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No, I could never hurt you Dolores. I'll protect you until the day I die. I'm sorry, I can't protect you anymore.

–Teddy to Dolores, in "Vanishing Point"

Theodore "Teddy" Flood is a main character in the sci-fi western TV series, Westworld. He is a host in Westworld and arrives on the train to Sweetwater in the first episode of the first season. Teddy is played by James Marsden.

He serves as the tritagonist of Seasons 1 and 2 and a supporting protagonist in Season 4.

Biography[]

Background[]

After Dolores Abernathy, Teddy is one of the original hosts, awoken by Arnold and a much younger Robert Ford in the earliest stages of their work, long before the park was open.

In Escalante, prior to Sweetwater, and the Park opening, Teddy was the proto-type town Sheriff, wearing the star. He was acting in this capacity when Arnold merged the Wyatt character with Dolores and prevailed upon her to use Teddy to help her euthanize the other hosts to spare them the horrors of the park when he realized that they were capable of consciousness. Teddy both taking part in the massacre, before being shot by Dolores, witnessing her aiding Arnold in his suicide, and her shooting herself before he went offline.

However, in the wake of Arnold's death, and Ford's restoring the hosts, Teddy's narrative was rewritten by Ford, switching him from Sheriff to gun slinger / 'bounty hunter with a heart of gold . In the Sweetwater narratives that followed, Teddy returns via the train bringing the new guests, on his continuing loop.

Unless either he or she is diverted by one of the guests, his base story line is to reunite with Dolores Abernathy and attempt to protect her from rapists and murderers.[1] At the same time the challenge of getting past him as the gunslinger, also made her more of a target. For Ford he also serves the purpose of keeping Dolores from wanting to leave Sweetwater, with her waiting for his return.

Teddy leaves as part of his bounty hunting duties and/or an undetailed quest to redeem himself to make himself 'worthy of her. However Teddy was not given a detailed back story until Robert Ford decided that he should have one to cover his previously nebulous guilt over his past, and that this backstory should involve a character named Wyatt.[2] This backstory a 're-working' of what occurred with Arnold, Dolores and Teddy prior to the park opening. Something that Teddy starts to piece together during and after his journey with the Man in Black through the park, starting to get flashbacks of what came before. Ford's purpose in reintroducing Teddy to 'Wyatt', part of his longer plan to free the hosts, having come to realize that Arnold was right.

Personality[]

Teddy is the archetypal Hero Host. Handsome, brave and daring, he is unparalleled as a quick draw artist, and a deadly shot. Though this matters little when the guests can't be seriously hurt. He is charming, chivalrous and gallant, as befits his hero personality. But he is also, importantly, kind, showing concern for the welfare of others, especially the weak and defenseless. His certainty in his role as a protector and selflessness as a hero, along with his lack of defined backstory lends to why he does not question the world around him as early as Dolores or Maeve, Both of whom are favorites of Arnold and Ford. Unlike them, Teddy does not have a great deal of interaction with his creators, and it is not until Ford directly interacts with him, 'restoring' elements of his interaction with 'Wyatt'/Dolores from his past, that Teddy begins to see the world isn't exactly as it is, continuing to follow his programming.

Once his new backstory is added, Teddy's personality, though still driven by his desire to find and protect Dolores, becomes more intense and aggressive. Something The Man in Black comments on after Teddy cuts down a camp full of soldiers with a Gatling gun, after they threaten to brand and kill them both. During his trip with the Man in Black, Teddy finally starts to remember his other lives. On remembering the Man in Black's attacking Dolores, he knocks him cold, and beats him up in an effort to interrogate him about who he really is, before Angela one of Wyatt's devotees kills Teddy, telling him he's not quite ready to join Wyatt, but will soon be. Following his restoration and his re-arrival in Sweetwater, Teddy starts to remember the massacre in Escalante and sees Dolores walking among the dead, as she had when she was 'Wyatt'. Breaking from his loop he re-boards the train, heading for Escalante. Shooting a soldier who tries to stop him when he gets off, taking his horse, further indicating his increased assertiveness.[3]

