Back before Westworld opened to the public, Arnold Weber—who invented this technology alongside Dr. Robert Ford—killed himself to stop the park from opening and his creations becoming trapped in a tourist hell. It didn't work, and Westworld became a massive corporate draw for 30 years, where wealthy assholes would travel to act out their basic animal instincts on unsuspecting humanoid hosts.

According to what we now understand as the timeline of Westworld, 30 years after the park opens its head of programming Bernard Lowe learns he's actually a host modeled by Ford after the late Arnold Weber.

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Since that reveal near the end of Season One, fans have appropriately wondered why no one recognizes this groundbreaking inventor who created one of the greatest accomplishments in human history. We know William (played by Ed Harris and Jimmi Simpson) both were intimately involved with the park from the beginning—certainly he's seen a picture of this guy, right?

Well, the show hasn't provided a direct answer to what could be a major plot hole, but one enterprising Redditor has compiled all the subtle evidence for why no one recognizes Bernard as Arnold:

Arnold was a recluse who barely spoke to humans and preferred to spend all of his time with hosts. As far as we are aware, Arnold's only family was his (somewhat estranged?) wife and his young son, who died before the park was opened. (We do not know the fate of his wife, but as of S2E2 she does not seem to have been involved with the park in any way).Arnold was involved in the pre-park era, before any guests or Delos involvement, with only Ford and a small team of engineers. They had no board meetings and Arnold barely spoke to anyone except the hosts.When Ford and Arnold did approach investors, they did so with "cloak and dagger" methods, not revealing names or faces. For their first in-person meeting with Logan Delos, they sent a team of hosts to negotiate. Arnold had begged Ford not to let the "money men" in, so it is probable that he never met with investors at all. We know for a fact he never met Logan, William, or James Delos. (Logan later refers to Ford's partner as a "complete mystery," and William/James did not get involved until after Arnold's death).Ford scrubbed the record of all traces of Arnold (with the help of pre-Delos business partners?)

These are all pretty good circumstantial points, but still, it seems like there would be at least one person involved who would be able to recognize this guy—especially William. This Redditor addressed that as well:

Logan somehow learned that Ford's partner died in the park before it opened, but his team of lawyers was unable to discover any information on Arnold--not even a picture.William (in Ed Harris Man-in-Black era) is aware that Arnold existed, but there is no indication that he knows what Arnold looked like. HOWEVER, in S1E10, MiB does a double-take when passing Bernard at the gala. Perhaps he has seen a picture after all? If so, it clearly wasn't enough for him to recognize Bernard as Arnold: given his obsession with Arnold, it's unlikely he would have shrugged this sighting off as he did. Regardless, MiB's reaction to Bernard seems to suggest that they have never met, and perhaps have never seen each other. I cannot recall any scenes in which Bernard interacted directly with MiB's journey through the park.

This is all fairly sound reasoning, which can at least still be used to defend the show from a huge plot hole. This fan even provides relevant dialogue from the show that helps explain things, like when Ford says, "His search for consciousness consumed him totally. Barely spoke to anyone, except the hosts."

Okay, so in this future, Bernard was definitely not on Facebook or Twitter and had zero friends except for sad robots. Depressing! But I guess that makes sense. The only thing that still nags me is when he was about to present Dolores to a big group.

Given how obsessive this show is with detail, it's likely they'll provide a full answer soon.

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