The Wilds – Elin goes to Portugal on a “real vacation”

The story is told primarily through two alternating perspectives and timelines:

Kier Templer (Devon, 2018) and Detective Elin Warner (Parque Nacional, Portugal, 2021).

Kier’s Timeline (Devon, 2018)

Kier is a freelance illustrator who specializes in wedding stationery and highly personal, abstract “maps” for her twin brother, Penn, and his fiancée, Mila. She lives and travels in a van with her chef boyfriend,

Zeph Dosen. Kier and Penn share a traumatic past: their mother was dubbed “The Monster” by the press after she murdered their abusive father when they were thirteen. Kier is haunted by the fear that she is “tainted” and harbors the same “dark inside” as her mother.

Kier and Zeph are visiting Devon for Penn and Mila’s wedding. Their relationship is deeply flawed; Zeph is prone to mood swings and emotional abuse, often expressing jealousy and insulting Kier’s professional and personal choices. He also frequently sleep-talks about his ex-girlfriend,

Romy.

Kier secretly searches Zeph’s belongings and finds a broken gold and emerald necklace, which she recognizes as Romy’s. She later finds photos on his laptop: hundreds of paparazzi-style pictures of Romy taken over months, even after they split, suggesting Zeph was stalking her. She also finds evidence that Zeph was searching for Romy in

Portugal. A comment on a fan page suggests Romy’s disappearance may be linked to the “savage” and “volatile” relationship she had with Zeph.

When Kier confronts Zeph, he gaslights her, claiming she is imagining things or that her own emotional issues, triggered by being back home, are causing her to “flip” and “pull away”. He denies knowing Romy’s whereabouts and insists Romy was “not the kind of person I’d ever want to be with” (using past tense). Kier realizes he had found and read one of her secret, dark paintings, confirming he knows her deepest fears and insecurities. Fearing him, Kier breaks up with Zeph and demands he leave the van. She later contacts

Detective Elin Warner, whom she met outside a club after a fight with Zeph, but Elin is a no-show for their planned meeting.

Elin’s Timeline (Parque Nacional, Portugal, 2021)

Detective Elin Warner is on holiday with her brother, Isaac, trying to recover from a challenging case, a breakup with her ex, Will, and the grief over the deaths of her mother and younger brother, Sam. Isaac confesses that the trip has a purpose: to find his friend

Penn’s twin sister, Kier, who he believes is missing in the park. The police don’t believe Kier is missing because her bank accounts are active and she has sent messages to Penn.

Elin and Isaac visit a permanent camper van camp where Kier was last seen. The group there — Ned, Maggie, Bridie, Leah, and Bridie’s child Etta— are immediately hostile and defensive. They claim Kier only stayed for a few days before leaving for Italy, but Isaac proves this is a lie by showing a photograph of her van at the camp months later.

Key Discoveries and Twists:

• The Van Explosion: While Elin is visiting the camp, a van belonging to Bridie explodes. The camp members quickly try to get rid of the debris.

• Secret Footage: Isaac and Elin find a hard drive near the camp containing video clips of Kier secretly filmed inside her van over several months, confirming someone was watching her.

• The Maps: A local gallery owner, Luísa, shows them a personal map of the park that Kier created, which was the first map she did not send to Penn. Elin notices that the mapped locations roughly circle the camp.

• The Waterfall Incident: At Suicide Falls, they find Ned struggling with Leah, whose wrist is scarred from self-harm. Leah mutters that “It should have been me, not her,” referring to a tragedy Elin cannot yet place.

• The First Betrayal: Elin realizes her friend and confidant, Steed, who is also Isaac’s friend Penn, is the same person. He admits that he sent her creepy, anonymous messages after her last case, believing she was “negligent” and partly to blame for Kier’s disappearance.

• The Second Betrayal: Elin and Isaac discover a digital photo of Zeph Dosen wearing a distinctive fire ring, proving he was at the camp and knew the community, contradicting Penn’s statement that the breakup was clean.

• The Truth of the Camp: Elin learns from Bridie and Maggie that the camp is a refuge for women who have suffered abuse, including Bridie (Romy Hernandez), who was abused by Zeph. The explosions and secret activities were acts of defense and cover-up: the initial van explosion was caused by Bridie’s abusive ex-partner (not Zeph) after they took his child, Etta. The women swap out Kier’s van for a painted one to protect her. The little wooden structures they found (piras) are not signs of a cult but symbols they build with the traumatic “wilds” inside them, a way of rebuilding after destruction.

• The Climax: Penn, having followed Elin, confronts Ned at the camp, believing Ned is the one who hurt Kier. Elin realizes Ned is actually Zeph. Ned/Zeph admits that he stalked Kier to the camp, found her, and attempted to kill her in her van for leaving him. He stabbed her with a knife, but she survived.

Conclusion

Kier, who was being helped by Maggie at a recovery clinic, survives. She chooses to cooperate with the Portuguese police to ensure Zeph is held accountable. Elin, having worked through her own trauma and the betrayal by her friend, ultimately finds closure with Isaac.