Saagar Kote
Created by Mae Martin, Netflix’s mystery thriller show ‘Wayward’ revolves around the happenings in the Tall Pines Academy run by a woman named Evelyn Wade. It is a school for troubled teenagers looking to redeem themselves. Alex Dempsey, a new police officer in the town of Tall Pines, begins to investigate the academy after crossing paths with a student who tries to escape. Meanwhile, best friends Leila and Abbie find themselves stuck in the secretive school due to unavoidable circumstances.
As the students live a strange life within the walls of the institution, the town is plagued by dark secrets that could lead to dangerous revelations. The Tall Pines Academy is the most important setting of the show, where most of the crucial plot points unfold. Shrouded in deception and secrecy, it becomes a character in itself, revealing different shades as the story goes forward. The fate of many significant characters becomes intertwined with the school and the people governing it. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Tall Pines Academy is Inspired by Real-Life Youth Programs
‘Wayward’ focuses on the Tall Pines Academy and everything that it hides. Despite being a fictional academy, it is loosely inspired by happenings in the life of the creator, who also serves as the show’s writer, along with Ryan Scott, Alex Eldridge, Kayla Lorette, and others. The academy is deeply secretive and often makes its students take part in emotionally jarring exercises that threaten their mental health. It also forces students to take part in tasks as punishment for disobedience. Mae Martin, in an interview with Them, said that they were interested in the subject matter of the show since their teenage years.
Mae said, “When I was 16, my best friend got sent to one of these residential facilities in America. She was gone for two years, and she came back with all of these stories about the experience she had in this school. I was always fascinated with it, and I started to research the troubled teen industry, and it’s so crazy.” The stories, which remain mysterious, inspired the creator to move ahead with the show. It can be presumed that Mae, who also plays the protagonist Alex in the show, heard things about their friend’s experience, leading to deeper questions in their mind. While it is not clarified which school the creator’s friend was sent to, it most likely had customs, traditions, or practices that may have been seen as out of the ordinary.
Mae also revealed in an interview with Dazed that their friend was actually kidnapped by the school. The kidnapping of Abbie plays a major role in the narrative, which presumably reflects the experiences of the creator’s friend. Mae adds, “She was sent from Canada to an American troubled teen institute, and came back with crazy stories about unregulated practices and therapy. I’ve been researching it for 20 years. The germ for that industry was cults in the 1970s, like Synanon, that were doing behavioural modification. It’s bizarre! It writes itself!” One of the major dark mysteries in the show has to do with Evelyn’s therapy methods, like “Leap,” which uses psychedelics and other narcotic substances to fool the students into believing that they have overcome their guilt and are ready to take on the world again.
In the name of therapy, the Tall Pines Academy explores dangerous and unregulated methods that violate morality and the ethics of science. The experiences of Stacey in particular, who becomes part of the Leap therapy, are relevant in this case, as she is subjected to dangerous drugs that visibly change her personality. The fears of the students at the Tall Pines Academy mirror the feelings of teenagers in the real world, who also fear unchecked authority and loss of freedom.
Tall Pines Academy Profits From Teenagers’ Anxiety and Insecurity
In the narrative, Tall Pines Academy exploits teenagers’ mental health to make them believe that they are not worthy. In reality, the teenage phase is often considered one of the most sensitive phases in an individual’s growth, as it involves emotional and physical changes. A 2021 report by the BBC reveals the harrowing experiences of celebrity Paris Hilton and another man named Daniel, who were taken against their will as teenagers into programmes in the past. Daniel experienced anxiety and depression during his teenage years, and was taken away by strange men from the hospital where he was admitted after trying to harm himself. He was then sent to a wilderness programme in Georgia, where he had to spend more than two months hiking with limited supplies.
The experiences of the students of Tall Pines Academy highlight the issues faced by many individuals with similar experiences. One example in the show stands out, as it relates to the issues faced by the students when they are ordered to climb Mount Otis as a means of punishment. The report also makes references to the Troubled Teen Industry (TTI), which collectively refers to all private academies, programmes, or institutions trying to modify the behavior of teenagers. The Tall Pines Academy preys on the insecurities and fears of teenagers and tries to intervene in dangerous ways, so that it can, in some ways, hack into and construct their behavioral patterns as per its own moral standards. This creates a parallel between the on-screen, fictionalized institution and the real-life establishments that make up the reality of the troubled teen industry. Ultimately, even though Tall Pines Academy itself has no direct counterparts in real life, it taps into a prevalent reality that has been shaping the youth culture for years.
Read More: Wayward Episode 5 and 6 Recap
