This recap of Amazon Original series The Wilds season 1, episode 5, “Day Seven” contains significant spoilers.

The opening

The fifth episode of The Wilds focuses on Fatin, a character that has been an outlier so far, so it’s interesting to delve into her life. “Day Seven” opens with Gretchen getting ready for the day while in another scene, Fatin is playing the cello to an audience. On the island, Shelby is worried that Fatin and Toni haven’t returned. The others in the group do not seem as concerned. The women then do impersonations of Fatin. Dot then reveals that she has lost the lighter and Rachel is furious. The group agrees to keep the fire burning — Rachel jokingly suggests burning Leah’s book which angers Leah. The drama subsides as Toni returns and she finds a garment that belongs to Fatin, and she’s concerned.

Alex thinks they should send someone in to find Fatin

Gretchen is worried about Fatin, but she’s reassured the team that they will have boots on the ground if it escalates. She asks Alex if he’s okay as he is usually bothered about the welfare of the women. Alex wonders why they haven’t sent anyone on the island to find Fatin. “Day Seven” sees Gretchen continue to make calculated risks. She always seems to weigh up options.

Fatin wants a social life

Fatin wants to quit the cello because all her friends are having fun partying. She tries to express to her parents why she needs to quit. Her father suggests that they allow Fatin to blow off some steam and the mother agrees. “Day Seven” suggests she has a close relationship with her father which makes it a difficult story later on. Scenes follow with Fatin enjoying her social life and rehearsing with the cello. She asks her father if she can have a little more leeway on the curfew, but he raises how her mother wants the best for her.

Search party

On the island, the women agree to look for Fatin. Nora offers to stay behind and keep the fire burning. The group believes Dot is the best person to track down Fatin using her skills. As the search party navigates through the woods, they are easily spooked by animals. Rachel tries bailing, and Leah calls her out for it. When Rachel calls her crazy, Leah insists she isn’t. Leah has struggled with the group since the start, and she’s not getting a break at all.


In a flashback, while checking out her father’s tablet, Fatin sees a message from another woman who is sexting him with photos. Because she’s angry that her father is doing this to her mother, she sends an encrypted photo of her father in a comprising position to all his contacts. In a later scene, Fatin sees her mother breaking down, and she applies lipstick on her — she knows that her husband has been cheating. This was a defining moment in Fatin’s flashbacks as we were led to believe her relationship with her father was strong, but it was easily discarded moments later.

Quick mud

On the island, Rachel ends up in quick mud and panics. Dot tries to help her. The others join to help her, but Rachel is struggling badly. Martha tells Rachel to stop fighting and breathe. Everyone pulls her out, and there’s relief on everyone’s faces — this was the first time all the women, barring Nora and Fatin, had a moment of togetherness. The others want to quit the search party for the day, but Leah doesn’t want to give up. Meanwhile, Nora is struggling to keep the fire alive but manages to get it going again.

Waterfall

The search party finds Fatin, and she’s okay. They are angry at her but then she shows them something. The group reaches a waterfall, and are ecstatic and get in the water. Fatin has also marked the route so they can continue finding it — Fatin is finally making herself useful. Gretchen is relieved knowing that Fatin is okay and she celebrates with the team. She asks Alex to throw a drink in her face so he can release his anger.


Backfired on Fatin

In a flashback, Fatin has a family meeting, and her parents lecture her. Fatin is dismayed that she’s the one who is getting blamed when it was her father cheating. Her father gets angry and explains how he has been too soft; the parents have agreed to send her to a retreat so she can learn some respect. Fatin doesn’t want to go and wonders how her father found out that she sent the encrypted messages — she suspects they used a private investigator. Her father tells Fatin that she’s a danger to the family. Fatin tells her father that he’s disgusting, but he explains that after the retreat, they are sending her to boarding school. These are shocking scenes and make you sympathize with Fatin. It’s incredible how her father has been cheating, yet she gets punished.

Fatin and Leah apologize

Fatin apologizes to Leah for bringing Jeffrey into the arguments. She also admits she knows nothing about love. Leah admits to being a c*nt to her and apologizes as well. The pair hug it out. Leah then offers to burn Jeffrey’s book on the fire. She’s finally trying to achieve closure.

The ending

Dot tells the others that keeping the shallow grave of Jeannette near the camp is dangerous as it will be attracting animals near them. They need to dig it up and rebury her somewhere else. When they dig, her body isn’t there, and they are confused. All the women convince themselves that the body has been washed away in the sea by the tide. Fatin tells the investigators that Leah thought it was odd about Jeanette’s body and that she believed her.



The Wilds season 1, episode 5 delves into Fatin’s life that involves cellos, sex, a curfewed social life, and some fractured family relationships. Due to Fatin being relatively quiet so far, this was a great chapter to understand the character. It really brought home who she is after all the other characters have a lot of assumptions about her.

We recapped every episode — check out the tag.