‘Westworld’ Spoilers: Is Teddy Flood Really A Stone-Cold Killer?

When “Westworld” first introduced host Teddy Flood (James Marsden), he was a sweet cowboy who had a romantic history with fellow host Dolores Abernathy (Evan Rachel Wood).

But Dr. Robert Ford (Anthony Hopkins) decided to change Teddy’s backstory. In the recent episode “The Adversary,” Teddy surprised fans by displaying a different side to his character - a ruthless one.

Show creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy explained to Entertainment Weekly that it wouldn’t be right to deem Teddy as a psychotic killer just yet.

“Ford has given Teddy an update with a new backstory that he believes. It’s a new cornerstone for him. So the question becomes: Who is he really? In the multitude of people that Teddy has been — the lovestruck and doomed gunslinger, the avenging dark man — ultimately where’s the center of that? That’s something we’ll keep exploring as we’ll go along,” said Joy.

Nolan added that it’s a “tragedy” for the hosts not to “fit the definition of anything” because their personalities and histories are all made up.

“They’re not psychotic, or bloodthirsty, they’re not really any of those things — right up until that point when they start to develop their own personalities,” said Nolan. “Nothing we’ve seen them do is anything they haven’t been programmed to do. If Teddy is psychotic in one version of himself, it’s only because that’s what Ford or someone else has programmed him to be.”

The next episode of “Westworld” has been entitled “Trompe L’Oeil.” The synopsis, shared by Den of Geek, remains quite mysterious. It simply reads: “Dolores and William journey into treacherous terrain; Maeve delivers an ultimatum; Bernard considers his next move.”

As for its promo, which is called “Under My Control,” a “demonstration” was shown involving Ford’s “dangerous” hosts. In that demonstration, the workers in Westworld “found something disturbing.”

“Westworld” airs every Sunday at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.