History Characters / TheWilds

* FemaleMisogynist: For all her feminist rhetoric, Gretchen doesn't seem to particularly like or get along well with other women on a personal level nor is she very sympathetic to those who suffered due to the kind of behavior she claims to be combating. She sees her former colleagues at the college she used to work at before getting fired as "timid-minded" for not going through the lengths she's willing to go to and even dismissively views Leah as weak for her feelings on Jeff and ignoring that she was groomed by a predator and treating it like Leah's fault for falling for him. She even has no issue using someone she knows is a violent domestic abuser and [[spoiler:leaves everyone, including the girls, in his hands without any hesitation.]]
* GirlbossFeminist: Gretchen is a former college professor who tries to prove that women are better than men at leading society by forcibly stranding two groups of teenagers (one composed of girls and the other boys) on deserted islands and monitoring their progress. [[InsaneTrollLogic Even discounting the fact that surviving on a deserted island requires a very different skillset than leading society]], Gretchen deliberately stacks things against the boy group by using boys who all have criminal records, including one domestic abuser, so she can prove her "hypothesis" right. She is barely fazed, and even happy to learn that said domestic abuser assaulted one of the boys because it supports her views. Also, for all her feminist rhetoric, [[FemaleMisogynist she proves to be very dismissive to other women,]] dismissing her female colleagues as "timid-minded" for not going to the lengths she's willing to go to, [[EvilHasABadSenseOfHumor making insensitive voyeur jokes when she sees one of her male subordinates monitoring the girls (who is only watching over them out of concern)]], and victim-blames Leah Rilke for being in a predatory relationship with a pedophile and expected her to be grateful for Gretchen stranding her on a deserted island because MiseryBuildsCharacter.

* [[PsychopathicManChild Psychopathic Woman Child]]: For a grown woman, Gretchen [[StrawFeminist has very immature and shallow views of feminism]]. She believes her experiment will prove that women are superior to men [[InsaneTrollLogic despite the fact that it uses only a handful of teenagers as the unwilling test subjects]]. She tends to not react well to [[CantTakeCriticism criticism]] or anyone so much as questioning her. When she's unable to get any of the boys to reveal what happenened during the blindspot when they were on the island, she basically acts like a child throwing a tantrum and locking themself in their room, which Daniel and Dean point out.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Henry is in a perpetually downbeat mood and can be a real drag at times but he's a good person overall and does have a strong moral compass and kind side that becomes clearer as the show goes on.

* BrokenPedestal: He looked up to Seth when he found out he was the Instagram handle known as '''Spillz'''. It wasn't long before Seth gave him a good reason to change his mind.

->'''Played by:''' David Sullivan

* InnocentlyInsensitive: As much as Josh wants to be socially progressive, it can often be performative. For example, Josh refers to the Día de Los Muertos [[note]]"Day of the Dead", observed in Mexico and other areas[[/note]] holiday as "Mexican Halloween," which Raf and Leah find cringe-inducing, even after getting the purpose of Cinco de Mayo right.

* LikeMotherUnlikeSon: For all his flaws, DJ is willing to admit that he did awful stuff and is wracked with guilt over it as well as willing to take responsibility in sharp contrast to Gretchen who has deluded herself into thinking she's doing the world and the teens a great service and never expresses any remorse for all the damage she's done.

* JerkassHasAPoint: He's a [[spoiler: cruel, manipulative liar and SmugSnake working for the show's BigBad.]] Despite this, his assessment of Leah and her obsessive personality contains several grains of truth.

* TokenGoodTeammate: [[spoiler:In the post-island timeline, he is the one who shows the most genuine concern for the girls' wellbeing.]]

!Supporting Characters

[[folder:Quinn]]
!!Quinn
->'''Played by:''' John Berchtold
Nora's boyfriend.

* LovableJock: He reveals himself to be one beneath his macho personality, showing he was popular for his charisma and being a good friend as well as his athletic ability.

* InsaneTrollLogic: She believes that her experiment, which consists of stranding two groups of teenagers on a deserted island, will "prove" that women are better suited to lead society when the girls work together while the boys fall apart. Even discounting her biases and [[NeverMyFault deliberately stacking things against the boys]], surviving on a deserted island requires a very different skillset from leading society. There's also the fact that a handful of teenagers, most of whom are from the United States, is not a good basis for trying to prove something about all men and women around the world. She also seems to think she'll be hailed as a visionary and feminist icon for her work rather than a borderline sociopath who endangered unwitting teenagers to prove a point and whose work would be discredited immediately due to her methods and who would probably face serious jail time for her illegal actions, to say nothing of the response of the kids' parents.

