Spoiler Alert: This article contains major plot details and the full ending of The House of Guinness. Read on only if you’ve finished the series or don’t mind knowing what happens.
Netflix’s Wayward full recap and ending explained begins in 2003, with a boy fleeing through the woods from Tall Pines Academy, a place billed as a therapeutic boarding school but hiding darker truths.
He dives into a lake while haunted by a strange mantra about mothers, doors, and silence.
The series then shifts to Toronto, where best friends Abbie (Sydney Topliffe) and Leila (Alyvia Alyn Lind) skip class and smoke weed. Abbie’s strict father disapproves of Leila, whom he blames for the death of her sister Jess. When Abbie sneaks out to see Leila despite being grounded, she’s abducted in her sleep by Tall Pines staff. Her parents, convinced by the school counselor Wyatt Turner (Patrick J. Adams), think the school will “save” her.
Life inside Tall Pines Academy
Tall Pines is run by Evelyn Wade (Toni Collette), a charismatic self-help guru who promises transformation through “groundbreaking” methods. The campus feels more like an institution than a school. Teens have their hair cut, belongings taken, and every move monitored. They’re sorted into psychological phases, Burrow, Break, Build, and Ascend, meant to show “progress.”
Abbie quickly sees that Tall Pines thrives on control and humiliation. In the ritualized “Hot Seat,” students are encouraged to expose and break one another down under the guise of self-growth.
Alex and Laura: a homecoming with secrets
Meanwhile, Alex Dempsey (Mae Martin), a Detroit cop, moves with pregnant partner Laura (Sarah Gadon) back to her hometown of Tall Pines. Alex joins the local police force, pairing with Dwyane Andrews (Brandon Jay McLaren), Laura’s childhood friend.
Laura once attended Tall Pines and swears it saved her. But Alex grows uneasy after encountering Riley Warren (Gage Munroe), the boy who escaped in the opening scene. Riley begs not to be returned, warning that the academy is dangerous. A violent clash ends with Riley’s death, but before dying he tells Alex that Laura is “one of them.”
The dark foundation of the community
Alex’s suspicions deepen: birth records are missing, no real schools exist, and many adults in town were former Tall Pines students. Laura eventually admits that the community, founded in the 1970s by counterculture idealists, banned biological parenthood to “break cycles of trauma.” Evelyn became its de facto leader, using psychedelic “Leap” therapy to erase or rewrite painful memories.
Laura herself underwent a Leap as a teen and doesn’t fully remember what happened. She’s conflicted: Tall Pines shaped her, but its control terrifies her as she prepares to have a child.
Leila’s search and rebellion
Leila hitchhikes to Vermont to find Abbie. She sneaks onto campus, meets Alex, and sees the school’s true nature; she is made a student against her will. Together with Abbie and fellow students, she plans an escape. They endure more Hot Seat sessions, punishment rooms like the “Mirror Room,” and psychological manipulation as Evelyn tries to mold them.
Alex uncovers a pattern: at least 18 kids have vanished after trying to flee. Dwyane insists the missing either return or leave as troubled adults, but Alex suspects a cover-up. His probe brings him into conflict with Maurice Iverson, a grieving father turned investigator, whose crusade against Tall Pines ends violently.
The climax: breaking and remaking
Laura, torn between protecting Alex and confronting her past, begins rallying Tall Pines residents to resist Evelyn’s control. Yet the language she uses mirrors the cult-like rhetoric she wants to dismantle. Alex, determined to leave with her and their unborn child, grows trapped in the community’s web, and in Evelyn’s threats.
Meanwhile, Abbie, Leila, and Rory plan a bold escape. When the moment comes, Leila falters. Exhausted, rootless, and pulled back by the promise of belonging, she decides to stay behind. Abbie and Rory push forward alone, but as police and the community surround them, Rory sacrifices his own freedom so Abbie can get away.
Alex’s storyline darkens as well. Dwyane kidnaps him so Evelyn prepares him for a forced “Leap” the psychedelic ceremony meant to sever parental bonds. But Rabbit (Tattiawna Jones), once a loyal counselor and now a quiet rebel, turns on Evelyn and drugs her instead. In the vision that follows, Evelyn is lost among endless doors, her ultimate fate left unclear. Alex kills Dwyane in self-defense and manages to reach Laura just as she goes into labor.
The finale is unsettling. The newborn is passed from adult to adult for communal skin-to-skin contact, a ritual meant to “break generational cycles.” Alex is visibly shaken but stays, fulfilling Abbie’s earlier warning that he might be too afraid to leave. The final image shows Abbie escaping alone into the outside world while Alex remains with Laura and the Tall Pines collective.
Ending explained
Wayward’s finale underscores how cycles of control can persist even when cloaked in the language of healing. Alex, who longed for a conventional family, cannot walk away from Laura or the community’s influence. Faced with uncertainty beyond Tall Pines, he chooses uneasy acceptance rather than open confrontation. Laura shifts from survivor to leader, taking Evelyn’s place with a softer voice but potentially preserving the same power structure.
The show uses the toads, first creeping into Laura’s dreams and home, later appearing in Evelyn’s terrarium, as a quiet metaphor. They embody what Tall Pines tried to suppress: toxic memories, unprocessed pain, and the parts of family history the Leap was meant to erase. Laura’s fixation on them signals that her buried past is forcing its way back, and Evelyn’s pet toad hints that she has always lived comfortably alongside this hidden poison while preaching renewal.
Abbie’s escape becomes the story’s single clear act of rebellion, a refusal to stay, no matter the cost. Leila, who often appeared tougher than Abbie, ultimately surrenders. Broken by trauma and seduced by belonging, she stays behind. Evelyn’s apparent downfall offers no true guarantee of change; the system survives, simply passing to new hands, with Laura now shaping the community’s next chapter.
Key Details: Wayward
- Release date: September 25, 2025 (Netflix limited series)
- Episode count: 8
- Setting: 2003, fictional town of Tall Pines, Vermont
- Main cast: Mae Martin (Alex Dempsey), Toni Collette (Evelyn Wade), Sarah Gadon (Laura Redman), Sydney Topliffe (Abbie), Alyvia Alyn Lind (Leila), Brandon Jay McLaren (Dwyane Andrews), Tattiawna Jones (Rabbit), Isolde Ardies (Stacey), Joshua Close (Duck), Patrick J. Adams (Wyatt Turner), Patrick Gallagher (Chief Bartell), Gage Munroe (Riley), Byron Mann (Brian)
- Source material: Original Netflix limited series created by Skye Borgman & Campfire Studios
Wait, you got the ending wrong. Alex and the baby picked up Abbie and drove away!
No, watch until the end. As the first car ride scene ends you see Alex actually in the bedroom of her house with the baby next to her and Laura, literally closign the door of her home in Wayward. The scene after is Abbie in the car, alone, driving away only with the dog, leaving Wayward.
We didn’t watch the end. The whole story is just too unsettling and I figured out a long time before it ended that Laura would take over for Evelyn.