‘Westworld’ Season 3, Episode 3 ‘The Absence of Field’ Review: Confusion

One thing is for sure in the realm of Westworld: technology has its hold on everything. Everyday life, written in code, readily made available to anyone with enough security clearance is how this world works. After shedding light on a few seemingly-forgotten characters, we return to realtime events unfolding.

On Sunday’s episode of Westworld, Dolores Abernathy (Evan Rachel Wood) guides Charlotte Hale (Tessa Thompson) in her new pretend life. Also, she saves Caleb Nichols (Aaron Paul) from people hunting her down. Meanwhile, Engerraund Serac (Vincent Cassel) finally makes himself known despite being off-the-grid.

Identity Crisis

HBO

While it remains a mystery who the host playing Charlotte is, the episode makes it apparent that she is struggling to keep up with her role. To her, it seemed that the real Charlotte, the one who died on Westworld park, is trying to erase her personality and live again. We get to see facets of Charlotte’s life outside Delos. It turns out that she was divorced and conceived a son, Nathan (Jaxon Thomas Williams). Her creepy intervention when a child predator tried to molest Nathan shows how deeply invested she is in her new right after she sees a video of Charlotte saying goodbye to Nathan. It is perhaps her conscience that drove her toward the edge. Still, she does seem to remain on Dolores’ side as she continues the facade when confronted by Serac himself.

Predetermined

HBO

Caleb’s rescue of Dolores instantly brought him trouble through the criminal world. For some reason, a bounty on Dolores’ head quickly circulated through Rico, the crime app. Crooked cops came to execute Dolores but she escaped. However, things were not as smooth for Caleb. Two criminals soon follow after him and threaten to kill him unless he reveals Dolores’ location. Up until Dolores showed up, Caleb remained keen on not betraying her.  It is perhaps a bittersweet reward that Dolores told her the truth of his predetermined existence provided that he does not unsubscribe from Incite, Inc.’s program. Reliving Caleb’s traumatic past helped Dolores establish a connection with him, as she experienced a similar fate. At this point, Caleb and Dolores’ relationship is now well-established, so we can finally see the get about her plan of taking over the Human world.

Savior

HBO

Dolores is practically a god in the series. She has control over any form of technology, has resources readily available to her, and cannot die easily. Also, she becomes Charlotte and Caleb’s savior as they faced trouble. While her interaction with Caleb challenges her general view of Humans, her resolve stays the same. If anything, Caleb made her see that some humans have hope, just not the ones she came to know. In terms of caring for her fellow hosts, she provides what support she can. Fake Martin Connells (Tommy Flanagan) continually reported to her and did not need any assistance, but Charlotte did. To her, perhaps, she is more compassionate than any human [besides Caleb] she ever knew.

The Takeover

HBO

We get to know a little more about Serac and Incite Inc.’s endgame. It turns out that Serac and Charlotte have a secret arrangement. Likely, those two were to share power over Delos as Serac managed to secretly buy 38% of Delos. This is a problem for Charlotte and Dolores as their plan involves Charlotte retaining control over Delos, not sharing it. Also, Serac is the person running Incite Inc.’s Rehoboam project, making her Dolores’ next target. Serac demands more personal data to use for the project. The data, however, once broadcasted out of Delos’ servers, never made it to Incite. Wherever it is, it needs an encryption key embedded in Dolores’ control unit. With that said, it will only be a matter of who gets to meet who first before the bloodshed begins.

‘Westworld’ Season 3, Episode 3 ‘The Absence of Field’ Final Verdict

Westworld, by far, is running on a coherent, singular plotline. Each of the characters has a part to play, but the endgame is the host revolution. Despite being separate from each other, one can easily tell that soon, the hosts’ paths will converge. Not everyone will be on the same side, however, as seen in some previews and as the events of the previous episode. It is only a matter of time before these hosts start to go on a murdering spree once more.

Westworld returns on Sunday, April 5th with ‘The Mother of Exiles’ at 9/8c on HBO.