Review/ Read Along: Finishing "The Scorch Trials" With Chapters 64-Epilogue

Amanda McHugh ‘18/ Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer
The Scorch Trials came out in the UK, and apparently it is nothing like the book. Many fans had said that they combined so much from The Death Cure into The Scorch Trials, as well as changing the plot to accommodate the changes from the first movie. However, many fans agreed that they loved the movie just as much as the book, despite the changes. So even as the book closes today, tonight the entire story line is probably going to be much different!
We last left off with Thomas falling asleep with Teresa and all his friends by his side. He hears a voice he doesn’t recognize communicating telepathically. She’s glad that he is okay, but thought he’d be surprised. She then says that he’s about to understand more “very soon now”. Before she leaves, she says “it’s me, Tom. It’s Brenda. Things are about to get bad for you.”

Thomas wakes up alone in a small white room. He knows he should be terrified, but remains calm as he reaches out to Aris and Teresa telepathically. He falls asleep again, but wakes up to Teresa reaching out to him, frantic and terrified. She tells him that it’s been a week since they’ve seen him. The fear Thomas was holding back before built up in his chest. WICKED told the others that he was overtaken with the flare and he had to be separated. Thomas is in disbelief that it’s been a week, and he still can’t understand how Brenda was talking to him in his head. But at this point we see Thomas over. He can’t deal with this anymore, and overtaken with emotions, he tells Teresa to go away. That he’s done playing WICKED’s games, and that Teresa needs to leave him alone. The last thing Teresa says to Thomas is “WICKED is good,” and she’s gone.
The next page starts the epilogue. Like The Maze Runner’s epilogue, it’s a lab report from Ava Paige, head of WICKED to her colleagues recapping the Scorch Trials, Group A and B. The date is 232.2.13. She starts off saying not to let emotions interfere with the task they need to accomplish, and although a lot of unpredictable things have gone wrong they still made tremendous progress. She reminds them to remain professional, and to remember how many lives are resting on their hands. The days to come are important, and when they restore the memories of the teens, they will all be ready to take on the next step of the plan. She believes every death and sacrifices is worth it, and the end is near. Once they have their remaining subjects, they’ll tell them who is, and who isn’t, immune to the flare.
We already know they’re immune to the flare because of the end of The Maze Runner movie. So this will majorly change the ending of The Scorch Trials film because them being immune is no longer shocking. Even Brenda communicating telepathically with Thomas won’t be in the film because the telepathy is not in the films. So the filmmakers must have something else in mind to show us that Brenda isn’t who we thought she was. This most likely means Jorge isn’t who he seems to be either. Which questions if they work for WICKED, and knew about this plan the whole time? And how much did they know? And who even are they?
Moreover though, what will this mean for the third book and film? Obviously the films and books are not going to be comparable (that split up long ago half way through The Maze Runner film when that film took place over three days, and the book took place over three months). The Death Cure book will pick up where we left off here in these articles, where we’re still not sure who is and who isn’t immune to the flare, and the fact that Thomas is still separated from his peers. Though it’s been said that The Death Cure movie will have a time gap of a year between films. This leaves a lot to speculate considering all three books happen one after the other. The flare is a fast acting virus, and within a year one would die from the flare. So a lot can happen within the time gap, including the death of a character if they aren’t immune to the flare.
The Scorch Trials and The Death Cure will soon prove to be very different from what James Dashner wrote. Though Dashner has been involved in the screenplay so his thoughts and ideas are in the film as well. In addition, Wes Ball (director and writer for all three films) has openly admitted if it weren’t for time and money, they would’ve added more scenes or changed sections around. So it is possible some of these major changes we’re seeing in the films that diverge form the book is due to financial and time constraints.
But all will be revealed tonight! It’s been sixteen weeks and the wait is finally over, yay! Whether or not the film is completely different from the book or not, hopefully it’ll still live up to it’s hype, and hopefully everyone enjoys the film!
And it has been confirmed, February 17, 2017 the third and final film The Death Cure will hit theaters! Time to start preparing now.