The Center of the Maze Is Grief

Published December 3, 2016 · Updated July 6, 2022

Like you guys, I love the show and have a hard time not thinking about it. After last week’s episode, I have a theory about the center of the maze and the top of Arnold’s pyramid.

When we first learned about Arnold, Ford told Bernard about the pyramid of consciousness. According to Ford, they never figured out what was at the top. There’ve been several theories online about the top being Love. But I think it’s grief.

The Man in Black has said so much on a couple occasions. He told Lawrence he likes it when the hosts suffer because it’s when they’re most human. Last week he said he noticed something different for the first time when he killed Maeve’s daughter. It seems like experiencing such an intense trauma unlocks something in the hosts. And the Man in Black has figured this out.

After Maeve’s daughter was killed, she’s never been the same. After the Man in Black killed Lawrence’s wife in front of his daughter, the daughter told him to follow the maze. I think the Man in Black has realized grief unlocks the hosts and this is why he’s been particularly cruel in the past year. He’s actually unlocking the hosts consciousness.

And that’s where the maze comes in.

The maze isn’t real. It think it’s a metaphor for unlocking consciousness – for “being free” as Bernard/Arnold tells Dolores. And at the center of the maze is a body: death, grief. In the last episode our clue was seeing Maeve holding her dying daughter in the center of the maze drawn in the sand. When you experience grief, you’re human. You’re “free.”

Ford believe he’s giving the hosts a gift by erasing their memories. But those terrible memories keep our loved ones alive, it’s “all we have left of them” as Bernard and Dolores have both said about their child and parents, respectively. Those terrible memories give life purpose by allowing for there to be consequences – as the Man in Black has told Teddy and Lawrence. By erasing their memories, Ford is keeping the hosts from becoming “human.”

The humans in the park don’t act like humans because their are no consequences to their actions.

I’m not exactly sure, yet, where this leads to the climax with Arnold/Wyatt/Teddy/Dolores/Ford/MiB.

My guess is Dolores never reaches “Arnold” in the William storyline. Years later, as the Man in Black, William finally realizes that what Dolores was searching for was freedom. So now he’s trying to help her get that by sending her on her loop again. Ford must know this and, as a result, is digging up an old Wyatt storyline. A storyline that MUST include Dolores – the only worthy adversary of the Man in Black.
– Matt S.

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