I'm frustrated. There's a lot of promise here but it bothers me to no end that [spoiler]each story starts out telling us of a character's specific struggles but **without fail** ends up muddying the water, sometimes even painting them as co-villains of their own stories as well.[/spoiler]

Ep.1 - [spoiler]Leah was preyed upon. It fell apart only because the guy was forced not to turn a blind eye anymore. Expected teenage angst ensues. So far so good.[/spoiler]

Ep.2 - [spoiler]Rachel struggles to recognize that her Olympian dreams are over, gets on everyone's nerves by pushing people the only abusive way she knows how.[/spoiler]
[spoiler]\* We also find out that the island is small as she can see everything surrounded by sea from the top of the mountain.[/spoiler]

Ep.3 - [spoiler]Dot has had it rough. Rachel continues being hard to watch.[/spoiler]

Ep.4 - [spoiler]Toni could have had a better life despite her home life being messy, but her temper comes out to ruin things way too frequently. Fatin and Leah's pettiness starts showing.[/spoiler]

Ep.5 - [spoiler]Oh, Fatin... I feel like she never stood a chance of coming off as likable before but this episode was odd in that it _seemed_ to try to redeem her and then threw it all away. Her relationship with her father was good even without the comparison to how her mother pushed her all the time. Then she finds out he's a cheater and her go-to move is to **publicly** expose him (which ends up being them as the person who is cheated on also has their life put on public display)? WTF?! And her response when she's talking to the guy she's with was that she encrypted it so no one would know? I don't know if I blame this one on age and unearned overconfidence or too much TV and thinking this is a court of law and people have to prove stuff... [/spoiler]
[spoiler]\* Leah seems to start moving on as she burns the book. The island grows bigger and now there seems to be animals?[/spoiler]

Ep.6 - [spoiler]Leah started a downward spiral that now seems to have had previous deeper roots. While that lessens her fault in everything that's happened, it still doesn't make her character more likable, especially when she destroys a friendship by not only trying to cling to the abuse but also trying to turn her friend into an accomplice.[/spoiler]

Ep.7 - [spoiler]We get a better picture of Gretchen's weird plan (mostly commendable goals, disgraceful execution), how Jeanette fit into it and how that makes her death completely stupid and pointless as she wasn't their only agent.[/spoiler]

Ep.8 - [spoiler]Shelby's story is mostly what you'd expect, with a few adjustments. It was probably the one best executed though, especially Mia Healey's acting. Heart-wenching as that may be, she still played an integral part in her friend's fate.[/spoiler]

Ep.9 - [spoiler]Martha is one of the saddest 'survivor' archetypes. I don't know if leading her whole life like that can fit the profile but the mere idea that a person could create so many fantasies like that just to be able to go on is heatbreaking. And that's without going back to her thoughts on love and sex or how she gave a testimony still unable to tell what really happened.[/spoiler]
[spoiler]But the big event here has to be the revelation that Nora is the failsafe agent, not Dot. Ok twist, but then WHY THE FUCK DIDN'T DOT SAY SOMETHING? If Dot is not in contact with them, how would she know if the deal was still on and even if she did, why would she trust the people that are letting them starve and, oh, DIE like Jeanette did?![/spoiler]
[spoiler]\* Also, WTF, a goat? If the island was as small as Rachel saw it, there's no place for a goat to hide from 8 people for long. Or from other animals as they feared in Ep.5...[/spoiler]

Ep.10 - [spoiler]Am I watching a remake of 'The Other Sister'? Where did reserved but thorougly capable (enough to become a sleeper agent) Nora go to? I had noticed the steady increase of Nora's mannerisms but this episode turned it up to 11.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]While at the end of the story we empathize with these characters, very few of them are actually likable. We empathize mostly because we have the bigger picture that they're all under great stress and suffering abuse (sometimes even from each other). We can hope that the relationships that they were forced to develop and all they were forced to learn will help them grow as people but that still would be a bittersweet outcome as Gretchen could claim that result as her victory and the experiment a success.[/spoiler]