'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,/9j/2wBDAAYEBQYFBAYGBQYHBwYIChAKCgkJChQODwwQFxQYGBcUFhYaHSUfGhsjHBYWICwgIyYnKSopGR8tMC0oMCUoKSj/2wBDAQcHBwoIChMKChMoGhYaKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCj/wAARCAAGAAoDASIAAhEBAxEB/8QAFQABAQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAb/xAAdEAABBQEAAwAAAAAAAAAAAAABAAIDBBEFBhJh/8QAFQEBAQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT/xAAXEQEBAQEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABADFB/9oADAMBAAIRAxEAPwCbm8lq88iu/mRTNlljiDycLfbd+FSF/j8OS9YeaTwXSOdgdgGlEUOAkeX/2Q=='%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Wayward viewers were left with one searing question: why did Leila remain at Tall Pines Academy rather than departing with her best friend, Abbie? According to The Hollywood Reporter, Alyvia Alyn Lind, who plays Leila, says,
"I think the reasons she gave Abbie for why she’s staying are true. She wants the community, she wants the family, and I think she genuinely does believe that. But I think that was all placed into her mind by Evelyn"
She continues,
"Evelyn saw her and saw her trauma and how tough her exterior was, and behind every tough exterior is an extremely soft center. So she wanted to rip that out, and I think she manipulated her.”
Lind refers to the doubleness of Leila's choice. Leila's visit is thus both an authentic yearning for human connection and Evelyn Wade's master manipulation, establishing the show's considerate close. The finale is low-key, asking viewers to wonder how much Leila's choice is internal control and how much it is external control, tension that provokes controversy and criticism of the show.
Setting the scene in Wayward: Tall Pines Academy
Wayward is filmed at Tall Pines Academy, a fictional Vermont boarding school that seems to provide therapy for delinquent youth but has a cult environment and gothic ambiance with Evelyn Wade, played by actress Toni Collette. The academy is stern but also psychologically controlling, as it is meant to take advantage of its students' weaknesses.
Leila is a Canadian high school student who first crosses the border attempting to pick up her friend Abbie from school. She attempts and fails, then enrolls as a new student herself. The series documents Leila's life in such an atmosphere, charting her individual demons of addiction, buried traumas, and desire to belong.
By situating her own frailties between the school's manipulative strategy and Wayward's narrative, the adolescent trauma is deconstructed by Wayward as profoundly complicated in a highly educational, managed world.
Leila and Abbie: Friendship and conflict in Wayward
Leila and Abbie are set early on as co-conspirators in distress, their relationship tense because of the Tall Pines disaster. Friendships bring support, but also inconsistency in coping and limits. Leila's greater involvement in drugs and danger is juxtaposed against Abbie's comparatively less helpless experience.
The disparity is a description of the overall premise within Wayward: teen tragedy is not always outwardly apparent, and responses are radically disparate. Their relationship also provides narrative anchorage for the viewer, a soft glance amidst psychological tension at school.
Abbie's insistence on helping Leila escape shows her strong-willed and resolute nature, and Lela's insistence on remaining shows the series's handling of the conflict between outside pressure and inside will.
The ambiguity of Jess' death in Wayward
Leila's inner quest is prompted by the death of her older sister, Jess. The two versions contradict each other: the first version shows Jess' death as an accident, and the second version shows Leila doing something to her sister that resulted in her death.
Alyvia Alyn Lind explains her version and says that Leila did not push her sister intentionally, according to her. This imprecision is what Leila's work is founded upon. Imprecision enables Evelyn to play with Leila's moral sense and thereby get her to write a story in which the heroine is uncertain about what is good or bad in what she does.
The psychological tension that results keeps the audience engaged and provides avenues for questioning regarding the aspects of duty, memory, and the impact of trauma on one's belief system.
Manipulative role of Evelyn Wade in Wayward
Evelyn Wade is the site of tension throughout the series. Evelyn knows about Leila's loss, vulnerability, and sense of belonging, and becomes a surrogate mother and giving Leila the family and sense of belonging Leila never had. Evelyn keeps the teenager under control and compliant with the school system by manipulating Leila's psychological vulnerability.
Lind sees Leila's needs for attachment as real but manipulative. "She wants the community, she wants the family, and I think she genuinely does believe that," she says as stated earlier. This is the classic response to psychological manipulations performed under high-control settings, where needs are used to establish attachment and compliance.
Leila's psychological growth in Wayward
Where Evelyn's arrival can be observed, Leila's experience is not one of passivity. There are moments in the series where she finds herself arriving at thinking about the academy in a more universal sense. An example would be when she is having pizza and hearing Pink Floyd's Time.