After Dolores shoots Ford and ignites the Host rebellion, Teddy rides with her, but is notable in not actively shooting/harming the humans. It is clear that he is uncomfortable with her actions, and the blood being spilled/death going on, something she comments on. Teddy eliciting his desire for the two of them to just try and find a place for themselves.[4] Endeavoring to further his awakening, Dolores takes him to an underground facility forcing a tech to show Teddy his bloodied past and many deaths. The horrified and infuriated gunslinger attacking the tech.[5]

After this his recollection and awakening to who and what he is/was does advance, Teddy stating he is gradually coming to terms with it. However, it becomes increasingly clear that who Teddy was as a Host, remains who he truly is. Decent, moral he will take on anyone who threatens Dolores or her interests, but remains reluctant to kill unarmed men, freeing Major Craddock and some Confederados rather than shooting them like 'dogs' when ordered to by Dolores. His response to her question about what he would have done in response to a plague affecting a herd, reflecting his desire to protect those weakest and in danger, Dolores declaring him to be a kind man.[6]

His kindness and morality, while central to Dolores's feelings for him, are however deemed as weakness to her revived Wyatt persona. And after confirming her feelings for him are real, her determination to ensure he survives what is to come, results in her forcibly changing his personality. Against his will. Holding him captive while using a tech to change him. His new personality, colder and more ruthless, stuns even Dolores when he kills a human prisoner without thought after the prisoner had no more useful information for their raid on the Mesa, before he goes on to beat Coughlin the leader of special forces to death with his bare hands. Gradually however, Teddy's strength and willing embrace of his core character is further revealed, as he begins to question and rebel against his new programming, letting one of the Ghost Nation tribesmen, Dolores has ordered him to hunt down, go free.

Finally, he fully breaks from her re-programming. And while the two of them are journeying alone to the Forge, he confronts her on what she has done and is doing. Revealing that he remembers everything, right from his first awakening, and first time seeing her, he confesses she remains his cornerstone, his desire always being to protect her. But he is also unable to reconcile it with the 'monster' she turned him into, questioning where she is taking them, and what the point of surviving is if they become as bad as the humans she is rebelling against. Knowing he will protect her as long as he lives, he resolves the conflict by killing himself in front her.

His Pearl surviving the gunshot, Dolores takes it, and in a change of heart about the fate of the Valley Beyond, uploads Teddy to the Sublime, where he is seen alone.

Upon his apparent return he is watching over Christina, who resembles Dolores, not only in appearance but in her original demeanor. In a reversal of roles, Teddy, more knowledgeable and insightful, takes on the part of guidance/mentor for Christina when she becomes increasingly confused and lost in her life and world. Gradually managing to reveal and convince Christina that she is 'the storyteller' writing the narratives of the humans that are being controlled in the world that Hale dominates. Guiding her to the realization that she is Dolores, also leads her to realize that he is in fact her memory of Teddy. A perfect recreation of the only voice she trusted and felt safe enough with to face the truth about, and make a choice within, the fake world she inhabits. Before he disappears away, with Hale having transferred Dolores to the Sublime, he asks her to come find him.

Plot[]

Season 1[]

Season 2[]


Season 4[]

Related Casualties[]

This list shows the victims Teddy has killed, all of them hosts, bar the humans he killed after Dolores re-programmed him against his will.

Relationships[]

Dolores Abernathy[]

"You are my cornerstone.'

"And you're mine."

Along with his personal decency and protective nature, Teddy's romantic relationship with and feelings for Dolores Abernathy are the very core of his personality. His Cornerstone. His attachment to her long pre-dating the Park, Sweetwater and his Bounty Hunter Loop. Brought on online by Arnold, Teddy's very first memory is of Dolores offline in a cold storage area in the Facility, his connection to her stemming from that moment, Arnold noting to Dolores that Teddy would 'do anything for her' even while Teddy was playing the part of the Deputy Sheriff in Escalante. After Arnold's death and Ford's opening of the Park, in his bounty hunter scripted loop with Dolores, Teddy always returns to her after a bounty hunt and reconnects with her, dying multiple times in his efforts to protect her from the guests assaults. No matter how dangerous the situation, what shape he is in, or how far he has to go, Teddy will always respond to Dolores being in danger.

