Which character? Jimmy, the shy kid who treated the first host he met (Talullah Riley) as a person, shyly declining a dressing-room quickie? The white hat-wearing good guy who tried desperately to save Dolores? Or the MIB, who raped her repeatedly, in between murdering children and their mothers for fun? How do you reconcile Jimmy and James?
They’re explaining this transformation as part of their overall exploration of what it means to be human. And they’re mirroring it with the hosts. Who was more ‘human’ at the end of the last episode, Dolores or Teddy?
I think the arc from naive little white hat to jaded old black hat was believable enough, and they established how Westworld was instrumental in that character growth. I thought that was a powerful story in season 1.
Throwing down the “oh he’s just bonkers” card now cheapens that story in my opinion.
So, if the man in black is not a robot, I will take issue with the way that the episode ended.
Why hold off on that reveal til next week? Wouldn’t the impact be greater if he desperately cut open his forearm to realize that he isn’t actually a robot, and we had that to chew on til next week? Why hold off on this reveal til next week if it isn’t actually something? The shock of him murdering his own daughter will have cooled a bit by next week, and there won’t be the impact of putting it all in the same hour.
I mean, he has to be a host right?
This show follows the mystery box story a bit too much. Maybe I am giving them too much credit, but to me, you have to contain that whole bit in one episode unless there is something crazy. Like, you don’t fake-out the audience and leave that fake-out as a cliffhanger right? That would be stupid.
Worse thought:
They don’t revisit William until the end of the next episode and they reveal he is a robot
Worser thought:
We don’t see the man in black again at all next week.
Because, as you say, they’re doing the mystery box thing. They did it with Emily too, if you looked. The security team did the tricorder scan on him, which showed “clear”. They also did it on Emily, but didn’t show the camera the result, and then he shot them all before they could respond.
I know this is over thinking it but why “clear” instead of just “human” in the scanner? Clear implies you can get a result like “unclear” or “infected” or “corrupted” instead an unequivocal determination of human or robot.
They’re holding off on displaying that he’s not a host to tease the idea that he might be a little longer. But it would be a bad move to make him one, and regardless of what some of the folks in this thread would assert, I think they’re better writers than that.
My money is on MiB to be the prototype for a stable human-hybrid host. If not him, then someone else.
They’ve been playing with the concept all season and it’s very much in line with “what does it mean to be human? what does it mean to be sentient?” theme of this show. Last season they hit us with host that thought it was human, so the logical progression is either a host that thought he/she was a host but is really human-hybrid host or a human that thought he/she was a human but is really a human-hybrid host.
It wasn’t a determination of humanity. All it was testing for was the presence of a spinal explosive implanted in the hosts to ensure they don’t try to leave the park. If William is a “special” host- either technologically or socially- there’s no reason for him to have the explosive implanted. If they’d gone that route, he couldn’t come and go from the park as he’s been doing for years.
