What Does Milk Represent in 'Westworld' and Why Did Bernard Extract White Fluid From a Host?

Westworld returned to HBO Sunday and offered a slew of new questions, like: Why are Bernard (Jeffrey Wright) and Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) killing everyone, and where did that lake come from? The obvious questions aside, one of the things that was never explored in Season 1 was how the machines get their energy. "Journey Into Night," Episode 1 of Season 2, hints at how the robots recharge.

Like last season, Season 2 plays with time. It's unclear how many timelines there are, but toward the end of the episode Bernard starts to power down. It wasn't until the end of the season that viewers learned he wasn't human—and practically no one as Delos Destinations, Inc. knows. When he needs to be replenished, Charlotte Hale (Tessa Thompson), the executive director of Delos, doesn't know he's a machine and he doesn't want her to find out, consider Dolores just started a machine vs. human war by murdering Robert Ford (Anthony Hopkins).

When Charlotte is not looking, Bernard secretly extracts fluid from a dead host's neck and then inserts it into his own. When she returns, Bernard is no longer shaking and appears focused.

So what just happened? What is the white fluid Bernard took out? Why did it cure him and what did it cure him from?

As of now, there are no clear answers for this.

Jeffrey Wright Bernard Westworld
What does milk represent in "Westworld." It could be nothing, or it could be what sustains the robots. John P. Johnson/HBO

In Season 1, though, milk is shown various times. The bandit host drinks milk and then pours it on his victims. The outlaw added that Peter Abernathy, Dolores's father, only had milk to drink in the house. In another scene, the bot keeps saying "growing boy" as he makes his victim drink the milk.

The milky substance is also what the robots are made from. The beginning of the show reveals the machines are created from the synthetic liquid in a milk pool. Maybe the hosts need to replenish themselves with the substance they were created from, like it was shown with Bernard. If humans are red inside and the robots are white inside, maybe the white liquid or milk is their blood? Further, the guests are never shown drinking milk.

Westworld Season 2, Episode 2, premiers Sunday on HBO at 9 p.m. ET.

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About the writer


Maria Vultaggio is a Brooklynite originally hailing from Long Island. She studied English at Stony Brook University and interned at the ... Read more

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