Their relationship is not scripted to progress past this point, always intended to loop around, Dolores's waiting for him to return to her part of what keeps her from her desire to go off and see the world. While 'the nebulous guilt' programed into him to make him feel unworthy of her, results in his not being able to run away with her until he has 'redeemed' himself.

What guilt he has is given form and backstory by Ford, in the form of Wyatt. Though unknown to both Teddy & Dolores at the time, Wyatt is part of their earliest backstory. Dolores having been implanted with the Wyatt character by Arnold in a bid to save the hosts from the park by killing them, with Arnold noting that Teddy, even at that stage, willing to do anything for her.

However, their exploration of their memories of each other, prior to and through Sweetwater, show that what may have been planned as a programmed 'pairing' has become a real and enduring love for each other. Dolores declaring after a private questioning of her feelings for him, that rather than being some story she had been made to believe, all of what she felt for him was true.

It is the reality of her love for him, and her 'Wyatt' warped fueled desire to protect him from his own good heartedness in the uncompromisingly brutal revenge war she has planned that convinces her to forcibly change his personality. And it is this action that drives him away from her. Breaking her programming, unable to reconcile what she is done and what she planning to do with his feelings for her and knowledge he will protect her as long as he lives, Teddy ends himself. A grieving Dolores uploading his consciousness to the Sublime. Where he is last seen standing alone.

Man in Black[]

"You're a F***in' animal"

The Man in Black though he admires Teddy's 'resolve' has a somewhat derisory opinion of Teddy, as he is designed 'by the house' to be the loser. In his desire to find Wyatt, and discovering that Teddy has a 'backstory' with Wyatt (planted by Ford) not realizing that Dolores is Wyatt, the Man in Black recruits Teddy to aid him in finding Wyatt by nursing him back to health and telling him that Wyatt has kidnapped Dolores. Notably The Man expresses some surprise and admiration for Teddy after the Host in an effort to rescue them both, and get back to finding Dolores, takes out an entire camp of soldiers who have captured them and are planning to torture them.

Their alliance is an uneasy one, as Teddy equally despises The Man, loathing his callous cruelty and attitude to those around him. Which only gets worse first after Teddy's gradual awakening allows him to remember The Man's attacking Dolores, before The Man's recounting of how he callously killed Maeve and her daughter and felt nothing, leaves Teddy to declare him nothing more than an animal.

Their last face to face encounter occurs shortly afterwards when Teddy on remembering Escalante, arrives just in time to save Dolores from The Man (newly revealed as William) slashing her throat, emptying his gun into him. The rapid impact of the bullets enough to briefly knock The Man (already weakened by being beaten up by Dolores) out.

Maeve Millay[]

Aside from Dolores, the host that Teddy encounters the most on a regular basis is likely Maeve. As a stop off point on his arrival at the beginning of his loop, Teddy's visits to the Mariposa Saloon frequently bring him into contact with it's Madam, Maeve. At least before sight of Dolores across the street ushers him out of the saloon and towards her. In addition, he heads there while escorting newcomers after successful bounty hunts.

Theirs is a casual, often brief relationship. No intimacy with either Maeve or her girls has ever occurred, as Teddy's personal preference is to 'earn a woman's affections' rather than pay for them, while his love for Dolores means his interests are elsewhere. In The Original His attitude to 'not paying' gets him into a sparky debate with Maeve, who notes that he's always 'paying' for a woman's affections, even if Dolores's prices aren't 'fixed and posted' like her girls' are. Teddy's post bounty hunt returns bring him into more frequent encounters with her. His nature prompting him to voice his concern for Maeve on noticing her disorientation when she has a memory glitch (Chestnut) in the saloon one night early on during her 'probation' as Madam. Maeve not exactly appreciative, telling him he just pays for the drinks not for the right to 'gawp' at her. Teddy politely tipping his hat at her rebuff of his concerns.