The setting has her within the context of there being nothing that is amiss with the academy, and that perhaps the setting is giving her some kind of connection or comfort. These human moments, with friends, with mentors, or with self-reflection, all serve Leila's inner conflict: her instinctive caution and mistrust and feeling of belonging.
These moments enhance the series' thematic visitation of complicated human psychology, the crossroads of trauma, manipulation, and a feeling of belonging.
The role of trauma and memory in Wayward
Leila's own character development is, in turn, brought about by her traumatic past, the murder of her sister Jess, and subsequent emotional abandonment by her mother. This becomes Leila's survival coping mechanisms, such as drug abuse and acting out.
Leila's amnesia regarding Jess' death is fertile ground for psychological manipulation, as discussed by Lind, on which Evelyn can orchestrate that what Leila imagines happened will have occurred, whether it actually did or not.
This is one of the series's strongest applications of trauma and memory. It's based on actual psychological effects, describing how unresolved grief and trauma can influence decision-making and susceptibility to manipulation from outside sources.
Wayward was conceived as an eight-episode limited series, yet the ending leaves several narrative threads unresolved. Lind acknowledges that the series’ creators and cast were aware of this from the start, and that while it was designed as a limited run, the potential for continuation exists. As per The Hollywood Reporter, she said,
"Limited series get picked up [for more seasons] all the time now, so we’re just hoping that Netflix wants to push it further. We all want more for our characters, especially me. I want to see where Leila goes. I love her so much.”
The open-ended conclusion provides space for interpretation by viewers, that is, Leila's motivations and circumstances that led her to remain behind. Refraining from answering directly, the series leaves argument and debate for each viewer to form their own opinion regarding responsibility, influence, and transformation.
Alyvia Alyn Lind on Leila's motivations in Wayward
Lind provides some specificity regarding balancing the character and entering Leila's. Lind's perception of the tension between outer manipulation and inner desire, and she makes Leila's decision a fusion of true desire for union and the lingering effect of Evelyn's manipulation.
Lind's writing is a confirmation of the nuance series' emphasis, demonstrating characters never need to be over-determined as simply "good" or "bad.". And Lind goes on to say that what the viewer witnesses, e.g., Jess's death, gives depth to the viewer. As per The Hollywood Reporter, she said,
"I was literally watching Wayward with my family the other day, and I noticed for the first time that when I cry on screen, I look really, really similar to my oldest sister, Natalie [Alyn Lind]."
Realism of the troubled teen industry in Wayward
Wayward also illuminates the real atmosphere of the teen trouble industry, which has been termed as being built on high-pressure and psychologically manipulative programs. By presenting a dramatized but psychologically charged atmosphere, the series draws attention to teens' vulnerability because they are coping with bereavement, identification, and control.
Tall Pines Academy's depiction draws on real, documented issues with abusive schemes operating in therapeutic boarding schools, where proper treatment and accountability in such an environment are the concern.
The series navigates the line of psychological suspense and moments of outright emotional subtlety. Leila's narrative is grounded in her relationship with her friends and guides, and in moments of self-reflection that reveal her internal conflict. Such moments, such as when she speaks on the phone to her mom, cut short by Evelyn's intrusive goading, give a three-dimensional image of trauma, attachment, and agency.
The series further employs double accounts of significant events, i.e., Jess' death, to present uncertainty and interpretation. Offering a series of versions of the same, the series forces audiences to weigh the subjective nature of memory, the trauma paradox, and the degree to which external testimony informs personal belief.
Leila's decision to stay at Tall Pines Academy is nuanced. It is both her internal human desire for community and belonging, and the depth of Evelyn Wade's psychological. Alyvia Alyn Lind's performance opens up this nuance, demonstrating that Leila's decision can't be some reductionist trick or games with free will.
It is both a personal choice and a response to the environment, demonstrating the subtle way Wayward handles trauma, identity, and agency. While built as a short-run series, the open-ended series finale is a breeding ground for discourse, interpretation, and debate regarding the futures of the characters.
Leila's trajectory underlines the series' thematic undertones, such as conflict over domination and control, the need to belong, and the long-term consequences of unresolved trauma.
Trending
Wayward constructs a richly psychological narrative, and Lind's consideration presents Leila's motivation to us in a patient manner about the vagueness of the narrative. Her conclusion, therefore, is as much about being in one location as it is about crossing the knotty territory of human feeling, manipulation, and searching for connection.
Also read: Wayward turns into Netflix’s most talked-about and polarizing thriller, here's why
Reply
