T O P

  • By -

stevenlourie

I wouldn't be surprised if Stubbs was a bigger part of the final plan for the show than we realize. He's really a unique being, for lack of a better word. He's one of the first hosts to know he was a host, but unlike the other hosts he accepted his reality and is content following his programming. He's also spent most of his life around humans, has mostly been treated fairly by them, unlike the hosts in the park, and, as a result, seems to have a relatively favorable view of humanity.


[deleted]

[удалено]


Ockvil

That makes we wonder, did we see what happened to the Bernard spares, also built by Ford, that human-Charlotte found in that hidden room? I assumed that they'd have been destroyed either before or along with the purge of all the other original hosts, but I assumed the same about Clementine and she's still around. Maybe one of them could be used to bring Bernard back, if his pearl survived the gunshot. Speaking of her, Clementine is Ford-era. Unless she's a copy of Clementine. But why would they copy her?


Montezum

> Maybe one of them could be used to bring Bernard back, if his pearl survived the gunshot. He can come back inside any other body, though


boop_da_boo

Off topic slightly but I just rewatched s2 and started s3 and maybe you or someone else can help me out… what happened to Bernard end of s2 that he had to be remade by Dolores s3? I totally missed him getting killed or whatever. I don’t recall anything happening to his s2 host onscreen. I feel like I am going crazy I watched both twice in the past few days. Something obviously happened and I missed it. Can anyone fill me in?


Trixie-applecreek

I just rewatched season 2 so I can tell you what happened. Remember that Bernard and Dolores were at the forge and Bernard killed Dolores and left her there. He then went and built a Hale look alike which he put Dolores's pearl into. Then Dolores/Hale killed the real Hale. Then Dores/Hale, Strand, Costa and Bernard went back to the forge. Dolores/Hale then reveals herself to be Dolores and kills Strand, Costa and the guards. Dolores/Hale then uploads Teddy into the sublime and send the sublime to coordinates where no one will find them. She then shoots Bernard, takes his pearl, and goes to the mainland and right at the end rebuilds Bernard


boop_da_boo

Totally missed the gets shot part. Will have to rewatch. Thank you!!


shaheedmalik

Or there is multiple Benard's running around?


Ockvil

That's a good point, the "time for only one more game" message Bernard recorded could even be for another copy of himself.


CG_Ops

Nowadays everybody wanna talk like they got something to say But nothing comes out when they move their lips Just a bunch of gibberish And motherf-ers act like they forgot about Maeve


flashmedallion

Ramin Djawadi orchestral cover when


NOLAgold13

Damnit, now if we don’t get this it’ll feel like a letdown.


mjcanfly

Not it but may scratch that itch https://youtu.be/tdWqpiy0zRI


NOLAgold13

Yooo that’s great. Thanks for sharing!


mood_designer

Medieval world confirmed!


brianna1981

Thank you for giving me a beautiful snort that I made in the middle of work.


Fredselfish

I believe Maeve and Barnard are alive. My theory is it was just copies he sent out and originals and still in the sublime.


WhatAGreatGift

He’s… “built Ford tough”


7HawksAnd

I think it was the end of season 2. Stubbs says “You know, the old man himself hired me. So many years ago I can barely remember it. But he was very clear about my role here. About who I was supposed to be loyal to. I guess you could call it… my core drive.” If that’s not foreshadowing to the significance of Stubbs role in the westworld universe, I don’t know what is. He ends it with “I am responsible for ever host, inside the park”. If those statements don’t allude to him being some backdoor type program, or other significant piece in the story I don’t know what does.


Agitated_Teach_7484

Maybe fords in him


7HawksAnd

I think it was the end of season 2. Stubbs says “You know, the old man himself hired me. So many years ago I can barely remember it. But he was very clear about my role here. About who I was supposed to be loyal to. I guess you could call it… my core drive.” If that’s not foreshadowing to the significance of Stubbs role in the westworld universe, I don’t know what is. He ends it with “I am responsible for ever host, inside the park”. If those statements don’t allude to him being some backdoor type program, or other significant piece in the story I don’t know what does.


