Day One is the first episode and series premiere of Season 1 of The Wilds, and the first episode overall.
Premise[]
Nine teenage girls are en route to Hawaii when their plane fails, leaving them stranded on a remote island. Among them we meet Leah, who has survived to tell their story to a pair of federal investigators. Flashbacks offer an intimate look at Leah’s pre-island life, and the taboo relationship that broke her heart.
Summary[]
The episode is made by a mix of flashback from the events at the Island, flashback from the past lives of Leah and the girls and the current conversation between Leah and the agents.
The agents tell Leah that early that morning, they had made contact with her parents and that they'd travel them there as quickly as possible.
Scenes of Leah Rilke being given a medical exam are interspersed with flashbacks of her time on the island. Her skin is badly sunburned and her feet have long cuts on them.
EXAM The agents say that the quarantine order will be lifted soon, not just for her but for all the victims, and then they'll be free to see each other. They also say that their primary goal is to conduct an investigation because here's a lot of haze surrounding their circumstances that they just wanna clarify ; they also specify that they're just having a conversation and nothing more.
Dr. Daniel Faber introduces his colleague as Agent Dean Young and himself as a trauma specialist, reminding her that her job is to make sure that she feels safe.
He offers Leah three drinks: Cool Blue Gatorade, Cherry Coke Zero, and a mango flavored Jarritos, asking if there's anything that's calling her name. She takes the mango flavored soda, saying that she used to drink these all the time and she has a flashback of her time with Jeffery as she looks at the bottle.
Faber tells her not to hesitate to ask for seconds or anything really after what she went through. Leah wants to know what the others told them, but she is the first one they have brought in.
She then questions him, saying he doesn't know what she's been through, he's just assuming trauma and that it was a living hell. Faber tries to get her to deescalate, telling her that no one is assuming anything and saying that obviously what happened to her was traumatic, to end up in the middle of nowhere. Leah questions what was so fucking great about the lives they left behind.
PRE ISLAND Martha scrolls through an Instagram account called Good Vibes Only.
A group of popular girls walk past Nora as she reads a book about birds. Nora walks to the school’s pool to find her fraternal twin sister Rachel on top of the diving platform. Rachel dives, doing twists in the air. When she emerges from the pool, her coach is disappointed in her and adjusts her position. Rachel curses at herself under her breath until she sees Nora watching.
Jeanette listens to music in her headphones as she clips the eyes off of a live lobster. Dot smokes a cigarette in front of her house. Inside, she cleans her sleeping father’s trachea tube.
Shelby is in her swimsuit in her bedroom while her boyfriend Andrew helps give her a spray tan. She is surrounded by a number of trophies and sashes from her pageants. Andrew’s hands wander down to grope Shelby’s breast so she flicks it away and takes the airbrush gun herself.
One of Toni's customers doesn't leave a tip, but writes that the waitress has a crappy attitude on the receipt. Toni flips the table and leaves the restaurant. Fatin dances in a college boy’s dorm, wearing his wrestling gear as he eats Wendy’s fries. Leah receives a text while she lies in the dark of her room, evident tear stains on her face. “Don’t contact me again. Goodbye.” Leah begins to cry again.
PRESENT Leah wakes up floating on a board after the plane wreckage. She is surrounded by luggage and bits of the plane. Nearby, “Raise Your Glass” plays from the inside of a Hello Kitty suitcase. Leah goes for the suitcase but drops the phone. She attempts to dive for it but loses it.
EXAM Young slides her a paper, asking Leah what she knows about the Dawn of Eve. The retreat had been Leah’s mother’s idea. She thought it would be therapeutic.
FLASHBACK In the car, Maryann Rilke asks Leah if she’s had a chance to look through the activities. Leah looks out the window and wipes away her tears. Leah asks her mom not to refer to her emotional devastation as a “funk.” Maryann tells her that they know she’s going through some sort of breakup but they don’t know how to help her.
PRESENT Leah spots Jeanette floating nearby. Jeanette is singing P!nk softly.
ON THE PLANE Jeanette was the only one who came alone. Gretchen Klein informs the girls that they are going to Kona, Hawaii for a long weekend of female bonding. The Dawn of Eve literally waits for no man.
