The Wilds series premiere recap: An introduction to the girls

Nine become eight on The Wilds series premiere

The Wilds is a coming-of-age drama and a survival drama at the same time. Nine teen girls are stranded on an island after a plane crash, but are they there by mistake? Here’s a look inside The Wilds series premiere.

The series starts with the girls being saved. Leah is the one to open the story. Two men interview her, trying to figure out what happened to the girls and why. They were supposed to be heading on a retreat called the Dawn of Eve on one of Hawaii’s islands, but the plane crashes on the way. And the girls have no idea where they are.

All girls but one are there with someone they know. Two of them are sisters, some are friends, others just happen to go to the same school. And then there’s Jeanette Dao, who was completely on her own. When the plane crashes, Leah finds her on a board suffering from internal bleeding. Jeanette is saved at first, but she later dies from the internal injuries.

There is something curious about Jeanette, though. Why was she the only lone person on the retreat? And why did she have a phone and not tell anyone about it? Why could that phone make contact outside when Dot’s couldn’t?

It doesn’t take long to get answers. She’s an operative with the Dawn of Eve. She was an important part of this whole operation, and now those who run the program wonder if they can deal with the situation without an operative on the ground. There’s more to come from this, but how many people know what Dawn of Eve really does?

The girls have to figure out how to survive on The Wilds series premiere

The Wilds series premiere is more of a chance just to get to know the girls and their bonds. We spend a lot of time getting to know Leah, whose boyfriend has broken up with her. It turns out that after sleeping together, her boyfriend found out she is only 16. He hates that she lied to him about her age—or at least didn’t admit that she’s underage.

It’s understandable that he broke up with her. However, Leah is still obsessed with him. She’s not stalker obsessed, but she’s struggling to get over the breakup. When she manages to phone him from Jeanette’s phone, he just thinks she’s calling from an unknown number so he’ll talk to her. She doesn’t get the chance to tell him she’s stranded on an island somewhere.

We do get a chance to see how some of the girls interact. Nora and Rachel are twin sisters, but they don’t get along well and are vastly different from one another. There’s a chance to see Shelby is hiding who she really is, including the fact that she has fake teeth. We see Fatin’s parents got her a $1,000 waterproof case specifically for the journey, suggesting that they knew she’d likely need it.

With it mostly being told from Leah’s point of view, it’s hard to get to know each of the individuals. However, each episode is someone else’s story, which means we’ll get to know them eventually.

The Wilds series premiere just sets the tone for the series. It sets the idea that none of these girls are perfect and they all have some soul searching to do. There is certainly some sort of conspiracy going on, and now we need to figure out why.

What did you think of The Wilds series premiere? What are your initial theories? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

The Wilds is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.