Hosts And Hybrids – Many Thoughts

Have a Theory? Share It Now!

After listening to the wonderful deep dive episode this week, I have something to add. It’s long, so I’ll break it into parts. Please feel free to share all or just some of the below on the Telegraph, if you find that any of this, like Death, is True:

Hybrids are Distinct from Hosts and This Matters

Many theories and opinions on this last episode are failing to acknowledge that a Host is not the same as a Host/Human Hybrid – most commonly, people being upset with the idea of William being a Hybrid. If William were revealed to be a Host, I agree that it would cheapen the plot. But if he’s a Hybrid, this would be something different entirely. The show makes a point of demonstrating that the distinction between Host and Hybrid is a meaningful one.

Daddy Delos’s Dilemma. Jim Delos does not want to die. He wants to continue running his company, smoking his cigars, and fucking his wife. It’s more than just continuing his legacy – remember Jim telling William he could care less about the future if he’s rotting in the ground. He wants to LIVE. This wouldn’t be accomplished through a mere Host replica, which both Jim and William know is already possible at the retirement party; indeed, William telling Jim to have patience means the solution to Jim’s impending death is still in development.

The Multiple Iterations of Jim Delos. If the Jim Delos we see across the years is just a host, the observation, testing, and interviews are meaningless. There would be no reason to do any of it because Delos already has the technology to create a Host replica with perfect fidelity. And if it were to start glitching out, you simply wipe or edit the memory, you don’t burn the whole thing down. There’s no need to test and observe Hosts in secret – but the need to do this to Hybrids like Jim is emphasized all episode and implies that there is a big difference between Host and Hybrid.

William’s Distain for Jim. When William last visits Jim Delos he tears into him. But he does so differently than he would to a host. He doesn’t tell Jim that he’s never known anything real or that he doesn’t know the rules of the game. He doesn’t mock Jim’s character for being the product of man’s creation. He doesn’t treat Jim like Teddy or Lawrence or even Dolores. He tells Jim he’s a son of a bitch and that he thinks the world is better off with him dead. He tells Jim the memory of him is preferable to the person. He reams Jim the way you’d ream someone you hate. At this point, William knows better than to take anything from a Host personally. This intensity and flavor of vitriol from William – the person who knows the most about Hybrids at this point – tells us that the Jim we’re seeing in that chamber is, in every meaningful way, Jim Delos. Not a replicant. Not a Host. Somehow, it’s really Jim.

In my opinion, this means there needs to be a tie to a biological component – those cupcake-looking things the Drones are carrying around look awfully organic. I think the Delos Immortality Project is taking a Human’s biological brain matter and placing it Host hardware. Thus, in terms of consciousness, it’s a human.

Hybrids Incorporate Organic Human Brain Matter into Host Bodies

I think Bernard and Elsie’s initial discovery of the Secret Lab supports this theory. First, off the bat, “Control Units” are not the printed consciousness of human beings. Bernard was not carrying around Ford or William around in his pocket. We know this because Elsie, who has no knowledge of the Immortality Project, immediately recognized a Control Unit Printer. Further, Bernard tells her that Ford had him print a Control Unit but for a person; he never sees the need to explain what a Control Unit is. A Control Unit is host hardware – perhaps the portion of the Internal Mind Device that keeps Host cognition under control, perhaps the portion of the IMD that let’s Host minds control Host bodies. Plus Bernard’s language – a Control Unit for a person (not “of a person”) – suggests this. Finally, Bernard acknowledges that the “code” surrounding Hybrids isn’t really code at all, but something different. Our brains don’t function off of “code” but they do work in systems that you could try to map out.

If Hybrids are Truly Human, There are Interesting Implications

So let’s assume I’m right here – Hybrids are decidedly different from Hosts in that their consciousness is truly human – what does it all mean?

At the very least, it means that if the Man in Black is a Hybrid, he’s still consciously human. He died, but his organic mind, with all it’s previous memories and motives, was implanted into a new immortal body. It’s not “oh he’s a secret host all along.” It’s William benefitting from technology that he wasn’t sure should even exist and deciding how to use his second chance at life (once he discovers this). Does he still feel it’s his biggest mistake and destroy it? Or does he change his tune once he realizes that he’s still alive because of what be built? That, to me, is compelling.

Going a step further, if Hybrids are immortal humans, then perhaps they and not Dolores and her Woke Hosts, are the people that “have yet to come” in Wyatt’s prophesy. Perhaps Ford is setting up a game to see which new amalgamation of man and machine should inherit the earth – Hosts with newly acquired Humanity, or Humans with newly acquired Host capability. Or perhaps Ford always saw Hybrids as the next step in evolution and Dolores is simply on his new narrative to pave the way – this would explain her singleminded slaughter of humans and why she murders hosts that aren’t strictly aligned with her. When Dolores and her crew reach the Valley Beyond, they’ll find that they were just a tool in Ford’s bigger game. Given how Dolores has transformed this season, I would find such a betrayal satisfying.

So that’s it – hope something here struck a chord or got you all thinking. Thanks for continuing to kick ass every week.

Cheers,

Ken L.

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