PRE ISLAND Ian, Leah's school friend drinks from a La Croix as he talks with Leah about the people that attend their school, East Bay Academy of Art, saying there’s apparently a vegan drum circle on the south lawn. Everyone is just too interesting around here, I’ve got interesting fatigue. Ian notes that Fatin is a basic bitch, but she’s also a cello virtuoso and a shoo-in for Julliard. He tells Leah she doesn’t actually have to read the book Wolfe assigned and complains about how in Chapter 6 there’s a 12-page description of the wallpaper. Leah says that the waiting room was a metaphor for how stuck she felt.
ON THE PLANE Shelby gets up in front of everyone and proposes an icebreaker to get to know each other. Jeanette suggests a game of "Never Have I Ever," but Shelby shoots her down and pairs everyone up so they can talk and introduce their partner to the group. Toni points out to Martha that this white girl said “pow-wow” and she should be triggered. Martha isn’t. Shelby lets an unresponsive Leah sit out of the game with her book.
Jeanette rambles to Nora about her interests, like P!NK and her two pugs. Toni tells Rachel that she got kicked off the basketball team because another girl kept fouling her, so she pissed in her hand and threw it at her. Shelby says that she likes Jesus, her family, and pageants, and that she's doing this retreat to offset the pageants on her college applications. Shelby tells Martha that she has the most drop dead gorgeous eyes. Dot questions Fatin's taste in graphic t-shirts. Chocolate cake is given out on the plane. Toni eats the cake with her hands. Rachel weighs a piece on her phone to measure out the calories. Shelby gets some cake in her teeth and has to go to the bathroom to rinse her dentures.
When the plane begins to nosedive, Rachel stuffs her face with the cake, Toni and Martha hold each other, Shelby gets on her knees and prays, Nora braces for impact, and Leah returns to reading her book.
EXAM Leah tells Young and Faber that she's embarrassed about what she did when she thought she was going to die: bury herself in her love bubble. On one page he had written, "I am probably thinking about you right now, like it's a very good bet" and on another it said "yes, I miss you."
PRE ISLAND At a meeting at her school, the teacher Mrs. Wolfe introduces Jeffrey Galanis, successful writer and ex alumno as the boy who used to sit in the back of her classroom making paper clip chains. Leah seems enraptured with him. Mrs. Wolfe asks Ian to take Jeffrey back to his hotel, but he can't, so Leah offers to.
PRESENT After discovering Jeanette floating nearby, Leah tries to wake her up and finds that she has an injury on her torso. Leah has to drag Jeanette to the island with her, as she is still unconscious.
On the beach, Toni is screaming Martha's name, and she only pauses to puke up the chocolate cake.
A ways down, Fatin is crying and shaking. Dot tells her that she needs to get up and walk around because she's in shock. Fatin keeps repeating that she's not supposed to be here. Dot tries to comfort her by saying that her parents probably hate themselves right now, so she wins... or not.
Shelby rescues Martha from being taken out to sea by the current. Shelby takes off her yellow top and rips it to try to immobilize Martha's injured foot.
PRE ISLAND Leah drives Jeffrey back to his hotel. He apologizes if this is way out of her way, but he can't call an Uber or Lyft since he has a flip phone. A few years ago he lost his iPhone and had to use a flip phone, but then he started to enjoy the Luddite image he was projecting so he never replaced it. Leah asks him if he wants to listen to music and offers him the aux cord in the glove compartment. He instead goes through her CD collection, commenting on "Awesome Summer Mix" and her P!nk CD. Leah offers to get some food together.
PRESENT The girls meet up on the beach. Leah paddles toward shore tugging Jeanette after her, screaming for help. Dot and Toni take Jeanette off of Leah's hands, but not before Toni asks Leah if she saw anyone else out there. Toni quickly drops Jeanette's legs once she sees Martha coming toward her with Shelby and Dot is left to get Jeanette on the beach.
Toni and Martha reunite and Martha tells her that she's fine and Shelby's been amazing. Toni gives Shelby a once-over and asks her what the fuck she's wearing. Dot yells that Jeanette's not breathing and incorrectly performs CPR on her. Dot happens to be the only person on the island who doesn't know how to do CPR.
EXAM Young questions that they all had a working knowledge of CPR. Leah acknowledges that it's weird and asks him if it's relevant while Young makes a note on her file. Faber tells her that anything she can tell them could be helpful, so she also needs to tell them why she was on that plane to begin with.
