About “Wayward” in a few words:

So, about Wayward — it’s a 2025 mystery-thriller miniseries that mixes dark secrets, cult undertones, and teenage heartache in a small Vermont town called Tall Pines. When two girls end up in a troubled boarding school, things go off the rails fast. Add in a cop new to town, a wife haunted by her past, and a powerful head of school with too much control… and you’ve got a show that creeps under your skin and won’t let go.

Meet the characters from Wayward

Alex Dempsey

Alex is that slightly chaotic heartbeat of Wayward — equal parts charm and bad impulse control, you know the type who’ll climb a fence just to see if the rumor is true. He’s a leader-ish person, more by force of personality than planning, and somehow people follow him even when the plan is basically “wing it.” Mostly brave but weirdly allergic to confrontation, which is the funniest contradiction and also somehow makes him more human. He collects tiny, ridiculous things (matchboxes? bottle caps? I swear it changes) and hums off-key whenever something stressful is happening. Also, he has a habit of saying “trust me” and then immediately doing something that proves we should maybe not trust him, and yet you do.

Leila

Leila is all mystery and quiet storms — she talks soft but her decisions land like a thunderclap, and you can feel it. She’s the kind of person who reads people like weather patterns; healer, fixer, sometimes assassin of small social awkwardness, depending on the day. She carries weird little talismans and has a constellation of tattoos (some real, some she made up in the moment), and she’s both impossibly tender and a little brutal when she thinks it’s necessary. Loves cats, collects knives, can’t swim (no, really), and will throw you off if you try to pin her down to One Thing. Honestly, you get the sense she remembers everything and tells almost none of it.

Abbie

Abbie is the spark plug — loud, practical, and allergic to nonsense, with grease under her nails because she fixes everything from engines to broken promises. She’s fiercely loyal and way too honest; she will roast you lovingly and then bail you out at 2 a.m. She’s got a soft side that surprises people — writes awful but earnest poetry in a notebook she pretends is a shopping list — and she sings along to terrible radio songs in the car like she’s leading a parade. Quick with a wrench and quicker with a joke, she’s the person who holds the crew together when things start to unravel. Slightly impulsive, stubborn as a mule, and somehow always the glue.

Evelyn Wade

Evelyn is the older, slightly terrifying librarian/secret-legend of Wayward — organized to the point of obsession but with a past that smells faintly of adrenaline and handcuffs. She knows everything about everything (archives, old crimes, where the best lemon bars are hidden), and will calmly correct you in a tone that feels like an execution order. She insists on chamomile tea at midnight (which is baffling because she prowls the streets after dark like it’s a hobby), and her office looks perfect until you open a drawer and it’s chaos. Mentor vibes but not saccharine — she’ll teach you to read maps and to fight, sometimes in the same afternoon. There’s a rumor she once locked herself out of her own house and treated it like a field exercise, which checks out, right?

Laura Redman

Laura is the dogged reporter/reluctant detective archetype and honestly she wears suspicion like a favorite coat — practical, razor-tongued, and deeply observant. She asks the questions other people don’t want to know, has a soft spot for underdogs, and will not accept “no” as an answer unless she’s absolutely convinced she has no more ammo. Meticulous in notes and messy in relationships (big surprise), she collects postcards from burned places for reasons that might be sentimental or might be a ritual, who can tell. She’s stubborn, super efficient in a crisis, and sometimes impulsive in a way that gets both problems solved and people mildly furious. Also, she keeps a lipstick that’s older than her first car and uses it as a kind of talisman — don’t ask why, she probably won’t explain.