* ManipulativeBitch: Her so called "control" group is filled with young teenage boys with criminal records while the girls group has troubled teens at worst.

* PsychopathicWomanChild: For a grown woman, Gretchen [[StrawFeminist has very immature and shallow views of feminism]]. She believes her experiment will prove that women are superior to men [[InsaneTrollLogic despite the fact that it uses only a handful of teenagers as the unwilling test subjects]]. She tends to not react well to [[CantTakeCriticism criticism]] or anyone so much as questioning her. When she's unable to get any of the boys to reveal what happenened during the blindspot when they were on the island, she basically acts like a child throwing a tantrum and locking themself in their room, which Daniel and Dean point out.

!Supporting Characters

* TokenReligiousTeammate: Shelby is the only girl among the nine to be vocally religious, speaking about her Christian beliefs frequently early on. She noticeably maintains her devout beliefs even after accepting being a lesbian and openly getting involved in a relationship with Toni.

* TokenReligiousTeammate: Shelby is the only girl among the nine to be vocally religious, speaking about her Christian beliefs frequently early on.

* NoSenseOfPersonalSpace: [[spoiler:Even when trying to hide his abusive behavior behind a friendly facade, he doesn't show much respect towards other people's boundaries, something that Ivan calls him out on. [[NiceJobFixingItVillain This attitude has bitten him in the ass on a few occassions]]; initially Josh was unwilling to let any of the other boys know that Seth raped him and makes Kirin, who Josh confided in, promise not to say anything. Kirin agrees but makes it clear that he will make Seth pay if he so much as touches Josh which he makes good on when Seth puts a hand on Josh's shoulder while congratulating him for finding water. Later, after convincing the other boys that he should be let back into the group so they have better chances of survival, he continuously tries to befriend Josh despite having assaulted him and the other boys flat out telling Seth to just leave Josh alone, eventually putting a hand on his elbow. this leads to [[HatesBeingTouched Josh]] slapping his hand away and Kirin revealing to the rest of the group that he kidnapped his ex-girlfriend's cat when she broke up with him. This revelation causes Henry to realize just how much Seth fakes remorse of his horrible actions to get into people's sympathies and Seth is exiled once again, by himself.]]

* PsychopathicWomanChild: For a grown woman, Gretchen [[StrawFeminist has very immature and shallow views of feminism]]. She believes her experiment will prove that women are superior to men [[InsaneTrollLogic despite the fact that it uses only a handful of teenagers as the unwilling test subjects]]. She tends to not react well to [[CantTakeCriticism criticism]] or anyone so much as questioning her. When she's unable to get any of the boys to reveal what happenened during the blindspot when they were on the island, she basically acts like a child throwing a tantrum and locking themself in their room, which Daniel and Dean lampshade.

* NoSenseOfPersonalSpace: [[spoiler:Even when trying to hide his abusive behavior behind a friendly facade, he doesn't show much respect towards other people's boundaries, something that Ivan calls him out on. [[NiceJobFixingItVillain This attitude has bitten him in the ass on a few occassions]]; initially Josh was unwilling to let any of the other boys know that Seth raped him and makes Kirin, who Josh confided in, promise not to say anything. Kirin agrees but makes it clear that he will make Seth pay if he so much as touches Josh which he makes good on when Seth puts a hand on Josh's shoulder while congratulating him for finding water. Later, after convincing the other boys that he should be let back into the group so they have better chances of survival, he continuously tries to befriend Josh despite having assaulted him and the other boys flat out telling Seth to just leave Josh alone, eventually putting a hand on his elbow. This leads to [[HatesBeingTouched Josh]] slapping his hand away and Kirin to reveal to the rest of the group that he kidnapped his ex-girlfriend's cat when she broke up with him. This revelation causes Henry to realize just how much Seth fakes remorse of his horrible actions to get into people's sympathies and Seth is exiled once again, by himself.]]

