Welcome To Eden Season 2 Review – More meandering mystery cult shenanigans

Episode Guide

Hell
Blue
Committee
Second Chances
The New Eden
Beyond the Stars
Serpent
First Contact

One of the more surprising renewals last year came from Netflix’s sci-fi series, Welcome to Eden. The story didn’t exactly inspire originality, while the dragged out plot and meandering mystery made for a rather tepid and forgettable watch overall. And to top it all off? A massive cliffhanger that left big question marks over whether it would even be resolved.

Well, Netflix throw out a lifejacket to one of its originals, that are usually left to fend for their own in the deep streaming waters, with a second season chock full of extra drama, more action, a longer run-time and, crucially, some much-needed answers.

While the reality of what’s actually happening on the island is unveiled and recontextualizes what season 1’s deal was all about, the series also brings with it a familiar dose of baggage and all the issues the first had in abundance, extrapolated out for all to see.

The main story this time around shifts the attention away from Africa and predominantly centers on Zoa, Bel and a handful of other characters. They all slowly start to learn the truth about Eden and plot a revenge mission to take out Astrid and escape this hellscape.

Before that can occur though, the kids are drawn into a murder investigation, as Ulises is found dead. Ibon keeps a poker face while this is going on, but the stakes are inevitably raised when Astrid brings in the big guns, coming in the form of Danae, Joel and a whole bunch of other military personnel.

I won’t spoil all the big plot points here but suffice to say, not everyone survives the season and there’s a steady flurry of deaths peppered throughout that actually works quite well to raise the stakes overall. There’s definitely much more urgency, but as a result the tone is all over the place.

In an effort to become both darker and more teen-orientated, episodes take on a formulaic approach midway through, with lots of sex, kissing and partying interwoven around rebellions, secret meetings and assassination plots. The whiplashed effect does this series absolutely no favours.

With such a big cast of characters, the other issue with Welcome to Eden is made worse here. In the first, we lamented that Africa and some of the characters didn’t have much backstory, and unfortunately the same is the case here too. There are some flashes back to the mainland, but it’s largely to follow a woman called Brisa, whose purpose I’m not about to spoil in this review! Suffice to say, it would have been nice to have some flashbacks to show who these people are before arriving on the island, ala. Lost or Yellowjackets.

Welcome to Eden season 2 is a marginal improvement over the first, but it still suffers from the same issues the first had, which is a shame. While it’s definitely not the worst YA series on Netflix, it’s also far from the best either, making for another meandering, mediocre mystery drama.

Read More: Welcome to Eden Season 2 Ending Explained

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