Who Is Emaline In 2026’s ‘Carrie’? Her Powers, Explained
Mike Flanagan's 2026 adaptation of Carrie makes several changes to Stephen King's original 1974 story and the 1976 film adaptation. One of the biggest additions is Emaline West (Thalia Dudek), a new character who becomes friends with Carrie White (Summer H. Howell). But as the story progresses, we learn that Emaline isn't quite the friend she appears to be.
Emaline meets Carrie at school, where she offers Carrie advice about fitting in and dealing with her awful classmates. Unlike Chris Hargensen (Alison Thornton) and her friends, Emaline is nice to Carrie and encourages her to stand up for herself. As Carrie finds out more about her abilities, Emaline pushes her to experiment with them instead of being afraid of what she can do.
At first, it seems like Carrie has finally found a supportive friend. But there are a few things about Emaline that don't add up. She's supposed to be a new student, but nobody else seems to interact with her, except for Carrie. When Chris and Billy Nolan (Arthur Conti) find footage of the pair talking, it looks like Carrie is having a conversation with herself.
What Are Emaline’s Powers?
The Prime Video series eventually reveals that Emaline has been communicating with Carrie through astral projection, a psychic ability that allows her to project her consciousness beyond her physical body. So Carrie can see and interact with her even though she isn't actually at Ewen High. This also explains why she can spend time with Carrie without anyone else noticing her.
We get a few more details about Emaline's abilities through a flashback of her childhood, when her mother, Amanda West (Katee Sackhoff), realizes that her daughter can astral project. The season finale, titled "AP Physics," gives us a glimpse at more of Emaline's powers after Tommy Ross (Joel Oulette) is accidentally killed by Carrie at the infamous prom.
Seeing Carrie overwhelmed by grief and anger, Emaline offers to take control of her body. And when she agrees, Emaline uses her telekinetic powers to go on a destructive rampage. But the show leaves a lot of questions about her abilities unanswered, like whether she can influence people's minds in other ways and if there are any limits to her astral projection.
What Does Emaline Want From Carrie?
The finale gives us a few more clues about Emaline's intentions, although it doesn't answer every question. After Margaret's house collapses, she arrives in person and rescues Carrie from the wreckage. Until this point, Carrie has only interacted with Emaline through her astral projection. So her arrival confirms that Emaline had been on her way to Carrie the entire time.
The pair leaves Chamberlain together, giving them a chance to start over somewhere else. But Emaline's connection to Carrie may be part of something bigger than a prom. The finale also introduces the idea of the "shine," a term associated with psychic abilities in Stephen King's The Shining (1977). Adelaide (Kate Siegel) recognizes these abilities and is connected to a group of women with supernatural powers.
This suggests that Carrie and her friend aren't the only people with special abilities, and that Emaline may know more about this world than she's told her. That theory is a strong possibility since, during one of their first conversations, Emaline tells Carrie, "I'm a spy, and you're my mission." That leaves a few questions going into a potential second season.
Was Emaline sent to find Carrie because of her telekinesis, and has she now gone against the people who wanted to keep an eye on her? Or, does her decision to rescue Carrie suggest that she might actually care about what happens to her? For now, it's all extremely open-ended.
