One of the big questions going intoWestworldSeason 3 was how Charlotte Hale (Tessa Thompson) would be returning to the show, and the third episode of the season—titled “The Absence of Field”—offered us our closest look yetat the host inhabiting this new Charlotte body.
If you’ll recall, Dolores killed Charlotteat the end ofWestworldSeason 2 inside the park, but not before Dolores created a new body that looked exactly like Charlotte. This is how Dolores escaped the park—she had her fancy lil’ marble thingy loaded into this Charlotte body and walked right out. Charlotte didn’t meet any resistance because she’s an incredibly high-up executive at Delos.
At the beginning of “The Absence of Field,” we flash back to when this new Charlotte body was brought online by Dolores out in the real world. Not-Charlotte asks, “Who am I?” and Dolores says, “You know who you are.” It’s confirmed that this isnotCharlotte—the murderous Delos executive is definitely dead—but Dolores put one of her friends’ fancy lil’ marble thingies into this Charlotte body so they could infiltrate Delos as part of Dolores’ grand plan.
Throughout the episode, Not-Charlotte navigates her way around Charlotte’s real life, which includes an ex-lover and a young son. She’s trying to play the role of Charlotte Hale but also struggling with some severe identity issues. Whoever this is inside Charlotte is a bit fragile, and he or she is having trouble adjusting to trying to lead this double life—well, triple life actually.
We learn at the end of the episode that Charlotte was the mole inside Delos all along. Before the massacre at Westworld, Charlotte came to Rehoboam co-creator Engerraund Serac (Vincent Cassel) to tell him that the massacre was a certainty (likely predicted by the algorithm Rehoboam/Incite) and that she could use it to smuggle out that sweet, sweet guest data that Delos has been collecting.
But the question remains: Who is the Charlotte Hale host? We don’t learn the answer at the end of the episode, but we do learn a couple of key factoids: it sure sounds like he/she was part of Wyatt/Dolores’ army; he/she was good at hurting people, but also maybe good at seducing them too; he/she really hates humans.
So with that in mind, here are the three most likely candidates
Angela (Talulah Riley) is one of the oldest hosts in the park, as she interacted with young William (Jimmi Simpson) way back when. But throughout Season 2, Anglea is seen as one of Wyatt/Dolores’ most devoted followers with a violent streak to boot. She’s my best guess here given the difficulty with which we see Not-Charlotte trying to be a caring mother/person and the glee with which she chokes that pedophile to death. We also know Angela was created to seduce, and we see that’s her go-to move with Charlotte’s ex when she arrives home—trying to bed him.
The one stitch here is the last we saw Angela, she was blowing herself up inside The Cradle with a grenade. But when it comes toWestworld, is anyone really “dead?”
Clementine
The next best guess I’ve got is Clementine (Angela Sarafyan). Now Clementine was originally part of Maeve’s posse, having worked as a prostitute in the saloon. But she became part of Wyatt’s army in Season 2, so we know she has a relationship with Dolores. Although it was never really a strong one, so I’m not so certain it’d make sense for Dolores to bring Clementine back—especially since last we saw Clementine, she had been shot to death. Yep, another dead host. If you’ll recall, Charlotte re-programmed Clementine to where she made all the other hosts go crazy. She was marching towards the Valley Beyond when she was shot dead by Armistice.
I mean sure, why not Teddy? Yes, technically the last we saw ofJames Marsden’s character he had made it to the Valley Beyond, meaning his consciousness was uploaded to that big cloud in the sky. But what if Dolores made a secret copy of Teddy beforehand and brought him with her? He’s certainly the character with which Dolores has the strongest relationship, albeit it ended up strained on account of Dolores reprogramming Teddy to be a literal monster. Teddy couldn’t take it and shot himself dead, although his control unit was salvaged in time to upload him to the Valley Beyond. But that was kind of a sweet ending for Teddy, and the Not-Charlotte host we see has an almost childlike connection to Dolores, not a romantic one, so there are certainly some holes in the Teddy theory. But it’s one we can’t rule out.
Literally Any Host
Westworldhas time and again pulled the rug out from under its viewers, so we also must consider the possibility that the host inside Charlotte could beliterally anyone. Maeve? Sure! Ford? Could be! The Man in Black? I mean, why not? I have no idea how this could be justified, mind you, but I’m sureWestworldwould find a way. Each season the show has peeled back the curtain a bit more on what, ultimately, was Delos and/or Ford and/or Arnold’s grand plan, so we must assume the same is true of Season 3. We are, more likely than not, going to discover something that’s been true this whole time that we didn’t previously know. And if that involves some crazy unthinkable host inside Charlotte’s body, so be it.
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