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I made a community for The Wilds!
I don't know if this is something anyone is actually interested in, but I see there are new people discovering The Wilds this year (just like me) and I didn't see a community for it, and I wanted to experiment with the community feature a bit, so... here's the official Tumblr community for The Wilds!
A community dedicated to fans of Sarah Streicher's "The Wilds" on Prime Video! Our girls are Unsinkable -- and I dont know about you, but th
The Wilds: Dot Has Always Been in Survival Mode
Dot, one of our Unsinkable Heroines, has maybe one of the most tragic stories of the girls.
I know each of them has their own tragedies and none of them have IDEAL living situations. Let's get that right out of the way. I am absolutely not minimizing the seriousness and in some cases absolute horror that was being faced before they went on this "retreat" (especially Martha re: the trial, and Shelby re: religious exile). But just hear me out, and let's talk about Dot for a second (since it's not actually a competition between them).
But Dot? Dorothy? Dottie? We don't really know what happened with her mother, but we know that at 17 years old she was the primary caretaker for her extremely sick father, and having to balance school and caretaking in a way that is stressful for someone decades older, let alone a teen. Once he dies, the only reason she agrees to go on this retreat is the fear that social services will come and take her. And for someone who has had to be as independent and in charge as Dot, how can you step backwards?
We can assume she's had to be this way for a long time-- dealing drugs in order to have money, giving up a social life and other activities to spend her father's last few months together. Now, she's thrown into the island, and continues to function in survival mode. Feelings are irrelevant, fears are irrelevant, just keep moving forward. Keep surviving. Keep doing whatever needs to be done to get to the next moment, and the next moment, and the next moment.
Just like how someone might if, say... their father dies in their home when they're 17 years old after having to slowly watch the illness take him, and then having to stay afloat without social services putting you into foster care. And with no other adults to rely on (except for.... Gretchen).
What's amazing about Dot is that in season 2 we start to see what happens when she knows she has other people to rely on. Her defenses are lowering. She doesn't have to be On Top Of Things 24/7 anymore. She's able to have feelings, have reactions, discover who she is when she doesn't have to be on Autopilot.
It's amazing how sometimes 7 teenage girls can undo the hurt of having to grow up too fast, and remind you that we're social creatures who aren't meant to survive all alone. And that happiness is part of living-- even if it's not part of "surviving."
Day One on the Island - A Comparison of Boys vs Girls
There are so many ways that Season 2 of The Wilds is asking us to consider/compare the boys and girls island. Whether the prompt to trace the similarities of the two is implied (i.e. the ways each story mirrors one another) or explicit (like Susan and Thom taking on notes to measure who reached each milestone before the other), the two groups are constantly being asked to do better. So let’s just do it. This is post one in a series to measure the different achievements, milestones, development, etc that each group reached.
We will start with Day One.
Actions/What they both did:
The girls made big moves on Day One. By the end of the day, they had:
Found and cared for each other
Discussed lifelines (i.e. phone, SOS)
Started a resource Inventory
Started looking for water
Collected resources from the wreckage
Divided responsibilities / made plans
Started a fire
Icebreaker games / Build relationships
On the other island, we see the boys take less action. On their Day One, they had:
Found each other
Split into two groups to look for help
Done some resource collection, since they have the little bottles of alcohol, water bottles, and Josh's suitcase
We do not see them with the same amount of resources as the girls had (e.g., pop cans from the wreckage)
Reactions (to being stranded)
The girls are immediately aware of the severity of the situation. We see a lot of emotion and fear from them. Some of them also quickly start blaming others for being the reason they are there. Rachel demands to know what Nora told their parents, and Fatin is angry at her parents. They place external blame on others for putting them in this situation. The boys are more reserved with their emotions. Devon is by far the loudest (but we know this is somewhat for show), and everyone else is quietly awaiting rescue. Henry is the most pessimistic, but interestingly none of the boys are actively blaming others for sending them on the retreat. It feels like they are more resigned to their fate.
Relationships
As of Day One, we can already see relationships between the girls begin to build and grow. Physical touch is big for the group as a form of comfort, and they all take active roles in checking in each other. Examples of this included Shelby helping Martha after the whirlpool, Dot cleaning off Fatin's mouth when she got sick, and multiple people helping to carry Jeanette in. We don't see the boys go out of their way to build relationships with each other (aside from Seth and the scene of them socializing on the plane). While there are some side conversations that happen when they go looking for help, there is a different vibe with their group -- they laugh when DJ is injured, make fun of Josh for crying, stereotype, and do not actively try to learn about each other. What does it mean?
