I thought of something else ( gets hand ready to wave )

Okay, so the reason that Topher knew that Alpha had used the Whiskey imprint was that the capacity of the wedge had been reduced (assuming that was the significance of showing us that the number was .1) Ergo, using an imprint empties the wedge, like moving a file from your desktop to a thumb drive. If that is in fact the case, then Caroline's wedge is empty, because Alpha transferred her into Wendy's body and then killed Wendy's body before the imprint could be transferred back. So, Caroline is dead, right?

I couldn't quite figure all that out. I can't believe Caroline is dead, or else there would have been no purpose at all in saving the wedge. If the wedge were useless, it would have been made clear that Caroline was gone and there was no hope of getting her back.

I think it is more like copy a file from your desktop to a thumbnail drive. Leaves the file intact. Thought the Taffy ep made that pretty clear.

If the wedge were useless, it would have been made clear that Caroline was gone and there was no hope of getting her back.

Well, no one but Alpha and Echo know that Wendy was imprinted with Caroline before she was killed, and Echo may not have realized that the wedge is empty. Alpha knew this, and used the wedge as a bargaining chip/way to get away. Topher would have realized this when he got the wedge back, but this may be a twist that they use at some point.

I think it is more like copy a file from your desktop to a thumbnail drive. Leaves the file intact. Thought the Taffy ep made that pretty clear.

I thought about that, but there are two difference - first, Taffy isn't a person, she's a composite, so she can be recreated at any time. Secondly, all of the backups were intact at the time, so we don't know that he didn't use the backup.

I'm not clear on what Topher was checking, but even supposing that the Caroline wedge was empty, I say Caroline is still in Echo somewhere. Topher being so sure that when you wipe someone they are thoroughly wiped, Adelle saying that Alpha's original personality was irrelevant, both clearly wrong - Alpha snapped not just because he had a bunch of personalities in his head but also because that original personality (that shouldn't, according to Topher, have been there at all) was a serial killer in the making and fixated on Echo. No coincidence that that first victim looked a lot like both Whiskey and Echo.

So, I could go either way on Caroline still being on the wedge, but she's not exactly dead, regardless.

So, I could go either way on Caroline still being on the wedge, but she's not exactly dead, regardless.

Especially given Echo's last line in the episode.

Didn't Alpha threaten to use the wedge to keep making "Carolines" and then keep killing them? That would only be consistent with the Caroline identity staying on the wedge after imprint.

yes. he was planning to keep imprinting Carolines all over the land.

Hm, that's true. Perhaps he deleted the Whiskey imprint instead of taking the wedge so that they wouldn't know that he took it. I mean, Alpha took the trouble to put the imprint away, wrap it back with the paper and the rubber band so he didn't want them to know that he had that imprint, but he didn't care that they knew that he had the Caroline imprints.

Did he imprint her with the Whiskey imprint so that she would know him? (side note: who's fantasy is it to spend some time with a thrill kill couple)

He said he needed that imprint to help him escape - she stole the car, for example.