Ava Paige

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Ava Paige
Also called	Dr. Paige (The Fever Code)
Age	Unspecified (books) 50s (film)
Occupation	WICKED Chancellor
Gender	Female
Fate	Alive (in the books) Deceased (in the movies)
Type	Non-Immune
Appearances	Books: The Fever Code The Maze Runner The Scorch Trials The Death Cure Films: The Maze Runner Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials Maze Runner: The Death Cure
Portrayed by	Patricia Clarkson

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

— Ava Paige

Chancellor Ava Paige is the enigmatic, highest-ranking official of WICKED. She initially opposed 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 is said to be evil in The Maze Runner and The Scorch Trials, but by the end of The Death Cure, she ultimately saves Thomas' life and those of the remaining Immunes.

While she only really appears in The Fever Code, in other books, she is always working behind the scenes.

Biography

• The Fever Code
• The Maze Runner
• The Scorch Trials
• The Death Cure

The Fever Code

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

In Chapter 45, she sends a message for Thomas and Teresa to come and see her as soon as possible. Once they find her, she reveals that she thinks that some of the WICKED officers are hiding information from them, in other words, that some officers have the Flare. She leads Teresa and Thomas into the Chancellor's office while he is asleep, and after scanning through his computer and finding the test results, it was clear that Anderson and several WICKED members had the Flare.

Dr. Paige convinces Thomas, Teresa, Rachel and Aris to go in and kill all the infected members, including Anderson, resulting in Paige to become the new Chancellor.

In the closing chapter of the book, before Thomas is inserted into the Maze, Paige reveals, by taking advantage of Thomas' incalculable ability to trust others, she betrayed him. It is 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 is wiped are "You were always my favorite."

The Maze Runner

In the epilogue of the The Maze Runner, Chancellor Ava Paige states in a message to her associates that she believes the Trials were a success. She says 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 reveals that the Gladers' rescuers were indeed just another Variable. She states that WICKED is good since they are trying to "serve and preserve" the human race. Towards the end of her message, she states that the "subjects", in reference to the Gladers, will gain one full night's rest before the beginning of Stage 2. The end of her message states that she is satisfied, also mentioning the extraordinary results of Group B's trials, and adds that they need more time to process the data. She then bids farewell till the next day.

The Scorch Trials

In the epilogue of The Scorch Trials, Chancellor Ava Paige sends a message to her associates about the Scorch Trials, Group A and Group B. She states that not everything has gone as planned but they have gained many of the desired patterns from the subjects' Killzones. She says that emotions must not get in the way and they must maintain a "professional demeanor" as the lives of so many people are in the hands of so few. She believes 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 says in the path of saving the human race, all sacrifices and deaths will be worth it. She is certain that by the end of all their efforts, they will have their required patterns and have a blueprint which will help them create the cure. At the end of her message, she states that the Psychs will declare when the time is right to remove the subjects' Swipe and that they will reveal to the subjects whether or not they are Immune to the Flare.

The Death Cure

In The Death Cure, when Thomas, Minho, Brenda, and Jorge enter a city to find a scientist named Hans, Thomas notices some posters saying "Chancellor Paige loves you".

At the beginning of Chapter 63, Thomas hears a soft yet authoritative voice that says "Thomas, I have faith in you." This is speculated to be the voice of Chancellor Ava Paige and that she is the one who left the room after waking Thomas, who sees a door close as his eyes adjust to the light. Shortly after, Thomas finds a manila folder with a name in big red letters on the front. Inside, there is a map of the WICKED Complex with several identified routes through the building. There is also a letter signed by Chancellor Ava Paige, which states that she believes the Trials are over. She says there is more than enough data to create a blueprint but that her associates disagree with her. Paige states that she was able to stop the procedure they were going to carry out on Thomas and saved his life. She says that WICKED will continue trying to find a cure with the data and that the subjects' participation is no longer required. She continues, saying that there is a back door in the building and she wants Thomas, his friends, and the rest of the Immunes to escape the building. She then explains that the first path drawn on the map of the WICKED complex is the route that will lead him through a tunnel. Once outside, he will be able to find an entrance that the Right Arm has made to another building so he will be able to join them. The second marked route on the map will lead him to the Immunes. The third marked route will lead him to the back door in an unused maintenance room. She states that the back door is a Flat Trans that will transport them to what she hopes "will be a new life." The note ends with her saying to "take them all and leave."

In the epilogue, Paige sends a final message to her associates saying that they have failed, but they have also succeeded. She says 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 states that they all had neglected what was before them: the Immunes were the only hope left to the world. Paige says she hopes that over the years they have 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 states that she doesn't know how history will judge the actions of WICKED, but that they only ever had one goal: preserve the human race. Paige says that with this last act, that is exactly what they have done. She ends the message by repeating that WICKED is good.

Film

The Maze Runner

In the Maze Runner film, Chancellor Paige fakes her death to falsely lead the Gladers to think everything was over.

The Scorch Trials

In the Scorch Trials film, Ava communicates with Janson, and Thomas sees this along with Aris. She tells him to prep the children and not inflict pain on them. When WCKD invades the Right Arm camp, Dr. Paige rides in on a large aircraft, and exits with four guards in front of her. She tries to convince Thomas to come with her and has a confrontation with Mary Cooper, to whom she says her conscience is clear, before allowing her to be shot by Janson. Ava orders Janson to load everyone up so they may leave, but Thomas grabs a bomb and orders her to let everyone go. Ava says she can't and tries to talk Thomas out of using it. Thomas is about to use it and Ava yells at him not to before they are interrupted by Jorge, who crashes a jeep. Ava runs back to the aircraft with her guards, as a battle ensues. Minho and the others are then taken by WCKD and Ava glares at Thomas with Janson and Teresa as their aircraft takes off. Thomas then declares that he is going to kill Ava Paige.

The Death Cure

In the Death Cure film, Ava is seen observing Minho with Teresa as they test him. She later disagrees with Janson in private, after a few drinks, that she does not want to continue with WCKD's plans to hunt down every single Immune. She leaves him to his thoughts. As the Last City is attacked, Teresa calls Ava Paige in to look at Thomas' blood sample, revealing that Thomas' blood is the cure to destroying the virus. Later, Ava runs into Thomas and confirms that his blood can cure infected people like how he cured Brenda. Thomas lowers his weapon and Paige shifts to his side. However, she is shot in the back by Janson, unlike in the book.

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.

Physical Appearance

Chancellor Paige is described in the book as "a tight, round-faced woman with her hair pulled back." In the movies, she is portrayed as an older woman with blonde hair.

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

Pictures