#shelby goodkind theory

[intothewickedwood]

I was just listening to the Out In The Wilds Podcast (amazing podcast by the way. Their analysis of the show is next-level genius! Highly recommend!), and they pointed out that when Gretchen is practicing her presentation in 1x07, they have pictures of all the girls on the island, all of which are close-up images except Shelby’s, whose face is not visible. When I first watched it, it just added fuel to the many Shelby conspiracies I’d had since the pilot (probably enough to rival Leah’s at that point). But then the hosts mentioned something about her parents perhaps being involved and wanting to keep her identity private.

I’ve seen a lot of theories about Shelby’s dad thinking he was sending her to a conversion therapy, but given this field note info detailing how all the girls learned to swim - “Shelby’s dad threw her into the country club pool sink-or-swim style” - it would seem that her dad almost literally threw her in deep water again, sink or swim style.

Field Note Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20210421150514/https://the-wilds.fandom.com/wiki/Trivia#Field_Note_.2361

I think he wanted her to think of nothing but survival on that island, not caring about her safety and hoping it would break or strengthen her. I reckon he was most interested in phase 2 of the experiment where Gretchen may have informed him that someone like Dan would break her down psychologically with his (purposefully and specifically adopted for Shelby) authoritative demeanor. Gretchen may well have told him that the experiment was Christian-based and a more extreme version of a conversion therapy, but I think he knew almost exactly what phase 1 and 2 of the experiment entailed.

He didn’t care how much it would mentally or physically hurt her. He would just do anything not to have a gay daughter. The fact that he knew that the pain of her having permanent teeth implanted before adulthood would be unbearable and insisting on it anyway, I think, shows the lengths he would go to ‘fix’ her.

I think the writing in this show is very intentional. The field note, as well as his willingness for her to go through extreme levels of physical pain, as well as emotional and mental, with not-so subtle threats of disownment from her family and whole community, forcing her to spend a lifetime in the closet or be someone she’s not, and not even acknowledging her best friend's death or her shame regarding that, seem to hint at just how aware he was of the specific hell he was about to put his daughter through.

[lesblizzard-ultradyke]

we have blonde straight hair shelby deny her sexuality and pretend to be entirely someone else in the first season, we have growing out washing off to brown wavy hair shelby kind of accept her sexuality but only because she believes that everyone thinks that she's dead ans she doesn't have to be afraid of her family anymore but she still pretends because of this, that she doesn't enjoy the fact that she's stranded on an island and then in s3 we probably have bald shelby with little hairs bleached into blonde again and (in my theory) we have her threatened by Gretchen that she will be outed to her family if she doesn't work for her and then through third season we will have her fuck them all and totally accept herself and free her soul so that in season four we have Shelby Goodkind with short curly natural hair and pussy facing the world

[opponentsheir]

The Wilds Theory:

Gretchen: "You really think I would have fled if I didn't have people on the inside?"

Seth doesn't seem like an inside man anymore... He looks more like the puppet master... in a control room... which means Shelby's not the only inside man because Gretchen said "people," not "person".. I definitely think Martha and Josh could also be operatives........

- Last we saw Martha, she was lookin' real close to death lying in Dots lap. Then, the next time we see her she is perfectly fine and fairly happy. She never had an interview either. They could have easily brainwashed or convinced her.

- Gretchen went into Josh's room with a bowl full of sour patch kids. She left with a smug look and a few pieces of candy left in the bowl meaning they were in there together for quite some time. We never got an answer as to what they were talking about. Josh is known to do what people tell him to do... Suspicious, no?

[mazzystar24]

A collection of theories I have for season three or my season three prepared bingo card (knock on wood that we get a season three)

- fatin and kirin will sleep together CASUALLY like friends with benefits situation

-OR fatin will reject the opportunity for sex altogether showing her development

-Debate over who’s judgement is better will arise between boys and girls

-we may see some of the developed girls characters regress a little to how they were in the outside male dominated world maybe Shelby will skiddaddle back to the closet?

-shoni angst but quick repair I think

- Shelby and Ivan bonding would be interesting because she’s closeted and started repressed whereas he is completely unashamed

- josh and Martha bonding over similar traumas and potential of maybe a friendship maybe more?