Both groups had very different approaches on Day One. The boys focused on looking for help, and felt pretty certain that help would either come quickly or could be found on the Island. We don’t see the girls go actively look for help until Rachel leads the climb up the mountain. It’s interesting that the boys felt so sure that someone would come to find them, and were self-assured that rescue would come, while the girls planned more for it potentially to take a few days. The girls really rooted into their own skill sets to figure out what they needed to do to survive the immediate situation. Dot immediately begins an inventory, we see Shelby lead looking for water and multiple people pull in cans of pop, snacks, luggage, etc from the water. The girls paired their focus on survival with an empathetic approach, and while we do see some tensions arise (i.e. being branched) we see the girls supporting and helping each other in very different ways compared to the other island.
Why Fatin is the reason Leah’s OD isn’t shown in full…
Since Leah survives the island, the stakes were low. But the same can be said of Leah running into the ocean the week before, and yet Fatin is shown “taking point” in calming her down.
While this time around, Fatin is shown recounting the incident four days later quite callously… but also rather curiously.
Realistically, if it wasn’t Fatin who pumped Leah’s stomach, it was Dot. But Fatin is addressing Dot, and she says “we” — more likely meaning in the group as a whole, granted. Which all the more strongly suggests that she, in fact, means “I.”
Plus, why would Dot have “scheduled” Fatin to watch Leah if Fatin had taken issue with it before? Because she didn’t.
Because before the shock faded — leaving Fatin with the lingering fear and anger, compounded by guilt that she wants so desperately to disassociate from — the aftermath looked a lot more like this…
Potential Devastating Theory for Martha’s Season 2 Arc:
This is a long post, so buckle up! @outinthewildspodcast and I tag teamed this post to share with y’all the potential devastating theory that maybe Martha kills/injures one of the girls, most likely Nora. We had a field day in our DMs a while back developing this theory and I think it’s about high time y’all join us in our pain lol I want to caveat this by saying, none of us want this to be true, but the evidence is so compelling, we have a hard time ruling it out-
So, what if the reason Gretchen and co are looking for evidence to use against Martha is because she snaps and kills/hurts someone (Nora or even possibly Shelby?) because if Martha was dead, why would they be looking to discredit her with the perjury info?
If you rewatch the scenes in episode 9 between Detective Young and Gretchen, there is so much ambiguity in the pieces they discuss. Detective Young is being asked to find them a way out of “this one” and to find a “creative solution so the family can’t sue”. Both of these obscure what he is actually looking to protect Gretchen from. The first point to unpack is about the box that Detective Young is going through. It’s posed to us as containing Martha’s belongings (the frog cape, her hedgehog slippers), but something that definitely doesn’t belong in there is Nora’s journal. Yet it’s the first thing we see. This builds that initial link between Nora and Martha (and hold the fact that journal is there… we’ll come back to it).
The second piece is when Young talks about the family suing. WHOSE family? They never actually specify.
We assume it’s Martha’s Mom looking to sue, but if that were the case, and they are looking for some kind of blackmail to use as leverage, how would Martha committing perjury help them at all? No one is ever going to prosecute or blame that young girl for not being ready to talk about her trauma. And I think canon makes it clear that Bernice knows she lied, so why would she care? So, while yes, she did commit perjury-no prosecutor would go after her. It’s such bad press. And it’s incredibly weak leverage.
But, if you consider the possibility of Marty snapping and killing/injuring someone, say for the content of this post Nora for example, Gretchen could use the perjury and whatever other information they can find to discredit Martha and paint her as unstable. They could use that as a way to displace any responsibility from themselves onto Martha herself. So, if Nora gets injured, and her parents want to sue, Gretchen and her team could use this information to put the blame solely on Martha and absolve themselves (despite arguably contributing to the atmosphere/conditions that ultimately lead to Martha breaking down in the first place.) Now, let’s bring Nora’s journal back. We know that Nora was documenting everything, including the mental state of all of the girls. That journal would have important information about how Martha was doing and if Nora was growing concerned about her.
It’s also important to note, based off the context clues in the dialogue of that scene, it’s clear they are trying to get ahead of it before the family can place the blame on Gretchen. There’s no actual suit being charged against them yet, but they are aware there’s an incident that might warrant that kind of reaction from “the family” once they find out. They are in damage control mode.
