MAN FOUND DEAD BY HORSE: Let’s talk about Widow’s Bay on Apple (Matthew Rhys, Stephen Root)

This show rules! please join me as we uncover all the ways in which the soon to tourist haven of Widow’s Bay is currently haunted, cursed and therefore awesome

only watched the first episode, but thought it was hilarious — looking forward to seeing where it all goes.

highly enjoyable show.

Episode 2 kinda scared me a little bit? In a fun way but ugh that crawlspace was a huge NOPE

Loved this - really funny and creepy at the same time

Hiro Murai is so good at finding that tonal balance

He’s so good at it!
I said on the rolling media thread that it has Atlanta & also a Twin Peaks vibe in regards to the perfect balance of drama/quirk/comedy — it doesn’t tip its hand & lets weird be weird & funny be funny but the viewer gets to do a little work deciding what lands, you’re not being handed every shining moment on a platter

Also a+ casting of Tim Baltz in ep2, he was excellent

this one is lots of fun so far!

Toby Huss is ALWAYS a joy.

Oh I was so happy when he showed up & loled so hard when I saw he was a priest <3

almost shat myself at the clown bit fs

moments like that lean a little bit too into American Horror Story camp camp for me.

Stuff like the innkeeper thinking he's been in the room for ages or whatever is a nice amount of creepy though.

It's so good. Delighted to see Matthew Rhys getting the chance to be stupid for once.

Loved the first two episodes

Caught up with all this over the past two days, including the new episode today, and yes to all of it. Real damn treat, everyone's sense of timing and low-keyness is brilliant. I've never seen Kate O'Flynn in anything so far as I know but damn, what a character she's playing.

Also, easily my favorite visual gag in this new episode: those board and card games, which along with the books all were perfect 'the type of stuff you find in an old hotel or inn that has never been updated or changed out for decades' set dressing.

Rhys’ facial expressions are so good, he is so great at looking genuinely pants-shittingly terrified

Also I love the hag shanty that Root sings in ep 3

My wife and I both cackled at the scene of him coming out of the ocean in ep 3.

I was honestly and properly creeped out by this episode. I am properly scared by supernatural things following me into my house!

But you invite ghostly remote figures into your house every time you fire up ILX! (I am a four hundred year old phantom.)

You see, you think this is funny because you do not have to go into the bathroom and check for sea hags in the middle of the night because I'm too scared to.

I thought the scares were a bit soft in the first episode - the opening on the ship, the white eyeball scene - but the second episode was properly scary/creepy. After the clown scene my partner waa "Well, I'm not watching that again - let's put the next one on."

So far this is right in my lane as far as horror goes - spooky suspense, not body-horror/terror. I like that you can think, "Well this is scary but they're hardly going to kill Matthew Rhys, are they?" I hope this never becomes one of those "any cast member could die at any moment" kind of shows.

In a way what's most unsettling is the disinterest in segueing between the funny bits and the scary bits - in the hotel episode, I kept thinking "Oh okay, it's fine - oh wait NO IT ISN'T".

I like that Rhys can show a real person (somewhere) behind the comic bits - I don't want every episode to become a comic route to his humiliation. Agree Kate O'Flynn is doing a proper out-of-nowhere (to me) great performance.

So I'm the only one that's disappointed that anytime something really bad seems to be happening, our hero just wakes up? I want blood!

Gotta get more tourists in first

really love the jaws vibe

Enjoying this but I think it works better when each episode is spaced out from week to week. I binged the first three episodes and chafed against the “monster of the week” element when watching in such quick succession.

phenomenal episode

Outstanding

Still loving this. It's (so far) kind of almost like an anthology series told from the perspective of Amity's Island mayor.

But slyly funny, of course.

is it a joke that the guy in the key art has a widow's peak? i don't have apple tv.

Yes enjoyed this episode. Glad it is pulling away from the mayor and putting other characters up front, and that perhaps things are looking a little more linked together - or at least more serialized

Ha, I kind of wish it stays sorta serialized but *doesn't* link together! Like, one bad, weird week, lol. Reminds me a bit of one of those shows about quirky/strange small towns, like "Eerie, Indiana." Of course the inspiration that continues to come to mind (for obvious reasons) is John Carpenter's "The Fog," though we have no idea where this show is going yet, let alone how it's going to get there.

