The third episode of Season 3 of Westworld, titled “Absence of Field,” left Maeve and Bernard’s story for a look inside Charlotte Hale’s head — and gave us some huge clues about Delores’ plans, and Serac’s too.
Who’s Inside Charlotte’s Head?
The episode opened with Delores reanimating the host version of Charlotte Hale. One of the five host memory cores Delores smuggled out of the park is inside Charlotte’s head, and one of the show’s big mysteries right now is whose it is. I thought I had figured this one out at the end of last season, but now I’m not so sure.
My guess at the end of last season was that it was Angela (Talulah Riley’s character). Even though Angela was a minor character in Season 2, she had become the most high-profile figure in Delores’ band of outlaws. She also sacrificed herself to destroy the Cradle, and it’s not a stretch to assume Delores promised to resurrect her if it came to that.
When Charlotte comes to life in the opening scene, she doesn’t know who she is. Delores tells her, “You are a creature of beauty and power.” That sounds like Angela.
I thought my suspicion had further support when Charlott’s ex-husband catches her in a lie. Charlotte’s immediate instinct was to seduce him. Very Angela-like indeed!
But then we learn Charlotte is having a major-league identity crisis. After revealing she’s been mutilating herself, Charlotte tells Delores, “It’s like she’s trying to take back control. Like she wants to cut into her skin and rip me out of her head.”
Well, that’s a problem. It made me wonder if this wasn’t a fatal flaw with Delores’ plan. Maybe the hosts can’t cope with being in someone else’s body?
But then things get even stranger. The scene with Delores and Charlotte in the hotel room suggested a much greater degree of intimacy than Delores’ prior relationship with Angela ever had. When Charlotte asks her to stay, Delores says, “You belong to me. You know that, right?” One could interpret that as a threat (after all, Delores can control Charlotte’s functions). But could it also point to … Teddy?
When last we saw Teddy, he was willing to put a bullet in his head instead of going along with Delores’ plan. Delores realized he could never change, and I thought she was done with him. But, Teddy was Delores’ romantic interest in the many narratives Sizemore created. And when I saw her lying in bed with Charlotte, I could picture her there with Teddy. But the thought that honorable Teddy is now playing the role of ruthless Charlotte is hard to wrap my brain around.
Then there is the scene in the park where Charlotte kills the pedophile. During the act, she tells him, “The harder I squeeze, the more I remember. I remember what it’s like to be me.”
Teddy was never that ruthless. But maybe she’s talking about embracing her inner Charlotte, especially when she tells the man, “You’re not the only predator here.”
That line harkened back to something Delores said about the real Charlotte Hale back in the hotel room: “Hale was always ruthless. A Predator. Perhaps you’ve come to identify with her too much.” So, who knows who is inside Charlotte’s head, but does it even matter if whoever it is becoming like the real Charlotte Hale?
Delores’ Revolution
My favorite scenes this week involved Delores and Caleb, particularly when she reveals how Rehoboam is controlling his life.
It turns out that that Rehoboan has collected data on every person to create a simulation (yep, another simulation reference). The purpose is to develop a composite of every person so that Rehoboam can control their destinies in real life. In Caleb’s case, the system’s algorithm predicts that he will end up committing suicide, so the system won’t let him rise above being a construction worker or a petty criminal.
As Delores explains, “They won’t invest in someone who’s going to kill himself. But by not investing, they ensure the outcome.”
She also reveals why she’s helping Caleb: because being a human under Rehoboam’s control is not much different than being a host.
Ultimately, we learn that Delores plans to start a revolution and that Caleb is along for the ride. “You’re going to cut the cord to the system,” he realizes.
Delores nods. “And show this world for what it really is.”
Why Does Serac Want Delos?
So much of this episode was about Delos. First, we learned why Delores needs Charlotte to control the company. “Without Delos, there will never be any more of our kind.” I suppose that makes sense. Once she destroys the human world, she’ll want more company than just her and Charlotte (and whatever she decides to do with the other memory cores — though we know one of the three is inside Martin Connel at Incite).
Then we learn that for years, Serac has been using a bunch of small companies to buy Delos stocks (a “creeping tender,” Charlotte calls it) to take control of the company. It turns out that two decades ago, Serac bought some data from Delos. As Charlotte puts it, “We sold Serac a taste of our data, and now he’s trying to steal our company like a thief in the night.”
Charlotte’s number two, Irene, also provides some interesting information on Serac. “The man’s a black hole,” Irene says. “He’s completely invisible. There’s nothing about him online or anywhere.” Also, he’s worth a trillion dollars, making him the richest man on earth, and he’s likely using Rehoboam to make himself untraceable, which also makes him dangerous.
As Irene warns, “He has complete anonymity. Imagine the lengths he must have gone through to achieve that? And now that we found him, what will he do to us?”
Next, we learn that there is a mole in Delos who has stolen some of the host memory cores. At first, I thought the cores would be the one’s Delores smuggled off the island, but it turns out the missing host everyone is concerned with is Maeve. Whoever did this, according to Delos security, had admin-level access to the park, which means Serac has an agent inside Delos. And by the episode’s end, we learn that mole was the real Charlotte Hale.
It turned out that Hale double-crossed Delos. She was working with Serac to download all the guest data that Delores ended up diverting to somewhere else at the end of last season. Even more, we learn another reason Serac wants Delores: After Charlotte tells Serac that no one has the encryption key to the missing data, Serac says, “You don’t think that you’re the only person under my control. I’ve been told exactly where the key is. In the mind of a host called Delores.” He ends by threatening Charlotte. She must find the data fast — or else.
As for why Serac wants the data, one can only speculate. One guess is that he wants to pursue the immortality project that was the secret agenda of the Delos board. Or maybe Serac wants to create replicants of powerful people on earth — but does the man who controls Rehoboam really need any more power to rule the world?
Finally, we learn how Delores intends to deal with Serac’s hostile takeover of Delos. “You’re going to fend off Serac’s bid for Delos,” she tells Charlotte. “We can’t lose control. Not yet.”
When Charlotte asks how they can stop Serac, Delores reveals her plan: “A counteroffer. You’ll have to convince the board, and for that, you’ll need to pay a visit to an old friend.”
She can only mean one person: William Delos. Yep, I believe the Man in Black is about to make his return on Westworld!
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