The Wilds Season 2 Ending Explained (In Detail)

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Warning: SPOILERS for The Wilds season 2!

Prime Video’s The Wilds season 2 ends with another massive cliffhanger after the Dawn of Eve and Twilight of Adam control groups collide. The first season of the young-adult survival show focused on a group of eight teenage girls fighting for their lives after a plane crash. The Wilds showed Leah (Sarah Pidgeon) and the rest of the women being interrogated after their presumed rescue, but Leah learns in The Wilds season 1 finale that there is much more going on. Her discovery of a male control group also being monitored confirmed her belief that their time on the island was planned and set up The Wilds season 2 to dive even deeper into what really happened.

Throughout most of The Wilds season 2, the story is told in one of four ways: showing the girls’ time on the island, showing the guys’ time on the island, showing flashbacks to the guys’ origins, and showing the interrogations taking place in the present day after both groups were saved. The portion of the story focused on the girls on the island shows what happened to them after Rachel (Reign Edwards) was attacked by a shark. The fallout of the event means The Wilds season 2 shows the group coming to grips with Nora’s death, Fatin (Sophia Ali) taking on more of a leadership role, and Shelby (Mia Healey) and Toni (Erana James) progressing romantically. While Leah begins to learn to not obsess over Nora’s past on the island, she is shown in the present-day continuing her exploration of her living space and seeking out the boys, starting with Rafael (Zack Calderon).

Since The Wilds season 1 focused singularly on the girls, the Twilight of Adam control group gets a lot of time in the eight-episode second season. Thanks to an unusual combination of personalities, backgrounds, and egos, there are plenty of challenges that the guys face. On top of the regular stresses of living on a deserted island, they are tested by fending off a hungry jaguar and division within the group caused by an act of sexual assault by their unofficial leader, Seth (Alex Fitzalan). Since he was also a confederate for Dr. Gretchen Klein (Rachel Griffiths), this further complicates matters for The Wilds season 2’s new control group. The boys are left completely in the dark about the circumstances of their crash landing and rescue until Leah’s plan in the present day leads to a mass breakout, only for everyone to discover their island-based adventures are far from over. As a result, The Wilds season 2 ending delivers more big twists as it sets up what will happen in season 3.

Leah’s Phone Call & Plan Explained: What Did She Do?

Right from the start of The Wilds season 2, it is clear that Leah is making bold moves in the present day after learning about the Twilight of Adam group. This begins by sneaking into one of their rooms, which turns out to be the room of Raf. However, Leah is smart enough to know that they are always being watched and uses this as an opportunity to begin working with the mysterious organization run by Gretchen Klein. What she was not fully aware of, though, was that Leah (played by Gotham‘s Sarah Pidgeon) was getting help consistently from Gretchen’s two investigators in her quest to reveal the truth about what was really happening. This leads to Leah getting her phone back for one 45-second call that she can use to bring down the clandestine operation.

When it comes to who Leah is going to call, she goes in a different direction than on the island. Leah calls her best friend Ian (James Fraser) from The Wilds season 1, alerting him that she is still alive, that Dawn of Eve is behind her disappearance, and that the organization is holding her, six other girls, and six guys as test subjects in a bizarre social exercise. Ian is able to track down the origins of Dawn of Eve to an apartment where Gretchen’s son is located. He gives Ian information to get revenge on his mom for making him part of the male control group for a short time. Leah’s plan worked for the most part, as Ian took the information and evidence he gathered to the proper authorities in The Wilds season 2 ending. However, Leah’s plan didn’t exactly foil all of Gretchen’s hard work.

The Wilds Season 3 Story Setup: Phase 3 Explained

Gretchen sets up Phase 3 of her mission during The Wilds season 2 finale after receiving a call about what Leah has done. The island base’s power is cut and unlocks every room. This allows Leah to walk out of her room wondering if this is the result of her call and everyone’s long-awaited rescue. She almost immediately runs into Fatin before two of the boys, Henry (former Hawaii Five-0 actor Aidan Laprete) and Kirin (Charles Alexander), also appear. It leads to all of the boys and girls assembling in a room that Gretchen has set up, but she’s not there. This is the start of Phase 3 of Gretchen’s social experiment. Phase 1 was the girls and boys each surviving on the islands, while Phase 2 was the interrogations that followed. Now, The Wilds season 3’s story is set up through the boys and girls uniting for Phase 3.

