Westworld: Is [spoiler] dead? Season 2 episode 9 ending explained

He's had it coming for a long time now, but Teddy Flood finally appeared to get bumped off in Westworld season 2 episode 9.

A bullet to the temple would be an open and shut case in most TV shows, but not Westworld, so let's break down exactly what happened.

Earlier in the season, Dolores forcibly dialled up Teddy's attributes to make him tough enough to withstand her/their mission, removing his compassion and ramping up his aggression.

At first, he seemed fine with this, but that changed in episode 9, the hint coming when he held fire and let one member of Ghost Nation escape.

In the final scene at an outpost, he vented at Dolores for manipulating his personality, telling her "you changed me, made me into a monster.

"What's the use of surviving if I become just as bad as them? I understand now, how this will end, where you will lead us."

As he told her "I never wanted to leave your side...Which is why this is so hard," it seemed as though Teddy was gearing up to kill Dolores, removing his pistol from its holster.

"You don't wanna hurt me, Teddy," she threatened, to which he replied: "No, 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," he concluded, before putting his own gun to his head and pulling the trigger.

Lying on the floor, sanguine liquid spilling from his head, it seemed as though he had committed suicide, not being able to go on any longer as a killing machine and wanting no part in Dolores' plan for world domination.

Dolores sure seemed to think so:

But this is Westworld, and for hosts there is no such thing as death, at least as we know it, only complete destruction or just being decommissioned.

This is far from the first time Teddy has taken a bullet and probably not the first time one's landed in his head.

It all comes down to whether or not the bullet penetrated the pearl control unit in his head, although even if it did we can't consider him a goner necessarily, as it's likely his code has already been copied in The Forge.

We'll probably get answers in next week's Westworld, which is the season finale.

Westworld airs on HBO in the US and through Sky Atlantic and NOW TV in the UK.