| “ | A prologue. An epilogue. An end. A beginning. | ” |
Hello Charlotte Episode Three: Childhood's End is the third and final game in the main Hello Charlotte storyline. It picks up from the White End of its predecessor, Hello Charlotte Episode 2. Episode 3 consists of two main arcs:
- Episode 0 - And So It Goes - The story of Charlotte Wiltshire (Q84), which Umbrella Man tampers with in order to educate his "audience" on the truths of the Hello Charlotte universe. Officially acknowledged as the prologue to the overarching HC storyline.
- Episode 3 - Childhood's End - Technically the main story of the game, which can only be experienced after completing Episode 0 and then starting a New Game on the title screen.
Characters
List of Hello Charlotte Episode 3 Characters
Items
List of Items in Hello Charlotte Episode 3
Plot Summary
Spoiler contents withheld. Reader may reveal them at their own discretion. |
The game starts with Umbrella Man speaking with Seth about the contract they have made in the last episode. Starting with Episode 0, Charlotte awakens in distress over a dream. After visiting her tenants she goes to school late. She finds a injured boy on the street, but continues to ignore him and takes pictures instead of helping him. Arriving to the F2 of school, Charlotte meets Anri and they have lunch on the rooftop. Scarlett Eyler scolds her for it but Charlotte just decides to go to her club room. Exiting the rooftop, she meets C, who she doesn't recognize. In the White society club room, Execution hour starts, and Girl B is killed.
The next day, she talks to Aiden, who is back to normal, but leaves immediately after receiving a headpiece from him. In the basement she meets the robot version of Huxley, and she orders him to kill a worker named Archibald. After meeting Anri in the school again, the students decide to go over to Anri's place to study that day. There, Charlotte finds out about Anri's brother, who's dead now. Another Execution hour starts, and Boy A is killed.
Returning home, she is assaulted by an intruder and forced to Linq with them.
In the True Realm, Anri and Charles are stalking some bullies and taking pictures for potential blackmail. Coming back home, Charles is talking to Anri and Vincent over the computer, all until Scarlett Eyler appears, and scolds him for it. She disappears after drinking pills, and Charles goes to visit his mother.
Back in the False Realm, Charlotte wakes up with C by her side. Coming back home she is poisoned by the tenants, and after dying, attacked by Bennett in the bathroom for provoking him. Going to the kitchen, she discovers a party made for her deathday, and shortly after decides to visit Huxley's secret laboratory, in which she breaks the tanks containing Felix's clones.
After going to school, Charlotte talks with Scarlett, who appears to be worried about Anri. Charlotte notices C's strange behavior, and guesses he's scared of Scarlett. Meeting with C in the infirmary, she talks with him about how her tenants hate her, and C mentions how there's an impostor in the school pretending to be him. Leaving C, Execution hour starts starring Anri, which was abruptly ended by Scarlett.
Switching to True realm again, Charles and Anri are on a date. Coming back home Charles discovers Vincent's plan, and Scarlett gets in the way of Charles talking to him about it, forced to go study.
In the False realm, Charlotte awakes in the infirmary again, furious. Going back home, Charlotte is being experimented on by the tenants. She manages to escape, but is kidnapped by Scarlett shortly after.
Another realm switch happens, and Vincent commits suicide, leaving Charles emotionally shocked. He books a hotel with Anri, but it doesn't last long after Charles describes his idea to her. She leaves him, and returning home finds his mother dead. Charles drowns, and in the False realm, we see his vessel used by Umbrella Man. He tells Scarlett about Charlotte and her impact to the house, leaving the job into Scarlett's hands. In the White Society room, Charlotte uses mother's wish, and executed Scarlett on the spot, resulting in Charlotte's death as well.
Scarlett wakes up on a pile of corpses, with V19 hovering over her. She escapes to Charlotte's home, meeting Felix there. Scarlett decides to become the parasites host, which has a negative effect on her, giving her meat cancer. She goes on different floors with Felix, Florence and Bennett in order to find V19, which wasn't successful. Scarlett is forced onto F11 by Bennett, finding and killing V19 there. Using Oracle's power, she wishes to become Charlotte. After Q84 destroys the TV containing Scarlett's soul data, Charles goes to mother and kills her by injecting ice-9 into her, causing The House to crumble and the main storyline ending.
End of spoilers.Endings
In a similar fashion to HC3's predecessor, there is a fork where the Puppeteer's choice determines the game's endings. Instead of three options, two are presented here, which could lead to either the Happy Ending or the True (and canon) ending. Though not as prominent in Episode 3 compared to the first two, there are a handful of alternative endings that can be met if certain conditions are satisfied.
- Bad End: For Science!
Main Endings
Spoiler contents withheld. Reader may reveal them at their own discretion. |
Happy End ("Childhood's End")
The Ending that occurs if The Puppeteer chooses to change the channel instead of saving his original Charlotte. Umbrella Man "Seth" will express disappointment in this decision, but assures them that he'll be waiting for them to reload the game to fulfill their agreement. He then leaves, the TV set housing Scarlett's soul data remaining unharmed. Charles and Q84 then change the channel to find Charlotte blissfully indulging on chips, seemingly having no story at all. In a fit of frustration, Q84 starts to change the channel repeatedly — each channel showing her dying an unseemly death in different ways — until Charles stops her.
After Charles vents about his woes and the sorry state of The House, the two of them later agree to return to 1F, with Q84 suggesting that they turn the White Society members into vessels for Scarlett. They then go on to consider whether or not Scarlett really wants to be saved, but Q84 expresses apathy toward this and insists, referring to Charles as "Father". The two leave, and the player is once again shown the television set within the now-empty room before the credits roll.
After the credits, Q84 puts on a final act for the White Society and has the audience put on helmets in order to "ascend", delivering on her promise to turn them all into Pythias of a kind for Scarlett. The screen fades to white, and one more conversation between Frei and Charlotte/Scarlett with distorted face portraits plays out wherein Frei — seemingly aware of what Q84 is doing — tells Charlotte that it's time to go stargazing, to which she rebuts by calling out Umbrella Man's lies. She nevertheless goes along with it happily, and the game ends on an eerie note as the screen fades slowly to red, with the ending name displaying afterward:
HAPPY E&%NdD: Chihdj78UJlhood's E8&nd
True End ("Goodbye, Charlotte")
The ending that occurs if the Puppeteer decides to see the deal he made with Umbrella Man in the previous episode through ("Save her" option) to the end. Umbrella Man will present the party with the Hammer that is to be used to destroy the TV set, and Q84 will volunteer to do the deed. After demanding that Charles leaves the room, Q84 faces what's left of Scarlett Eyler/Charlotte Wiltshire as she stares back at her, almost as if she is aware of what's about to happen.
On Boot-up
Attempting to start a new game after completing either main ending results in the display of a non-interactive screen of children with yellow eyes, blown wide open, and mouths agape. The background music is of choral music interspersed with occasional screams. Though unconfirmed, it can be conjectured that these may be the WSoc members tapped to collectively contain Charlotte/Scarlett's ego in the Happy Ending.
End of spoilers.Other Endings
Under construction.
System Images
