The Wilds / Awesome

Awesome moments in Amazon Prime's series "The Wilds". Beware: unmarked spoilers!

Season One

Episode 1: Day One

Nora manages to get Dot's waterlogged phone working again by using sand to dry it out as an alternative to rice.

Episode 2: Day Two

Despite what her obsession with improving and her overworking herself leads to, seeing Rachel dive at the beginning of the episode counts by itself.
On the island, Dot's idea of using the sun's reflection off the mirror to act as a signal is genius.
Nora arrives just in the nick of time to save Leah from plummeting face first off a cliff.

Episode 3: Day Three

Rachel, Leah and Nora swim out to the plane wreckage. Not only do they use what appears to be cushioning from the plane seats as a floatation device, they manage to retrieve the black box and bring it back to the island. Even if Rachel does almost kill Leah in the process...
Dot saves Shelby from a rattlesnake.

Episode 4: Day Six

Even though it ultimately leads to the end of her relationship with Regan due to her inability to stand down when provoked, it's still kind of awesome that Toni takes on three men twice her size to defend herself and her girlfriend.

Episode 5: Day Seven

Fatin's skills as a cello player. No wonder she's described as a shoo-in for Juilliard.
The girls rescue Rachel after she falls into quicksand. Martha, in particular, is instrumental in calming her down enough to stop struggling and accept help from the others.
Nora manages to get the fire going again without a lighter, using pages from her notebook to feed the embers and blowing a steady stream of air onto it at the right distance to ensure the flames get enough oxygen.
We find out where Fatin's been... she found fresh water! With a waterfall to boot, which according to the field notes, reduces the risk of bacteria. She uses nail polish and strips of fabric from her clothes to mark the path, showing how much she's learned. Dot even says she's never been prouder!

Episode 6: Day Twelve

Dot manages to move past the illness pretty quickly and recovers enough to discern what medicines everybody needs to be taking.
Darkly awesome, but the end of this episode reveals that Dr. Faber and Agent Young are actually working with Gretchen. The post-island investigative interviews are all still part of the experiment!

Episode 7: Day Fifteen

After keeping her cool with Shelby for the whole episode, Toni lets loose on her in a much more mature way than she would’ve done even a few days prior. And all the while, tension of another kind is building...
Toni: Shelby, you know, if you’re trying to out-sad me, it’s a losing fucking battle.
Shelby: (desperately) But you’re free, don’t you see that? You don’t have to answer to anybody.
Toni: And neither do you! Not right now, anyway. I mean, you’re on a deserted island a million miles away from whatever bullshit expectations that you left behind. You know, you’re free here, Shelby, and if you’re not taking advantage of that, then I don’t know what the fuck to tell you.
Shelby kisses her.
Dot goes off on the rest of the girls for their immaturity and infighting.
Dot: If we go out, and I'm not so sure that we won’t, it's not going to be at each other’s throats. Because there is zero fucking dignity in that.

Episode 8: Day Sixteen

Rachel decides to give up on the lie she’s been telling herself of Stanford and still being on the diving team, showing significant Character Development.
Post-island, Shelby leverages her interview with Faber and Young into letting her see Leah. When she hugs her, unseen by the two men, Shelby slips a note down the back of Leah’s shirt.

Episode 9: Day Twenty-Two

Despite being resistant to the water now, as she says all it ever did was make her sick, Rachel doesn’t hesitate to swan dive off a cliff to rescue Leah from drowning.
Toni and Shelby find a Lychee tree - an answer to the girls’ starvation problem.
It’s definitely sad, and a defining moment for Martha in a lot of ways, but her killing the goat provides the girls with days of food and, like Toni and Shelby finding the Lychees, prevents them all from starving to death.

Episode 10: Day Twenty-Three

The opening of this episode flashes back to some of the events on the island from Nora’s point of view after last episode’s reveal that she is The Mole, showing how she worked and communicated with Gretchen and her team.
Leah manages to convince Agent Young to let her go outside, and gets him to tell her where in the world they are. Not only that, but she gets a napkin from him, which she uses to prevent her door from locking by stuffing it into the doorjamb.
Nora runs into the water with no reservations to save Rachel from the shark attack.
Leah’s plan to potentially escape, leading her to find the footage of the “Twilight of Adam” control group. It’s possible that Shelby might be helping her by sending herself into anaphylactic shock in order to create a diversion. It’s unclear how, or indeed if, they planned this, as the audience has only seen one note passed between them, but if they’ve found a way to communicate while in the compound, then that definitely counts as this too.

Episode 1: Day Thirty/ Day One

As we catch up with the girls a week post-shark, Martha is busy beheading a bird. Having moved past her pacifist pescetarianism, she's become the group's hunter.
Raf returns to his room after his interview, sits down on his bed...and Leah pops up, covers his mouth, and whispers Don't scream in his ear.

Episode 2: Day Thirty-Four/Day Twelve

Leah, fully aware she can't get away with her visit to Raf, heads straight to Daniel's office and stone-facedly informs him that she's fully aware of what is actually going on. Then she proceeds to play both sides by offering to "help"...to the room's one-way mirror behind which Gretchen is listening.
Once upon a time two plane crashes were staged...

Episode 4: Day 42/Day 15

The boys are menaced by a jaguar raiding the camp for food that injures a fleeing Bo. They turn the bunker into a pit trap that injures the beast, allowing Kirin to stab it to death with Ivan's fancy spear.

Episode 8: Exodus

The reveal: With a little help from Young, Leah gets a cell phone and 45 seconds of time. She dials her friend Ian, who goes straight to the FBI, forcing Gretchen to evacuate the base in a panic.