The Wilds

Early this morning, we made contact with your parents.

We'll travel them here

as quickly as possible.

And the quarantine order will be lifted soon,

not just for you but for all the victims,

at which point, you'll be free to see each other.

Just to be clear,

our primary goal is to conduct an investigation.

There's a lot of haze surrounding your circumstances

that we just want to clarify.

And I cannot stress this enough, but...

this is just a conversation.

That's all.

This is my colleague, uh, Agent Young.

He's gonna be running point on this.

He's the investigator in charge.

Brass tacks guy, if you will.

But me, um...

I'm here for you, Leah,

to make sure you feel safe.

As a trauma specialist,

that is my sole and sacred duty.

You thirsty?

Would you like...

would you like something to drink?

Uh, let's see.

Didn't know what you'd like,

so we got a bit of a grab bag here.

Is anything calling your name?

I used to drink these all the time.

Good, great. That's great.

Don't hesitate to ask for seconds...

or thirds or... anything at all, really.

After all you've been through, we want you

to feel as comfortable as possible.

What have the others told you?

Nothing, as of yet.

You're the first one we've brought in.

So then you don't know what I've been through, do you?

You're just assuming trauma.

You're just assuming it was a living hell.

Okay, Leah, no one is assuming anything.

Sorry, look, I don't...

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 us to the real question, doesn't it?

What was so fucking great

about the lives we left behind?

Because here's 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 belonged 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.

Locked. Locked.

Fuck. Fuck.

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.

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.

Hello?

Anybody!

Tell us what you know

about the Dawn of Eve.

Dear, I mean, you just would not believe...

The retreat was my mother's idea.

She thought it would be, like, therapeutic.

Did you have a chance to look through the activities?

But maybe they were just scared of me.

My dad had started looking at me like I was radioactive.

Private plane, honey, direct to the Big Island.

If that doesn't boost you out of your funk,

I don't know what will.

Please don't refer to my emotional devastation

as a "funk."

Leah, I know you're recovering from some kind of breakup,

and I know you're not wild about this trip,

but your father and I,

we're kind of at a loss for how we can help.

We're really trying here, Leah.

Hey! Hey.

Hey.

Are you all right?

- Hey. -

What are you saying?

P!nk, is that your ringtone?

Hey, hey, hey, stay... stay with me.

Jeanette.

That was her name, I found out later,

and she was the only one who'd come alone.

The rest of us came in pairs.

There was Toni and Martha,

best friends from Minnesota;

the Texans, Dot and Shelby;

there was Rachel from New York

and her sister, Nora;

and Fatin, of all people, from my school.

But like I said, none of this sunk in until later.

Not faces, not names,

not the ridiculous welcome video.

Right now, hundreds of girls just like yourselves

aboard charters just like this one

are en route to our retreat in Kona, Hawaii,

for a long weekend of female-centric

learning and growth.

The Dawn of Eve literally waits for no man.

I was somewhere else,

trying to disappear into those pages,

where it all began.

Do you know there is a vegan drum circle on the South Lawn?

I mean, seriously?

Be a vegan, or be someone who does drum circles,

not both.

Everyone is just too fucking interesting around here.

I've got, like, interesting fatigue.

Is that why you hang out with me?

I'm so bland, it gives you a chance to recharge?

I get it.

My hair is all one color.

I'm a virgin that still drinks dairy milk.

Shit, I really am boring.

Actually, by being the most normcore person here,

you've low-key turned the tables.

You've become the freakiest freak of all.

Well, either you or Fatin,

the true basic bitch.

Why does she even go here?

You seriously don't know?

Fatin is a cello virtuoso.

She's, like, a shoo-in at Juilliard.

You don't have to read that book, you know.

Ms. Wolfe only assigned it 'cause Galanis used to go here.

It's shameless alumni promotion.

God, have you read chapter six yet?

A 12-page description

of the wallpaper in a waiting room.

Yeah, but I...

I think the waiting room was, like, a metaphor, though,

for how stuck she felt.

Tell him yourself. He's coming next week.

Some kind of school-wide literary event.

So in the interest of bringing us all together,

I'd like to propose a little icebreaker.