Yeah I don’t think it necessarily needs to turn into Lost or something, but it will wear thin if every week something happens to Matthew Rhys. So I think it needs to choose a direction - either link it together so he has a story to move through, or jump around and give us multiple protagonists.

honestly, it would be fine with me if it doesn't all tie together

“Lucy Fours”

I for one welcome "monster of the week" television.

I would love if it were just unresolved monster of the week, and then, after the run, the town elders collectively sing a shanty and the curse or whatever goes dormant and Rhys sighs and says, "at least it's over now." And Root turns to him and intones, "no, it is just beginning." And Rhys blows him off and goes home and the door is open and he's suddenly scared and he's snooping around and he hears something in the kitchen and then ... it's just his son, with the munchies, raiding the refrigerator! Phew, right? He has a laugh and they both leave the room. And then the camera pans to the kitchen floor where we see wet footprints.

The Carrie references in this weeks episode were very good. And Katie O’Flynn/Patty was so good. Ie when she’s leaning on the fridge absolutely sobbing her heart out & goes into a fake yawn when the door suddenly opens

Omg Roz

LUCY FOURS

I didn’t even get that til you said it lol

Hahah same here. Jesus. (Ironically.)

The Carrie references in this weeks episode were very good. And Katie O’Flynn/Patty was so good. Ie when she’s leaning on the fridge absolutely sobbing her heart out & goes into a fake yawn when the door suddenly opens

Peak all around. Just that opening shot of her with the fixed stare, my god. Said it before but she is easily my breakout from this whole thing, though the entire city hall crew are the best.

My favorite 'wait a minute' moment was the mirror shot in the main room, where initially I thought "Oh so in reality they're just gaping at whatever insane shit she's really saying"...and then it turned out to be something else instead.

Anyway, best fly since Breaking Bad and best use of "The Rhythm of the Night" since Beau Travail.

Oh yes I caught that mirror shot too! So good

The Pattimobile alone. Like...of course. (And it's so great how the initial party scene and then the confrontation at the main party simultaneously makes you all "I totally get being the outsider at the party and awkward and etc" and then is also "But then again, that whole backstory IS pretty fucked up.")

Oh yeah my favorite visual gag this time out: the party illustration with the cocaine tray.

Mine: when she opens the book to the work section, and there's a small part for things you love about yourself and a huge one for things you hate

shoutout also to Rosemary for still being supportive even after seeing all the fucked up things Patti was doing ("YOU HAD QUALMS?" had me rolling)

The Carrie references in this weeks episode were very good. And Katie O’Flynn/Patty was so good.

yeah her resemblance to Shelley Duvall was likely a factor in her casting, but she's fantastic in the role too

Roz - re spoiler text - omg I ruefully laughed at that as soon as I saw it

Every nanosecond of her attending the drinks, and throwing the party and her trying so valiantly to overcome her own anxiety was SO good and absolutely triggering to watch, like watching live footage of my own social interactions
Brutal & incredible

lol @ the advertisement tied to This Is How We Do it

this was my favorite episode so far. What a great show. Wonder if it'll be a one and done or do more seasons?

sidebar -I rewatched the first eps yesterday & had THE craziest dream last night with creepy creatures & a runaway child living in my crawlspace!?? Oops

so do we think Patti was actually lying about the killer coming to her house? I assumed she was telling the truth

it'll probably turn out to be true

It would be something if she really is a truly core source of evil without anybody realizing it, including her — yeah that was this episode but maybe that’s a deeper sign of something.

I definitely think there’s more going on there but I don’t think it’s that

they really had me going with Marissa, I was 100% convinced she was the hag

Meantime, good little feature here:

https://www.thewrap.com/creative-content/tv-shows/widows-bay-episode-4-patricia-witch-katie-dippold-kate-o-flynn-interview/

xp I was sure she was the hag, my wife was convinced she wasn't ... because the hero fumbling a real person would be worse for him

Just caught up, show's the best. My wife described it as "Jaws" meets "Parks and Recreation," which is super astute, because Katie Dippold was a writer on "Parks and Recreation."