The Wilds season 2 ends with the Dawn of Eve and Twilight of Adam control groups united, and Leah immediately begins to search for answers about where Gretchen has gone. This leads her and the rest of the teenagers to discover that Gretchen and everyone else associated with the program have abandoned the island base and destroyed most of the evidence of what transpired. To make matters even worse, the young adults realize that they are now stranded on a brand new island. After testing girls and boys separately, Gretchen’s Phase 3 plan beyond The Wilds season 2 is all about seeing what happens once they are united. This will mean new relationships – both good and bad – as the group becomes familiar with their new location, resources, challenges, and more. Meanwhile, Seth is seemingly left in charge of the island as he continues to serve Gretchen as a confederate – but he might not be alone.

Is Shelby A Confederate Now (& Helping Gretchen)?

One of the biggest season 3 teases that comes during The Wilds season 2 ending is that Shelby might be Gretchen’s newest confederate. As the newly formed boy and girl control group begins to explore what remains of Dawn of Eve’s island base, Gretchen is asked on her plane how she’d let this continue without any real supervision over the kids. While most of the surveillance equipment was destroyed, Gretchen reveals that she has people on the inside. She’s used confederates since the beginning of the experiment, as Nora (Helena Howard) and Seth were both revealed to be reporting to Gretchen. When The Wilds season 2 mentions Gretchen’s latest help, Shelby is shown on the screen, which is one of a few potential signs that she has evolved into Gretchen’s confederate.

Shelby’s arc throughout The Wilds season 2 makes her potential confederate twist for The Wilds season 3 make a lot of sense. Her and Toni’s relationship progressed in many ways, but they were in a rough patch right before a helicopter “rescued” the girls. Since Toni blames Shelby for Martha’s cationic state during their last days, Shelby makes it her mission to get back everyone back home safely. It could be revealed that Gretchen manipulates Shelby into becoming a confederate to ensure Toni and Martha (Jenna Clause) will make it home safely as long as she now helps provide information on Phase 3’s events.

Shelby becoming a confederate might also explain the Matrix-like dream she has at the beginning of The Wilds‘ season 2 finale. Shelby’s potential future is shown when she’s singing a song about Martha and Toni is in attendance. However, Gretchen appears to her backstage in a Morpheus-like outfit and presents her with red and blue gummies (a twist on The Matrix‘s red and blue pills). It’s an oddly specific dream for her to have and could be more of a nightmare, as Shelby might now have to try and lie to everyone around her – including Toni and Martha – for a chance to ensure they will be saved from the island.

Where Everyone Is At The End Of The Wilds Season 2

At the end of season 2, The Wilds‘ ensemble cast is most united together at long last. The finale ends by showing Leah lead the group to the top of the island base, where the 13 young adults are united. The full group includes Leah, Fatin, Shelby, Toni, Martha, Rachel, Dot (Shannon Berry), Raf, Kirin, Henry, Josh (Nicholas Coombe), Ivan (Miles Gutierrez-Riley), Scotty (Reed Shannon), and Bo (Tanner Ray Rook). These 13 teenagers are not alone on the brand new island, as Seth is also confirmed to still be there and has some additional power from Gretchen it seems.

As for the rest of The Wilds‘ characters, the season 2 finale confirms that Gretchen, her son Devin, psychologist Daniel Faber (David Sullivan), and assistant Alex (Jarred Blakiston) are aboard a private plane. They are seemingly fleeing to an unknown location to avoid any trouble that might follow them as a result of Leah’s phone call, but their exact destination is not known. FBI agent Dean Young (regular The Goldbergs castmember Troy Winbush) is sent home to live with his daughter after betraying Gretchen, and she blackmails him to ensure he won’t try and speak up again. Gretchen’s assistants Susan (Jen Huang), Thom (Joe Witkowski), and Audrey (Barbara Eve Harris) might still be at the Dawn of Eve headquarters. Ian is last shown meeting with the FBI.

What Happened To Nora

One of the biggest mysteries left after The Wilds season 2 ending is what happened to Nora. Season 2 confirms that she survived her apparent death in the season 1 finale/season 2 premiere and did not die saving Rachel from the shark attack. Nora is last seen in The Wilds season 1, episode 5 watching Rachel on the monitors after she has a ceremonial funeral for her sister. This is when Audrey tells Nora that “It’s time.” It is possible that Nora has been sent to a different location or given the ability to start a new life for herself where she has to forget about these events, which might be why she’s emotional watching Rachel. However, there is also the chance Gretchen is planning to drop Nora back into the chaos and put her on the new island. This would allow her to be reunited with Rachel and complicate Leah, Fatin, and Shelby’s knowledge that Nora was keeping some big secrets previously. If that is what happens, The Wilds season 3 will add another layer of intrigue.