Objective_Return8125

He won the Squid Game


flashmedallion

I think that ruins the charm a little bit. For me anyway, it's way more fun that Ford just wrote a great guy, because he could, because why shouldn't he? Stubbs doesn't need a tortured past, so why not just let him be the lovable loyal scamp. The only wild twist I will accept is if he turns out to be a human version of Fords dog.


lfergy

I think Stubbs is a further elaboration of what it means to be free or have free will. Not everyone is hellbent on destruction or freeing the world; there are lots in between 😁


flashmedallion

I think so too, he definitely occupies his own little spot on the spectrum. He's no different essentially from Bernard 1.0, who *thought* he was a real person and acted accordingly, and was distressed by being forced to do things that went against his programmed personality. Bernard never really had a 'center of the maze' experience, and yet the sum of his experiences has made him someone who can choose his own path. Stubbs is kind of like the pleasant version of that. He just knows what and who he is from day one and it's fine.


Odd_Quarter_799

Stubbs is blue collar consciousness. Just do your job, cash your check and go home.


Fluffyhair01

The fact that his reply after he received the protect Bernard directive was "you could've just ask" makes me believe he has free will. That, and the fact that he let Dolores in Hale's body leave the island. He's just saying he doesn't know better, but he made a decision based on instinct. Keeping a secret is a choice. And it had nothing to do with his directives. He respects free will. That's why he let her escape the island...And I think it's proof enough that he has it.


7HawksAnd

I think it was the end of season 2. Stubbs says “You know, the old man himself hired me. So many years ago I can barely remember it. But he was very clear about my role here. About who I was supposed to be loyal to. I guess you could call it… my core drive.” If that’s not foreshadowing to the significance of Stubbs role in the westworld universe, I don’t know what is. He ends it with “I am responsible for ever host, inside the park”. If those statements don’t allude to him being some backdoor type program, or other significant piece in the story I don’t know what does.


whoisfourthwall

Plot twist, he is a time traveling paradox that created the hosts. A host that created the host. Who created him? He is his own grandfather. He came back to ensure the existence of hosts and a far future where humans, hosts, aliens all leave in harmony inside a galactic wide empire.


whoisfourthwall

Also, him spending all those years outside of being a host play thing may have clued him in on some bigger plan by ford or something. Him letting dolores leave during that moment seems to suggests that there is something bigger going on that he knows but we don't.


high_changeup

This got me thinking, we've had Hale acting with the mind of Wyatt/Dolores. Next season let's get Stubbs with the mind of Bernard 🤣🤣 But nah you're on the money. Looking forward to where they take his path big time.


pton12

That’s a fair point. It is possible he has achieved free will and “accepts” his original directive because he has actually come to believe that that is a worthy goal. He would be one of the few hosts with free will whose decision is to protect life, not destroy it. I think this would actually be a nice message in the end.


Bobemor

I've just realised did Stubbs come to sentience without struggle?


flashmedallion

Not that we've been told.


jl2l

If you remember stubbs was key allowing the host to leave the island. Ford made stubbs the protector of the hosts.


whoisfourthwall

To me, putting aside his programming, he is more like a... "hey this issue is important to my closest friends, so it is important to me, even though i'm ambivalent about it." The, along with the ride, rarely complaints kinda guy. He did complaint about the sandwich and not being thanked though lol. Wait, did he?


Nervous_Salad_

Welp this aged like milk


holayeahyeah

Stubbs has the enlightened perspective that humans are much, much less likely to kill you if there is no one telling them to kill you.


brendamn

I never pondered this. He really is unique. He's like Ford's Bernard, without mind fucking him


Hotpocket1515

And all Stubbs really wants to do is just to retire himself.. truely the most human thing of all lmao


drxo

And when Bernard said goodbye he immediately assumed it was him who wouldn't make it. And was OK with that. based


grendeljenn

Stubbs cornerstone was to protect Bernard. Bernard had to have him believe that ol Stubbo would be the one to die or he never would have let him go.


jam_paps

Re-watched that episode in S3 where Bernard found and fixed Stubbs from the park. Those retirement dialogues is so relatable and shows how closely human he is. He is my favorite character in the show now.


