The Trip of Your Life
Zoa is on a beach with Judith, who is about to jump into the water. Zoa begs her not to, but Judith ignores her and jumps in. Zoa watches as she disappears beneath the waves. Zoa is stranded on a desert island and desperate to find her friend Judith. She stumbles down onto the beach where she finds an empty bottle reading “Eden” on the side. As she does, we experience a flashback of Zoa and Judith together on the beach. In the flashback, Judith jumps into the water and Zoa watches as she disappears beneath the waves. ..
We follow Zoa as she travels to Barcelona to investigate the message and find out more about Eden. She meets a mysterious man who tells her that she can be happy if she visits this idyllic place. The man also sends her a promotion video that seems to promise happiness. Zoa is curious and decides to go to Barcelona, but before she arrives, something strange happens.
The assistant overseeing this manages to convince Zoa to attend the exclusive party, while big boss Astrid oversees all this and seems satisfied by what’s transpiring. ..
Judith and Aldo are joined by a group of other people, including Zoa, Judith’s husband, and Aldo’s friend. They all sign a contract and are set to start their new lives in the city. Classical music is playing and there are masked people overseeing everything. A bus blasting EDM has more drinks available.
The group of young people are told to hand over their phones and proceed onto a boat. Many of the young people do not want to hand over their phones, especially influencer Africa, who has a large following of fans who want to know what she is doing. ..
Judith is refused entry into the restaurant because she has breached her contract. However, when Zoa claims she won’t go, they make an exception.
Astrid watches as the boat arrives with glee, and soon enough, everyone is drinking. Zoa and the others begin to argue, while Africa brandishes a spare phone from her knee-high boots.
As the day turns into night, a hologram of Astrid appears on the water. Now, some of those have an illuminated wristband, the select few hand-picked by Astrid. They’re allowed to drink special Blue Eden bottles. No word on exactly what’s inside there though!
Judith meets a woman named Alma while Judith hooks up with a guy called Orson. After, Judith stumbles upon the bartender, Fern, being drowned by several workers at the party. Judith brings her concerns to Orson but he’s having none of it.
The Blue Eden is a party for people who want to stay on the island. There are 5 candidates out of 100 partygoers who Astrid wants to keep on the island.
Zoa, Ibon, Aldo, Charly, and Africa are each looking for a family. Astrid believes they can join hers given that she is the easiest to influence.
We catch up to the beginning of episode 1, where Zoa calls out for help. It seems all the partygoers are gone, but we see Astrid hand-pick five candidates.
The five decide to investigate the compound after seeing a drone fly overhead. They find strange symbols all around the place and soon realize that they are in danger.
A group of people stand before us, watching as we arrive. They appear to be some sort of cult, given the clothing they’re wearing. Astrid welcomes them to Eden.
The Episode Review
The show starts with the introduction of five new characters: Zoa, a woman who has been living on Eden for years; Adam, a young man who has just arrived; John, a man who is trying to find his way in the world; and Rebecca, a woman who is trying to find her place in the world. But what we really get to know about these characters in the first episode is Zoa. She’s an interesting character because she doesn’t seem like she belongs on Eden. She seems like she could be anywhere but here. And yet, she seems to have found her place here and is happy. So far, Welcome to Eden has been very mysterious and I’m curious to see what happens next. I hope that the show continues to be mysterious and interesting so that I can keep up with it.
Nine Perfect Strangers is a show that definitely has influences from Squid Game. The show manages to add an eerie and suspenseful gloss over the whole affair too.
It’s still early days, and this one could slow down or add a lot of complications in the future. For now though, there’s certainly enough to pique the interest with this one.
