Ever since meeting him in the first season of Westworld, the Man in Black has been a terrifying force of nature; an experienced cowboy that leaves only death and destruction in his wake, unbowed by the senseless randomness that surrounds him in Robert Ford’s theme park.
But now that we know the character’s roots as a well-meaning paragon of virtue, corrupted by the overbearing cruelty of the world around, a lot of fans have been ceaselessly rooting for William’s redemption arc over the past three seasons.
Alas, the character, or at least his human version, met an untimely end at the end of season two. Where we pick up his story in season four, William is a host controlled by Charlotte Hale, who herself is a host. The real William is recovering from his mortal wound of a slit throat in cryogenic sleep, however, and might make a comeback during the ongoing fourth run, or the forthcoming fifth and final set of episodes.
That’s apparently something Ed Harris thinks is worth exploring, and when asked if he’d like to see William redeemed by the end of the series by The Hollywood Reporter, he gave it some serious thought.
“That’s a really good question. You know, I wouldn’t mind if he, the actual human William, got out of the cryo machine and corrected some situations that he’s responsible for. I don’t know if that’s going to happen. I certainly have not been told, but I’m not sure if he’s got much chance of surviving.
“I don’t know if he’s ever going to get back to being that man [played by Jimmi Simpson]. I’m hoping that some aspect of who he was when he was younger comes back, but I really don’t know if it will. I have no idea what they’re planning. We have one more season, which will start filming next April and May. I have no idea where that’s going to end up.”
Well, at least now we know William, or the Man in Black, returns for season five as well. When it comes to hosts and humans in Westworld, there isn’t much that separates them now besides our prejudices over the nature of reality. Perhaps that’s something the creators intended in the first place, constantly juggling between the different versions of these characters to make audiences question the truth of AI technology and the nature of consciousness.
Taking that into effect, then, what even is the difference between the real William and host William at this point?