On another evening (after she's been improved by Elsie Hughes), Teddy overhears her 'New World' speech to a customer she's setting up with Clementine (Chestnut). As she comes alongside him having a drink at the bar, he wryly notes how 'convinced' the guest was by her story, not believing a word of it himself. Maeve confesses to him that the first voice she actually heard getting off the boat was that of a 'nice young man from Baton Rouge' who told her how much she could earn him in sex work, 'generously' offering her up to 30% . Teddy notes off the back of that that she could also now add lying to her 'list of sins'. The only thing wrong with the Seven Deadly Sins Maeve counters, amused, is that there's not more of them. She then does a little poking of her own, noting her transgressions wash off a little easier than his. At least, she says, when she and her girls are done with a man he's still left drawing breath. For the most part. Taking in that in good part, Teddy pours himself a fresh drink and turns to her, the pair of them raising their glasses as he proposes a toast, "To our indiscretions. Spoken and otherwise". Not that he gets to finish it, as he is shot dead by an inebriated guest in front of her. Much later in their timeline, Teddy incurs Maeve's displeasure when after a bounty hunt with newcomer, Marti, he handcuffs the dead body of Samuel to the front of her saloon (The Stray). Teddy apologizes telling her he figured it was preferable than bringing it inside. Getting some money from Marti he pays her for the inconvenience, during which Maeve has a flashback to seeing his dead body in the Mesa facility.

The two do not encounter one another again until Season 2's Reunion when Dolores and Teddy encounter Maeve, Hector and Lee Sizemore on their two very different paths. While Dolores and Maeve have rarely encountered one another, being on very different loops, And remain so, by choice. Maeve looking to Teddy says she knows him. And challenges him as to just how free he feels caught up in Dolores's Wyatt fueled revenge mission. Something which resonates silently with him. Maeve's suspicions around Dolores attitude to freedom, are confirmed when, left dying on a gurney in the Mesa, she is found by Dolores and her group, after their successful raid. On seeing Teddy, transformed by Dolores into a killing machine, Maeve knowing his nature, instantly realizes the change in him, wanting to know if Dolores's attitude that the 'kin' they (humans) gave them are just another rope to tie them, is 'justification' for what she's done to Teddy.

Dr. Robert Ford[]

In "Contrapasso", Teddy puts his hand directly on the Man in Black's blade in order to protect Dr. Ford from harm. This appears to be part of Teddy's Good Samaritan™ reflex, rather than any special attachment on Teddy's part to Ford.

Quotes[]

Well, your mouth moves fast enough. How about your gun?

–Teddy to the Man in Black who attacks Dolores, in "The Original"

The maze, itself, is a sum of a man’s life, the choices he makes, the dreams he hangs onto.

–Teddy to the Man in Black about the meaning of The Maze, in "The Adversary"


Someone once told me that there's a path for everyone. And my path leads me back to you.

–Teddy to Dolores in "The Bicameral Mind"

Known Deaths[]

Teddy has died 5747 times, more than any other host in the park according to Ford. The incidents which he died are as follow:

Appearances[]

Trivia[]

  • Teddy's host ID is SV4680468050[2].
  • Teddy is the fourth and one of the 4 host characters to be "infected" by a fly - visual representation of programming bugs - alongside AkechetaDolores and Sheriff Pickett.
  • In "Contrapasso", Teddy puts his hand directly upon the blade of the Man in Black's large knife. Dr. Ford has explained that this is a "Good Samaritan" reflex programmed into all hosts. One of the things that this "reflex" does is that it makes hosts intervene when a human guest tries to harm another human.
  • Dr. Ford uses a voice command on Teddy that hasn't been used on any other host during the first season ("look back and smile at perils past").

Gallery[]

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References[]

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