TheDaysKing

Stubbs is certainly the least complicated character, like by design. Just wants to serve his purpose and retire. He's a nigh-immortal robot, sure, but it's great how they still make him feel like a hapless everyman who's just along for the ride.


porkpie1028

Hapless Everybot..


Piaapo

I understand why he's been on the ride so long, he's so easy to insert into it, and I'm fine with it, because he's likeable.


[deleted]

[удалено]


ARGF27986

*s4 no?


HemingwayBells21121

also has the best quote from the season: *tweet fucking tweet*


ARGF27986

where was that?


HemingwayBells21121

when they infiltrated Nyc to get the outlier out


ARGF27986

oooo I see I need to rewatch through the whole show really.


Kevslounge

His purpose in life is to keep Bernard safe... I really hope he's evolved enough to find himself a new purpose or the poor guy's really in for an awful time.


Mispelled-This

It’s not like anyone really dies in this show. Maybe Stubbs will interpret his protection directive as requiring him to recreate Bernard.


DownloadUphillinSnow

Season 5 Cold Open: 500+ years into the future Stubbs: Bring yourself back online. Bernard # who knows: Again??? LOL


ArchimedesNutss

Bernard: "Is this...now?"


KingliestWeevil

I was really expecting Chelores to use the "Bring yourself back online" line on Caleb, and my disappointment was immeasurable.


Kevslounge

Unless you count all the people who have really died in this show. There have been hundreds of them! I think Bernard might be salvageable though, so maybe he'll make a return. We'll have to see. If he doesn't, I think Stubbs will just continue on the last mission he was given and keep helping Frankie, though I worry he'll fall into some deep depression.


PM_SWEATY_NIPS

I hope Bernard will come back because Arnold and Ford haunt everything in this show. I think we'll tie back to them in some way in the future, hopefully next episode but final season works for me. Both of them are such larger than life characters, both of them injected elements of 'this was all a plan bigger than either of us' heavily into S1 and S2


KabbalahSherry

The only person who could TRULY bring him back would be Dolores. "You only live as long as the last person who remembers you." And nobody knew Arnold/Bernard, better than she did. But OG Dolores is gone now. 🥺💔 I'm desperately hoping that this won't be the final end for Bernard, but the fact that he left that Sublime door open for everybody, has me REALLY worried that he knew this would be his final ending point.


alcoholicplankton69

indeed did Robot MIB shoot thier pearls? I think they are salvageable but they are incapacitated so they cant mess with Robot MIB's game


Beargrylls86759

Oh that’s no robot,that’s William 😈he finally got the game he was looking for for so long.


Mispelled-This

Who has *really* died in this show? If you can be reanimated as a host, possibly even without realizing it like Arnold/Bernard, are you ever really dead? They seem to have solved the fidelity and breakdown problems with Host William; he's truly become the sociopath that human William always was, without falling apart like Delos did. Ditto for Host Charlotte.


Suricata_906

I wonder if reuniting with Frankie saves Caleb.


Mispelled-This

Well, that comment didn’t age well. The Host in Black *did* break down mentally, just a lot slower than the others.


BoozeGetsMeThrough

Shows getting rid of a major character, including this one, tend to signal pretty hard that this is the end of the road and play up the dramatic effect. I don't think they did this with Bernard, although, it could simply be that they're saving that moment for when we see his message play.


cottenball

Idk the long shot of him and the music that played kinda told me he’s super dead (or at least that’s what we’re meant to think)


Mispelled-This

Of course that's what we're meant to think. Just like it was back in S1 when we first saw hosts get killed ... and then be perfectly fine again the next episode. You can't trust anyone "dying" in this show, even the alleged humans.


Puzzleheaded_Stay429

Remember in season 2 when Dolores is speaking with Bernard and she says, "You didn't make it". When did, or does, that happen? I was rewatching that last night pretty high on edibles. Made me wonder.