This brings me to a post I made a while back, about the storyline between Faber and Leah in episode 6. If you divorce Leah’s narration from the visuals you see in this episode, it doesn’t necessarily mean she’s talking about day twelve (title of ep.) The dialogue in these scenes could very easily fit the events from episode 10 where Leah follows Nora into the woods and falls into the pit. We know the point of Faber’s actions in this episode is to make Leah feel guilty about what happened to Martha-we assume how she got very sick from the muscles and Leah lost the medicine. But if we think about these scenes in context of Leah following Nora in ep 10, not Shelby in ep 6, Faber could be making Leah feel guilty about what happened with Martha (her potentially harming Nora) because Leah would have been the one who told the girls that Nora was a confederate. She’s the only one who had that information of Nora being the confederate, and by revealing it, made Nora a target for Martha’s aggression. They want Leah to feel guilty. To feel responsible. To question whether her revealing that information put everyone else at risk. Gaslighting her into thinking she imagined Nora as a confederate? It ties in with Young and Faber speaking to Shelby about the “unfortunate instances” that happened on the Island. There was clearly an escalation of violence in the group, which can be connected not only to the characters who are missing from the bunker, but also to injuries we see (Shelby’s head and twisted ankle to name a few).
BUT WHY WOULD MARTY DO SUCH A THING? You ask?!
Martha is in such a bad way at the end of ep10. It’s evident she is not okay by her scenes with Dot and Rachel back at camp afterwards. Martha has spent her whole life (post Dr. Ted) using kindness and clinging to this childlike wonder as a coping mechanism. She shattered that façade when she killed the goat. The way that scene is shot, shifting between Island Marty and Marty in her jingle dress, the one she was going to wear to the ADULT jingle competition really highlights this transition from childlike naivety to “growing up.” By walking out on her adult dance competition, Martha was subconsciously refusing to grow up and accept the reality of the horrible things that happened to her. And so, the façade was built. Killing the goat is what brings it crumbling down, and now years of pushing off that trauma is catching up to her, no longer walled off.
Martha’s arc is incredibly incomplete. We have this moment of catharsis when she kills the goat, but only see the start of her struggle afterwards. She’s in a bad way in Episode 10 and she’s going to be in a really bad way in Season 2. It’d be understandable to see her lash out, and channel the rage she’s probably had gently simmering deep below the surface finally come boiling over. Coming to terms with trauma you have experienced is messy, it’s painful and it can enhance the pain you’ve held down for years. If Leah tells the girls about the events from ep 10 (the tree camera, the pit, etc.) It’s very plausible Nora becomes a target for Martha’s misplaced rage as she blames her for putting her on the Island (where she had to come to terms with her trauma) in the first place. Martha was probably very happy (on a surface level at least) ignoring the truth of her trauma. Now, out here, she’s forced to face it, and she’s not happy about it.
Now, I’m sure you might be thinking, that’s a bit of a jump. Martha isn’t perceived as violent; Leah mentioned how “every creature meant something to her,” she’s a vegetarian, she doesn’t like that Shelby hunts, she’s adamantly adverse to the idea of killing the goat at first. She’d never hurt someone intentionally. But you can’t separate that from her fear of becoming like the person who caused her harm. She holds onto that kindness because it’s connected with her childhood (and all the ways she is stuck as a 12 year old), but also because she never wants to imitate the harm that was done to her. She sees herself in those animals. So her entire world shifted when she became what she would classify as a predator, or someone who causes harm.
There is a sinister feeling behind the smile Martha gets when she does inevitably kill the goat. We assume it’s a response to an emotional release. But what if? Could it be the start of her breaking point? What if the violence ramps up, using the justification for survival to carry out more and more?
You might think it’s a big jump to go from killing the goat to harming Nora. But a possible step in between is Rachel’s hand amputation. I know we mostly all assume Dot is the one who ends up having to amputate Rachel's hand (assuming the shark bites it and leaves it too mangled instead of cleanly biting it off.) But Dot is struggling too at the end of Season 1. What if she tries and can’t bring herself to do it? What if it's Martha that volunteers to do it? I could see a scene (if they were to show something so graphic) of Martha with the axe that parallels her with the rock she killed the goat with. Maybe that is the next step in Martha losing control, her violence (though justifiable in her mind, killing the goat for survival, amputating Rachel's hand so she doesn't die) just keeps ratcheting up. And maybe, it feels good? Years of suppressing such a deeply traumatic event finally being released with each hit.
So, when it's perceived that Nora is a threat, Martha feels she has to take her out to save the rest of them. For survival. To protect the others. Because no one was able to protect her.
Also, does Gretchen think these girls are literal idiots? In what world do victims of a plane crash get held hostage basically, without being able to see their family and getting interrogated. Like when Shelby says she’s done talking and the guy says “we have two hours left”. In what world does that make sense as something a therapist or investigator would say??? The absolute nerve of Gretchen to think none of them would get suspicious.