It's so good. This week's in particular was tremendous, and I love how you have to give it your full attention or you miss so much. No second-screen spoonfeeding at all.

This episode was a banger in a completely different way to ep4 but secretly the same way kind of too?

You guys I fucking love this show

Yeah that was amazing on several levels. And first off, the shaman, oh my god -- like if Shaggy had an older brother and no dog, but an iguana.

I...*almost* gotta wonder now, did his wife actually die or is she catatonic somewhere, maybe? I could see that being a dark secret or something.

Chris Fleming!

Just incredible work.

Xxpost I am now wondering the same thing!

I’m not alone!

Matthew Rhys just so good this week. And the camera angles were fantastic

Yeah, really great work from him. that pathetic face & noise he made trying to throw up was v funny

Get ready for Chris Fleming and Jeff Hiller to be in every show and movie for the next three years. I thought I heard Fleming in the Rooster and it was him. He’s on the IMDB, but you don’t see him. They must’ve cut the scene or something. So not surprised to see him kill this. Saw him live last year on the tour that just became his breakthrough HBO special.

Yeah I don't think I've seen Fleming in anything else before and he was so great.

i liked the brief reveal that Gerrie and Wyck apparently dated in high school

potential minor spoiler for future episodes: His casting has already been reported but if you missed it and was wondering why the painting of Richard Warren, the town's first mayor, looked a bit like Hamish Linklater... it's because it is Hamish Linklater. and i guess it could also be why Tom's son also looks a bit like Hamish Linklater?

Omg yay !!

Oh if you haven’t experienced Chris Fleming get to YouTube asap.

Yeah he’s a delight

Think Jeff Hiller already has plenty of demand given that Emmy for Somebody Somewhere and all. :-D

Yeah, I was going to say, Jeff Hiller has been in everything forever (he was just in an episode of 30 Rock I watched), but I guess since Somebody Somewhere he gets better parts.

I enjoyed the non-standard way they handled someone tripping.

I have a question: something about the way Tom told the story of their courtship and Evan’s birth made me think that he is not Evan’s biological father? He says something about them getting together and then says “of course she was already pregnant” or “she was pregnant by then” and whatever way he said it made me think that the baby wasn’t his and he loved her so much he just accepted it anyway. Mister Trish thinks I imagined this, and maybe I did. Certainly it hasn’t come up again so far.

I wondered that too

Phew, at least I didn’t imagine it.

The careful wording definitely stood out to me

I liked the detail that they were on a boat trying to make sure he could be born off the island but they had to turn around.

Great interview w DP Christian Sprenger (longtime collaborator w Hiro Murai)

https://nofilmschool.com/christian-sprenger-widows-bay

she turns 50 soon. she’s got wanderlust

Usually I can't stand the Character Takes Drugs trope that too many shows and movies lazily enlist, but this was the rare exception, sometimes funny but mostly sideways-spooky, paranoia mixed deftly with legit reasons to be paranoid. My fave image was Tom, pale and covered with ketchup (we assume) that looks like blood splattered across his shirt, making him the very image of a zombie shambling toward the convenience store.

That said, his kid sucks, I hope he gets Sea Hagged.

Episode 6 is another banger!
About to watch ep 7 (they put up 2 eps this week)

Oh yeah, 6 and 7 are perfect complements. Best visual joke: Patricia’s notebook questions — god how I was cackling.

Even as an undead freak who eats Vienna sausages, Hamish Linklater is somehow still hot

It’s all in the rumble.

ARE YOU MAD AT SOMETHING I SAID

Hahah

So anyway my hunch about the mayor's wife is clearer but what I'm starting to wonder about a hair more now -- and this could just be character detail or a small red herring -- is why we've only heard and not seen the sheriff's wife. Could be nothing but in keeping with a stated decision in episode 7, I wonder a bit.

I am not ashamed to say that I have purchased this shirt

https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/92411837-you-had-your-qualms

"I forgot my purse."

xpost Amazing

I was dying at that.

Also hope they make a new academy award to honor Linklater and Betty Gilpin who knocked it out of the park.

