Westworld: Who is Theresa Cullen Working With?

Is Theresa Cullen really just looking to save her own skin within the Delos hierarchy, or is she playing a much bigger game than most of her co-workers realize?

Note: This article contains spoilers for episode 6 of Westworld, “The Adversary.” Please watch it first, read our recap or proceed with the knowledge that you’ll be learning about plot points you haven’t seen yet.

One of the underrated aspects of Westworld so far has been the workplace maneuvering going on. With the possible exception of security chief Ashley Stubbs, everyone has a personal agenda, and the constant backstabbing goes on in ways both obvious and subtle.

Theresa Cullen certainly hadn’t shown all her cards prior to this week, though she also had more to lose thanks to her affair (on his side, anyway) with Bernard Lowe. She coolly terminated that relationship this week, citing the conflict of interest it represented.

That wasn’t close to all, though. Not only did Cullen do her best to get distraught narrative director Lee Sizemore back in the game, she also was the subject of the episode’s biggest reveal. Even though you can argue about how Westworld went about it using a pretty standard trope (with Elsie Hughes calling Bernard to spill the beans about Theresa while he was talking to her), the fact that Cullen is the one smuggling data out of the park was a stunner.

So she’s a person on the inside, but for whom? Let’s break down three theories in order of plausibility.

Cullen is spying on behalf of the home office

This seems most likely based on the sudden arrival of Charlotte Hale at the end of “The Adversary.” The thinking here would be that Cullen has connections on the board and is worried about what Robert Ford is up to after her confrontation with him a few weeks ago — one that ended with Ford essentially threatening her.

Alas, this wouldn’t be all that much fun just because it’s so conventional. Internal power plays, even as twisted as the ones on this series, don’t make for maximum drama. Plus it means the conversation we didn’t see between her and Bernard would just have been:

“You’re smuggling data out of the park?”

“Yeah, I’m worried about Ford.”

“Oh, me too.”

Boring.

Cullen is working with Arnold, perhaps to destroy the park

I honestly have no clue at this point of Arnold is still alive or a rogue AI or what, but clearly he’s still mucking with the inner workings of the park. It would be helpful to have an accomplice to do so, and Cullen is in a powerful position to assist.

Why would she do it, since the downfall of the park would mean the end of the career she’s carefully cultivating? That’s a fair question, though it’s easy to recall that Ford correctly surmised that she doesn’t actually like the park all that much.

It’s also pretty simple to imagine her truly playing both sides, fomenting a host revolt just to be one of the heroes who helps quash it.

Cullen is working with Logan’s company to pull off a hostile takeover

Regardless of its current troubles, Westworld has crazy tech that any future company would love to gets its hands on. Cullen could be helping to make things a mess to make it that much easier for a rival corporation to purchase its assets for pennies on the dollar.

If you recall, Logan mentioned to William that his employer has an interest in increasing its stake in Delos. Maybe he means that in its logical extreme and that his company wants to guy out the whole thing.

One other aspect of this theory that makes it a personal favorite is that it shoots the “William and Logan scenes take place in the past” hypothesis all to hell. It’s not that I don’t like it, just that the theory is so popular that I’m rooting against it now just to be more surprised.

Related Story: Why we still think Bernard could be a host

Whatever Cullen is up to, it’s a dangerous game, not just because people are onto her but because she might have to do some dirt to cover her tracks. It’s already possible Elsie has blundered her way into bodily harm, and she might not be the only one by the time season 1 comes to a close.