The Australian Prime Video series Class of ’07 is, primarily, a comedy. It’s funny, sometimes gross, and often unserious. The end of the world, which forms the backdrop of the drama, is cheerfully nicknamed “the ‘poco”. An entire episode revolves around a nasty bout of food poisoning.
However, there are still deeper themes at play here. They’re not all necessarily explored in the most meaningful way, but the legacy of high-school traumas like bullying and social ostracization are at least considered, forming the backstories of many of the former students whose ten-year reunion is interrupted by natural disaster.
One of the characters who is particularly defined by loss and its lingering after-effects is Amelia, the former best friend of protagonist Zoe who left school midway through the year for reasons that nobody has ever been made privy to. As the eight episodes of the first season unravel, we eventually come to learn more about why she left school in the first place, how the reason for her departure has defined her since, and why she ultimately decides to leave the class of ’07.
Why does Amelia attend the reunion?
Despite having departed midway through the school year, Amelia decides to attend the reunion ten years later mostly as an excuse to reconnect with her former best friend Zoe.
Of course, this is awkward for multiple reasons. A decade has passed, after all, and since Amelia never explained why she was leaving or where she was going in the first place, a lot has been left unsaid that needs to be addressed. And then there’s the matter of Zoe’s lingering toxicity after a very public breakdown on a reality dating series. She has spent the last six months in complete self-imposed isolation, and when she eventually arrives at the reunion, Amelia can’t get near her for all the questions her fellow classmates have.
Before Amelia has the chance to really speak to Zoe, the entire campus has been flooded and all the girls have more pressing matters to focus on, such as how they plan to survive on a lonely island in the midst of a suddenly limitless ocean.
Why did Amelia leave school?
Late in the season, it is revealed – accidentally, by Sister Bicky, one of their former teachers – that Amelia left school because her mother took her own life. She never told anyone, and upon hearing the news, Zoe is devastated.
Amelia claims, since it happened so many years ago, that the whole matter isn’t as big of a deal as Zoe is making out. But Zoe is wracked with guilt. She didn’t support Amelia when she was going through that trauma at the time – Zoe was becoming closer to the school bully, Saskia, which is a pattern that repeats itself post-‘poco – and she has barely given her time to explain it since. Zoe already has plenty of regrets over the things she let Saskia get away with during school, and how she has fallen back into the same pattern even now, telling nobody about Saskia pushing Sandy out to sea and just generally running the school with an iron fist.
Why did Amelia leave the Class of ’07?
Early on, we learn that Amelia is taking antidepressants. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out why – after the trauma of losing her mother and the betrayal she felt when Zoe drifted away from her in favor of Saskia, Amelia needed chemical assistance just to maintain an even keel. And, of course, medication isn’t exactly at a premium during the end of the world.
While Amelia can initially procure some tablets, they eventually run out, and their scarcity coincides with what she perceives as further betrayals from Zoe, especially her keeping quiet about what happened to Sandy. Amelia begins to feel lost and alone and becomes increasingly erratic.
Towards the very end of the season, Amelia has completely resigned herself to death and has also convinced the other girls that they’re at the end too. She convinces them all to have one last blowout party, but when that goes sideways because of Zoe revealing that there are communities out on the ocean, Amelia becomes more withdrawn than ever.
The girls, all starving to death, decide to form a Tribal Council to vote on which of the group should be killed and eaten. After a vote, Amelia volunteers herself as the sacrifice, since she has given up on life anyway. Zoe knocks her out and pretends to the others that she’ll finish her off to spare everyone else having to do it. However, Zoe implores Amelia to get on the stationary bike raft that Sandy was constructing, and they eventually leave together, with Zoe’s ceaseless efforts finally seeming to open Amelia up to more positive relationships.
