HBO's new series Westworld takes place in the center of the Uncanny Valley, so to speak, so it's likely that there are a few secret robots lurking inside or behind the scenes of the park. Surely everyone has a few theories about who might reveal themselves to be mechanical in a future episode. For example, is the Man in Black a robot on Westworld ? His identity is so mysterious, that fans have started to consider the possibility.
However, I don't think it's likely, and not just because bullets bounce off of him. While I am very interested in the ways that the different departments at Delos operations don't respect each other, I trust that Stubbs would not lie when he said "that gentlemen gets whatever he wants" — even if he didn't specify that the Man in Black was a guest. Unless, of course, Luke Hemsworth's character is a robot too!
It's possible that the Man in Black is a robot in other ways, though. If you already subscribe to the theory that the Man in Black is William grown up, then there is a subsequent theory that Teddy was designed in William's image. We've already seen William "steal" Teddy's woo-ing technique by picking up Dolores' dropped item. He also bumped into the same guy that Teddy does when he gets off the train in the pilot. There's also the fact that so far, William and Teddy have not been in scenes together. Maeve isn't in his scenes either — another clue that they may be taking part in an earlier set of storylines, especially because the Man in Black appeared in Maeve's dream.
So, if both of those theories turn out to be true, then the Man in Black is a robot, in a sense. That would explain the Man's animosity towards Teddy in the pilot. That also means that, when Dolores starts to experience the reveries, she might finally recognize the Man in Black.
However, on the surface, I still believe Ed Harris' character to be human. While the Man in Black seems too evil to be the real deal, I think that might be the point. The zombies aren't always the biggest threat on The Walking Dead, and the humans on Westworld are more morally questionable, at least in my opinion, for playing God and then trying to hack the world they created.
Images: John P. Johnson/HBO (2)
