‘Westworld’ Season 2: Is The Man In Black A Host?
The penultimate episode of Season 2 of HBO’s Westworld focused around the Man in Black’s (Ed Harris) story outside of the theme park. However, as the episode progressed, viewers were wondering if it was going to be revealed that the Man in Black was actually a host and not a human.
SPOILER ALERT: This article discusses Episode 9 of HBO’s Westworld Season 2. Please proceed with caution if you have not yet viewed this episode and wish to avoid spoilers.
Episode 9 of Westworld Season 2 delved into the Man in Black’s (also known as William) backstory. In this episode, viewers discovered more about William’s wife and why she committed suicide. His relationship with his daughter, Emily (also known as Grace), was also explored.
However, while this was a fascinating insight into this character, it was the way in which he kept fiddling with his arm that really got viewers talking.
Even before Bernard (Jeffrey Wright) slit open his own arm to access a computer port hidden within, viewers already knew that hosts could be accessed in this manner. However, having Bernard access this data point in the same episode as the Man in Black was seen constantly fidgeting with his own arm, had viewers suspecting the Man in Black was an actual host rather than a human.
At the very end of Episode 9 of Westworld, viewers saw the Man in Black dig into his own arm, further perpetuating the notion that he might be a host now.
Of course, there is also the suspicion that the Man in Black might be the human/host hybrid that viewers first saw in Episode 4 of Westworld Season 2 when it was revealed that experimentation had been done on James Delos (Peter Mullan) after he had died. In this episode of Westworld, it was discovered that James’ conscious had been imprinted onto a brain ball and was being placed inside a host to try and create this human/host hybrid. However, as soon as James discovered he was a host, he malfunctioned and it appeared to be something they couldn’t fix, so William finally abandoned the experiment.
However, could the Man in Black actually be like James Delos now?
Did he die at some point and his conscious was then placed into a replica host?
As The Wrap points out, it might be possible that the Man in Black has been replicated and now Dr. Robert Ford (Anthony Hopkins) is trying to encourage him to find “The Door.” The Door being, in this instance, the revelation that William is now a host.
If this is the case, it will be interesting to find out in the Season 2 finale episode of Westworld whether the Man in Black discovers he is a host and, as a result of this, glitches out like James Delos did every time he discovered he was no longer human.
Season 2 of Westworld returns with Episode 10 on Sunday, June 24, at 9 p.m. ET. According to HBO’s scheduling, this episode is titled “The Passenger.” As yet, no synopsis has been revealed for the Season 2 finale episode.