- I can see Martha and scotty being together

- kirin and Toni besties???

- Leah and raf sleeping together I can see too

-dot for some reason not being able to look out for everyone leading to danger

-kirin backstory

- Leah may distrust the boys and separate from them

-NORA COMING BACK

- a death (maybe one of the girls but I fear it so much I don’t wanna speak it into existence)

-more fatin and Leah scenes

[rowan-lee]

Did you notice that in this picture, everyone running with their backs to the camera and the only three looking back are the ones who know something. !??!

[mchaha]

The Wilds theory of the day: *spoilers ahead* i feel like the reason Alex is always sent to the island by Gretchen and they always mention he knows the land the best is because he was one of the test subjects on the Adam project. I think people who are saying the footage Leah finds in the finale is old are correct because we’ve seen how diligent they are at watching over the girls’ footage in real time, on those giant screens, and it would just feel weird if they didn’t care at all about the guys island

[hidekomoon]

wait a second. there’s something off about shelby and her dad (no shit)

i mean that at the end of shelby’s episode, her dad agrees to get her permanent implants for her teeth and he says they’ll do it over summer break. and he seems to mean it--but we know that it doesn’t happen since shelby spends summer break on the island as part of the experiment. so that means dave & his wife changed their mind, right? but why would they? unless something new happens, they have no reason to send shelby to a pseudo conversion camp (as many people theorised gretchen advertised the experiment to the goodkinds). so hear me out, what if it’s shelby who was proposed the experiment and decided to leave? you know, to “hit the pause button” and “get a clear look at her life” (the way she tells the agents). she might have introduced the thing to her parents first, and not the other way around.

also i’m probably reaching but with this theory it’s likely that shelby did not go into the experiment completely unaware of what was going to happen

[superlxthor]

GUYS i have a new theory as to why shelby’s on crutches: maybe she fell into the same hole leah did and that would explain why she’s working with her in the bunker...

[mentesimploria]

Dawn of Eve

The program is a social experiment run by Gretchen, she wants to prove that women can be better leaders than men. I don’t think Dawn of Eve is the first experiment that was based in an island, where the subjects needed to test their survival skills and try to work together to complete all milestones. At the end of the season, Leah learns that there’s another group of boys in the island, and that’s when we found out about the Twilight of Adam. There’s no evidence that the boys’ experiment is running at the same as the girls’, but we have some clues that might indicate that it happened some time ago, like a year.

1. On episode 3, we found out that Gretchen was voted out of her job at the university in the last fall (the events on the island are placed in 2020, so she lost her job in 2019).

2. On episode 7, after telling Linh that she isn’t working at the university anymore, Gretchen says she finally has time to focus on her project, she also mentions that she can’t wait to show them what bold measures can do.

3. Throughout the whole season we see Gretchen struggling to keep the experiment running, how hard she’s trying to find financiers for her project. *this is totally my opinion, but it would make zero sense if the U.S Army were involved in the experiment, like, if they were why would she be the one getting financiers for the project?  

4. When talking to Leonard, Gretchen says the girls found milestone 8 two weeks before her projections.

5. The Adam of Twilight’s file says: Control Group. From where I see it, Gretchen is using the boys’ experiment to compare with hers. It may be the one she was voted out of; but we can’t know yet.

When she chose the girls:

·         Gretchen was voted out in August, 2019*

*okay, so I don’t know if they fucked it up or not, but some things just don’t make sense in their timeline. Ex: Gretchen and Linh met each other. Linh asks when she was gonna get fired from the university. Gretchen says that the board will take a vote in two weeks. When Gretchen’s at the bar where Linh works, there’s a poster dating August 23. So either they messed it up, or after she was voted out something else happened, during fall. Gretchen and Linh meeting each other in august fits in their timeline.

·         Linh learns the girls’ names, and who they are, one month after she joins Gretchen’s team. {on episode 7, Thom says she has been with them for only a month}

·         Nora was the first one approached by Gretchen. I’ve already made a post about her, but to sum it up: Nora met Quinn during summer session in 2019, in September she found out about his death and met Gretchen in October.

·         Dot was the second one to find out about the retreat, her dad gave it to her as a Christmas gift, in 2019 (obviously).

