The Maze Runner Wiki
Register
Advertisement

"The Immune are the only resource left to this world."
— Ava Paige

Chancellor Ava Paige was the enigmatic and highest-ranking official of WICKED. She initially opposed for the use of Immunes for the Trials and also was one of the two people to oppose Thomas' death. All epilogues of the three books consist of an email written by Chancellor Paige to her associates. She planned an escape route for Thomas, his friends, and the other Immunes to the Safe Haven. She was said to be evil in The Maze Runner and The Scorch Trials, but by the end of The Death Cure, she ultimately saved Thomas' life and those of the remaining Immunes.

Download (3)f

Ava Paige in the recording after the Maze Trials.

While she only made a big appearance in The Fever Code, in other books, she was working behind-the-scenes with WICKED.

Biography[]

The Fever Code[]

In The Fever Code, Chancellor Ava Paige, known as 'Dr. Paige' at the time due to Kevin Anderson still being the Chancellor, was one of Thomas' doctors when he was a child.

Later, she sent Thomas and Teresa a message telling them to come and see her as soon as possible. Once they found her, she revealed that she thought that some of the WICKED officers were hiding information from them; in other words, that some officers have the Flare. She led Thomas and Teresa into the Chancellor's office while he was asleep and, after scanning through his computer and finding the test results, it was clear that Anderson and several WICKED members had contracted the Flare.

Dr. Paige managed to convince Thomas, Teresa, Aris, and Rachel into killing all the infected members, including Anderson, to which they agreed, grudgingly, resulting in Paige to become the new Chancellor after the death of former Chancellor Anderson.

Before Thomas was inserted into the Maze, Paige revealed, by taking advantage of Thomas' incalculable ability to trust others, betrayed him. It was revealed that she was the one who infected Anderson and the senior staff due to them wanting to end things after the Maze Trials whereas she wanted to continue. Paige's final words to Thomas before his memory was wiped are "You were always my favourite."

The Maze Runner[]

In The Maze Runner, in an E-mail to WICKED executives by Chancellor Ava Paige, she stated in a message to her associates that she believed the Trials were a success. She said the murder of the boy (in reference to Chuck) and the "Rescue" proved to be valuable in their path to finding a cure; she also revealed that the Gladers rescuers were indeed just another Variable. She said that WICKED is good since they were trying to "serve and preserve" the human race. Towards the end of her message, she stated that the "subjects", referencing the Gladers, would be allowed one full night's rest before the beginning of Phase 2. The end of her message stated that she was satisfied, also mentioning the extraordinary results of Group B's Trials, and added that they need more time to process the data. She then bid the Executives farewell till the next day.

The Scorch Trials[]

In The Scorch Trials, Chancellor Ava Paige sent her associates a E-mail about the Scorch Trials, Group A, and Group B. She stated that not everything had gone as planned, but they had gained many of the desired patterns from the subjects' Killzones. She said that emotions must not get in the way and they must maintain a "professional demeanour" as the lives of so many people were in the hands of so few. She believed that, by removing the Swipe and restoring the subjects' memories, all of the subjects would be prepared for what is going to be asked of them. She said in the path of saving the human race, all sacrifices and deaths would be worth it. She was certain that by the end of all their efforts, they would have their required patterns and had a blueprint which would help them create the Cure. At the end of her message, she stated that the Psychs would declare when the time was right to remove the subjects' Swipe and that they would reveal to the subjects whether or not they were Immune to the Flare.

The Death Cure[]

In The Death Cure, when Thomas, Minho, Brenda, and Jorge entered Denver to find a scientist named Hans who previously worked for WICKED, Thomas noticed some posters saying "Chancellor Paige loves you".

Days later, Thomas heard a soft yet authoritative voice that said "Thomas, I have faith in you." This was speculated to be the voice of Chancellor Ava Paige and that she was the one who left the room after waking Thomas, who saw a door close as his eyes adjusted to the light. Shortly after, Thomas found a manila folder with a name in big red letters on the front. Inside, there was a map of the WICKED Complex with several identified routes through the building. There was also a letter signed by Chancellor Ava Paige, which stated that she believed the Trials were over. She said there was more than enough data to create a blueprint but that her associates disagreed with her. Paige stated that she was able to stop the procedure they were going to carry out on Thomas and saved his life. She said that WICKED would still continue trying to find a cure with the data and that the subjects' participation was no longer required. She continued, saying that there was a back door in the building and she wanted Thomas, his friends, and the rest of the Immunes to escape the building. She explained that the first path drawn on the map of the WICKED complex was the route that will lead him through a tunnel. Once outside, he would be able to find an entrance that the Right Arm had made to another building so he would be able to join them. The second marked route on the map would lead him to the Immunes. The third marked route would lead him to the back door in an unused maintenance room. She stated that the back door was a Flat Trans that would transport them to what she hopes "will be a new life, referring to the Safe Haven. The note ended with her saying to "take them all and leave."

