Wayward ending explained: Do Abbie and Leila escape the school?

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**Warning: Major Wayward spoilers ahead.**

Wayward isn’t a straightforward story. Its creator, Mae Martin, could have focused on the shocking premise of a troubled boarding school and its hidden secrets. However, the show is much more complex, skillfully blending humor, horror, and difficult themes. With twists that span years, it’s a captivating story that feels too short as a limited series, leaving viewers wanting more.

After seven episodes, best friends Abbie and Leila are nearing their limit as they deal with the bullying headmistress, Evelyn Wade, and challenges in their own friendship. Despite everything, they’re still determined to escape the school, hoping police officer Alex Dempsey will continue to support them.

Alex is already dealing with a lot, but he’s stuck in Tall Pines until he can find evidence to free his family from Evelyn’s control. He and his fiancée, Laura (played by Sarah Gadon), are planning to leave town with their baby after it’s born. However, in episode 7, Alex discovers Laura has no intention of ever leaving, shattering his plans.

Alex suddenly understands that Laura, who appeared to be rejecting her old teacher, is actually starting to act just like Evelyn. To make things even more troubling, Leila now seems to be repeating Laura’s pattern, falling under Evelyn’s influence in the same way Alex’s wife did years ago.

Will Laura fully embrace a darker path? Can Abbie and Leila save their friendship as things get more dangerous? And will Collette give another powerful, emotionally charged performance like the one that earned her acclaim in Hereditary? Here’s a breakdown of how Mae Martin’s show, Wayward, concludes its first season on Netflix.

Wayward ending explained: Do Abbie and Leile escape?

Taking her chance, Abbie starts her escape plan. She uses stamps from Alex to create a fake love letter, tricking a guard into leaving the compound. It sounds crazy, but it actually works! While the guard is gone, Abbie cuts the power to the school. When the guards go looking for her and her friends, Morty and Leila, all the other students are wearing the same hoodies, making it impossible to pick her out of the crowd.

Amidst everything else, Laura unexpectedly goes into labor three weeks ahead of schedule, but she figures it’ll be alright. After all, surely someone in her new group has medical training? What’s the advantage of leading a cult if you can’t occasionally get a little help from your followers?

Abbie and Leila initially escape, but Leila unexpectedly decides she wants to return, believing the school can help her. Evelyn has heavily influenced Leila, completely changing her perspective. Despite Abbie’s efforts, she can’t convince Leila to leave before it’s too late.

Okay, so things get really intense when Evelyn finally corners Alex in the basement of her school – and honestly, this basement is seriously unsettling. It’s where they’re doing those… tadpole baptisms? I mean, just saying those two words together – ‘tadpole’ and ‘baptism’ – gives me the creeps! It’s such a bizarre and disturbing image.

Alex is in a tough spot, and things get worse when Rabbit unexpectedly turns against Evelyn, after she finally understands that her mentor doesn’t care for her. Alex nearly drowns, but manages to get revenge on Evelyn by injecting her with the same drug she’s been giving to children. Rabbit notes that the dose is fatal, but feels Evelyn deserves it after everything she’s done.

Completely out of it, Evelyn spins around and tells Alex a shocking secret: Laura didn’t just witness her parents’ deaths – she was the one who killed them, brutally striking them with a rock.

As Alex heads off to support Laura during childbirth, Rabbit helps a very drunk Evelyn relive ‘The Leap’ – the awful process she often used to manipulate her students’ minds.

Evelyn’s visions feature her mother, and then her own mouth transforms into a strange, symbolic doorway. She then inexplicably puts her hand inside her mouth, and this bizarre sequence marks the last time we see her. It’s left unclear whether she survived or succumbed to an overdose of the Leap drug.

Originally, *Wayward* was planned as a short, self-contained story. But streaming services like Netflix often change their plans, so it’s understandable that the author might have left Evelyn’s fate somewhat open-ended. One thing that *is* clear, though, is that Alex and Laura are facing very difficult times ahead.

After narrowly escaping danger at school, Alex rushed home and arrived just as Laura went into labor and unexpectedly gave birth to their child – in a paddling pool! They shared a moment of connection, acknowledging the difficult things they’d both experienced, and Alex then bonded with his newborn baby while holding it skin-to-skin in the pool.

Just then, members of Laura’s group jumped in and started handling the baby themselves, quickly passing it around for cuddles, seemingly trying to create a bond through close physical contact. It was a strange and unsettling moment, and definitely one of the weirder things that had happened on the show so far.

Alex is confused by everything happening, but Laura explains that their child needs to belong to the whole community. She believes it’s the only way to end Evelyn’s unsettling control over the town and the decades-long ban on new births. Even so, the situation feels incredibly strange.

Everything we’ve seen is fabricated. Alex isn’t the decent man or father he appears to be, and the recent events didn’t actually happen. The scene shifts to show Alex’s true location: back at his house, shutting the door and returning to his family. By doing so, he breaks his commitment to Abbie and unknowingly subjects his child to a life within the unsettling cult his wife has created.

And with that, Wayward ends with Abbie driving alone, free, but at what cost?

Abbie likely escapes with her life, though she’ll probably be deeply traumatized by everything she’s been through. Alex, however, seems to have accepted the false sense of belonging Laura offered him within the cult. But what will happen to the school and the other students?

Even if Evelyn doesn’t survive, the story leaves a lot of loose ends with many deaths and troubled children. It’s arguably better to leave things open-ended, letting viewers decide the fate of characters like her instead of creating a second season that might not be necessary. However, the thought of a follow-up set years later, focusing on Laura and a new cult she’s formed, is definitely intriguing.

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2025-09-25 20:07