Toni Collette Is a Mesmerizing Cult Leader in Twisty Thriller Wayward

If asked, almost everyone would likely insist there’s no way they could ever be convinced to join a cult. But, consider this—what if that cult is run by Toni Collette? That’s one of the key questions at the heart of Netflix’s twisty thriller Wayward, a show that deploys the actress’s most maternal and menacing qualities to devastating (and often frightening) effect.

Collette plays Evelyn Ward, the director of a boarding school for troubled teens who allegedly uses “groundbreaking therapeutic techniques” to “solve the problem of adolescence”. One part authoritarian leader and one part empathetic therapist, her particular brand of healing tends to skew more malevolent than maternal. You likely won’t be surprised to learn that it’s a role that seems tailor-made for Collette’s immense talents, nor that the character she’s playing is something more than she initially seems. Yet, much like the show itself, the seemingly villainous Evelyn is strangely fascinating, compelling in a way that’s difficult to look away from and hard to pin down. 

It’s true, Collette’s role in the world of the show is not subtle. In fact, not much about Wayward is. It’s clear from the jump that almost nothing about the picturesque town at the series’ center is what it appears to be, that something genuinely disturbing is happening on the grounds of the local school, and that the therapy that Tall Pines Academy preaches looks an awful lot like abuse. But while many of the show’s choices are obvious, even predictable ones, it—like many of the popular cult documentaries Netflix already knows we are all obsessed with—is full of the sort of creepy atmosphere, relentless pacing, and weird quirks that make for extremely addictive viewing even when it doesn’t provide as many answers as some of us might like.

The second original series from writer, actor, and comedian Mae Martin, Wayward is something of a strange choice for a follow-up to their semi-autobiographical dramedy Feel Good. Boasting a much darker tone and a focus on a toxic rehabilitation industry that thrives on stripping young people of their autonomy and parents of their responsibility, it’s a show that doesn’t shy away from the ugliness at the center of its premise, tackling questions of conformism, generational trauma, and the difficulties of growing up. The whiff of something vaguely supernatural adds a frisson of extra tension to the show’s overall mystery and keeps it firmly in territory that feels more like The OA (albeit much less weird) than the hyper-realistic Adolescence, but the show is strongest when it leans into a kind of wry detachment about what precisely it is that we’re seeing. 

Told through two parallel perspectives, Wayward follows the story of married couple Alex (Martin) and Laura (Sarah Gadon), two recent transplants to the small community of Tall Pines who are hoping for a fresh start and a place to settle after a professional setback. A former student at the local academy herself, Laura still has warm relationships with many of the town’s residents, including Evelyn, who gifts them the spacious house they move into. The pair’s unsettlingly close relationship is the first of (many) red flags that there’s plenty Alex doesn’t know about his wife’s past or the strangely symbiotic relationship between the town and the school at its center. (Almost everyone appears to be an alumnus or connected to one, and they all know an unsettling amount about the Dempseys and their lives.)