Wayward creator and star Mae Martin explains emotional finale: 'It's gonna be f**ked'

*Warning: Contains spoilers for Wayward.*

Heading into the finale of Netflix's Wayward, Mae Martin's chilling, thrilling series about the highly controversial "troubled teens" industry, several seismic questions remained unanswered, one of the most pressing being: would best friends Abbie and Leila escape Tall Pines Academy?

Their sheer determination to break free from the clutches of Evelyn Wade had kept them afloat in the darkest, most desperate of situations, with the pair clinging to what could be if they just kept going.

And as we neared the show's conclusion, they were within touching distance of that freedom.

But while Abbie did manage to get out, and with her sanity seemingly in tact, Leila experienced a dramatic change of heart during her time at the school and instead opted to stay.

We've broken down all of the major developments in our handy Wayward ending explained – but we also spoke to Martin about what motivated Leila to say goodbye to her best friend, possibly forever, and forgo her freedom for a life in Tall Pines.

Wayward finale explained: Why did Leila choose to stay at Tall Pines Academy?

"I thought a lot about what I would do," Martin told RadioTimes.com, who was inspired to write Wayward after being labelled a "wayward teen" themself, and by their best friend being institutionalised was she was 16 years old.

"Her parents told her she was going to see David Letterman in New York, she was really pumped, and then she never came back," they explained. "We were all very panicked. It was deeply worrying.

"When she came back [about two years later], the stories that she had, I just couldn't stop thinking about it. The therapies are so theatrical and bizarre. I mean, I'm calling them therapies. It's like behavioural modification programmes."

Martin went on to say that "in reading about these schools, there are some people who say it changed their life and it was all worth it".

"So I'm interested in that and where that comes from, and that pain relief is a very persuasive element, right?" they added.

"And I'm also interested in class struggle. Like socioeconomically, she doesn't have a safety net [on the outside]. And Leila's having a different experience to Abbie, she's had a different experience going through the programme, so it just felt emotionally truthful that she would want to be there."

Martin also highlighted the fact that Evelyn had identified Leila, whose personal arc explored her complex grief following the death of her sister, as her chosen one, to speak, which also influenced her thinking.

"There's a cyclical thing of her favourite students, and it's always the brightest ones who are the most wounded," they added. "Evelyn's been so focused on her and they formed a real relationship. I think she really trusts Evelyn.

"And Evelyn really does want the next generation of Evelyns, right?"

Speaking specifically about Toni Collette's performance as the director of Tall Pines Academy, and what else the actor brought to the project, Martin said: "When her eyes turn on you, your heart rate goes up. There's an intensity there that's really, really amazing.

"And then in all the interviews she's done about the show, she's like, 'I really get Evelyn and her ethos.' She just took such an interest in that. That was what was so amazing, because casting is so important, but not just in casting close to character, but in finding creative collaborators who are really intellectually engaged in the storytelling, who can challenge you and and make connections. And Toni really was deeply engaged in the psychology of it all."

In an interview with Time, Martin noted that Collette’s natural magnetism underscored exactly why she was the right choice to embody Evelyn’s allure and authority.

"It [Collette's performance] was more that she exceeded our [expectations]," they explained. "The thing about Evelyn is that everybody wants her love and approval, so she has to have warmth and charisma. The more Toni was on set talking about her character, the more I was like, 'I think I would join this cult.'

"And Toni's just so funny. She always plays the joke in such a grounded, character-driven way."

Read more:

• Mae Martin's Wayward exposes the dark world of 'troubled teen' schools
• Is Wayward a true story? Creator Mae Martin reveals personal experience that inspired Netflix thriller

But that wasn't the only significant development in the finale.

It initially looked like Alex was also joining Abbie in her escape as the police officer drove the two of them away from Tall Pines, with Toast in tow. But it was then revealed to be nothing more than wishful thinking, with Alex reluctantly deciding to stay put – which Martin is clear was the wrong choice, but one that's easy to empathise with.

"I think the fact that he can imagine the right thing to do just brings it into focus even more that it is a bit of a moral failure," they explained. "He knows the right thing to do, and he's choosing instead to to stay.

"But again, I relate. He really loves Laura, and he loves the baby, and it would be really, really difficult to leave.

"I'm so interested in people's reactions to the ending because I've had people say it's really ambiguous with Alex, I'm like, I don't know if it's ambiguous, or if he just didn't make the choice you wanted him to make. He chooses to stay and he knows that that's the wrong thing to do. But what would you do with your baby and your wife?

"I definitely think that yearning for acceptance and that kind of outdated idea of being a protector and a provider, I think that's so strong in him. But he's not gonna get it. It's gonna be f**ked, right?"

Thinking about where we might find Alex and Leila in a year's time, Martin added: "In my mind, there would be a sort of honeymoon period where Laura's maybe running the school, and the baby's around, and everyone's thrilled.

"And then I think power corrupts. Cults always offer a real solution to a real problem. There's always so much they get right, the central tenets are really pure. And especially for Alex and Laura, to have a community where they're accepted, that's so seductive. But then it always just gets perverted by some opportunistic egomaniac at the centre of it.

"So I think that all that darkness and hierarchy would creep back in, and then we'd have another student rebellion, and the cycle would continue. But I'd like to think that Alex in staying thinks, 'I'm just staying for a bit, and then I'm gonna bust this place out.'"

Viewers will no doubt be championing that outcome, but there's just one small problem....

"He's killed so many people, so he can't really go out into the world," added Martin. "He's gonna go to jail."

Wayward is streaming now on Netflix. Sign up for Netflix from £5.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.

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