·         Shelby was the third one, her dad changed his mind about the permanent teeth procedure after the pageant competition (that happened maybe after January?).

·         Leah was the fourth one, her parents decided to send her to the retreat during Spring in 2020, after the accident. (Leah’s mom mentions to the doctor that “last winter was so hard”; also, Leah met Jeff when she was 16).

·         Fatin was the fifth one, and we know that because she was at the party on the night of Leah’s accident.

 Martha and Toni are a mystery. Lol. Don’t even know why they picked Toni. Maybe it was because of Martha?

How Gretchen selected the girls:

I stand by my opinion that Gretchen chose them based on their age, I mean, aside from the fact that they’re from different states, race and social class. All the girls are 17 years old and none of them are turning 18 during the experiment.

The information we got so far about the girls:

Leah is 17 years old, she met Jeff when she was 16 during Spring in 2019, they “broke up” months later, on Summer. Leah’s car accident happened one year after she met him. Her birthday is on September 5.

Rachel and Nora are 17, their birthday is on November 4;

Nora took summer sessions in June-July, 2019. She and Quinn broke up in August. Nora found out about Quinn’s death in late September. She met Gretchen in October.

Rachel’s episode was a little bit confusing for me, I don’t know if the flashbacks were in chronical order or not. But there are a lot of things that we don’t know about her. When did she know she wasn’t going to Standford. Did something happen, after Quinn died, and that’s why Nora agreed on being part of the experiment?

Fatin is 17 years old. We don’t have that much information about her aside from the fact that she’s a great cellist, loves to party and had a great relationship with her dad. She found out about his affairs during Spring in 2020.

Dot is 17 years old, for Christmas gift her dad wanted her to go to Hawaii for summer camp, he died during Spring. Shelby mentions that Dot hasn’t taken a picture for the yearbook since sophomore year. She met Gretchen during Spring (2020).  

Toni’s 17 years old, she met Regan in 2018, after they broke up, she moved in with Martha and her mom.

Martha’s 17 years old, she was shot in February, 2012 and she was 10 years old. She had physical therapy from March 16, 2012 until January 22, 2013. In 2013,  she won the 39th Annual Powwow contest when she was 11. Also, Martha perjured herself in 2018.

Shelby’s 17 years old, I think her birthday is in November because that’s when she mentions if she can have permanent teeth procedure before the winter pageant competition, she could even start it in the next month (December), and since their parents want her to turn 18 she must’ve thought she could do it 1 year later. The winter in the U.S ends in February, so Shelby must’ve kissed Becca sometime in January and the pageant competition and Becca’s death happened in February.

That means: Gretchen didn’t choose Shelby because she was gay, or Fatin didn’t end up in the island just because she decided to leak her dad’s private information or Nora because Quinn died. Gretchen had already chosen the girls way before all that shit happened. Now, there’s a chance of Gretchen knowing about Jeff and Leah. We know that one of the reasons why she chose Martha was because of what happened to her when she was a kid. Maybe Fatin’s, Leah’s and Shelby’s parents belong, somehow, to Gretchen’s circle of friends and that’s how she convinced them.

This is what I have theorized so far from what they showed us in Season 1. There are still a ton of things that are yet to be proven and confirmed and we’ll just have to wait for Season 2 to further investigate them. Until then, let’s just enjoy the #shoni content that Mia has been feeding us on Instagram.

[valeofboobs]

Another timeline “theory”

Okay so we know that the island took place in 2020, and the reason we know this is because in episode 7, Jeanette says “I just turned 17, I was born on February 14 2003”.

We assume that Leah is 17 because she had her birthday in the first episode, and that’s when Jeff mentioned it was her 17th birthday on September 5, which means we can assume her flashback took place in 2019.

In episode 2, Rachel’s episode, the banner for her diving competition says 2017

In episode 9, Martha’s episode, Gretchen and Agent Young are talking about how Martha lied at Dr. Ted’s trial in 2018. Also in this episode, we see that Toni is already living with Martha (presumably), which means everything in her episode (episode 4) with Regan, took place before hand.

Also in episode 9, on the box that Agent Young is going through, January 10 is written, which we can assume is 2021.

