Aaron Ploof
The following recap contains spoilers for Widow’s Bay S1E1, “Welcome to Widow’s Bay!” (written by Katie Dippold and directed by Hiro Murai)
Widow’s Bay is now the hottest show on Apple TV, taking the coveted #1 spot on the watchlist and earning a 98% RT score. We have even mentioned it in our own podcasts. Anyone with their finger on the pulse of summer TV knows this is the best new comedy-horror show out there. So I decided to check it out and give my thoughts, impressions, and predictions!
Episode 1 of the series (“Welcome to Widow’s Bay!”) lives up to these expectations, but it doesn’t quite jump into the deep water of the titular bay just yet. Characters are set up, a few themes are established, and we are made aware of the curse of the island. But above all, the performances of the main cast are the most wonderful, bringing to life the odd and quirky citizens. Anyone who’s seen Twin Peaks must be experiencing déjà vu.
Our lead character is Tom Loftis (Matthew Rhys), a “sensible man” in an island town full of oddballs. Despite the town’s sordid and spooky history, Mayor Tom is attempting to earn Widow’s Bay a name for itself. In his wildest dreams, he hopes for it to be the next Bar Harbor. Unfortunately, while he scrambles to set up a welcoming sight for Arthur Lloyd (Bashir Salahuddin), the New York Times reporter he’s invited to the island, his employees are scatterbrained—well, most of them.
Patricia (Kate O’ Flynn) is doing her best, but her attitude isn’t the cheeriest. Rosemary (Dale Dickey) is busy gossiping, and Ruth (K Callan), Tom’s elderly assistant, is clocking out early to go take catnaps. During a meeting, Wyck (Stephen Root), the harbormaster, busts in and tells everyone the town is starting up again.
The previous night, Shep (Tom Kemp), a man who was on watch out on the harbor, went missing. According to Wyck, the fog ate him. This is an occurrence that has taken place before, as Wyck later shows Tom and Patricia. There have been people who have come back with their souls gone, their eyes glazed over.
Yes, the town has a history, one that Tom is reluctant to acknowledge. He’s a skeptic, but he acts as if he’s almost in denial. This may have something to do with the later-revealed fact that his wife died, and the correlating curse that whoever leaves the island dies soon after. The fact that his son sees the island “as a prison” (that’s a direct quote, mind you) and that Loftis probably lies to Arthur near the end of the episode about Evan (Kingston Rumi Southwick) ever having been on the mainland reinforces this. But Tom is reluctant to give way to his underlying doubts until the encounter in the hospital.
This sets up the episode’s initial theme: that Tom is ignoring the safety of the town’s citizens, as well as Arthur’s, to boost his ratings. Greed, or at least the desire to be noteworthy, drives his motivations. He doesn’t have much self-confidence. As Wyck points out in the diner, Tom’s not very much of a leader. He’s just as scatterbrained as those around him. No wonder he is more than 15 minutes late for his dinner meeting.
Patricia’s presence throughout the episode establishes another throughline. Her mind is consistently upon matters of women’s rights and how men should treat them. One instance of this theme is found when Patricia says Tom shouldn’t assume that Arthur is a man. Another is found in her misunderstanding of Tom’s instruction to show Arthur a “good time.” Patricia no doubt takes this sexually, whereas Tom merely wants to show his guest around town. In the diner scene, when Wyck and Patricia are discussing the age gap between the captain and his lover, her sensitivity is also apparent.
In the first real scare of the series, Tom finds himself face to face with a re-discovered Shep. After looking at his clipboard (which mysteriously shows Shep’s age to be 37?), Shep comes to life and attempts to strangle poor Tom. His eyes are milky white, just as Wyck told Tom earlier.
Acting-wise, Rhys stands out above all the rest, with strong character choices and reactions. His response to Wyck’s malapropism in the “tit for tit” saying, when he rolls his eyes while staring at the ceiling, is easy to miss but is a perfect gag. His frantic pointing at the fog as it recedes from view signals him out to the rest of the Salty Whale’s patrons that something may be seriously wrong with him.
Of course, we all know that Shep’s suddenly glazed-over eyes are a harbinger of even worse things to come. As viewers, we are right there with Tom looking in the fog. And as the camera drops several levels below, a torture chair tells us there are dark, sinister forces in this town.
I wonder, what’s happening with Shep’s age? Patricia also mentions that her biological age is 28. Is there time travel involved here? Was Shep transported somewhere in the past as he was eaten by the fog? What exactly happened to him? These are serious questions to ponder.
Thankfully, then, the script affords us tons of laughs. Arthur’s introduction to the historical museum, where their main source of pride is their burning of witches, and Tom’s downplay of the cannibalism in the town brings tons of laughter, as do the antics of the rest of the cast.
“Welcome to Widow’s Bay!” serves as an excellent introduction to Widow’s Bay, introducing key themes and characters, while also setting the tone for what’s to come. And it leaves plenty of breadcrumbs for viewers to continue watching. An amazing start.