Tbt to Halloween when I dressed as the babadook but my friend's house had more of a grown ups drinking wine vibe pic.twitter.com/PoGKUFeLLw

— Katie Dippold (@katiedippold) June 30, 2016

Gilpin's response when the pastor said something about "what about your children".

btw interesting that they didn't show kids dying or whatever when she took them away on the boat. I had a silly theory what if one of them survived and is the ancestor to Loftis. Linklater was saying something about being "the last of his bloodline" but what if he isn't, what if Loftis is somehow his descendent. So the curse would still exist. It's a stretch, just thought it really odd that they didn't show Sarah and the kids in the boat after leaving the island. I do love how they don't bother showing things at times though. The big reveal of Linklater still being alive, a lesser show might've made that a scary moment, the coffin opening etc. Instead it's just "uh yeah, he's upstairs".

Well I take your point but surely you caught the painting at the very end of the episode and the closeup and dramatic music etc -- we've seen the painting before and now it's clearer what it likely represents and who that is in the water separate from a boat -- but yeah, the 'upstairs' moment, pure genius.

yeah that makes sense.

Here’s a silly theory similar to mine.

https://dmtalkies.com/widows-bay-season-1-episode-7-recap-2026/

Interesting! I hadn’t thought of them specifically!

Meantime!

https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a71423673/stephen-root-widows-bay-interview/

Stephen Root always makes me think of this column Roger Ebert wrote that was in one of his big books of movie reviews that I studied when I was a teenager. It was something about movie rules and suggested that any film with M Emmet Walsh or Harry Dean Stanton is worth watching. That's a law. At least that's how I remember it. That's how I feel about Root.

I did mention somewhere upthread that there was probably a reason that the actor playing Evan Loftis looks much more like Hamish Linklater than Matthew Rhys.

They also showed Warren looking at his daughter's doll in the history museum, but it's missing the brooch that Sarah pinned on it. My guess is whoever has the brooch is a Warren descendant.

Also it struck me that Sarah's escape on the boat with the kids is why the island ultimately came to be called Widow's Bay

xpost that's a really great interview with Root. It's actually crazy he's never been cast as the lead in anything at all, someone needs to rectify that real quick

I'm just catching up, but about ep 4:

...best use of "The Rhythm of the Night" since Beau Travail.

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, May 13, 2026

totally agree

And as for this week: amazing way to make a single by THAT artist feel completely ominous and fucked up.

Also, A+ tribute to a particular film of course. While still having some perfect hilarity as it went.

Fucking A+ hell yes (with my hands over my eyes peeking thru my fingers)

Yeah the whole initial set up to the inevitable but perfect reveal was insanely good — I kept looking for said character in every corner of every shot just waiting for it.

It’s like they tell you what’s happening as soon as there’s the shot of Patricia through the window - but still thrilling to see them pull it off so beautifully with each unfolding sequence

This show is just the fucking best.

Although +1 to VG' s watching through fingers

And even though you knew it was coming, I still jumped out of my fucking skin when he first appeared in the doorway

Totally!!

absolutely loved the moment when Patty sees him in that upstairs window & yells to the bookclub girls GET OUT HE’s IN THE HOUSE & you think oh god they’re all getting murdered now & cut to him being pushed out of the upstairs window.
I laughed SO hard.

I wasn't sure if that's what happened or if he jumped through the window to go after her instead of them because she's the goal/wants to finish what he started.

Either way the whole thing in the house was HILARIOUS.

I think he jumped through to get her

also those ladies are bitches, i agree with her.

it's probably funnier if the women in the house banded together to push him out. i thought that could have been the implication since there's a shot of them all leaving the windows beforehand. but if it was, it wasn't the clearest.

in other news, sleep is where i'm a viking?

I thoroughly loved Patricia with the shotgun making sure the Boogeyman is dead AND the fact that he's dead and pretty much immediately taken to the hospital, apparently briefly examined and then cremated all without taking the mask off -- but of course.

that drove me crazy! take the mask off! I wanted to see what this dude looked like

She was so badass. When he was down and she came up and aimed the shotgun at him again I thought she was going to gorily finish him off with more blows which is exactly how every other horror movie, comedy or not, would’ve handled that. Cutting to her in the ambulance was hilarious.