On one hand, I think the reason behind Shelby's dissociative episodes is that on the island she could be truly herself. Once they got rescued, she couldn't cope anymore with the conflict between her feelings towards Toni and the pressure that her family put on her shoulders to be the perfect stereotypical Christian girl — whatever it means, ugh. On the other hand, I dread the idea that someone's death could be the actual trigger, as well, since it may remind her of Becca. What do you think?
hmmm well, gretchen really said let me take eight traumatized teenage girls and traumatize them even more, in the name of science.
joking aside, I think you’re completely right anon. we see proof of that from Toni’s “you’re free here” speech before they kiss for the first time and basically everything from episode 8, when the plane flies over the island.
Along with her retainer, I think Shelby has a very personal relationship with her hair (i.e. her mental breakdown and cutting it off paired with the scene backstage at the pageant when she’s brushing her hair and finds out that Becca died) so the catalyst for her breakdown, is the thought of leaving the island and returning to her old life. That means her old fears, doubts, religious trauma comes back in full force (also all of her thoughts and guilt about Becca). While everyone else was overjoyed to leave the island, Shelby retreats into herself and does what she does best: run. The control she’s regained on her life from the island shatters when she realizes she’ll soon have to face her controlling, christian father again.
Now let’s talk about Becca. We can accurately assume Becca died in December for a number of reasons (1. the bowling alley had Christmas decorations 2. Shelby mentions getting her real teeth before the first pageant competition in December, which Shelby wins after hearing the news of Becca’s death.) And I think Becca’s death had more of an impact on Shelby than we realize, I’d argue even more than her father’s homophobia. We know that Shelby at least in directly contributed to Becca’s suicide, something that she feels extremely guilty for. (we can see this most clearly in her interactions with Toni-pill scene (she doesn’t want her inactions to cause another person to die) and when she references how she’s “hurt people before” in the 1x10 cliff conversation between Toni and Shelby). I think Shelby knows her relationship with Toni mirrors her relationship with Becca, and that’s one the reasons she’s hesitant to pursue it. so she’s constantly reminded about Becca’s death, and how she contributed to it, plus internalized homophobia blah blah. So I don’t necessarily think someone would need to die for her to be reminded of Becca, my understanding of her character is that she already thinks of Becca often. Additionally, we have to think about the months between Becca’s death (December) and the start of the experiment (end of May), what did Shelby do, what about her parents, her father?
how would The Wilds have fared if it had been a book series first?
I have been thinking a lot about the cancellation of The Wilds, the many reasons why Amazon cancelled the series, what could've been working or not working that led to it. And thus left it quite literally in the middle of the story without being able to nicely wrap up a single thing (probably the worst nightmare for most writers/directors/producers/actors).
The aspects that seem most prominent to me are: 1) less screen time for the already-established main characters (The Girls), and thus 2) introducing The Boys by way of doubling the main cast-- after many people had already been tuning in specifically because 3) It had been a female-led show. There's the other potential 4) it was getting complicated and Amazon wanted something that took less investment (Netflix and Stranger Things could NEVER) (Then again, Sense8 was cancelled...) (I digress)
And I can't tell if this is a hot take, but I started to think that... if The Wilds had first come out as a book series, with all of the plotlines fleshed out and expected (with all of the complexities and timelines layered out and organized, where readers will know there's going to be one focusing more on the girls, then one on the boys, with the interwoven "future" timeline of Leah and the rest of them trying to figure out how to get out of the bunker and understand what's going on).
Would it be a different format and a different audience? Yes, probably. At least a little bit. But in my head, at least, I can picture it being read by the same kind of people who would've read other dystopian or mystery books (Hunger Games, Enders Game, I mean maybe even something like Handmaid's Tale since there's aspects of twists and unexpectedness) and with 8 teens including queer characters and complex, interesting, fast-paced plots? Come on.
I can even picture the way chapters will go between their time on the island and each girl having their own backstory chapter with a different font and time stamp.
Then, if it was optioned for a movie series or a tv show, there would be an understanding of what would be happening. Was the addition of The Boys the killer of this show? I think... yes, but not because their addition was inherently bad (I do think that the show would've been completely fine and maybe even continued longer if it was just the girls and we got to focus on their experiences and rescue, but I also am acknowledging that the vision of the show from the creators was, understandably, to see both the girls and the boys so we're going off of that vision). The Boys have importance in the story just like the girls do and taking them out would lessen the totality of what the writers were trying to build. So anyway.
That's just something I was thinking about, I may expand on it more in the future as I think about it more and flesh it out in my head more.
In another world, we got so much more of The Wilds. I'll just go scream into the abyss.