My point being that if Gretchen was watching the girls to pick perfect ‘candidates’ she had been watching them for a long ass time

[sunion-the-whale]

Idk if this has been discussed already but I feel like all the girls in the bunker know that something is going on and are communicating with each other about it. Here is my evidence:

•Leah waits until 10:00 exactly to leave her room

•At the same time, the lights go out

•Leah is running around for a minute before the alarm sounds signaling Shelby’s (intentional) allergic reaction

•Gretchen and the other dude are running around in the dark with flashlights before the lights turn back on, and Gretchen says “thank god” or something like that, suggesting they weren’t meant to be off in the first place. If the lights were off on purpose then why wouldn’t they just turn them back on instead of running around in the dark? Also all the lights in the bunker turn on and off at the same time, suggesting someone turned them off from a main breaker vs the girls’ rooms individually

•All this would mean at least one other girl (besides Leah and Shelby) is involved in the escape, and all the girls are so close by the end of season one I can’t imagine them just leaving certain people out of the plan

I’d love to hear everyone else’s opinions!

[thewildsgonewrong]

WHY HAS NO ONE SAID ANYTHING ABOUT 

“if it can be fixed, the pain’s worth it”

like- shelby’s dad said this!! am i overanalyzing cause this sounds like a DIRECT jab about conversion therapy?? 

[hadtochangemyurlquick]

remember how shelby was like “my mom got me into the theatre :)” and then her mom gave shelby the dramatic monologue where biff stands up to his father in death of a salesman. wonder what that was about.

[gaytransbimbo]

yo I'm in detective mode rewatching the whole show and this is gonna be long I apologize I apologize BUT in my defense, I'm obsessed with this so yeah

the mustache guy Gretchen drinks cocktails with is used for the Pilot ID in ep. 2 photo and name. I don't know if this is any used but I felt good to find out so take it as useless info.

the bunker and HQ have been architecturally designed with many similarities - a lot of concrete, narrow vertical openings for sunlight, smooth floor textures, even the wood surfaces in some walls are very similar used - so I'm gonna go ahead and assume they are located in the same building or very close together. we also see the bunker entrance in ep. 1 (the woman giving Alex the Pilot's bag) and ep. 7 (the girls been taken off the plane) so the Bunker is very close to the island (a very small trip with the boat I'm gonna say I have a theory here about them drugging everyone (cause its easy) and operating on Rachel's hand real quick and dropping her back on the island.. no idea moving on)

1/3

this gonna be long I apologize again

timeline: in ep.6 gretchen gets checked into this hospital and says to Agent Daniel Whatever "in two months time". so this is the day of the mussels thus we're talking around Day 12 or 13 I'm not sure. In ep.9 they are starving (Day 22) and they find the goat next (Day 23) when Leah asks Nora what is the date and she says JUNE 29th. Checking notes and math and shit, the mussels and the day Gretch finds Agent Daniel Whatever is MAYBE JUNE 18th. according to that "in two months time" when he is going to be needed in the bunker, we are talking about a rescue happening on the early days of August, which gives us one final month for the rest of the project to be finished in the Bunker. In ep9 we have January 10th written down on a box BUT the day before Shelby had asked for Leah and so we know we ain't near the end of the Bunker project phase, but quite at the beginning still. So we can assume that the "two months" in the island might have been flexed a looot longer than that? We know crazy shit happened - shelby's interview - so we can assume again they could have been left on the island until early motherfucking January because hoLY FUCK THAT'S A LOT OF TIME (but it could explain the fact that Rachels hand is like insanely healed and this timeline could be easily covered by the four seasons they are planning on going but I don't know man.. my mind is fucking blown even thinking about this)

But then again - no. Because Gretch is like talking with the parents at the same time she tells Leah's parents "end of the summer" slash 'the end of the 3month project'. (but that's before the crazy shit that happened after the shark attack so no idea). HOWEVER she IS digging up dirt on the girls to use but, man, i don't know this thought ends here.