* InsaneTrollLogic: She believes that her experiment, which consists of stranding two groups of teenagers on a deserted island, will "prove" that women are better suited to lead society when the girls work together while the boys fall apart. Even discounting her biases and [[NeverMyFault deliberately stacking things against the boys]], surviving on a deserted island requires a very different skillset from leading society. There's also the fact that a handful of teenagers, most of whom are from the United States, is not a good basis for trying to prove something about men and women from around the world. She also seems to think she'll be hailed as a visionary and feminist icon for her work rather than a borderline sociopath who endangered unwitting teenagers to prove a point and whose work would be discredited immediately due to her methods and who would probably face serious jail time for her illegal actions, to say nothing of the response of the kids' parents.

** [[spoiler:After most of the boys are exiled along with him, Seth convinces Kirin and Josh that they should all be working together regardless of what he's done because survival is their top priority. However, Seth continuously trying to befriend Josh despite having assaulted him results in a disgusted Kirin revealing to the rest of the group that Seth kidnapped his ex-girlfriend Julia's cat when she broke up with him, which Seth himself told to Kirin. This in turn causes Henry to realize that he did something similar to Julia what he did to Josh, and Seth is promptly exiled again, by himself this time.]]

* ConfirmationBias: [[invoked]] She tries to stack the deck heavily in favor of her feminist leanings, bringing in more dysfunctional young men for the control group, including one violent abuser, to achieve the outcome she wants and gets annoyed when she's proven wrong.

* StrawFeminist: Somehow, she doesn't see anything wrong with putting nine girls through hell to prove a female-centric society is better. She tries to prove this by tainting the island control group with boys who have criminal records including a known mentally disturbed predator to prove her point. And she's a little too satisfied when she finds out Seth assaulted Josh because it supports her hypothesis. [[LackOfEmpathy She also refers to Leah as "a puddle" and a "lovefool" for being in a predatory relationship with Jeffrey]], which just comes across as victim-blaming.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: She genuinely wants women in general to live happier, freer, and safer lives with more opportunity and independence. Unfortunately, her pursuit of this goal makes her willing to overlook the suffering of the girls involved in the Dawn of Eve project in order to prove a point.

** [[spoiler:After most of the boys are exiled along with him, Seth convinces Kirin and Josh that they should all be working together regardless of what he's done because survival is their top priority. However, Seth continuously trying to befriend Josh despite assaulting him results in a disgusted Kirin revealing to the rest of the group that Seth kidnapped his ex-girlfriend Julia's cat when she broke up with him, which Seth himself told to Kirin. This in turn causes Henry to realize that he did something similar to Julia what he did to Josh, and Seth is promptly exiled again, by himself this time.]]
** [[spoiler:When suggesting to Raf that they leave he Kirin to drown when he falls out of their boat, he tells Raf to hit Kirin with a paddle when he tries to board. [[GrewASpine Raf]] instead takes the opportunity to hit Seth with the paddle before beating him into unconsciousness with his bare hands.]]

* DoesNotLikeMen: Averted; despite her outspoken feminist ideals and dreams of a "gynotopia," she tells Linh she doesn't hate men and has loved some of them and she doesn't treat men she works with differently from the way she treats women.

* FemaleMisogynist: For all her feminist rhetoric, Gretchen doesn't seem to particularly like or get along well with other women on a personal level nor is she very sympathetic to those who suffered due to the kind of behavior she claims to be combating. She sees her former colleagues at the college she used to work at before getting fired as "timid-minded" for not going through the lengths she's willing to go to and even dismissively views Leah as weak for her feelings on Jeff and ignoring that she was groomed by a predator and treating it like Leah's fault for falling for him. She even has no issue using someone she knows is a violent domestic abuser and [[spoiler: leaves everyone, including the girls, in his hands without any hesitation.]]

* NeverMyFault: [[spoiler:She attributes Seth assaulting Josh to "bad male behavior" when the reason Seth was even in a position to do that was because of her stranding them on a deserted island. It's also doubtful that the girls would have been to work together as well as they did if they also had to deal with a domestic abuser.]]
* PetTheDog: She forms a genuine friendship with [[spoiler:Linh.]] While she is [[spoiler:able to compartmentalize her tragic death and keep the project going,]] it is clear that [[spoiler:she mourns her.]]

* {{Hypocrite}}: Gretchen claims to be a feminist, but the entire premise of the series is that she's using the girls as unknowing lab rats. It's basically the opposite of feminist to run an experiment on people without their consent, even if it wasn't also regularly putting them in mortal danger.

