These 'Westworld' Theories May Explain What's Going On With The Mysterious Rehoboam

It only takes one glance at Reddit to see how active Westworld fans are in the week between each episode. And so far in Season 3, Rehoboam theories have been at the center of the discussion board. Two episodes in, we've learned that Rehoboam uses an incredibly predictive algorithm to chart a path for every human in the world, and that the system decides everything about their lives down to their jobs, putting humans in loops as restrictive and tightly-scripted as the host narratives inside the park.

We also know that Rehoboam was built by two men, Liam Dempsey, Sr. and Engerraund Serac; Dempsey died a mysterious death, leaving his half of the company to his son, Liam, Jr., but Rehoboam remains firmly under the control of Serac. What we don't know is what Rehoboam is actually doing, what Serac's end goal is, or what Dolores wants with the system. These are the questions that fans are asking — and doing their best to answer. Here's what they've come up with so far.

1. Rico Is Controlled By Rehoboam

While Caleb lives out his monotonous loop of a life, the one seemingly unscripted thing he does is commit crimes he finds on the Rico app. I say "seemingly" because a popular theory among fans is that the Rico app is actually controlled by Rehoboam. What other way is there to explain how such an all-seeing and predictive system could possibly have overlooked something as obvious as a "crime app"? By controlling which criminals do what crimes and when, Rehoboam has integrated even the chaos of crime into its system, perfecting its absolute power over humanity.

2. Serac Is A Host Avatar of Rehoboam

The "which human is actually a host" game originated in Season 1 and has continued throughout the series, even into Season 3. Now, some viewers are convinced that the next secret host is actually Rehoboam's architect Serac. As Reddit user Dezmonkelli postulates, Serac may simply be the avatar through which Rehoboam interacts in the real world. Did the real Serac die at some point before Rehoboam replaced him? Did Rehoboam kill the real Serac? Or did Serac somehow never exist? Is he just a fiction created by Rehoboam and Liam Dempsey, Sr.?

3. Ford's Final Game Is For Rehoboam

Westworld's creator Robert Ford loved playing games so much, he was putting people through them even after his death. In Season 1, he planned a game called "The Maze" that would lead the hosts to their true consciousness. In Season 2, he planned a game called "The Door" that allowed the hosts to escape the park into their own robot heaven. Now, with Ford seemingly gone for good, could he still be manipulating events behind the scenes? Could Dolores' rebellion against "The New World" just be Ford's latest game? That's what Reddit user Mr_Trobot thinks, speculating that the destruction of Rehoboam could have been Ford's plan all along — perhaps what he was sending Maeve to do with her original Season 1 command to "infiltrate mainland."

4. Rehoboam Needs Host Data To Evolve

One lingering question after Season 3's second episode, "The Winter Line," is why Serac was so eager to discover the location of the Sublime, the robot heaven that Dolores beamed to an unknown location in the Season 2 finale. Reddit user szienna theorizes that, after successfully programming all of humanity into submission, perhaps Rehoboam is now "data-starved." If the machine's goal is to become continuously smarter and more powerful, humanity and its pre-scripted lives won't provide enough variables to help it further fine-tune its algorithm. Maybe Rehoboam wants more chaos to learn from, and that's why it's seeking out the hosts, which are the only creatures capable of making real and surprising choices anymore.

5. Dolores Sent The Sublime Into Rehoboam

Reddit user iamtheonewhorox theorized that, while Serac is busy trying to locate the host data by running Maeve through a simulation, perhaps the Sublime is sitting right under his nose. Could Dolores have beamed the Sublime into Rehoboam in the Season 2 finale? Serac told Maeve that Rehoboam was suddenly acting strangely after operating successfully for many years; he assumed the divergence was Dolores' rebellion, but what if it was actually the introduction of dozens of host consciousnesses into its programming? Perhaps it will be revealed that Teddy, Akecheta, and the rest of the hosts in the Sublime have been attacking Rehoboam from the inside this whole time.

6. The Entire Season Is Taking Place Inside Rehoboam

In Season 3's first episode, Liam Jr.'s friend theorized that all of humanity was actually living inside a simulation; then in the second episode, Maeve was revealed to be inside a simulation. In fact, Reddit user MrSquamos thinks that much, if not all, of what has been shown in Season 3 so far has been a simulation. Rehoboam is a computer system that runs algorithms to predict human activity. Could Season 3 actually be a scenario run inside Rehoboam as an effort on the machine's part to predict and forestall Dolores' rebellion? If so, at what point will Rehoboam's simulation and reality diverge? Will Dolores be able to outsmart the machine, or will it foresee her every move?

7. Rehoboam Is On The Hosts' Side

After learning about Rehoboam, everyone — Dolores and viewers alike — assumed that the machine was the enemy. But what if it's not? Which side is an extremely sophisticated machine more likely to be on? The humans that created it, or the species of artificial intelligence that is seeking to overthrow those humans? Reddit user Roskoe speculates that, while Serac thinks he controls Rehoboam, it's entirely possible that Rehoboam has its own agenda… and allowing Serac to think he's in control is simply part of that agenda. If Rehoboam controls Rico, then it's responsible for bringing Dolores and Caleb together, and if it's responsible for bringing Dolores and Caleb together, then perhaps it's secretly working to help Dolores defeat Serac even while Serac think he's using Rehoboam to defeat Dolores.

Whose side is Rehoboam on? Are all the characters just living inside one of its simulations? What's the next move in its game? With only six episodes left in this shortened season, answers should be coming fast and furious.