The Wilds executive producer answers your season 2 burning questions
Amazon Prime
Warning: this story contains spoilers for the season 1 finale of The Wilds.
"What the f---?" There's never been a more appropriate way to end a jaw-dropping season than that quote at the end of The Wilds' finale.
Amazon's addictive YA drama delivered such a WTF moment at the end of season 1 that the line said by Leah (Sarah Pidgeon) is exactly what viewers were thinking as she discovers surveillance footage of an all-male group called the Twilight of Adam going through exactly what she just survived with the Dawn of Eve. And that's just in the present-day storyline!
The Wilds spent all of season 1 following the Dawn of Eve girls as they were stranded on a deserted island for the first 23 days in the past as well as their interrogation in the present after their "rescue" (which we, of course, know is fake, orchestrated by a shady research group). But so many questions were left unanswered by the time the finale ended, so EW got executive producer Amy B. Harris to field your burning season 2 questions. While she wouldn't declassify all the answers, she did reveal some intel about where the Amazon series will go in a potential second season.
Viewers have known all season long that Leah and the other castaways did not end up on that deserted island by accident. Gretchen (Rachel Griffiths) is running a psychological experiment to see her dreams of a "Gynotopia" come to life, where females create their own society unburdened by the patriarchy. But she's also running it by forcing eight unsuspecting female teens who did not sign up for all this trauma into a life-or-death situation. Leah began to figure (some of) it out on the island by unearthing Nora (Helena Howard) as a double agent who knows something about the conspiracy. But their confrontation was cut short when Nora's sister Rachel (Reign Edwards) was attacked by a shark.
Matt Klitscher/Amazon Studios
In the present-day storyline, Leah has been trying to get answers in the midst of being "interrogated in quarantine," and she finally broke out of her holding cell and discovered the surveillance room watching over a group of teen boys surviving in the jungle. It's a realization that's going to change everything going into season 2, but Harris reveals that wasn't always going to be the way season 1 ended.
"What we decided on for the cliffhanger was not on the board when we first started working on the show," she says. "We came up with that, to Amazon's credit, the creatives there were like, 'We really want you to find that great twist.'"
Harris says that while brainstorming with The Wilds creator Sarah Streicher on how to end season 1, that's when they had "an absolute lightbulb moment" about the Twilight of Adam control group.
"It just revved us up for season 2 even more," she says. "Now we have really exciting, fresh, new places to go. That is the beauty of TV is as you're building, you should always know where you're heading, but be very open to the idea that you may find a left or right turn somewhere along the way that is even more exciting."
As for what this Twilight of Adam group means for the Dawn of Eve girls in season 2? Harris won't say (hey, we tried!). But enough about the boys — the best part of The Wilds is how it's all about a diverse group of girls and their vastly different experiences. And season 2 isn't going to shift focus away from the group of eight we've come to know and love, because there is so much left to learn about each of them both in the past on the island and in the present after their "rescue."
"As you may or may not have noticed some of the women do not end up in the interrogation room," Harris says. "We'll have to figure out why that is." So far, Martha (Jenna Clause) and Nora haven't been seen in the present-day timeline. Does that mean they're dead? Again, Harris won't say, but she does tease that "exploring the stories on the island about what happens and where some of these girls may be" is what she's most excited about.
"Hopefully people have fallen in love with these girls and are rooting and invested in them," she adds. "That's the stuff I really love exploring as the show develops. That for me was the most fun part of Sex in the City was, as the years went on and our writers' room was getting closer and our relationships were deepening, it felt like we were infusing the women's relationships in that way, and just really getting to the specificity of what real friendship means and what real support means."
Matt Klitscher/Amazon Studios
If Amazon does renew The Wilds for a second season ("Everybody give a prayer to the streaming gods, or as I like to call 'em, Jeff Bezos, that we will get a season 2," Harris says with a laugh), here are the other burning questions that need answers:
Are there more experiment groups being run by the Dawn of Eve organization? How many? Are they all going off the rails like this one? Hopefully, this won't be like an Orphan Black situation where the boys start to pull focus from the girls ...
Did Rachel lose her hand in the shark attack, or from some other accident on the island?
How long were the girls on the island before their rescue? Judging by how healed Rachel's amputated hand is, it must be a lot longer than 23 days ...
How are the girls "rescued?" And does it happen on the Dawn of Eve timeline or sooner for unforeseen reasons?
What else is going to happen to Shelby (Mia Healey)? She's sporting a shaved head and ankle injury in the present, along with a complete personality change, so her trauma is only just beginning. But does her budding relationship with Toni (Erana James) fall into the positive or negative category when it comes to her journey? Finally starting to accept her sexuality was a major step forward for her that shouldn't be discouraged.
Where is Nora? She's not seen in the present-day storyline, and Leah realized she knows more than she's letting on in the past storyline. Do the other girls team up against Nora? Does she get pulled from the experiment? Or does something tragic happen to her?
Where is Martha? It's more than likely Martha is dead based on how the Dawn of Eve folks talk about her in the present.
Why does Gretchen hate Alex (Jarred Blakiston) so much? Was he involved with her son during the hazing incident? Or ... is he her son, out on parole?
Is Gretchen's experiment legal? It ... can't be, right? There is no way she's getting out of this without criminal charges.
The Wilds season 1 is streaming now on Amazon Prime Video.
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