Day Fifteen
We begin episode 7 of The Wilds with Martha having a bad dream until she awakens to find their camp on the beach flooded after a tidal surge. With their belongings soaked and seemingly unusable, the kids scramble to safety higher up the beach.
Meanwhile, Gretchen practices her speech with Thom as it seems this study is being used as a tool to potentially bring in new investors and sponsors to support their endeavour.
Afterward, we see flashbacks of Jeanette (whose real name is actually Linh) as she’s recruited to Gretchen’s cause. She functions as a “confederate”, playing out as a woman on the inside. Meanwhile, they have another operative on the island already which is believed to be Dot given what we’ve seen so far. Anyway, Jeanette is not aware of exactly who this is.
Back on the island, Fatin confronts Leah over her obsession with Shelby as they contemplate whether she was planted on the island or not. This causes some friction within the team.
With no fire and the girls all pointing fingers at each other, they eventually stop when Shelby brings in two new bags to the group that washed up on shore. Only, all of them begin suspecting that she’s been planted there by higher powers given she shows with this right when they need it.
One of the bags happens to be Jeanette’s too and as they empty the contents, it’s revealed that she has a lighter, alcohol and cigarettes. All of them thank Shelby for what she’s found but Leah remains suspicious.
Despite Leah finding a bag of her own which held medicine that they needed at an opportune time, she suspects Shelby has been planted and threatens to get rid of the lighter. This is their one lifeline and Shelby eventually snaps, revealing that the real reason she’s been sneaking off is because of her retainer and she feels ashamed.
Dot decides to relocate the camp but Dot sits this one out while the others fumble around with the campfire. Out in the woods, Toni catches up with Shelby who’s taking a moment to herself. She tells Toni she doesn’t hate her but Toni is having none of it and clearly resents the girl over her beliefs.
In the woods, the two talk as Shelby tries to open up and admit what’s going on in her world. Toni believes she’s trying to “out-sad” her but eventually this conflict culminates in Shelby leaning forward and kissing her. Well, that was unexpected!
Anyway, the rest of the girls down by the beach ignore Rachel as she dishes out “tough love”. Nora eventually snaps and tells the others that Rachel is not a success story. Unfortunately the siblings start fighting when Rachel tells Nora to get her own life. As things reach fever pitch, Dot tells the others to get a grip and start working together.
Interestingly, we see another flashback of the plane crash. Only, this time it seems to hint that they never actually crashed in the plane and instead were simply drugged and stashed onto boats, dumped in the ocean nearby to make it look like a plane crash. Jeanette hurt herself after having second thoughts and decided to go ahead and jump onboard with Leah, settling down alongside her in the ocean.
In another flashback, it turns out Gretchen believes that having an all-female troupe on this island will show how harmonious girls work together and how they’re the future of this world. She blames the hardships of the past on males and gives an impassioned plea, ready for investors to hear her out. Based on the 15 days we’ve seen of the island so far, the girls are not exactly living up to expectations.
Back on the island, a plane flies overhead as the girls on the beach believe that rescue has arrived. All the girls are happy apart from Shelby, who tries hard to hide her disappointment.
The Episode Review
So just to recap the events we’ve seen so far; the entire plan that Gretchen has revolves around bringing girls onto a plane, drugging them so they’re knocked out after faking a flight. Then, taking them off the plane and onto a boat, sailing out into the ocean to drop them off. There, they plant a fake plane in the water with the exact same black box with a mayday signal attached. That’s a little farfetched, surely?
Jeanette’s injuries and past now do make more sense but Gretchen’s plan is full of holes that are hard to ignore. What if someone looked out the window on the flight? What if one of them died in transit? What if the girls drowned out in the water and couldn’t swim? How do they all know CPR if they weren’t taught it prior to arriving? And can we really say these girls are working together?
Based on the 15 days we’ve seen so far, we’ve experienced aggression, violence, manipulation, fighting, bullying and no survival instincts. If Gretchen is really serious about showcasing strong females then surely this project has proven quite the opposite? It’s such a shame too because there’s a golden opportunity to showcase empowering women – something this show could have championed beautifully in its all-female Lost scenario.
Anyway, we’ve got a handful of episodes left now and with rescue imminent, surely there’s another twist in this tale to come.
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Episode Rating
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Who is funding this project?!?!?!?! That is all I’d like to know!
It’s pretty obvious that all of the characters knew CPR from beforehand. Remember, Leah commented on it being strange that they all knew CPR… almost like they were handpicked (which they were). It just seems like you misinterpreted that scene. Where did you get that they were all taught it right before?
Hey Kristina, thanks for commenting really appreciate you taking the time to read the review.
While I do appreciate the girls were hand-picked to head on the island, the way the girls incredulously commented that they all know CPR seemed to hint that they didn’t before. To be fair, that may be a fault of the line delivery and acting rather than the dialogue. I understand this company have done a lot of background research but where are they getting the money from? Who are these sponsors? And how is none of this public knowledge? Even accounting for people biting their tongues, the later information about where the girls are (no spoilers in this recap of course!) would account for a tremendous amount of negotiation with foreign authorities.
I definitely take your comment about CPR onboard though and chalk that up to the acting more than anything else. It’s good that this show is getting a decent following but as you said yourself, Gretchen’s motivations don’t “make any rational sense”, which gives her the impression of a caricature character with very little depth and reason for doing what she’s doing.
Definitely worth sticking around the final reveal though and do be sure to comment on the finale recap too! Love to get your thoughts on the big twists there!
Thanks again for commenting.
Greg W.
I think you have completely missed the point in this episode and prior episodes, as well. For one thing, they’ve made it totally obvious that Gretchen and her “operatives” have done an enormous amount of background research and vetting on each “participant” before selecting them. They were hand picked for a reason. Knowing CPR and being able to swim/support one another are only two of those reasons. They also knew their parents were either detached yet strangely desperate to “help them” or not involved in their lives at all, which means they wouldn’t ask any questions or would be easy to manipulate. They’ve DEFINITELY displayed far superior survival skills than I would ever expect to see from a bunch of hormonal teenage boys who would have probably killed one another by this point in the narrative. But furthermore, their major disadvantage is that all of them have survived trauma of some sort. Which is what we are seeing play out throughout their time on the island, and which is also why she told Lihn to prepare for her traumas to creep up the moment she was on that island alone in a “real world, real life-changing situation”….it can easily be inferred that their arguments and the times when they’ve not gotten along were supposed to be “teachable moments”. None of this is to say I think her methods are sane or make any rational sense in a real way. Even their interviews with Gretchen’s hand picked psychologists are life-altering in every sense of the term, and not in a good way. The psychologist that pushed Leah to a breaking point in episode 6 said something along the lines of “it only matters what she will feel tomorrow—guilt”… alluding to the fact that the more guilt the girls feel, the less likely they will be to report them. It’s clearly a misguided effort to support a feminist mission. But there are definite displays of true power, courage, and tenacity—not to mention life affirming moments shared between the girls they may have never experienced in a simulated environment. If her methods weren’t a gross abuse of power and insidiously dangerous/borderline insane, they might carry some merit. This show is far from winning any awards, but I do think you have missed its mark in your review of this episode and remarks about information from preceding episodes, altogether. It’s almost as if you weren’t totally paying attention.