8) What Exactly Is The Maze?
The big Macguffin of this season is the Maze, that which is so eagerly sought by the villainous Man in Black. While many of the park’s narratives revolve around a hunt for something, the Maze is said to the deepest level of the ‘game’ which Arnold hid at Westworld’s centre.
Within the Maze, the Man in Black believes he will find the true meaning of Westworld. With one episode to go, we still don’t know much about it at all. Except that it is apparently located at “the city swallowed by sand” and has something to do with Dolores.
Given how the pattern of the Maze can be found printed on each of the host’s scalps, it’s pretty clear by now that it’s not a physical maze but rather a metaphor for the minds of the hosts. In particular, Dolores has been lost in her own head for many weeks now as she tries to sort out her jumbled memories and find out the truth about who she really is.
Paired with the information that we learnt about the host’s early programming in the penultimate episode, it seems likely that the Maze could be Arnold’s test of a host’s true sentience. What exactly that entails we look forward to finding out.