The man in black (Ed), is timid William, who we meet in episode 2.

There's subtle hints they're showing 2 timelines.

MiB mentions he's been coming for 30 years.

Slightly different and updated logos between scenes.

The intro into town shows an evolution of how they arrive even down to in one variation the sheriff is recruiting a posse to chase down an outlaw bandit.
Fast forward and now they've got an army man recruiting.

Billy quickly takes a liking to Dolores.

The MiB clearly has a history and issues with her in the past for some reason to stray from his agenda and attack her...
like falling for her the 1st time he saw her only to find she will never remember him from his previous visits since she has her memory wiped routinely...

Except that the hosts are starting to remember their previous histories...

Radiohead - No surprises

Didn't Harris say he'd been going since he was a kid with his family, and that he was basically, "born there"? This is William's first time. Without his family, so I don't think it fits. Maybe I missed something in his monologue though. But I do like the idea of William getting hooked on someone/something that crushes his soul and turns him "evil".

I assume it will be something more along the lines of Harris actually being a failed Hopkins experiment at AI, and he knows that he's a robot. Not sure how much he knows though, or how much they know he knows. His quest is he is trying to meet his creator and get all his questions about life answered.

If Ed Harris is reprising the role that Yul Brynner played in the movie then your are correct. When the Man in Black said he was coming here for 30 years I think he meant Deloris' farm. In other words she and he have a history, and since she (Deloris) is one of original "hosts" and he knows it I be the Man in Black is a robot looking for answers.

He says, you could practically say I was born here or grew up here.

Given his age, he couldn't have been a kid, but he could be patient zero for the update glitch and one of the original hosts that Hopkins in secret turned loose with a fake human profile.
Remember the 2 techs check in on him and one asks if they should slow him down. The other guy says no and intimates he can do as he wants and has some type of special arrangement or status.

If Harris is a robot, the obvious direction is that he's become self aware and seeking to meet "the creator" and move into the "real" world. My guess is he's searching for the hidden access points within the park, and more specifically one of the unknown / secret ones that Hopkins uses that aren't monitored and possibly the maze leads to a point where he can confront Hopkins directly and bypass all the security on the other side?


That still doesn't explain how the other robots have the information he's looking for.

I also get the feeling that the young boy Hopkins talks with is a robot version of him as a young boy.

Which makes you wonder if the glitch is beta testing for transferring memories?

One man facing old age and death trying to escape his reality by transferring his consciousness and live forever artificially. His creation evolving and trying to break out of the reality that was his artificial origin.

Escape and transcendence.

My question would be how come the gun didn't affect the Man in Black when he was shot? I guess we have never seen host on host violence, but it would create the need to explain why when a "newcomer" wields a weapon there are results, but not a host. They would then have to explain why the Man in Black's weapon kills hosts. Maybe he got his hands on a newcomer's gun, and only those guns kill hosts? :shrug: That'll be interesting to see play out.

Also, I wonder if the "maze" is the exit from Westworld. The deeper level of games he desires could be inflicting his sadistic games upon a wider, less predictive population of victims.

I don't remember the character's name, but I got the feeling the head developer (the guy always talking to Anthony Hopkins) has some involvement in the development of this glitch. His interaction with Deloris was extremely odd, especially where he said he found her new behaviors fascinating, but others may disagree. Is he giving them more cognizant capabilities and telling no one what he is doing?