Day Six
Episode 4 of The Wilds confirms that Toni’s made it off the island too. She marvels at a vending machine full of food as she sits alone cross-legged and eats. Eventually she heads into her interview, telling the pair inside that the black box was a “cock tease” given they weren’t rescued for a good portion of time. It’s now been 6 days since the girls landed and with no clue over how they’ve survived with no food and water, they’ve decided to abandon the cave after bats showed up. Now, they’re back to the beach. As they sit together, Martha questions Leah about her book but she simply tells her that love is misery and self-loathing. They’re all distracted though by a packet of Takis show up as they all start fighting over who should eat them. In order to determine this, they decide to have a “shelter-building competition.” Flashbacks reveal more about Toni as she happens to be popular at school, made captain of the basketball team and seemingly untouchable. However, an exchange student from Virginia, Regan, catches her attention. She winds up sitting with Toni in class and it’s clear Toni takes a fancy to her. Regan drives Toni home but as they arrive outside, Regan leans over and kisses her. This starts off a relationship between the two as they start growing closer. However, a trio of guys drinking one night confront Regan by her car. Toni loses her temper and grabs the guys, wrestling with them until they leave. Eventually the guys take off but Regan has a cut lip from the skirmish. On the back of this, she breaks up with Toni. Enraged, Toni takes out her frustrations on Regan’s car, smashing it to bits. Back on the island, the girls continue to drink cans of drink while Toni heads off alone to start chopping down wood for her shelter. On the beach, Nora and Shelby talk but the former picks up that Shelby is angry. Shelby brushes this off as nothing, telling her that’s not how the Lord works and that she’s calm. Not long after though, Toni and Shelby continue to come to blows with the former egging her on to get revenge for the branch slap. Despite heading back with a whole load of logs, the girls start fighting amongst themselves over whether they’re the right ones or not. Specifically Leah and Fatin who wind up coming to blows. When Fatin smears blood on her face, Leah silently walks into the water and submerges herself. The other girls start to see Leah in a different light on the back of this, backed up by Fatin telling Rachel that Leah thought she was the psychopath of the group. Well, she’s not alone. When Nora tries to help Toni with the shelter, she snaps and begins smashing everything to bits. Martha happens to be watching from afar, and tells Toni she’s done picking up the pieces. “You’re exhausting,” She admits before leaving the girl alone. That evening, everyone huddles around in the one working shelter but Fatin eventually takes off when no one will share their rations with her. When they fall asleep, she snatches up a can of her own and begins drinking. Off the island, Gretchen speaks to Leah’s parents and tells them that Leah is doing really well, interacting and integrating well to show her emotional wellness is improving. It turns out this Island is actually the “Montana Campus” and they’re only there for the Summer. The parents are seemingly in on this too and as the video call ends, Gretchen researches about Leah’s friend Ian who’s asking questions about the island.
The Episode Review
If this episode was supposed to get us to empathise with Toni, it’s done a really bad job of it. In fact, it’s actually made her more unlikable. Someone with extreme anger issues and clear emotional instability smashes up a car after a break-up isn’t exactly a flattering back-story. That’s before mentioning how she’s ruined the shelter and riled up Shelby just because she rubs her up the wrong way. This really does Toni no favours and there’s nothing in her past to suggest her being this angry. If anything, Dot should probably be this angry because of her Father. And as we jump forward to the 6th day, the girls have abandoned their cave because of a bat and still aren’t really eating anything on the island either. The show has done a pretty lousy job with the water situation too and given Dot apparently knows a lot about survival programs, tracking down fresh water should be a number 1 priority for these girls. As we approach the midway point, it’s clear the adults are in on this too so it’s pretty safe to assume this experiment probably isn’t all that bad and besides, there’s always a chance that another package will wash up on shore to help the girls!
