Aaron Ploof
The following recap contains spoilers for Widow’s Bay S1E3, “The Inaugural Swim” (written by Neil Casey and directed by Hiro Murai)
Tom (Matthew Rhys) faces great danger in the third episode of Widow’s Bay, “The Inaugural Swim.” Our reluctant “hero” is feeling lonely after losing his wife years ago. When a romantic opportunity presents itself, Tom grabs it. What he doesn’t expect is that giving a ride to an attractive woman will lead to one of the most terrifying nights of his life. Even more frightening than William the Ghost. This all leads to an episode that lightly touches upon men’s inappropriate treatment of women. It also features several laugh-out-loud moments that tell us, if we weren’t aware already, that Tom is out of his depth.
Before we join Tom’s latest misadventure, we open to a historical video in which the narrator chronicles the history of Widow’s Bay. “Now home to over 3,000 residents,” the narrator says, and he gives thanks to one man, Richard Warren. He was the island’s first Reeve Prime and Lord Island Protector. In other words, Warren was the town’s original mayor.
He probably made a much better mayor than Tom.
After reading his line, the man attempts to leave the room he was standing in, but is brought to a halt by a locked door. He just stands there, stupidly, looking straight on at the door, doing nothing. This reminds me of the previous episode, where the man in the video walked away from the camera, until there was literally nothing in the frame. What is going on with the creepy videos in this town? We zoom out, and we find that this is part of a museum that the tourists are visiting. Surely, they’ll get the creeps soon; something bad is bound to happen to them.
Speaking of tourists, Tom is driving around the island when he passes by a young, attractive woman holding a map from a brochure, looking up and attempting to gain her bearings. Interested, Tom calls out to her, “There’s no cell reception on the island.” She says she has a map; he warns it’s not to scale. Tom brags about being the mayor of the island and informs her that his picture is inside the brochure. The woman points to the sign; it’s defaced. The word “Hole” replaces the last few words of the sign, so it reads, “Dick Hole.” Tom offers her a ride, and she accepts.
Tom crushes on the woman straight away. Her name is Marissa (Elizabeth Alderfer), and she’s here to visit the town with her friends. Oddly enough, she seems to reciprocate his interest, which sent me for a loop. The age difference here must be quite significant. Playing this angle is smart screenwriting, because it sets up suspicion for viewers that will have them worried, like Tom later on in the episode. Marissa tells Tom that she and her friends are meeting at the bar later that evening, and he should come along to find her. He tells her he’ll be there.
Patricia (Kate O’Flynn) grills Tom at a meeting in the next scene. She has him pegged, as she basically tells him he only picked up Marissa because she was attractive. As she points out, he never gives Ruth (K Callan) a ride to work, despite her difficulties. And once Patricia had a flat tire, but he never helped her out. Tom is defensive, as one would expect.
Patricia’s accusations paint Tom out to be selective as to who he actually offers assistance. I think most men have fallen into this trap, but we do have the power to do better when the time calls for it. In short, men, don’t be a Tom.
Anyways, Tom travels to the bar that night, but he does not see Marissa, who is a no-show. On his way home alone after the disappointing evening, he encounters a strange woman in the middle of the road. He offers her help, but she goes bananas, clawing and scratching his arm with what looks like an old, weathered animal hand. Tom’s screams afterwards like a baby, driving as fast as his car will carry him.
Tom reports the strange woman to Sheriff Clemmons (Kevin Carroll) to no avail, but another great joke lands when he instructs the Sheriff to set up a perimeter around the island. “The island has a perimeter,” Clemmons retorts, “It’s called the ocean.” I wish I would have thought of this before the Sheriff. It’s a clever joke; one that you can only say, “well that’s definitely true” to. When Tom mentions that an old hag held him up from work, Rosemary tells him the tale of the Sea Hag, a woman that searches for lonely men, scratches them with her claws, and then tracks them. Tom, of course, shrugs it off.
Tom’s Inaugural Swim occurs that afternoon. Tom, disobeying the orders of the doctor he saw the previous day, plans to swim even with his scar. He looks for Marissa (Ruth told him she might be there), but she once again doesn’t show up. Color me suspicious.
Garrett’s (Fred Robbins) ride on a bicycle is a nice touch. Tom looks on in binoculars as he waits for the power converter to be brought over. Garrett mounts his bicycle, goes down the hill, and then pats his overalls in realization that he forgot the converter. He looks like an idiot doing this, and Tom calls him out on this. Back up with the bicycle he goes! With frustration, Tom yells, “Don’t bring the bike back!”
Tom’s eventual swim to the buoy out in the ocean is triumphant. He has no problems, and the hag is nowhere to be seen. But on his trip back to shore, he’s chased by the monstrous old lady. He arrives on the beach, making a spectacle of himself as he pants for breath, and throws a fit, even though there’s nothing there to harm him.
With this, Tom is done. Finally forced to reckon with the fact that’s something chasing him, he turns in desperation to Wyck. Wyck sings to him of the legend of the Sea Hag in a poem, ending in “betwixt her thighs, your final sin.” In other words, Wyck explains, she sits on your face and suffocates you. Oh, and you’ll be paralyzed by her scratch, so you won’t be able to resist. Wyck’s advice is for Tom to lock himself in a chest for 72 hours, wait till his scratch heals, and only come out after the fact. Big fat chance Tom is doing that.
Yes, Tom calls him crazy once again, but we know it’s somehow stuck in his mind. When he gets home, Evan (Kingston Rumi Southwick) tells Tom that Marissa is waiting at one of the restaurants in town. He also asks if he can go over to his friend’s house to play games. Tom reluctantly says yes, trusting his son, but he’s going to regret that later on, as Evan directly disobeys him.
During Tom’s date with Marissa, everything seems to be going well, but his defenses immediately go up when she suggests they go back to his place. Fearing the Hag, he heads home to bunker down for the night.
There are messages on his answering machine. Patricia is pissed that he didn’t show up to her cocktail party. Wyck has called to urge Tom to find a way to survive. Tom’s all for that, apparently. Securing himself inside a locked chest seems out of the question, but when Marissa starts knocking on his door and asks if she can “come in,” he grows supremely anxious. “I know what you are!” he yells.
Marissa retreats to her friend to tell her she’s been humiliated (something I didn’t pick up on in my first watch. Honestly, I thought that the Marissa was the Sea Hag, through and through) and Tom barricades his door with a chair. Yet, the Hag still finds a way in. She disguises herself as Tom’s wife before she makes a beeline to his face with her thighs, and Tom is left nearly paralyzed. He just barely manages to flip the lever of the chair, causing it to spring the Hag backwards, and he runs for the bathroom, hunkering down in the bathtub. The Hag has him cornered, and death is surely upon him, until Wyck shoots her.
“Why is this happening?” Tom asks Wyck.
“I don’t know, you just survive.”
Tom and Wyck seem to be set to form a partnership soon. I doubt, however, that the two will just instantly get along. Wyck is bound to annoy Tom, and vice versa. Their personalities make for great contrasting characters. Together, I’m sure they’ll discover the hidden lore of Widow’s Bay.
Meanwhile, we are privy to a frantic radio call from Sherrif Clemmons regarding Patricia’s cocktail party. If I had to give my best guess, something terrible and bloody went down there. A brief mention should also be given to the priest, who is now walking around in a daze. “Great evil is here,” he ominously warns. Evan isn’t taking him seriously, though.
Thematically, there’s not a lot to pull from this episode, apart from the commentary on men’s attitude towards women. It was still, however, an okay installment with some good laughs on the side. I just wish there was more to sink my writer’s brain into. It’s bound to come with the next few following episodes.
