WARNING: The following contains spoilers for The Wilds, streaming now on Amazon Prime Video.
Season 1 of Amazon Prime Video's The Wilds went out with a bang. The YA thriller follows a group of girls stranded on a deserted island after a plane crash. In the first of many surprising reveals, the first episode showed the crash was orchestrated by an organization called The Dawn of Eve. But The Wilds Season 1 finale left the audience with more questions than answers.
The Amazon original series operated on multiple timelines. Everything that happened on the island was a flashback and was closely monitored by Gretchen Klein and her research team at The Dawn of Eve headquarters. In the present-day timeline, the survivors are being held at a bunker where they're questioned by the authorities about what happened on the island. In every interrogation session, the girls detail a deeply traumatic experience.
The Wilds teases a series of mysteries throughout its first season, including the motive behind Gretchen's sadistic scientific experiment. The season finale reveals Gretchen's son took part in a fraternity hazing ritual that cost a pledge his life. The incident landed Gretchen's son in jail. While she fully accepted her son was at fault for what happened, she also blamed the patriarchal system that encourages such behavior. So, Gretchen designed an experiment to prove women are more capable of creating a functional society than men.
In the final moments of The Wilds Season 1, Leah discovers the experiment has a control group -- a faction of boys who are also stranded on a deserted island. Season 2 may delve into how the boys handle their time on the deserted island and contrast it with what happened to the girls, demonstrating Gretchen's experiment has traumatized even more people than viewers originally realized.
One key part of Gretchen's scenario was having an operative on the island who could contact the researchers. This was revealed early in the show, but the individual's identity remained secret for most of the season. In the finale, it turned out to be Nora. Flashbacks showed she and Gretchen forged a bond over tragedy -- Nora was in love with the boy killed in the hazing ritual by Gretchen's son. Gretchen took advantage of Nora's vulnerability and convinced the teen to take part in her extreme experiment.
But doing so may have cost Nora her relationship with her twin sister, Rachel, who Nora convinced to take part in the experiment while continuing to lie to her about what was really going on. During Rachel's interrogation, she reveals she somehow lost her hand. She also says she doesn't want to talk about her sister, who is notably absent from the present-day timeline of the show, which could indicate she's dead. In a flashback to their time on the island, the season finale shows Rachel being approached by a large shark in the ocean as Nora swims out to save her. It could be this shark is what cost Rachel her hand, and it's also possible that Nora died in the shark attack. However, Rachel's reaction could mean she simply has no desire to speak about Nora after learning about her betrayal. If Nora is alive, the other girls are unlikely to trust her in The Wilds' second season.
The Wilds Season 1 finale offers few answers, instead, teasing new mysteries. For one, Martha is heavily implied to be dead. In addition, while Shelby was already having issues on the island, in the present day timeline she's somehow been injured, has a buzz cut and, according to her interrogators, is suffering from dissociative identity disorder. Not to mention, she managed to slip a note to Leah informing her that she was right all along -- although it's not clear what Leah was right about. These mysteries and more are likely to play an important role in the series' potential second season.
The Wilds was created by Sarah Streicher and stars Rachel Griffiths, Mia Healey, Helena Howard, Shannon Berry and Sophia Ali. All 10 episodes of the first season of The Wilds is available on Amazon Prime Video.