Yes, I love how this show gives you something a little bit different, a bit extra.

every scene with Patricia was just so good. I love that she called the restaurant just to tell the person who got her order wrong... that they got her order wrong. don't need a refund or anything. (probably cause it was Kathy. It's always Kathy.)

so what do you guys reckon is in Tom's basement? When he saw Evan with the box, he initially asked "You went into the basement?" and then slight relief when Evan said he went through his trunk instead

Well there’s still that set of double doors way back at the end of the first episode opposite a chair in the tavern basement plus the similar (same?) set in the historical episode so I’m wondering if that’s all connected.

A new interview with our hero:

https://www.thewrap.com/creative-content/tv-shows/widows-bay-episode-8-kate-oflynn-interview/

btw, Kate O'Flynn is completely excellent in the amusingly weird Channel 4 sitcom Everyone Else Burns, which is certainly available on Netflix Ireland and maybe Netflix wherever you are.

Screaming at Rosemary on the overhead projector. Dead baby. Dead baby. Lezzz. Bee-an.

Yes! Such a great Dale Dickey showcase

So damn good, I didn’t even mind that the episode was mostly uh, treading water before the finale

also another fantastic bit of physical comedy from Matthew Rhys with the giant painting, I was dying

RIP Shaman, hope he ends up in a tree with his gf’s cat

I loved Matthew Rhys holding the parchment as how it was written was described then slowly letting go.

Feel like he always had a little comic timing in The Americans even as bleak as that was.

Rhys is SO funny — if you’ve ever seen irl interviews he’s very funny & whimsical & tamps all that down for most of his roles so it’s great they tap into it for this

The physical comedy of wrestling with the painting was cracking me up, so well choreographed

Feel like he always had a little comic timing in The Americans even as bleak as that was.

A lot of people on twitter are apparently watching The Americans right now because of Widow’s Bay, and Rhys is in so many good clips from that show it’s also making me want to do a rewatch

I did a second go a few years ago and it was just as good. Could easily do a third.

I’ve been watching for the first time bc of Widow’s Bay!

I tried a couple of times early on but couldn’t get past the wigs lol.

I’m well into s2 now! :D

Truly a great Rosemary/Dale Dickey episode.

"My sciatica!"

Also excellent headfake where increasingly I had figured the last living descendant had to be Evan via his mom but nope! And given we had both Garrett and the Shaman callbacks and all I have to figure that Ruth gets her chance to shine in the final episode though I still want to know what's behind the door in the tavern...

Though then again I've already seen talk that Ruth DID in fact have a secret daughter...and that's Tom's dead wife. Would easily buy that.

*ahem* Tom's allegedly dead wife

Roffle. Having her be NOT dead after all that this season has shown and Tom knowing she wasn't would take this show reallllly dark.

What about the broach!

More madness incoming!

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/widows-bay-renewed-season-2-apple-tv-1236619727/

Also good:

Apple TV has also signed Widow’s Bay creator Katie Dippold to a multi-year overall deal. She’ll continue to serve as showrunner of the series and also develop new projects.

xps to Roz, LG, Veg

I had a hard time starting The Americans. It had such a depressing 80s quality that at the time that was impossible for me to get over. I gave up and then later started again. And I didn't believe the Russian deception at all at first.

But it became more of a family and community drama in the midst of international intrigue and hooked me. The family drama became linked with the political narrative. It got so much better as it went along.

I think in retrospect it was kind of amazing, and it had a really great ending

Yeah I was late to start it when it first aired because of the depressing tone as well, I think I jumped in around s3.

The ending is incredible, probably my favourite finale of any show.

highly recommend looking up widow’s bay on google and checking out the suggested search

RUN, the video game:

https://garylee.dev/run

lol

well that was kind of a downer of an ending

Man I fell so hard for Ruth in this ep <3 I was already teary by the time she was offering to make tea

Awesome way to land, really. But gosh yeah it definitely piled on the fucked up.

I want the new season immediately in any event.

Yeah I love how they have set up new intrigues for s2 so nicely

Argh how have you watched this already I am so envious. I have to wait for my stupid husband to come home from work. Being married is the worst.

Ruth jauntily running up the stairs.

