Okay, so I finally got around to watching episode 2 of The Stranded. Again, the intensity of this show is catching me so off guard but it’s so interesting. I am having a hard time learning the names of the characters simply because there are just too many. So, I’m just going to focus on the main ones.
The main characters that get the most screen time are:
Anan – A boy who comes from a rich family and struggles with feeling accepted by his peers. He just wants to be a leader so badly but he honestly just tries too hard and thinks too much. His peers don’t take him seriously because he nags more than helps. He’s also not entirely accepting of help from others. As the viewer, we are learning through flashbacks that this feeling of inferiority comes from his strained relationship with his father. His father was a serious and strict man who demanded compliance from others with an iron fist. He raised Anan the same way with little love.
Kraam – A boy who attends the school on a scholarship. He is actually from the island and knows a lot about survival. He does not come from a family of money and sometimes his peers will throw this in his face (mostly Anan) as the school is a private academy. Some kind of way Kraam has a connection to the island. He doesn’t know it yet, but strange things happen to him because of the island. We are learning about it slowly.
May – She is Anan’s girlfriend and serves as the nurse amongst all the students. She knows the most about health and I believe she attended a nursing camp of some sort. When anyone gets injured or sick, she takes care of them. This is stressful for her because she is still only in high school and does not know as much as she needs to when situations get serious. It’s also kind of hinted at that she is not happy in her relationship with Anan and has developing feelings for Kraam.
Arisa – A loner without any friends. She comes off pretty mean but I believe it’s because she was bullied for many years in school. Many of the students don’t take her seriously and want nothing to do with her because she is so mean. She is good with technology.
Ice & Ying – Another couple. I find them annoying because all they ever do is makeout and try to have sex in a bunch of different places. Like, you are standed on an island with limited food, no fresh water, no clean clothes besides the ones you’re wearing, and all you want to do is have sex??
Anyway…Ice likes to stir up trouble. I’m not sure why. He also has a heart condition and can’t do any type of strenuous work. Strenuous work sends his heart into overdrive and he gets super dizzy and has trouble breathing. Ying is overly sexual and I honestly don’t really trust her. She is an older girl and she admitted that had she stayed in school she would be finished with university already…yet she is dating a high schooler that hasn’t graduated yet. She just comes off very immature with no life goals. Did I mention she’s overly sexual? Like…chill out. Ice needs to chill out too.
There are many other characters but I don’t know all of their names because once again, there are just too many. The only other names I remember are Krit, Jack, and Jan. Krit and Jack are boyfriends. Jan is Jack’s sister.
There is something weird going on between these three because, although Jan is supportive of Krit and Jack’s relationship, she also seems to think that Krit used her to get to Jack. We find out that while Jack’s parents know about Krit, Krit’s parents still think he is dating Jan. We don’t know any more than this but I’m interested in finding out.
I feel like so much happened in this episode, yet not much really did? We spent a lot of time having flashbacks from Anan, strange dreams from Kraam, and Arisa trying to desipher a strange recording with Ying. It’s obvious that there is going to be some type of relationship development between Ying and Arisa. I would be interested if I wasn’t so put off by Ying. Again, I just don’t trust her for some reason. Not to mention, she has a boyfriend??
I am more interested in Kraam’s connection to the island and Krit and Jack. Jack is practiacally dying from an infected wound yet he gets no screentime. And Kraam also practically died through a dream. Although he gets more screentime than others, we saw more flashbacks from Anan which I couldn’t really bring myself to care about. This is mostly because I don’t really like Anan. I feel sympathy for him, but I don’t like him.
In this episode, the students were able to get a boat down from a cliff so they can start repairing it. Their goal is to fix the boat and send out ten people to travel to the mainland so they can bring back help. They are going to do a mix of sending people that need the most help, and drawing names so that everyone else has a fair chance.
Jack’s name is the first to go on the list (without the name draw). He is the one suffering the most because of his infected wound so everyone agreed to send him on the boat first.
Other strange things are happening on the island besides all this. One of the rivers strangely becomes boiling hot. A peircing sound echoes across the island (which is what triggered Kraam’s strange dream). And one of the teachers from the school walks out of the boiling river and finds them, then faints.
There is just so much happening! And I can’t even wrap my head around it all. A part of me wants to just binge all the episodes at once. But I can’t because I realize only after the episode ends, my heart is hammering in my chest. Reading online, I saw that this show is categorized as a thriller. I am fairly sensitive to more intense shows and movies. I just get really jumpy lol.
I’m interested in continuing the show though because the mystery of this island is truly pulling me in. How can they answer all my questions in only seven episodes??
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