Aaron Ploof
The following recap contains spoilers for Widow’s Bay S1E5, “What to Expect on Your Trip” (written by Colton Dunn and directed by Andrew DeYoung)
Here’s a little surprise fact for you: I didn’t get the double meaning in this episode’s title until I started writing this. While, yes, the episode’s name does bring to mind something you would find in a travel brochure, it’s also a subtle hint at what transpires during this installment of Widow’s Bay.
Due to a slight misunderstanding in name delivery, Tom (Matthew Rhys) finds himself drugged out and going on his own kind of hilarious yet disorienting special trip to awaken his third eye and discover what’s really going on this cursed island. He pulls the audience along with him in his journey as we get more backstory on Lauren Loftis, including a flashback that solidifies what actually happens to island-born citizens when they try to leave for the mainland.
The episode begins with a man staggering towards the camera, in a desperate, hungry state. It’s snowing hard, the ground is made of ice, but a few mushrooms are popping out of the snow in front of him. He falls to the ground ravenously devouring the mushrooms. Cut to title card.
With Bryce’s (Toby Huss) suicide and all that’s come before, Tom is in a more serious state of mind than he’s been throughout the whole series so far. He marches with purpose through the halls of his office, a note in hand. He delivers his orders to Dale (Jeff Hiller), who asks, “What about the fireworks?” But the message on the note is clear. There will be a curfew at 7pm, and all recreational areas will be closed. Loftis replies in a deadly serious tone: “Do it.”
I’m excited to see Tom in this mode. Since the beginning of the series, he’s been more of a denying skeptic, but now he’s in full-fledged hero mode, doing what has to be done to save his constituents. He still retains his overall smarmy attitude, but now he’s directing it towards a purposeful goal. Case in point, he straight-up tells Ruth that he’s going to need her at the office today. When she says she’ll have to leave at three, he replies, “No. That is exactly what I mean.”
But the hammer truly comes down when he orders Evan (Kingston Rumi Southwick) to stay at the office with Ruth. Evan, of course, is already figuring out ways to game the system, and Tom lets him know this. When Evan starts being smart-alecky, Tom lays down the law by using harsh language. He’s in no state to mess with Evan’s theatrics.
At Bryce’s office, Tom and crew investigate the scene. Wyck finds an old piece of paper that speaks to him. Tom, though, discovers mushrooms resembling those from the beginning of the episode in a folded-over napkin. In the desk nearby are carved the words, “My eye is open.” Tom checks Bryce’s called phone numbers on his landline and discovers that Bryce was trying to call him over multiple attempts. Tom’s grimace reveals the guilt he feels. But he also finds that Bryce was calling an unknown number. The group dials it and sets up an appointment.
Todd O’ Connor (Chris Fleming) is on the other end of the line. Tom, Patricia (Kate O’ Flynn), and Wyck (Stephen Root) arrive at his house to be led into his living room. He’s chilling on the sofa. “This feels good,” he states before spreading apart the eaves of his table to reveal he’s a drug dealer. Tom prepares himself before taking out the mushrooms he found at Bryce’s. “That is a brutal f*cking ride,” Todd claims. Todd, a shaman (who is actually a drug dealer, as Patricia points out), says that the drug will open up your third eye. He had a buddy who took it once, Brian Morrison.
Morrison was a wild guy. He stole his mom’s car in eighth grade and flipped it in the woods. But apparently after taking the drugs he chilled out. Lost some of his motor skills, though, and had to be fed by his girlfriend. But he started drawing the same thing after this. Over, and over, and over.
Todd’s delivery of this line (Fleming, as a comedic actor, nails this scene by the way) makes it seem that something awe-striking will be revealed when he shows our heroes the drawing, yet it all amounts to just the illustration of a hand. Subverted expectations make everything funny.
Wyck volunteers himself as the test subject to take the drug, but it is ultimately Tom who ingests the mushrooms when they discover that Todd got their names wrong. Todd takes Tom to the “peace room” where a mattress pad is situated in the center, along with Todd’s pet iguana. Tom is in a daze, and this state continues throughout the episode. This is our delirious journey through Tom’s subconscious. Tom continually loses consciousness and finds himself waking up in random moments.
This makes for a particularly disorientating rest of the episode, where it’s difficult for both Tom, and us, the viewers, to make heads or tails of what is going on. From what we can tell, while he is drugged out, Tom attempts to keep the curfew in place, while the sheriff, and the rest of the citizens of the town protest its existence. Meanwhile, Wyck takes the paper he found to Gerrie Doyle (Nancy Lenehan), an old flame, who discovers that it’s an old page from a journal. The writing reads thus:
I do not comprehend the nature of the curse that has fallen on the island. I do know that its heart beats inside the cylinder that my husband wears around his neck. Who will crush my throat? His hands? This plague? Death comes for each of us, but I fear to me first. I know not how, but who. Of course, he’s here with me, so I say all of this in jest, and with that, I retire.
Finally, we’re getting to the core of the story of Widow’s Bay. The mythology around the island itself. A quick cut to Tom’s POV after the reading of this note, shows what I can assume to be a painting of the mayor and founder of the town, Richard Warren, along with his wife, Sarah Westcott, who we can safely say wrote this entry in her journal.
A later scene confirms this, as Gerrie matches the page with Sarah’s journal, and, using the reference of a plague, confirms that it was written in 1702. Tom is here drugged out with Wyck and Patricia nearby. He, funnily enough, is drawing the picture of the accursed hand on piece of paper as well. The cylinder the message mentions can be found on a painting of Richard in the museum, and Wyck questions if he might have been buried with it.
So, now we know that Richard Warren had it out for his wife, or she assumed that at least. Furthermore, we can tell she kept all her thoughts secret, hidden away from the prying eyes of her husband. This links thematically to the first few episodes, where the treatment of women by controlling men was a more prominent theme. I guarantee that we will learn more about this couple’s relationship in the future, and this theme will definitely come into play more heavily once again.
As for the cylinder around his neck, we don’t have much to go on here. Something related to the curse, no doubt, but no more info than that has been dropped. Could it be a mystical item of some sort? Only time will tell.
Meanwhile, Evan has absconded and is attempting to impress a group of girls, as he almost enters The Boogeyman’s house before Sheriff Clemmons (Kevin Carroll) stops him. Returning home, Evan tells off his dad, screaming that the island is a prison, before Tom runs to the bathroom and attempts to puke up the drug. Before he can get any of it out, he has flashbacks to a trip he took with Lauren while she was pregnant. Apparently, they both attempted to leave the island, but Lauren went into shock when they were crossing the water. She was brought to the doctor, and Evan’s health was OK, but something seriously was wrong with Lauren. She stares blankly back at Tom, as the doctor checks on her.
In a moment of weakness and submission we have not seen Tom in yet, he prays to God, asking for Evan’s safety. A camera zoom-in from outside the bathroom and a nasty, evil growl, along with another zoom in towards the darkness, imply that there’s something (a creature maybe) lurking in the shadows.
This has been a substantial episode for Widow’s Bay. As I said before, now that all the pieces are in place, we can finally get to the core of the history and the curse of this island. I expect the next few episodes to double down with the lore, exploring more of what has been going on behind the scenes all this time. Let’s hope that our group is prepared to deal with what’s coming.