I loved that bit - Tom’s face when he realised Ruth was perfectly healthy and it wasn’t going to be a mercy killing

ohh that was the point of that? i thought it was just a funny bit

i liked all the red herrings. kept on waiting for ruth to go full horror movie scary grandma. i don't watch any horror movies but i love reading spoilers and watching their trailers and i feel like the horror grandma is a real trope lately?

I wonder if Ruth will turn out to have survived this shooting

I assumed she def did.

spoilers that I'm not gonna hide because why you reading this thread if you're not caught up?

We're lead to believe that Wick and Patricia assume the horror is over because Tom killed Ruth, when we can probably assume the haunting chilled out because of the sacrifice in the basement.

Tom and the Sheriff know that Ruth living or dying wouldn't change anything because she's not the last in the line.

I love the whole thing about the ringing of the bells equalling how many people need to be sacrificed, but haven't gone back to see what the crazy people on threads are doing regarding counting the tolls of the bell in the early episode against how many people have died through the show.

And the fact that it rang again at the end means it's not over?

So season 2 has the sheriff's kid being born, so he's invested in ending this and that becomes the plot device for season 2, how does mayor and sheriff and co fix things without killing Evan.

I feel like the show was made in such a way that if it didn't get picked up for a second season, they could've edited things differently to change the outcome of the final episode one way or another.

I love that we still have no idea exactly what's down there and I hope it's never revealed.

I absolutely love the revelation in this interview that Matthew Rhys drives his little studio golf cart past the studio tour and waves at all the tourists and shouts "It's me! Matthew Rhys! From The Americans! Remember me?" Excellent work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKexx931Edk

Roffle.

New interview with Dippold.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/katie-dippold-widows-bay-interview-1236623405/

so do all the deaths from season 1 count towards the 8?

Shep, Richard Warren, one of the EMS people killed by the bogeyman, the shaman, the guy locked in the basement by the teens...

I don’t think so
EMT etc are all incidental to other stuff on the island. they’re not actual “offerings”
Only the offerings sent down the hatch specifically count towards the bell toll

Yeah that was my read. I've seen other arguments for what Dan outlines but to my mind the whole idea of Widow's Bay as such is that there are all these other fuckeries and deaths happening but then there's always been the central overriding secret that requires specific sacrifice.

(I did love, BTW, that Ruth casually introduces other things that are now 'out there' in the wider universe of the place -- her dad disappearing into a lake, the date bit by an animal who became one, the disappearing workers in '42, etc.)

Everyone was so focused on the lineage aspect as far as getting off the island; it’s a whole separate issue imo vs feeding whatever the fuck is in that hatch

I LOVE THAT THERE IS A HATCH <3 my lapsed “Lost”-interest is being reactivated

I want to know how everyone on the fucking island seemingly forgot that this is something they were supposed to do, considering there was a public service film announcement made about it sometime in the 70's

I'm also glad this got renewed and I assume the creators were reasonably sure it would be too because this would have been a maddening series finale

Ahem: 50’s imo

so many people saying "they made a video" "he watched a video". Ugh.

Anyway somebody pointed out first episode had 9 bells, last one had 8. So maybe guy in electric chair room is just the first sacrifice.

but yeah that's some missing institutional knowledge there. Toby Huss had some of the instructions as well.

I guess the people with the institutional knowledge keep getting drowned/stabbed/metamorphosed or whatever, until people eventually forget.

I’m guessing the cowardly mayor was supposed to keep up with the schedule but then he bailed.

Insect Bite Spider Bite Snake Bite Animal Bite Human Bite

I love how that sign and others just get even more sinister upon reflection.

What was the other one? how to subdue someone or something like that

yikes on bikes

My personal shoutout for the finale is K Callan as Ruth. She acted this episode so beautifully, and like other “showcase” eps it seems like it was written & directed as a lowkey showcase for her acting talents. I was fully tearing up over sweet Ruth before she’d even boiled the kettle

Really excited for the possibilities with her character in s2

loved her response to the trolley problem lol

also the Tennessee William cross-stitch piece and how it got progressively more cramped cause the quote was too long. just incredible detail

I LOVE THAT THERE IS A HATCH <3 my lapsed “Lost”-interest is being reactivated

definitely got LOST vibes with the orientation film too. maybe the hatch has a smoke monster

Williams*

maybe sawyer is the horse.