* TheHero: Though all 8 of the girls get their time in the spotlight, [[spoiler:as Leah is the one to figure out there's something more going on she come closest to this in the story.]]

* HiddenHeartOfGold: Under that his {{Jerkass}} facade is a generally intuitive and empathetic soul, though it takes a while for this side to come out.

* SourSupporter: Henry never wanted to be part of the Twilight of Adam project to begin with and is equally annoyed at having to be on the desert island with people he doesn't know and with the possibility that any one of them can die without ever being rescued. Nevertheless, Henry tries to pull his weight, including using his Boy Scout knowledge to help the group hide their food supply from animals.

* EvilHasABadSenseOfHumor: When she sees Dean monitoring the girls (out of concern for their well-being), she jokingly asks if he masturbating while watching them. This is in especially poor taste on account of Leah being a victim of statutory rape and Martha having been molested by her physical therapist when she was a child.

* {{Hypocrite}}: She claims to be a feminist, but the entire premise of the series is that she's using the girls as unknowing lab rats. It's basically the opposite of feminist to run an experiment on people without their consent, even if it wasn't also regularly putting them in mortal danger. She also has no issue hiring known abusers and sexual predators in order to achieve the outcome she wants.

** [[spoiler:Kirin is quick to suspect that Seth’s NiceGuy personality is just a façade, and turns out to be right in the most horrific way.]]

* FauxAffablyEvil: [[spoiler:It takes the rest of the boys a while to realize that Seth's NiceGuy persona is a cover. As Henry says, Seth hurts people. Even after this becomes known, though, Seth proves scarily adept at winning members of the group back to his side.]]

* AtLeastIAdmitIt: In his ReasonYouSuckSpeech to his mother, points out that [[DeadlyPrank what he did]] was horrible but at the very least he regretted his actions unlike his mother, who is very willing to ruin the lives of teenagers to prove her WomenAreWiser hypothesis and never shows any regret about the damage she leaves in her wake.

* HairTriggerTemper: Seth is shown to have a severe one when his aforementioned BerserkButton{{s}} are pushed, [[spoiler:resulting in him nearly drowning Henry, sexually assaulting Josh, and almost abandoning Kirin to die in the ocean.]]

* HiddenDepths: Big time. At first glance, Kirin seems like nothing more than a dumb, swaggering jock with an overabundance of testosterone. But he gradually shows himself to be a lot more sensitive, compassionate and insightful than he appears and shows a softer side as time goes on, revealing himself as a good friend.

* JerkJock: Kirin has this in shades, though is shown to have some standards when it comes to morality. Unlike most examples, he isn't shown or implied to have been a bully and was popular due to his charismatic personality.

* InsaneTrollLogic: She believes that her experiment, which consists of stranding two groups of teenagers on a deserted island, will "prove" that women are better suited to lead society when the girls work together while the boys fall apart. Even discounting her biases and deliberately stacking things against the boys, surviving on a deserted island requires a very different skillset from leading society. There's also the fact that a handful of teenagers, most of whom are from the United States, is not a good basis for trying to prove something about men and women from around the world. She also seems to think she'll be hailed as a visionary and feminist icon for her work rather than a borderline sociopath who endangered unwitting teenagers to prove a point and whose work would be discredited immediately due to her methods and who would probably face serious jail time for her illegal actions, to say nothing of the response of the kids' parents.

* StrawFeminist: Somehow, she doesn't see anything wrong with putting nine girls through hell to prove a female-centric society is better. She tries to prove this by tainting the island control group with boys who have criminal records including a known mentally disturbed predator to prove her point. And she's a little too satisfied when she finds out Seth assaulted Josh because it supports her hypothesis. [[LackOfEmpathy She also refers to Leah as "a puddle" for being in a predatory relationship with Jeffrey]], which just comes across as victim-blaming.

* JerkToNiceGuyPlot: Scotty initially begins with an Us vs. Them mentality in regards to the group and wants to hide food away from everyone but Bo. However, he gradually starts to become a team player and becomes more mindful of his best friend.

* JerkToNiceGuyPlot: Ivan goes from an abrasive and judgmental teenager whose own character flaws sometimes blind him to the suffering of other people, even those who have more social privilege than him, to someone who becomes more tender and empathetic to the needs of others. By the end of the second season, Ivan seems to have become VitriolicBestBuds with Kirin, despite everything.

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Her real name is Dorothy—but she's rarely called that.