In the epilogue, Paige sent her associates a final message saying that they had failed, but they have also succeeded. She said the original plan never came together and they were not able to finish the blueprint or create a cure to the Flare. Having said she anticipated this outcome, she had created an alternate solution with the help of two "wisely placed Immunes" (Brenda and Jorge) to save the human race. She then stated that they all had neglected what was before them: the Immunes were the only hope left to the world. Paige said she hoped that over the years they had been able to pay part of the price of the "unspeakable act committed against humanity" by those before them who released the Flare into the world. Towards the end of her message, she stated that she didn't know how history would judge the actions of WICKED, but that they only ever had one goal: preserve the human race. Paige said that with this last act, that was exactly what they had done. She ended the message by repeating again that WICKED, is good.

Film[]

The Maze Runner[]

In The Maze Runner, when the Gladers entered the WCKD lab after escaping the Maze through the Griever Hole, a video was shown of Chancellor Paige talking about how the Sun Flares happened and what Cranks are, and why they were put in the Maze. During the conclusion of the video, all the WCKD scientists were killed by intruders, but Chancellor Paige faked her death by shooting herself in the temple to falsely lead the Gladers to think everything was over.

The Scorch Trials[]

In The Scorch Trials, Ava was talking with Janson about the taking of Immunes blood for a Cure, and Thomas and Aris happened to witness the conversation. She told Janson to prep the children and to not inflict pain on them.

When WCKD invaded the Right Arm camp, Dr. Paige rode in on a large aircraft and exited with four guards in front of her. She tried to convince Thomas to come with her and had a confrontation with Mary Cooper, to whom she said her conscience was clear, before allowing her to be shot in the stomach by Janson. Ava ordered Janson to load up the Immunes so they may leave, but Thomas grabbed a bomb and ordered her to let everyone go. Ava said she can't and tried to talk Thomas out of using it. Thomas was about to use it and Ava yelled at him not to before they were interrupted by Jorge, who crashed a jeep in a group of WCKD soldiers. Ava was then escorted back to the aircraft by her guards, as the battle ensued. Minho, Aris and Sonya and other Gladers were then taken by WCKD and Ava glared at Thomas along with Teresa and Janson as their aircraft took off. After the berg left, Thomas declared that he was going to kill Ava Paige.

The Death Cure[]

Ava Paige TDC

Ava Paige looking at Thomas' blood killing the virus

In The Death Cure, Ava was seen observing Minho with Teresa as they tested on him, trying to work on a new medicine to make a cure. She later disagreed with Janson in private, and after a few drinks, she decided she did not want to continue with WCKD's plans to hunt down every last Immune to cure an incurable virus. She left him to his thoughts.

When Thomas and the Right Arm snuck into the Last City as it was being attacked, Teresa called Ava Paige in to look at Thomas' blood sample, revealing that Thomas' blood was the Cure to destroying the virus. Later, Ava ran into Thomas and confirmed that his blood could cure infected cranks like how he cured Brenda with his blood sample. Thomas lowered his weapon and Paige shifted to his side to let Thomas go and escape the WCKD headquarters. However, she was shot in the back by Janson due to her changing sides.

Physical Appearance & Personality[]

Ava Paige's personality in the Books is very different from that in the Films.

Although she does not make a personal appearance in the first three books, she is still revealed to be exceptionally intelligent, charismatic, and resourceful. She's also extremely adaptive and is capable of manipulating any change in plans to the advantage of her goals, to such an extent where they benefit her plans directly. She is a utilitarian, and when WICKED's attempts at finding a cure fail, she abandons them to put into place a backdoor to save the human race (alternatively, one could say that it's the rest of the WICKED employees who abandoned her and WICKED's original goals of saving the world, to keep their organization alive). She is also shown to be much more kind than her movie counterpart and was said by Thomas in The Fever Code that she was 'the only doctor who seemed to have a heart'.

