James Delos did and finally be able to “leave” Westworld. This theory supposes that William died in the host rebellion and now he’s a host himself but doesn’t know it. I’m not personally buying this theory, but I do think there is some connection between William’s game being about finding a door and James Delos never being shown the door because of his constant meltdowns.
So I’ve got a #Westworld theory…what if William actually died at the Ford’s retirement party and the current William is one of the secret human clone/droid and Ford’s “Door” game is him actually being the first one that doesn’t have cognitive meltdown like his father-in-law
Is Maeve More Benevolent than Dolores?
When Maeve and Dolores met in an earlier episode, Maeve told Dolores that she needed to let her pass if she truly believed in liberty and freedom, like she claimed. And Dolores did. But since then, we’ve seen that Dolores isn’t completely on board with all of that. Dolores will kill hosts that she has decided aren’t worthy of making it to the valley (the area that she says is going to be her weapon.) And we just saw her completely change Teddy’s specs at the end of the episode, against his consent. That truly seemed to be stepping over a line and possibly making her no better than the humans she’s fighting.
Predicting a Maeve vs. Dolores showdown at the end of this season of #westworld. Hot take – Dolores is actually terrifying as this season’s villain and Maeve is the badass savior of whoever’s left standing.
Meanwhile, Maeve is doing the same thing. But in her case, we can argue that it’s always done in self defense. She’s only taken over the mind of a host when that host is threatening to kill her. So does this make Maeve more benevolent than Dolores and a greater believer in hosts’ having autonomy?
Could Maeve Have Caused the Hosts’ Deaths at the Valley?
D82 Maeve’s code in the @WestworldHBO season 1 finale looks awfully familiar. #100DaysOfCode #reactjs
When Bernard and Delos arrived at the valley, which had been flooded, Bernard saw many, many dead hosts. And he said, “I killed them all.” But now one has to wonder: did he really? Or was he talking about all the people he killed in the underground lab, a flashback he just remembered last week?
You see, now we know that both Maeve and Bernard have the power to make hosts essentially kill themselves or others. So it’s possible that Maeve played a big role in those hosts’ drowning/dying in the water in that Valley. We know that Dolores was heading there, and William was heading there, and likely Bernard and Maeve ended up there too. It’s possible that in the midst of some type of battle, Maeve took over at least some of the hosts’ minds and caused some of the death that we witnessed.
