Welcome To Eden – Season 1 Episode 5 “Storm” Recap & Review

Storm

Episode 5 of Welcome to Eden starts in the past, with Judith being captured by the Eden cultists. She pleads for her life but unfortunately, Brenda and Orson both work together and use that strange gun from before. After piercing her in the head, she’s dropped off the cliff to her doom.

Back in Eden, Zoa is a mess. That inscription of C+F is there, so Zoa takes a screwdriver and writes “Judith Forever” on the bed. Nico comes to check on her, informing that Ulises wants to do some tests. Nico encourages her to stay quiet about what they’ve seen so far, just incase they end up like Judith.

In San Sebastian, Gabi meets with David. He tells her everything, including how Eden was an “immersive experience” and they engaged in a whole bunch of drinking and partying. He goes on to mention his invite to Eden has gone and gives reference to the Blue Eden drink.

Back on the island, Zoa approaches Africa and tries to talk to her about Judith but realizes she’s not wearing her wristband anymore. She’s been turned to the dark side. “Be careful, there’s a storm coming.” Zoa eventually says, leaving without divulging the truth.

Now, this reference to a storm is both literal and figurative, given the island is on the verge of being struck with an electrical storm. A bolt of lightning takes out one of the lampposts as a bizarre slow-mo shot depicts Charly almost being hit and flying across the courtyard, landing hard on the ground. After being hurt, he’s given an injection from Ulises.

Back in San Sebastián, Gabi is about to buy a one-way ticket back to Barcelona but notices a billboard asking about paradise. She believes this could well be a linked to Eden so she decides against leaving after all. She also cuts her hair as well, believing a change of look could get her an invite onto the island.

Bel keeps an eye on Zoa back in Eden, suspicious of her attitude. Zoa is unaware of this though and visits Ibon that night. She leads him down into the caves, showing off Judith’s body. Only…she’s gone.

It would appear that this was all a ruse to scare her into submission. When they return to the community, Zoa is taken aside and warned – as is Ibon. It’s clear that the workers here are driving a wedge between the recruits. We also soon learn that Nico actually planted Judith’s body there to scare Zoa into submission. With this plan very clearly not working. Astrid gives the order to “deal with her.”

Zoa is brought before Erick and Astrid. They point out that Zoa broke her contract and show off footage of her encouraging Judith to visit the island. Astrid frames the whole event as Zoa’s fault.

Just before Brenda kills her, Zoa pleads for one more chance to prove her worth. It seems to do the trick, and for now Zoa is free to go. However, she’s on very thin ice.

While the whole community is sleeping, Alma and Ibon discuss Eden in view of everyone. Honestly guys, one of these people could wake up! Anyway, Ibon has enough and decides to abandon the contract he’s signed. As he heads out the community to escape, Mayka isn’t at her console to watch, given she’s currently off having sex with Charly in a separate area.

Ibon makes it down to the coast where he notices Judith out on the water being burned. As he collapses to his knees, he screams to the heavens.

Zoa also wakes up that night, armed with a screwdriver, and looks set to stab Nico in the throat. Brenda stops her though, grubbing Zoa and telling her to stop.

The Episode Review

Welcome to Eden is turning into one of those annoying mystery box shows that raises a lot of questions… and fails to answer any of them. That may be a little premature given we’re only on episode 5 here but there’s so many questions about this cult, how it works, how they hack into peoples phones, pick their candidates etc. that it makes for a bit of a disjointed watch.

The other problem here stems from the characters. I mentioned it a bit before but players like Ibon, Africa and even Nico have had very little development. We don’t really know who these guys are and the initial thought that this show would dive into individual characters and show their inner thoughts and past, hasn’t come to fruition.

With 3 more episodes to go, we’ll have to wait and see if any of these guys will be able to escape the cult or not.