Rebellion
The seeds of rebellion are sown in episode 6 of Welcome to Eden as the truth about this cult starts to unravel. The cult has been going for 15 years, under the pretence of persevering the plant and protecting the climate. “Together in paradise” is their motto. However, a separate message pops up on the screens reading “Death to Astrid.” They’ve been hacked, and it appears someone is onto them. It’s an intriguing opener but one that sees us cut back 12 hours earlier. Claudia takes Zoa aside and speaks to her about what she has planned. Claudia is the one who scratched the side of the bed, as she mentions how the F in “C+F” stood for Fran. She was close to Claudia; they took care of one another but he was unfortunately brainwashed by Bel. Bel’s deal here is that she wants to lead a rebellion against Astrid. It’s risky, given they could fail and be killed for it. Claudia is way more cautious and encourages Zoa to hold tight for now. When the next festival comes along, to recruit new people to Eden’s cause, she intends to make her escape then. Over in Barcelona, Charly’s mother receives a message from her son, telling her he needs some time away. She messages back, telling him not to bother coming back at all. Given Mayka is hooking up with Charly right now, receiving that message back on the big screen is tough for her to watch. This happens to be the anniversary of her sister’s death, which explains their hostility. When Mayka speaks to Charly, it turns out she came to the island on her own. There’s no question as to exactly how, unless she came on the boats too. Anyway, she saw what they were doing and found a place that welcomed her in as one of their own without any judgment. She felt like part of their family immediately and set to work getting their electronics up to scratch. In San Sebastian, Gabi crashes at David’s place. He’s not exactly happy, given she tried to kiss him in front of his friends the previous evening off-screen. Interestingly, David happens to have one of the wristbands from the party. He smuggled it out when the others had to give them back. Gabi turns it on after putting it round her wrist but it flashes up with an error message down on the island, which Mayka sees when she returns to her desk. Gabi isn’t the only one on the hunt of course, given we know that private investigator is also looking for answers. She begins cycling through CCTV footage, tracing the whereabouts of where Ibon is. Everyone appears to be closing in on Eden, with Gabi snapping numerous photos of her around San Sebastian, in the hopes of making it onto Eden. Back on the island, Africa works her magic alongside Mayka to get the 15th anniversary up to scratch. This catches us up to the moments from the start of the episode, where that message flashes up on screen. The rebellion has begun. Astrid immediately believes Africa is behind this, blaming Erick for getting too close. Enraged and crying, she demands her partner bring the committee in so they can discuss who should be to blame for this – and who should be sacrificed. Zoa just about makes it clear thanks to a 4-3 vote but Claudia is not so lucky. She’s the sacrificial lamb. While Claudia is killed up on the cliff-face, we cut back to the private investigator hired by Ibon’s father. She receives a message while at the meeting spot for the Eden Foundation (the one where the bus picked up the punters); s a text message from an unknown source. It’s a missing person’s report from May 11th and Zoa’s name is on the list.
The Episode Review
Everyone is closing in on Eden now which begs the massive question – if this has been going on for 15 years, why is it only now that people are getting concerned about the missing people? Surely with all these men and women indoctrinated over time, there would have been other parents worried about their kids? Unfortunately, the show raises all kinds of questions like this for the sake of keeping the plot running, which is starting to run away from the tight premise this one had at the start. Instead, everything is devolving into a disappointing and shallow watch, with weak characterization and characters making pretty illogical decisions. Hopefully the final two chapters can improve but based on this showing, Welcome to Eden has a lot of flaws with its premise.
