Wayward: Ambiguous Finale, Polarizing Netflix Hit

Netflix’s Wayward is an eight-episode, genre‑bending whodunnit set in the seemingly perfect town of Tall Pines that follows students at the cult‑like Tall Pines Academy and its controlling headmaster, Evelyn. Creator Mae Martin drew on personal experience with troubled‑teen programs to shape the show's depiction of psychological manipulation, disappearances and the Academy's secretive therapies, and the series uses recurring cane‑toad imagery and croaking as a symbolic motif. The season culminates in a terrifying, deliberately open‑ended finale that resolves some threads while leaving major mysteries — including whether characters Laura and Leila killed family members and whether a new group could become another cult — unresolved. Critics largely praised the writing, and press and cast interviews have teased the possibility of a second season. The show has become one of Netflix’s biggest new hits but remains polarizing with audiences, and some ratings appear to have been skewed by transphobic review‑bombing.