PRE ISLAND Leah and Jeffrey get tacos and mango Jarritos instead of going directly back to his hotel. Leah says that she feels like she should be asking about his book since she has to write an essay about it. He asks her what she thought of it. She tells him that she really loved it, but at the end it got weird and sentimental. He thanks her for her honest feedback since he feels like he doesn't get it often and comments that this is fun and that they should do it again sometime. Leah takes his flip phone and adds her number, asking him if you can even enter contacts into that thing or if it's just for selling drugs.
Leah receives her first text from Jeffrey while she's at school. Soon, they are texting quite often. While she's brushing her teeth, Jeffrey tells her that he's drunk and might regret this, but he thinks about kissing her all the time. Leah texts him back that she turns 18 in two weeks.
PRESENT Jeanette wakes Leah up from where she had passed out in the grass. Leah seems surprised to see that Jeanette made it. Jeanette hugs her, telling her she's sorry, and Leah tells her that she has nothing to be sorry for. Jeanette then says that she doesn't understand and apologizes again.
Rachel asks if anyone has a phone, but no one does. Dot tells them that they should make a big ass "HELP" sign like in the movie "28 Days Later"[1]. Martha questions what happened to the flight attendant. Rachel tells them that they should be looking through suitcases and finding phones and Shelby cuts her off to say that it's the 21st century and they're going to be found, but they do need to keep track of their resources.
They have eight Cokes, but she reassures them saying that they shouldn't worry cause if God brought them to it, God'll bring them through it. Toni reminds her that the whole 'Jesus saves' thing isn't literal and that He's not going to jetpack down here and pull them out of here. Shelby responds that God helps those who help themselves. Martha offers Shelby her sandals since Shelby is wearing flip flops and, irritated that her best friend and Shelby are clicking so quickly, she decides to go, to "make sure Christ doesn't lead Shelby's ass into a fucking sinkhole." Dot discovers that she did have a phone in her back pocket.
Shelby and Toni check on Martha's ankle again. Shelby apologizes and says that she really should have splinted it before. Toni snarks that she was just thinking that Shelby should have splinted it before.
Toni and Shelby then go in search of water. Shelby tells Toni that she goes hunting with her dad all the time so she knows how to skin animals, and when she has to pee, she tells Toni to plug her ears or she'll have to sing.
Shelby gets on Toni's nerves and Toni flicks a branch back so that it hits Shelby in the face. Shelby falls down a hill and her face bleeds a little bit. Toni regrets it and apologizes but then Shelby tells her that they should head back to camp but separately.
The girls try to make a phone call with a phone they found. When Fatin dials, the phone rings, but she doesn't get through to anyone. Jeanette spits up blood and falls to the sand, dead.
The girls dig a shallow grave to keep the animals away from Jeanette's body, thinking that they will be rescued soon. Leah begins to sing "Raise Your Glass" by P!NK because she thinks Jeanette liked her. Nora, remembering what Jeanette said during the icebreaker, affirms that she did. The other girls eventually join in singing as they bury her body in the sand.
Around a fire, the girls play "Never Have I Ever," because it feels "right" after Jeanette had suggested it. Shelby says that she's never had vaginal penetrative intercourse, and Dot asks her if that's why her boyfriend Andrew is a cheat to which Shelby replies saying that Andrew isn't a cheat. Fatin drinks up because she's had a threesome with two guys and later confronts Leah about who she had sex with.
Dot puts on one of Fatin's sweaters, which says "more issues than Vogue" across the front, declaring to the group that this is her rock bottom.
