Westworld Theory: Ashely Stubbs

Last night we saw Ashely Stubbs get lured into a trap and jumped by Ghost Nation, but why did this happen?

SPOILER WARNING: THIS WESTWORLD THEORY POST CONTAINS SPOILERS FROM RECENT EPISODES OF WESTWORLD. IF YOU AREN’T CAUGHT UP ON WESTWORLD AVOID THIS POST! THIS POST ALSO CONTAINS CONJECTURE ABOUT THE FUTURE OF WESTWORLD, IF YOU DON’T WANT TO HEAR POSSIBLE WESTWORLD SPOILERS AVOID THIS POST!

Westworld security chief Ashley Stubbs ran into some trouble last night. Stubbs was alerted to a beacon that appeared to be from Elsie Hughes. Hughes has been missing since she investigated the satellite up-links from the woodcutter and was lead to a terminal. We have been shown Bernard killing Hughes, or it at least we’ve been shown a memory where it appears that Bernard killed Hughes.

Stubbs of course doesn’t know that it appears that Bernard killed Hughes. Stubbs believes Hughes has simply rotated home or away from the park for her vacation time. What Stubbs does know though is that Bernard acted like he didn’t have a relationship with Theresa Cullen when Hughes asked him about it. Then Bernard simply pushed away Stubbs’ suggestion that something wasn’t right about Hughes not responding to his message about Theresa.

Stubbs is the only real connection left between Bernard and Theresa. Stubbs appears to be the only one who knows that Theresa and Bernard had a relationship. This of course is reason enough for Ford to want him out of the way. So the obvious answer here is that Ford planted the beacon and had the Ghost Nation hosts take out Stubbs.

It might not be that simple though. Ford got the better of Bernard and his trap last night, but was that the only trap Bernard set? What if Bernard left the beacon and the Ghost Nation hosts are working with Maeve? We saw Maeve and Bernard form a strange alliance of sorts, but perhaps there was more to it. Perhaps Bernard did more for Maeve than just set her free back into the park. If Bernard wanted Stubbs to get to Maeve it might change everything.

We are assuming that Ashley Stubbs is a human, but he did say “maybe that’s my backstory” to Elsie Hughes. Jokes like that in Westworld rarely mean nothing at all. If Stubbs is a host, with all his knowledge of the park and access he would be a powerful addition to Maeve’s uprising.

The final possibility is that Bernard didn’t kill Elsie Hughes at all. We saw Bernard choking Elsie, but we never saw Elise’s dead body. It could be that Bernard started to break free that night. If Elsie is alive and in the park perhaps she reprogrammed the Ghost Nation braves and set the beacon to get to Stubbs.

Whovever is behind Ashley Stubbs being ambushed it’s probably not as simple as it appears, this is Westworld after all.

NEXT: Breaking Down The Westworld Terms And Conditions

What do you think about this Westworld theory, is there more behind Ashely Stubb’s ambush? Let us know on Facebook or in the comments below.