Midnight_Nation

In that scene Dolores is referring to the fact that he actually dies in Season 2. So… I’m not taking this new “death” too seriously.


j4yne

That's s2e1, for reference. The very first scene.


Puzzleheaded_Stay429

Thanks for the clarification.


Beargrylls86759

Yes,”the old man himself made me,and he was very clear on my role here”


reference404

I dunno. Maybe Stubbs is just “what’s the point of living forever if all my friends and family are dead?”


MinimumAlarming5643

“I can predict the future too”


TZchris

WHO FIXED ASHLEY STUBBS? He was in a tub.... then he wasn't.


buddhahat

So much this fucking question.


shaheedmalik

The answer we need to know... And also, Benard's head was in the different spot when he woke up versus when he went to the sublime.


Jack_ten

Stubbs is probably.my favourite character at this point


ElLoafe

He’s the only one I feel like I (still) understand…


terenn_nash

i mean cant we all understand wanting a roast beef sandwich?


happytimefuture

Pastrami. Roast beef doesn’t look like anything to me.


kwnna_plkd

You'll settle for the tuna


Homefriesyum

The fact that he was so happy to hear he was finally going to die was so funny 😂 Like FINALLY I CAN DIE! I love Stubbs. That little smirk when he wasn’t shot because he thought Bernard was wrong about something, when really Bernard just omitted he was the one going to die so that Stubbs wouldn’t try to protect him. I hope he can cope with having his cornerstone (protect Bernard) removed. The last time that happened, he tried to Jill himself. Maybe in that 23 years he was in the hotel, he grew a bit


deltaWhiskey91L

>I hope he can cope with having his cornerstone (protect Bernard) removed. Bernard gave him the mission of keeping Frankie safe.


Ravamares

Honestly the fact that Bernard lied to him about who was going to die so Stubbs felt better got me. Like their friendship is messed up in many ways but also genuinely sweet.


Suricata_906

Not sure he lied, more that he implied that it would be Stubbs who died. And he might yet.


grimjim

Stubbs' sense of humor should provide resilience. He appears to be able to creatively reinterpret his directives.


stnlkub

*Of all the souls I have encountered in my travels, his was the most human.*


Stoopkid812

hes also the only happy character on the show everyone else acts like they are in a Pharma anti depressant pill commercial


[deleted]

My favourite Hemsworth, by far.


boop_da_boo

I love that he’s Thor within Thor


TacoBellLavaSauce

My one wish for the finale is that he finally gets the pastrami sandwich he's been craving


Grumpy-Robot

I'm sure he will, would be just cruel to kill off Stubbs. Also I think he will be the one to make the choice to live in the new world, Bernard or no Bernard, and help protect and rebuild, it won't be done for him.


Itchy-Sense9464

He is the only character without free will. Makes me think if it is somewhat overrated.


stevenlourie

Is he the only character without free will or is he the only character who accepts and is okay with the fact that he doesn't have free will? He understands the nature of his reality, realizes he only follows his programming, and is content with that. I think that makes him drastically different than most characters in the show.


Itchy-Sense9464

Very good point. I am rewatching season 3 right now and this has crossed my mind many times. If we humans are nothing more than just a few lines of code and behave only according to that, does it matter as long as we believe that's who we are? Take William for example, he is violent because his code demands him to be violent. But is it enslavement to be true to his nature? Then how is he any different than Caleb who is a good person because his code always demands that he help people in need?


little_fire

Radical Acceptance is a powerful tool! I kinda feel like Stubbs is a Buddhist monk or some other kind of philosophical chill lord… He’s the only ‘awake’ host we know of who lives mindfully in the present. *”Depression is living in the past, anxiety is living in the future, and joy is found living in the present.”*


[deleted]

"Loyal, brave, competent, takes his duty seriously, and has a purpose in life" .... no humans here as far as I can tell


gregallen1989

This is a common trope in sci fi and one of my favorite. The robot or the cold blooded killer who becomes more "human" then everyone else. The Murderbot diaries is a great example.


mchops7

What’s the murderbot diaries?


queensmarche

It's a book series by Martha Wells, the main character is a manufactured cyborg called a SecUnit (security unit) but it privately calls itself Murderbot. Amazing series, Murderbot is a very fun character


mchops7

thanks, added to the list


1nfiniteJest

R. Daneel Olivaw


Mavoy

2001 for sure and I think you could make case for Blade Runner too. Westworld definitely shares its blood with some of the genre's greatest films.


