CHARACTER
The Testingby Joelle Charbonneau

Will

Will

Quick Facts

  • Role: Testing candidate from Madison Colony; twin to Gill; a seeming ally who becomes a primary human antagonist
  • First appearance: Chapter 6, at dinner in Tosu City, when he and Gill sit with the Five Lakes group
  • Key relationships: Gill (twin brother), Malencia “Cia” Vale, Tomas Endress, Zandri Hicks, Roman Fry
  • Signature traits: Charismatic, strategic, deceptive; “killer instinct” rationalized as necessary for survival in The Testing
  • Core theme tie-ins: Embodies Trust and Betrayal through a carefully constructed facade

Who They Are

At first glance, Will is the kind of teammate everyone wants: funny, approachable, and willing to share his vulnerabilities. That surface warmth masks a surgical pragmatism. Will believes The Testing is a crucible that rewards deception, and he leans into that belief with chilling clarity—cultivating trust so he can weaponize it. His charm isn’t mere personality; it’s strategy. By playing the confidant, he disarms stronger rivals and redefines trust as a tool rather than a value.

Personality & Traits

Beneath Will’s easy grin lies a ledger of cost and gain. He reads people quickly, offers just enough camaraderie to be welcomed in, and then exploits the access he’s earned. His humor and flirtation are bait; his real currency is control.

  • Charming and sociable: Diffuses tension at dinner in Chapter 6 by admitting he didn’t finish the exams, instantly bonding with Cia’s group and flirting with Nicolette to enhance his likable image.
  • Deceptive and ruthless: Revealed as the crossbow shooter who stalks candidates, murdering Nina and later shooting Tomas—proof that his friendliness is cover for predation.
  • Calculating team player (only on the surface): During the team-based third test, he secretly solves every problem himself so his teammates—like Zandri—will fail when they attempt their “assigned” questions.
  • Cynically pragmatic: Frames killing and sabotage as the logical price of advancement, insisting that leadership means inspiring trust without believing in it.
  • Grief-fueled ambition: After Gill’s elimination, Will reframes his goals as a mission to succeed for both of them, using his brother’s failure to justify escalating violence.

Character Journey

Will’s arc reads as a revelation rather than a transformation. Introduced as a bright spot in a brutal environment, he seems to humanize the competition by laughing at his own shortcomings and acknowledging fear. Gill’s failure hits him hard, and for a moment he appears genuinely broken. But that grief becomes the mask’s final adhesive: he leverages the sympathy it earns to draw closer to Cia and Tomas, “proving” loyalty when he kills Roman Fry—only to unmask himself late in the trial as the very predator they’ve feared. The reveal reframes every earlier kindness as tactical: the dinner confession, the flirtation, the rescue. Will doesn’t fall from grace; we discover he has been operating from a darker playbook all along.

Key Relationships

  • Gill: Will describes his twin as sharing “one brain,” a line that signals both intimacy and identity overlap. When Gill fails the first round, Will’s loss curdles into mission—his success must now count for two—hardening his philosophy that any cruelty is justified if it clears his path.

  • Malencia “Cia” Vale: With Cia, Will plays the long game: empathy and transparency to earn her trust, then subtle wedges (like warnings about Tomas) to isolate her. His eventual attack turns their friendship into a textbook case of betrayal, testing Cia’s principles and sharpening her instincts about reading people.

  • Tomas Endress: Tomas senses danger from the start, creating a friction that Will never quite diffuses. That mutual suspicion culminates in Will shooting Tomas, not just as a tactical strike on a rival but as a punishment for seeing through him.

  • Zandri Hicks: On the third test’s team, Zandri becomes collateral in Will’s private contest. He engineers her failure to protect his own advancement, revealing that to Will, “team” means leverage—never loyalty.

  • Roman Fry: Will kills Roman while he’s attacking Cia and Tomas, a move that appears heroic but is actually strategic theater. The rescue buys Will credibility at the exact moment he needs it most.

Defining Moments

Will’s standout scenes peel back his performance to reveal the ethic underneath it: trust as camouflage, charm as bait, success as moral exemption.

  • Dinner confession (Chapter 6): Admitting he didn’t finish the written tests breaks the ice with Cia’s group. Why it matters: This carefully measured vulnerability establishes him as safe, making later manipulations smoother and more devastating.

  • The third-test sabotage: Quietly solving every team problem ensures his teammates’ penalties. Why it matters: It’s Will’s philosophy in practice—preemptive control that weaponizes cooperation.

  • “Saving” Cia and Tomas: He kills Roman Fry in front of them. Why it matters: The staged loyalty is proof-of-concept; by risking violence in their defense, he purchases blind trust at a critical juncture.

  • The crossbow reveal (Chapter 19): Will confesses to hunting candidates and shoots Tomas. Why it matters: The mask drops. His creed—survive by any means—becomes irreversible action, cementing him as a human embodiment of the test’s darkest logic.

Symbolism & Themes

Will personifies the state-sanctioned deceit at the heart of The Testing’s design: trust is encouraged rhetorically so it can be punished in practice. As a figure of Deception and Manipulation by Authority, he demonstrates how institutions reward those who mimic virtue while eroding it in others. He also marks the shadow side of Coming of Age and Loss of Innocence: where Cia learns to balance caution with conscience, Will “matures” into a hyper-competent predator. Finally, his ethos crystallizes The Price of Success: advancement demands moral compromise—and Will embraces that bill without hesitation.

Essential Quotes

“You have no idea how good it is to hear someone finally admit they didn’t finish the damn tests.”

This line captures Will’s opening gambit: shared vulnerability as social glue. By normalizing failure in a competitive space, he lowers defenses and positions himself as the candidate who “gets it,” setting the stage for trust he can later exploit.

“Watch your back, Cia. Your boyfriend isn’t the nice guy he’s pretending to be. I’ll try to join you soon. Until then be very careful.”

Framed as protection, this warning plants suspicion that isolates Cia from Tomas. Will’s message is a classic manipulation: appear invested in someone’s safety while nudging them toward the choice that best serves your own strategy.

“Isn’t it obvious? I’m getting rid of my competition. I didn’t lose my brother and come all this way just to be told I’m not good enough to make it into the University.”

Here Will weaponizes grief as motive and absolution. The mention of Gill recasts murder as devotion, revealing how he converts personal pain into moral license for eliminating others.

“You’re smart, Cia, but you don’t have the killer instinct. I could walk away right now and you wouldn’t fire at me.”

Will’s taunt is both psychological pressure and a thesis statement: to him, leadership equals the capacity to act ruthlessly. He misreads Cia’s restraint as weakness, a fatal error that underestimates her resolve.

“Leaders are supposed to inspire trust. They’re not supposed to actually believe in it.”

This is Will’s ideology distilled. He sees trust as a performance for others, not a reciprocal bond—an inversion that turns every alliance into a stage and every teammate into a mark.