Charlotte Hale has always been one of Westworld’s most despicable characters, but the show just found a way to humanize her.

Warning: There are spoilers ahead from season 3 episode 3 of Westworld.

In seasons 1 and 2 of Westworld, Charlotte Hale did no shortage of despicable things. She killed Elsie Hughes because Elsie lacked “moral flexibility.” Elsie was a good person and Hale couldn’t count on her to be a corrupt and self-serving ally, so Hale killed her. She took the host of Clementine and used her to “infect” the other hosts and make them turn on and kill each other.

The list of Charlotte’s ruthlessness could go on, but what fans never expected was to see some actual humanity from her character.

Even though Charlotte died back in the season 2 finale, it’s only now that the show found a way to humanize her.

“The Absence of Field” opened with a flashback to when the hosts first began massacring the guests at Westworld. Amidst the chaos, Charlotte scrambled to send a video to Nathan Hale. As the episode goes on, it’s revealed that Nathan is Charlotte’s son and the video includes some heart-wrenching stuff.

With tears in her eyes and gunshots in the background of the video, she laments about not always being there for Nathan. She says she’s proud of him and apologizes if she ever made him feel like he wasn’t the most important thing in the world.

As if that wasn’t enough, she recalls how the last night she was with Nathan, he asked for his mother to tuck him and sing their song which was “You Are My Sunshine.” She said she didn’t have time that night, so she sings the song in the video instead.

When Hale thought she was going to die, her son was the thing she cared about most. She shared her true feelings and regrets in a truly desperate, emotional, heartfelt way.

It’s not just the video that helps humanize her, but also the reactions of Nathan when interacting with the host pretending to be his mother. There are little things she does differently compared to the real Hale. When she tucks him in, it’s not the same, and Nathan notices. He says things like, “You’re not doing it right. I want my old mommy back.”

The regrets in the video make it clear that Charlotte Hale wasn’t mother of the year. Yet, it’s also clear that Nathan still felt loved and comforted by her, and he’s now missing that connection he once felt.

None of this negates the terrible things that the human Hale did. She was still a ruthless person who did terrible things to Elsie, Clementine, and many other characters. Her corruption ran even deeper than audiences realized as the episode also reveals she was secretly working for Serac all along. He was the one who wanted the data profiles on all the guests to be smuggled out of the parks.

But beneath all the corruption and ruthlessness, Charlotte Hale was also a workaholic mother trying to create the best life for her son. She didn’t spend enough time with him, but when she did, she’d often sing “You Are My Sunshine” and she’d tuck him into bed in a way that made Nathan feel safe and loved.

These details not only help the audience see Hale in a new light, but it also helps the host pretending to be her find a way to connect with Nathan and make him feel like his “old mommy” has returned.

For now, the identity of the host pretending to be Hale remains a mystery.

It’s impressive that Westworld was able to shed new and positive light on one of its most vicious villains this late in the game. In true Westworld fashion, Charlotte Hale was a lot more complicated than fans realized.