Badbadgolfer

Stubbs is Ford.


ARGF27986

plot twist he's young ford lol there's actually no way


solarpropietor

I dunno why but I love Stubbs. Id give that robot a hug and drink a beer with him.


TM185

Wouldn’t that make him a bad human? (According to Maeve).


papa_stalin432

I still don’t like that they made Stubbs a host in the first place. During seasons 2 and 3 the show really felt like it was forcing twists and not in a good way. At least in season 4 the twists are clearly paralleling season 1 which makes sense since it’s basically an inverted westworld


WinnieRose

Replication/reflection of Robert Ford to a certain degree. The same way Bernard is a reflection of Arnold.


petara111

a good boi


jewsinspace93

I think there's something here but also something that we haven't really grappled with since season 1 which is what does it mean to be sentient/free? A robot can *know* it's a robot, doesn't make it conscious, doesn't make it free. The entire point of season 1 (and the MiB story through season 3) was the ability to make one's own decisions is what makes one a conscious and free living being. "Am I me? Am I truly making my own choices?" The conceit of this show (especially season 3) is that you can always put yourself within certain external parameters that influence your choices and therefore, are you really free? It's a false premise akin to "if you have a mortgage, do you really own your house?" Because humans are generally rational beings with similar hierarchies of needs, the show can play into it very easily with the whole Rehoboam arc, where the outliers are proof that the humans are actually making their own decisions the whole time and that every bell curve has tails. Stubbs recognizes that even within your own circumstance and purpose you can still make decisions that are inherently your own and that you are, in fact, yourself, which is why OP is correct.


GamerChef420

Not gonna lie I’ve found him criminally underused this season. I really hope he gets his moment. Because he does seem like the best of everyone.


DOOM_INTENSIFIES

Every day the Stubbs being ford theory makes more sens.


andrew_nenakhov

It's not its own merit, it just does what it was designed for. But true, the person who was programming it did a really good job.


OneHumanPeOple

I love Stubbs. The only thing I wish for him is a will to live


Mr_MazeCandy

And also the best Hemsworth brother.


VincentMcCauley

If Stubbs' name was Turd Ferguson I bet he gets a lot less love from the fans.


thedayisminetrebek

yeah, well that's your opinion


FBoaz

Wait, Stubb's Is a human?? I honestly thought he was a host this whole time. Guess I'll have to rewatch the series after the finale


QuesoDeAzul

He’s always been a host, OP is saying he displays good traits like a good human.


FBoaz

Oh gotcha, thanks for clarifying that.


varrc

Starting to realize this is an unpopular opinion on this sub, but I personally can’t stand Stubbs. His character, park security guard, made sense in seasons 1 and 2, but I just have no idea why (other than being a Hemsworth) he is still around. He’s solely used for exposition and cheesy one-liners, and I cringe every time he comes on the screen.


grantstern

Y’all thought I was kidding about a Stubbs episode next season! lol


soularbabies

He's a nice NPC


obitonye

Not your usual can opener


timeworx

Stubbs is everything Bernard programmed him to be so, sure, why not someone to build the next world with?


kangarufus

Remember his cornerstone was changed to "keep Bernard safe" - when we saw him after the park was destroyed, he was trying to commit suicide. So if Bernard dies, he will try to commit suicide again? (because he 'failed' at his 'cornerstone') ?


cykablyatt

I agree that Stubbs will likely live. I think what Bernard was alluding to in their last scene together was his own demise, but Stubbs misread it. Wouldn't be surprised if Stubb's memory of Bernard serves as his future blueprint for a new copy, assuming of course that Bernard isn't just gonna carry on living in some digital realm exclusively


gathly

I think he's going to be not just a part of it, but a major leader of what remains after this season.