This post contains major spoilers for Westworld Season 4.
Teddy is back. In the last few moments of the season 4 premiere of Westworld, the beloved character turned tragic killer, who died in Season 2, made his grand return in a romantic twist at the end of the episode—played, as ever, by James Marsden.
Christina—the new character played by Evan Rachel Wood, who formerly played Dolores—heads out to her balcony after a stressful series of events, including going on a terrible date, witnessing a suicide, and finding a shocking memento from a home intruder. She’s brainstorming an idea for her job as a writer at gaming company Olympiad Entertainment. The new script, she murmurs, is about a “girl who’s searching.” The girl doesn’t know what she’s searching for yet. She just knows that nothing makes sense and she feels an emptiness in her life. Christina is only certain of one thing: “I want a story with a happy ending.”
Right after she says that, the camera turns to reveal a man watching her from the sidewalk, hiding behind the trees, flanked by the streetlight. It’s Teddy, handsomely gazing up at her as the score swells. (It’s a string cover of “Video Games” by Lana Del Rey, a choice so-on-the-nose that it’s funny before it turns poignant).
The episode—a sleek, entertaining slow-burn set seven years after the events of season 3—ends on that thrilling note, without answering any real questions about Teddy’s return. Although the premiere did dash predictions that Teddy was the mystery man Christina was seen going on a date with in an early season 4 teaser; that was just some jerk Christina’s cheery roommate, played by Ariana DeBose, set her up with as a ploy to make Christina more social. And though Teddy is only really seen at the end of the episode, there is a moment earlier in the premiere when it seems like he’s about to return. All episode long, Christina had been stalked by a troubled man named Peter (Aaron Stanford). Three quarters of the way into the episode, he follows her home one night and attacks her. She fends him off for a bit, until a mystery man swoops in and rescues her, beating Peter up. But before Christina can get a good look at him, both men disappear. It’s never confirmed, but it sure seems like it may have been Teddy.
Considering Dolores uploaded Teddy’s pearl (a.k.a. robot brain) to the Valley Beyond, Teddy’s return was a major possibility at any point in the series. Outside of show logic, Teddy’s return was also confirmed when Marsden made a surprise appearance at Westworld‘s panel at the ATX Festival in June. He didn’t say much about what his character would be up to, instead sharing vague revelations about what will happen in season 4 of the hit sci-fi series.
“The themes of exploring human urges of violence and things like that are going to continue,” he said, per Entertainment Weekly. “And this season maybe we explore what the world looks like after Dolores set the humans and the robots free. Are they going to cooperate or are they going to vie for control? What happens when they vie for control? Will the hosts inherit these urges of violence? Some of the basic things that we continue to explore on this show, and definitely in season 4—we ask a lot of those questions. What happens next?”
So, what is next for Teddy? The last time we saw him in season 2, Dolores had programmed him to become a killer for the host rebellion. After a while, Teddy couldn’t take it anymore, killing himself to escape the violence. He doesn’t appear at all in season 3. The season 4 premiere reintroduces him on a tender note, hinting that he and Christina will come face to face even sooner than we think.