Season 3 of Westworld is doing a little more character exploration than expected as The Absence of Field gives a glimpse into Charlotte Hale’s life outside of Delos and what exactly Dolores is up to. Here is a rundown of what happened in Sunday’s episode along with a review, spoilers ahead.
Charlotte (played by Tessa Thompson) is another existing host placed in a replant body of Hale, who it is hasn’t been revealed but the options are limited (possibly Teddy given how affectionate Delores is towards her). We also get some new insight into Hale’s life as we’re introduced to Jake (played by Michael Ealy), Charlotte’s ex-husband and we learn she has a son named Nathan, who has a thing for elephants.
Delos is seemingly bought-out by a mysterious shareholder that now holds 13% of their stock, which is revealed to be Serac (played by Vincent Cassel), the richest man in the world. It’s also revealed that Maeve is missing from the park and they suspect that Serac is connected.
Meanwhile, Caleb (played by Aaron Paul) gets Dolores (played by Rachel Evan Wood) medical attention after the shootout while the first responders are perplexed by her read-outs he ends up by helping treat her. Two plainclothes police officers pull over the ambulance and are revealed to contractors like Caleb, hired to kill Dolores but she awakes and kills the crooked cops and seemingly spares Caleb warning him to go on the run.
While visiting his sick mother, Caleb is recognized and is grilled about Dolores by fellow contractors looking to make some money by tracking down him down and Dolores for a mystery client. A construction robot is hacked and used as a distraction while Dolores kills the two goons rescuing Caleb.
Dolores reveals to Caleb what Incite is up to and they’re collecting everyone’s personal information/data to make a composite world. Also, she tells him there is a projection from the algorithm they’ve built he’ll commit suicide which is the reason for why he can only get construction or criminal jobs. She wants to cut the cord and seemingly recruits Caleb to help her.
The episode ends with Charlotte’s meeting with Serac via digital reality, as it’s revealed that she is his mole at Delos and is the helping him quietly take over the company.
Like I mentioned earlier the episode leans towards suspense and character building, less about action. As usual, the visuals are stellar and it’s interesting to see Dolores change her looks so often in the outside world.
I’m not completely buying why Caleb would be so quick to help Dolores unless she already knew he’d be a willing participant, as their encounter seemed to be random. It seemed like they are attempting to take down Incite but I’m sort of curious to see if the world they inhabit here is just yet another fantasy construct.
It was nice to get some glimpses into the backstory to Charlotte as we really know nothing about her from previous episodes pulling the curtain away similar to William aka The Man In Black, who is expected to make a return in Episode 4 titled The Mother of Exiles.
Slightly slower paced than you’d expect but the episode serves a purpose to help etch-out more character moments. Overall a decent episode.