2/3

I think Martha and Nora are fine. Nora is "arrested" (?) as they are going with the fake investigation line and I think she does come clean to the rest of the girls about her role after the shark. And I'm gonna go with the theory of Martha being very very hurt or something, even if Toni is like very calm I don't know. Shelby and Toni are fine come on, guys, Shelby was like ready to fucking tear them apart when Agent Young said her name like WOW, the girl protective as shit.And also like rewatching the interviews, every girl seems to like pause for a second every time one of the Agents tries to push. Rachel after the whole "but that didn't materialize". Fatin after they look at her weird when she said she believed Leah. Shelby's whole thing (amazing acting I am in love with Mia like aihxsidhe0udgpiw) after the "according to some Intel we've gathered". And Leah like... man, Jeff ??? she was over this guy. I think the girl is like putting up some insanely good manipulation thing knowing that they know of the paranoid tendencies and shit. I don't know. 3/3 lol sorry about this mess I need to let out my thoughts on someone and you were the victim of it. you can dismiss them if you feel like it, I apologize for murdering your inbox

you don’t understand how excited i got about this ask lmao. thank u. okay so lets see...

yeah the bunker and the HQ are probably the same building, it would make everything easier for gretchen. it has to be close to the island since they can get there by boat but they also have access to the real world/hospitals/the donors ect. So I don’t think they are near Peru one bit but where are they???

them being on the island for 6 months makes sense with rachel’s hand but also WTF GRETCHEN?? and were their parents okay with that?? idek bro idk what to believe the timeline is so messed up. They were definitely there for an extra month after the shark but idk January seems like a stretch. Also the timeline of the interviews is interesting in itself too. How many days has it been until Leah’s escape? were the interviews in chronological order or are they mixed up?

Nora pretending to be arrested makes a lot of sense?? cause the whole “it’s up to you now” rachel said indicates that Nora’s fate is up to the “FBI agents”. I also don’t think Martha is dead. i love Mia’s acting and omg i can’t wait for a goodfoe reunion in the bunkers. And yeah! Leah talking about jeff so openly weirded me out but then we learn she gets over him on the island too so it makes less sense....unless she is trying to confuse them????

[rowan-lee]

Mystery or script mistake?

First of all:

We know that every girl has a number in the "Dawn of Eve" project.

Leah for example is subject six (Episode 4)

In episode seven Jeannette/Lynn list the girls in that order:

1. Toni

2. Shelby

3. Martha

4. Rachel

5. Nora

6. Leah

7. Fatin

8. Dot

• Because Leah is in sixth place we can assume that the order of the subject title corresponds.

• but we knew that Martha actually is number 5

To the mysterious part:

In episode 10, Nora calls the bad guys to let pick "her" up. (Everyone thinks Nora means Leah)

A scene later Audrey goes to Gretchen to tell her that Nora wants to pick up subject 4.

But we know Leah is fucking number six!!!!

Does Nora want Rachel picked up?

Or is this a mistake in the script?

[mchaha]

Actually y’all, here another new fucking theory on why on this season of The Wilds Nora and Martha are missing in the interviews:

The way Klein & Co. refer to Martha has me thinking she’s either 1) dead or 2) gravely injured or comatose. I’m leaning toward option 2 because as we all know, Toni’s ride or die for Marty and in her interview she didn’t really seem sad or mourning her friend.

Nora however - I don’t think anything happens to her in this potential shark attack. I’m rewatching the back half of the episodes and noticed they keep referring to this as a 12 week study. The episode where Klein checks herself into the mental unit, she tells the psych that in 2 months they’ll have a really great project to work on (this coincides approximately with day 12 for the girls). Season 1 ended on Day 23, which leaves about 35 more days for these poor girls, unless they’re counting the days in the facility as part of the overall time period, though I don’t think they’ll be able to keep them in the bunker facilities for too long without having them get real sus that their parents haven’t come for them yet. So the timing is a little iffy but I think it still works.

I think the straw that breaks the camels back and get them to rescue the girls is that their last confederate (aka Nora) “dies”. HOWEVER, I think they’re faking Nora’s death. I think by the time they’re all being interviewed, they all know it’s a fucked up experiment (Leah will tell the group what happened and Nora will come clean after Rachel loses her hand) and they work together to gtfo of the island. Nora will hide away on the island with the sat phone and eventually call for help, get rescued, and then rescue the rest of the girls.

I also have this theory that Klein is actually just trying to see which group (Adam vs. Eve) will realize this is all a ploy first and is trying to prove that it will be the women before the men.