Cast[]
Starring[]
- Sophia Ali as Fatin Jadmani
- Shannon Berry as Dot Campbell
- Jenna Clause as Martha Blackburn
- Reign Edwards as Rachel Reid
- Mia Healey as Shelby Goodkind
- Helena Howard as Nora Reid
- Erana James as Toni Shalifoe
- Sarah Pidgeon as Leah Rilke
- David Sullivan as Daniel Faber
- Troy Winbush as Dean Young
- Rachel Griffiths as Gretchen Klein
Guest Starring[]
- Carter Hudson as Jeffrey Galanis
- Greg Bryk as Tim Campbell
- James Fraser as Ian Murnen
- Chi Nguyen as Jeanette Dao
- Jarred Blakiston as Flight Attendant/Alex
- Alison Bruce as Coach Ellen Rose
- Jen Huang as Susan
- Richard Knowles as Kurt Rilke
- Billy McColl as Andrew
- Sylvia Rands as Mrs. Rhonda Wolfe
- Quentin Warren as Riko
- Joe Witkowski as Thom
- Tandi Wright as Maryann Rilke
Quotes[]
- Leah: I don’t mean to say that what happened wasn’t traumatic. Obviously, it was traumatic. To end up where we did, in the middle of nowhere, completely cut off from the lives we left behind. That brings up the real question, doesn’t it? What was so fucking great about the lives we left behind? Because this is what I remember of all that. I remember not being enough. I remember wanting to be more. I remember the dark moods, the violent moods, moods that nobody had any patience for. And then there was the brutal social scene, which some girls could just glide through like they belong everywhere. And there you were, just trying to belong somewhere. I remember the ridiculous expectations they had for us. Like we were supposed to be these golden gods 24/7. I remember the responsibilities, heavy burdens meant for adults forced on us before our time. Responsibilities that made you think… “Yeah, this is definitely fucking with my healthy development right now”. And don’t get me started on the impossible problem of sex. If you were terrified of it, which you had every reason to be, you’d be deemed a frigid chastity bitch. But if you were somehow unafraid, like if it was just naturally your thing…then God help you. The world is a dangerous place for a sexually evolved girl. And on top of all that, there was this new feeling, this sick, ugly feeling of wanting to love and to be loved back, which never ends well.
- Leah: So if we're talking about what happened out there... then yeah, there was trauma. But being a teenage girl in normal-ass America... That was the real living hell.
- Leah: What was so fucking great about the lives we left?
- Maryann Rilke: Private plane, honey, direct to the big island. If that doesn't boost you out of your funk, I don't know what will.
- Leah: Please don't refer to my emotional devastation as a funk.
- Toni: Why am I always fighting your battles for you?
- Martha: I don't know. Because you like fighting?
- Shelby: Okay, I do real, right? I do family. I do Jesus. I do pageants. And I'm doing this conference to offset the pageants. Some colleges might see them as retrograde when it comes to female empowerment.
- Dot: I'm not a lesbian. Sorry to disappoint. I just like storage.
- Fatin: I don't even get feminism. I get called a 'girly girl' like it's a bad thing?
- Toni: I got cut from the team for unsportsmanlike conduct. This bitch from another team kept fouling me, so I pissed on my hand and I threw it at her.
- Leah: Sometimes you collide with a person, and you get this feeling that they might be kind of important to you. Maybe it's from a look, or an act of kindness. Or maybe you just like the way the world feels when they're in it.
- Jeffrey: Oh my god, I love P!nk. I feel like she's got this amazing anarchic quality to her.
- Leah: Yeah, she's kind of eternal.
- Toni: God's such a joke. Don't you know he's just a brainwashing tool designed to enslave the masses?
- Shelby: Even if he were just a brainwashing tool, don't you ever think maybe your brain could use a good -- scrub?
- Leah: I'm a virgin that still drinks dairy milk.
- Shelby: Just FYI, I was a candy striper at Armarillo General last year where I learned that the biggest obstacle to recovery is --
- Toni: Infection
- Shelby: -- And negative energy
- Rachel: I’m just trying to think of lifelines, all right? They’re gonna find us, but we can’t be stupid. We should be looking through suitcases, finding phones…
- Leah: Hard to say exactly what brought Fatin out of the dark that day. Touching the things that belonged to her, maybe. Returning to the rituals she believed in…It was less like coming out of shock, and more like emerging from amnesia. She was remembering who she was.
- Rachel: Never have I ever... thrown my piss at someone.
- Toni, drinking: With pride, motherfuckers!
- Fatin, to Leah: At least your first time guy's face is on the back of a book. My first time was with a fucking grocery bagger at Smart & Final. God, I loved him. I loved him!
- Leah: Remember this when you see the others and you try to figure us out… There is no crazy. There is only damage. And when you go looking for what caused it, don't waste your time on that island. It'll get you fucking nowhere.
Trivia[]
- The girls collect at least 8 Diet Coca-Colas and 1 cheddar cheese cracker sandwich from the plane wreckage.
- The line "so hey, you win! well kinda... not really..." was improvised by Shannon Grace Berry.
Gallery[]
