'Westworld' Season 3 Episode 2 will likely explain whose consciousness is inside Charlotte Hale
Episode 1 of Season 3 of Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy’s science fiction magnum opus ‘Westworld’ left a lot to take in and digest.
Away from the cowboy theme park where the first two seasons were mostly set, this season sees the quote-unquote real world. From China to London to Los Angeles, we see Evan Rachel Wood’s formidable Dolores Abernathy continuing on her quest to punish the humans for subjugating the Hosts.
We see the introduction of John Gallagher Jr. and Liam Dempsey Jr. and Aaron Paul as Caleb. We see the intrepid Maeve (Thandie Newton) wake up in what one can guess is Warworld, a World War II-based theme park in the Delos range of services. We also see Bernard (Jeffrey Wright) trying to make sense of his identity as a Host, altering between his normal self and “Analysis Mode”.
All in all, it has been an explosive start to what one can hope will be a season that tops the previous two (that are already pretty high on the list of excellent television).
But what’s next?
Episode 2 is called ‘The Winter Line’. The episode’s name, in the case of ‘Westworld’ has always held significance. In this case, it is of historical importance. The Winter Line refers to a series of German and Italian military fortifications in Italy, constructed during World War II by Organisation Todt, a civil and military engineering organization in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. The series of three lines was designed to defend a western section of Italy, focused around the town of Monte Cassino.
In the context of the end-credits scene where Maeve wakes up in what looks like a Nazi-occupied Italian town, this reference can only mean that viewers are going to see more of the Mariposa madam-turned-rebel (with mind-control powers). It also means that viewers will finally get a better understanding of where Maeve wakes up — yet another theme park or simulation inside her head?
The promo for the episode begins with a character whose story in the series so far, especially Season 2, has begged many questions: Tessa Thompson’s Charlotte Hale. In the video, a thoroughly distraught Hale asks Dolores, “Where am I? Who am I?” to which latter responds, “Let me show you, who you need to pretend to be.”
A little background: In Season 2, viewers discovered after a significant amount of time that who they thought was Hale wasn't her at all. The real Hale shot Bernard’s assistant Elsie (Shannon Woodward) for not having the “moral flexibility” that was required to be a part of her Delos team.
Bernard, who witnessed the murder, built a Host version of Hale and implanted Dolores’ consciousness inside the body. The Dolores-Hale Host killed the real Hale in the end and took her place in the real world.
But the Dolores-Hale Host also took along with her five “Pearls” that carry individual Host consciousnesses. Of the five, one was definitely Bernard, whom she recreates in the real world. Another pearl definitely went inside the Host doppelganger of Martin Connells (Tommy Flanagan), the security chief for Liam’s company Incite. Thus far, it has been unclear whose consciousness went inside the Hale’s Host, now that Dolores had her body back.
Back to the promo, we finally see Ed Harris again. Harris plays William, the Delos chief, obsessed with getting to the bottom of Westworld’s “Maze”. But William no longer looks the once cruel and cocky black rider. He looks thoroughly scared as he jumps out of a bathtub. Then again, he has reasons to be in his state.
The promo sees yet another familiar face: Ashley Stubbs (Luke Hemsworth), Westworld’s chief of security. We see Bernard, back at the theme park, tell Stubbs that he doesn’t know what Dolores was planning, but ultimately, he could never stop her alone. Stubbs’ answer is simple and the only answer to this problem — Maeve.
This takes us to another new character in the show. A shadowy trillionaire named Serac, played by French actor Vincent Cassell, who controls the high-tech system called Rehoboam that uses causal determinism and Artificial Intelligence to predict the future for everyone. We then see Maeve wake up again, this time in an elegant mansion: Serac’s home. He tells Maeve that he has waited many years for her and Dolores and the others to arrive, proving without a shadow of a doubt that the man indeed knows what the future holds.
The promo ends in a blitz of split-second scenes of violence as Maeve asks an unseen Host: “Who did she put inside you, Teddy?” referring to Theodore Flood (James Marsden), Dolores’ longtime lover from back in the theme park’s narratives. Dolores killed Teddy in Season 2, sensing that he did not have the will or the stomach for the revolution she was about to unleash.
It is possible that Dolores’ sentimentality got the better of her and she did bring Teddy back to the real world. Who knows? Only time will tell.
The next episode of 'Westworld' airs March 22, on HBO.