Westworld: The Man in Black Returns in Season 3 with a Major Twist

Westworld has been setting up a significant battle across its third season thus far, as Dolores Abernathy (Evan Rachel Wood) and Maeve Millay (Thandie Newton) prepare for an all-out war between the hosts and the real world. Now that we're officially at the midway point of Season 3, some major questions are beginning to be answered -- including what the heck has been going on with William/The Man in Black (Ed Harris). The controversial businessman has been a peculiar part of Westworld's narrative since its inception -- and it looks like his role in Season 3 is no exception.

Spoilers for tonight's episode of Westworld, "The Mother of Exiles" below! Only look if you want to know!

The episode opened with William waking up in an empty mansion, being tormented by visions of Dolores and his dead daughter, Emily (Katja Herbers). William became convinced that the visions he was seeing weren't real, only to be bombarded by a host inside the body of Charlotte Hale (Tessa Thompson).

As the episode went on, "Charlotte" tried to convince William to help with the business side of Delos, and potentially stop a hostile takeover from Engerraund Serac (Vincent Cassel). William resisted this, especially once he realized that Charlotte wasn't really her -- she was actually a copy of Dolores, which had been smuggled out of the park at the end of Season 2.

Charlotte!Dolores quickly turned the tables on William, getting him committed into a high-tech asylum. While William sat in his room, he was visited by a vision of Dolores in her blue Westworld dress. William begins to doubt whether or not he's really himself or copy of himself put into a host body. Dolores never completely denied it, but argued that William no longer has control over his life, and that his "game" is coming to an end.

Wait, what?

While it's unclear exactly how things will unfold from here, the fact that The Man in Black has now re-entered the show's conflict - and might be convinced that he's actually a host - is certainly compelling. That's especially the case when juxtaposed against Season 2's post-credits scene, where he was endlessly tested by a host version of Emily.

Westworld airs Sundays at 9/8c on HBO.