Liked most of the final episode, and laughed a few times, but kinda wished they found some other way to end it (while simultaneously announcing a second season). I might have even accepted some variant of the "it's over ... or is it!?" trope. On the other hand, just compounding so much stuff at once is kind of a welcome subversion. It's sort of a ... non-cliff hanger?

One of my other favorite bits from the finale:

Have you ever heard of the…the trolley problem?

You mean back in '42 when we tried to build one and all the workers disappeared?

No. What? No. No.

I'm also totally putting Rosemary's "Well, I guess I'll go fuck myself" into rotation.

Yeah that trolley response was amazing. Very funny whilst also casually dropping more island lore into the mix.

Rhys also fantastic again this episode, especially his reaction when he finds out who the last living descendant is.

Great interview w Dippold & Murai on Thursday’s ep of Ringer’s The Watch podcast w Andy Greenwald & CR

Rhys’s Criterion closet video is very cute, especially the moment when he reaches up on the top shelf and [in delightful camp Welsh] goes “ooooh, Spartacus”.

I thought the implication of Rhys throwing the necklace in the water was that Ruth was dead :(

The gloomy old guy who got the door shut on him halfway through his speech was A++ every time

I think throwing away the brooch is to try to put anyone (or Beshir) off the scent that there’s any surviving Warren lineage. Destroy the evidence, delay the inevitable etc

I mean it prob won’t do much but it’s a very Loftis solution to a much bigger problem lol

On an unrelated note I vote PJ Glanville to be the next offering down the hatch. that child is a menace!

I’m a bit worried about talk of fleshing out the lore and broadening the scope of the series. That is usually TV code for backfilling every single detail and ensuring that great lines like “he was bitten by an animal and became that animal” have whole episodes devoted to them. I don’t want that.

yeah if they lean too much on the lore it's just gonna turn into the monster mash isn't it? also agree with ned that i hope we never find out what's in the hatch

hmm i guess the monster mash has already been done - cabin in the woods. anyway i prefer the focus stay on the characters first, that's why i'm watching.

Just started this yesterday, three episodes in. (Won't read back till I finish.) Good stuff--Jaws, The Shining, leads from two of my favourite series ever (The Americans and The Leftovers), lots of jokes.

Didn’t love everything about the finale - I wanted something neater with not resolution I guess - but still thinking about the Ruth/Loftis section - what a note-perfect, amazingly acted and created set of scenes. Rhys is a generous partner and the woman playing Ruth is just a terrific actor.

Agree re the avoidance of lore - that’s kind of what did for Severance’s second season. All screenwriters should be banned from Reddit during production.

*with more resolution

Even more intriguingly, Dippold says she has also started thinking about possibly expanding the world of Widow’s Bay beyond the series. “If people are leaning into this place, then you could potentially do other stories down the road of what has happened in the past,” she says. She notes that when she was on Parks and Rec, the writers would sometimes take what seemed to be a throwaway joke in an episode and then circle back to it months later and build an entire episode around it. In the same way, Dippold thinks a reference to “the ridiculous past that Widow’s Bay has” could be turned into either a stand-alone episode or a short six-episode miniseries: “Creatively, that sounds very fun to do.” Apple is game. “Katie’s spoken about this being a universe as much as a show,” Cherniss says. “So the more stories she has to tell with these characters and this world and this tone, the better.”

Meantime

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUfX45m5UBU

Hell yes

Just the thing you need to cool down.

Aw yeah

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/widows-bay-2026-emmy-nominations-1236641556/

Let’s fucking GO

I have no qualms about this.

Lol!

This show reminds me of Gravity Falls, which had a
good balance of lore vs monster of the week.

Dead baby, dead baby, leeeeeesbian ...

just watched all of this and loved it. agree re Ruth being great and the fun little jokes they had with her.

but yeah I don't think they need to Lil Sebastian the hatch monster or whatever. i like of love that the bogeyman is just this separate psycho who just... started again? then got killed almost instantly? and we don't know who it is?