As the opening episode of Unwanted begins, a group of refugees prepare to rush to a nearby boat. One of them has to encourage his sister to follow them, but she admits this scares her. Tareq warns her that she’ll die if she remains behind. They eventually go together. A cruise ship, Orizzonte, floats in the Mediterranean Sea. On the ship, Lorain is told to take Conn by the Captain. The Captain Arrigo (Marco Bocci) returns to his cabin where he looks at pictures of a woman. He goes outside, takes his ring off, and throws it into the water. He sees a vessel approaching them. On the cruise ship, Nicola is busy partying with other passengers.

The migrant boat has crashed and is now on fire. Many of the migrants are stranded in the water. Tareq and others struggle to survive while a baby cries in the background. Arrigo keeps his eyes on the migrants as the cruise ship gets closer. He calls in to let his bosses know they’re stopping to recover victims of a shipwreck. Rescue crews begin pulling the migrants out of the water. The crew of the Orizzonte is informed that they have 28 migrants. Before long, the cruise passengers learn about the migrants coming on board. Silvia is told to come look at this. A woman tells Nico that there’s a baby so they must be scared. Once on the ship, a doctor checks on the baby who is being named Miracle now.

Then, Dr. Hannah checks on Ibrahim (Hassan Najib). She realizes that they’re all covered with burns. Dr. Hannah tells a nurse to treat the mother for severe dehydration. Captain Arrigo speaks to another man about putting the migrants in the cabins 520 to 560. The whole wing is empty so it would avoid contact. Arrigo notices an albino boy before saying he heard they think they have magic powers in Africa. The other man heard they bring bad luck. One of the migrants, Tareq, learns the ship is going to Tunis. Dr. Hannah tells Edith (Jessica Schwarz) about the wounds and the fact that they might’ve been caused by assaults or torture. She can’t tell Arrigo whether they have diseases. Dr. Hannah gives testimony during an interview. Once the migrants are moved to the cabins, Tareq checks a cell phone and realizes it had no service.

He hides it in the cabin. In the morning, a man checks on Hannelore (Barbara Auer) who doesn’t appear to be in the cabin. Edith sits with Arrigo. Every time she tried to sleep, she kept seeing those peoples’ eyes. She goes on to say it is nothing personal, but the system ticks her off. Edith says he is Italian and it’s an Italian company. She has been staff captain on the ship for five years. When the captain fell ill, they replaced him with Arrigo. It seems ridiculous to her to talk about small stuff after what happened last night. Arrigo says the company is speaking to Italian authorities to find out what to do. Meanwhile, they are asked to collect their personal data.

He reminds her that no one ever gave him anything for free. Diletta (Denise Capezza) talks to some of the other passengers about the baby among the migrants. Franco argues it couldn’t be that difficult to create safe-travel zones. Nicola (Marco Palvetti) asks what for. Franco says the people escaping poverty and hunger. He goes on to say they have a responsibility because Africa has been suffering for so long. Nicola argues they shouldn’t try to make the trip in the first place. Silvia and Diletta argue about bringing a child with them. Nicola questions what kind of future they’re being given here before suggesting dealing drugs and prostitution. He explains he is a police officer and that’s what he sees every day.

Silvia thinks that’s just because they don’t do enough to integrate them. Elvis is happy to be on the biggest ship in the world. He begins playing around on the phone and yelling that God is great. The receptionist tells him they don’t play with the phones before hanging up. He ends up going out into the hallway only for a guard to tell him he can’t go out. Back in his cabin, Elvis talks about the possibility of using his special powers. He goes back into the hallway and sneaks around the guard who is on his phone. Captain Arrigo tells a colleague that the company wants them to disembark the migrants in Tunis. He believes it might be a good idea to move the Magnificent Buffet to tomorrow. His colleague doesn’t think that’ll work. He tells Arrigo to look on the bright side because they saved lives.

Ibrahim begins screaming about his body. Tareq wakes him up and reminds him he is on the ship. Tareq says he is from Nigeria. Ibrahim reveals his wife and son are in Italy. It’s taken him two years to reach them. Ibrahim asks if he has a phone. Elvis walks around the ship. When he enters a shop, he claims to be a crew member. The worker there tells him he can’t be there. Elvis looks at a jersey and flees before security can arrive. Weber Hannelore’s husband tells a hairdresser that he is looking for his wife. Elvis goes outside by the pool and watches others swim. Edith goes to Marem to get her date of birth. When Arrigo enters, Marem thanks him and calls him their savior.

In the hallway, Arrigo and Edith learn that Elvis escaped. Elvis complains about being locked up for so long. Arrigo offers to see if they can take him around the ship later. Elvis also wants a Mbappe jersey. Arrigo speaks to Tareq and Ibrahim. He tells them that the ship should be in Italy in a week. While talking to the company, Arrigo admits disembarking the migrants in Tunis might not be simple. He argues they should take it into account that they expect to go to Italy. Tareq worries that they’ll be left in Tunis and the Tunisians will take them back to Libya. Ibrahim helps him escape so he can find out where they’re going. The guard takes Ibrahim and contacts the boss.

Jan is told to get down to the migrants. The head chief complains about the way the carrots were cut. Coppola speaks to the workers and asks for a volunteer to care for the castaways. Jurgen quickly volunteers. Klaus still can’t find his wife. He refuses to let the receptionist make an announcement over the speakers and insists he’ll keep looking. Arrigo speaks to the guests before the big dinner. Franco ends up getting cut. Ibrahim asks Jurgen about a telephone only to be reminded there is no signal. Tareq watches a boy play an arcade game and remembers violence from his past. The guards see Elvis running through the hallways. Elvis goes back to the jersey. Ibrahim gets a phone from Jurgen and speaks to Miriam. He asks about Elias. She tells them they’re fine and she has a job.

Franco gets treatment for his injury while Tareq finds the other guests celebrating. Before Franco leaves, he sees Marem being treated as well. Elvis goes to the Magnificent Buffet and gets spotted. He causes a scene and makes a girl laugh when the guard takes him away. As Tareq looks around, he remembers burning himself.

 

Unwanted Review

The opening episode of Unwanted showed some potential, but I have many concerns based on this episode alone. The story jumped right into it without really allowing viewers to become accustomed to the characters so it was impossible to determine who was who half of the time. There was very little backstory for any of the characters besides a few. In all likelihood, this is going to be excruciating slow considering it is eight episodes.

This episode already had a lot of characters and scenes that added very little so there will probably be a lot of filler to reach that eight-episode requirement. Truthfully, I found it difficult to genuinely care for any of the characters for some obvious reasons. Some of the characters were just annoying for immediately going out halfcocked while others weren’t fully developed before throwing them into the picture.

The story feels stilted at times possibly because the makeup of the characters and how they’re polar opposites of probably 90% of viewers. Or, that was done intentionally to deliver a message at some point. This really didn’t feel tense when it should’ve been given the circumstances. It has time to get better, but the episode was a little bland considering the story they’re dealing with.

It scores a 5 out of 10. Recaps of Unwanted can be found on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our independent site at this link. Learn more about advertising on Reel Mockery here. Discuss this series and others at the Reel Mockery Forum.