In the film, Paige was involved in the release of the Flare and is revealed to be so fanatically devoted to WCKD that she is willing to fake her death to support its aims. She is somewhat delusional and does not believe that the things she and her organization are doing are completely necessary, and any negative results are inevitable or necessary. Despite the genocidal results of her experiments, Paige believes that her conscience is clean. She has virtually no remorse or guilt in the cruelty of her experiments, or horrors she puts her test subjects through, and believes everything she and her cohorts do is for the greater good, justifying her depravities that her methods are merely a means to an end. She believes that no cost is too great to successfully manufacture a cure for the Flare Virus and will allow for nothing and no one to stand in the way of that, as she allowed Janson to execute her former colleague Mary right after claiming her conscience to be clear. This is very different from how she was portrayed in the books. Perhaps a small part of Paige does regret her actions as she wanted for the children Janson to harvest from to feel no pain. Even so, it's small enough not to stop her from her hypocrisies.

Chancellor Paige is described in the book as "a tight, round-faced woman with her hair pulled back."

In the films, she is portrayed as an older woman with blonde hair.

Powers & Abilities[]

  • High Intellect: As the head of the WCKD organization, Ava Paige is shown to have lifetime knowledge of providing medical care, in science and technology for her organization to provide healthy food, security protocols, and weapons for an army of soldiers to be assigned to missions under her authority in finding a cure for the Flare virus.
  • Scientific Genius: Aside from her position as a headmistress, Paige is capable in the field of science as she’s a doctor and uses harsh methods to test the young Immunes in unbearable and extreme environments such as the Labyrinth to trigger emotional behaviours for the device placed in their necks known as the swipe to scan for brain patterns before copying the results. After Immunes pass the Maze trials, they get transferred to headquarters for WCKD to sedate and prepare the enzymes within the children to be harvested out of their blood to create a serum for treatments to reduce the effects of the disease until they figure out a way to make a more permanent version.
  • Leadership: Paige is shown to be very experienced in leading her organization to archive the goal in finding a cure, no matter what it would cause to others in a broken world.
  • Vast Resources: Since the world became broken, WCKD had the best intentions to save it with the money they possessed in using their search for a cure to the Flare, which also gave her board approval to have many people in other remaining territories around the globe to keep their jobs and corporations in finding every child immune to the virus to be brought to them for test.
  • Complete Anonymity: Ava Paige is kept safe in every territory of her organization which makes her identity uncertain for her enemies to recognize her appearance as she has security to guard and protect her position when visiting outside the Scorch.
  • Strategic Mind: When on command in ordering her army on missions against threats to her organization, Paige's intellect also allows her to comprehend targets' movements and strategic plans to use extreme precautions in order to provide what means to an end in allowing her and her troops to get things done for making their urges of capturing Immunes more easily. Thing was shown in both the first and second films, where she created a video for Thomas and the Gladers to see her and the base under attack before committing suicide but faked it for them to fall into taking bait in thinking the people saving them were against WCKD to lure them to the headquarters with Janson after Phase 1. Then in Scorch Trials, Phase 2 was to have the Immunes sedated and prepared for harvest before she arrives by any quick means but was minor due to Thomas and the other escaping the compound until Teresa was ordered to betray him by giving away his and the Right arm headquarters location leading an ambush and WCKD mercilessly and remorselessly killed many fighters before capturing enough the Immunes for tests.

Trivia[]

  • In the film, she is shot in the back and killed by Janson. In the book, she lives and gives a quote about the Immunes and WICKED at the end of The Death Cure.

Quotes[]

  • "Well... I think it's safe to say the Maze Trials were a complete success. I wasn't expecting so many survivors, but... the more the merrier. Thomas continues to surprise and impress. And for now, they seem to have taken the bait. It's too soon to say, but... they could be the key to everything. So let's move forward. It's time now to begin... Phase Two." The Maze Runner (film)
  • "She's right. This is all just a means to an end. You used to understand that, Thomas. No matter what you think of me, I am not a monster. I'm a doctor. I swore an oath to find a cure! No matter the cost. I just need more time." Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials
  • "Because things are changing, and not for the better. Infection rates were up 300%. Fortunately, we may be on the verge of a breakthrough. This is Subject A7. He spent over three years in the Maze Trials. The antibodies produced in response have been the strongest we've ever seen. We're extracting a new serum as we speak, and with your support, we'd like to begin human trials." Maze Runner: The Death Cure

Gallery[]

Advertisement