Each week Joe and Terry discuss an episode of Apple TV’s Widow’s Bay, alternating between our respective sites.

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Spoilers follow for Episode 4, “Beach Reads”: “Make sure you pack a good read for the beach! (We do not recommend self-help books on the island.)”

TERRY

I don’t know about you Joe, but this is the episode I needed. And the episode that Widow’s Bay probably needed to keep everyone’s attention. After last week’s rather lackluster and slight episode, the show wisely not only gives us a different perspective and deepens the lore, but does so with a subtle tension that builds throughout.

I loved this episode.

“Beach Reads” opens where “The Inaugural Swim” ended, with Sheriff Bechir (Kevin Carroll) reporting something horrible is happening at Patricia’s Cocktails. It then flashes back to four days prior, with Patricia (Kate O’Flynn) sitting at the back of her roving library truck (punnily enough called The Pattiwagon), staring dead-eyed at a group of people laughing and having a good time. Patricia, it turns out, is not having a good time.

Part of this week’s conflict surrounds the history between Patricia and the girls she grew up with. Back in episode one, Patricia mentions The Boogeyman (in a callback to Halloween) and here we get a bit more of the backstory. All of it feels ripped from a slasher movie with obscene calls, heavy breathing and murder. Turns out The Boogeyman killed a number of high school girls in various ways (my favorite is the girl who was burned alive in a dryer…how does that even work?) but did not kill Patricia.

Resident mean girl Kris (Lauren Bittner) still harbors a massive grudge against Patricia for making herself a victim when there were actual victims. No one believes Patricia that The Boogeyman came for her and that she survived by hiding under her bed. “It must have been his kryptonite” Kris snidely tells Patricia, because the other girls were easily located and dispatched. An off screen conversation about Patricia informs us that her phone records were checked and The Boogeyman never called her.

What I like about this development is that it doesn’t completely make Kris into a monster. Sure, there’s the usual mean girl behavior – at one point, I completely expected the cocktail night to devolve into a Carrie riff – but Kris is genuinely angry that her friends were murdered while it seems, on the surface, that Patricia just wants attention.

I expect/hope we’re going to get an episode centered around this event.

Most of the episode revolves around Patricia planning for a municipal party that she’s basically hijacked as her own, using a self help book that was dropped in her lending library (on top of a Stephen King book, natch) and that keeps trying to get her attention.

The way “Beach Reads” plays with this book and makes its blocky section titles into ominous warnings. Hell, the book is entitled YOUR TURN, initially suggesting to me, at least, that maybe The Boogeyman is coming back to kill her and that that is what the Sheriff ultimately calls about. But the horror plays out a bit more subtly, with the chapter headings turning into orders as it morphs from a suggestion (“Perfect time to serve punch”) to a demand (“Serve the punch now”). But I especially love the quick blink-and-you-miss-it shots of the crowd standing around, mouths agape, suggesting that what Patricia (and the audience) is seeing isn’t exactly what’s happening.

There’s so much good stuff happening this episode and I didn't have a chance to fill in the rest of the episode. So I turn it over to you, Joe. After last week’s slight episode, did “Beach Reads” work for you? You asked if we’d finally get an episode from someone other than Tom and I’m curious if this one delivered for you. What did you think of this episode’s horror homages? Did you like the twist into folk horror? And did the final reveal at the church shock you as much as it shocked me?

JOE

I’ll confess that the ending didn’t shock me at all, Terry! I fully expected something terrible to have happened to poor (now dead) Father Bryce (Toby Huss) after the tease in episode three. With that said, I didn’t expect him to simply be hanging on the back of the door! That was pretty fun.

But yes, back to the Patricia of it all. What’s so fun about this episode is how it goes back to playfully subverting expectations: we knew something was going to go awry at the party, so the question was “what?” and “when?” It was also obvious that the book was the culprit, especially after that nod to King in the donation pile. The result was, as you suggested, a fun guessing game of what carnage the party would deliver and, I’ll confess, folk horror wasn’t on my list.

Most of the clues come courtesy of Rosemary (Dale Dickey), who is continually making asides about Patricia’s headpiece, the bizarre ingredients Patricia ordered her to track down, and even the toast that Rosemary “didn’t understand a word of”. Mackenzie Dohr’s teleplay wisely doesn’t make a big deal out of these details, and director Sam Donovan (taking over from Hiro Murai, who directed the first three episodes) doesn’t change the visual style outside of those brief unnerving shots of the crowd staring at Patricia open mouthed.

This happens twice: once during the slow motion 360 degree pan as Patricia dances to Corona’s “The Rhythm of the Night” and then it happens moments later as Patricia delivers her toast as the camera gently swings past a large mirror that reveals the truth to the audience. I loved these moments: they’re not trying to hide anything, but they’re also subtle enough that an inattentive audience watching on a second screen could easily miss it.

Even in the big climax, when it’s revealed that Sheriff Bechir made the panicked call for support because the partygoers were about to drown themselves in front of a fiery pyre on the beach, everyone looks normal (albeit in a daze). And there’s something jokingly matter-of-fact about the reveal that Patricia is wearing an enormous Yellowjackets headpiece and made the punch out of the blood of dead birds, delivered with the punchline from Rosemary “You said to be supportive!”

I’d argue that most of the reason this works is because it’s happening to Patricia and not Tom. We’ve had three episodes of bizarre events circling Tom, so watching something similar happen to someone else (and again: playing on their insecurities) felt in keeping for the show without feeling repetitive. I hope that this opens up new storytelling avenues and Widow’s Bay will continue to experiment with its focalization as we move forward. No shade to Rhys, but the cast is too good not to give the supporting cast some juicy material like O’Flynn gets here.

But Terry, your mention of horror homages makes me feel like I’ve missed something obvious. I’ll confess that the King reference made me think of Needful Things (a town corrupted) but that’s not quite right, so I’m curious if there’s a better comparison? And how did you handle the cringe/awkward comedy of Patricia “showing up” at Kris’ party and trying to latch on to new girl Shelby (Emily Davis)?

TERRY

I want to piggyback off one of the things you said, Joe. You said the reason it works is because it's happening to someone other than Tom. I'd take it a bit further and say it's because it's tied to a character's past but also tells us something new about the character. All of the previous times Tom was involved with the supernatural it's because he's shamed into it by the townsfolk. We learn nothing new about Tom aside from him being horny and thinking terrible things about his neighbors.

But here we get to see a number of different sides and perspectives of Patricia. Is she doing it for attention? Did The Boogeyman show up? What's fueling her need to win over her high school frenemies? But it also deepens the mysteries surrounding the island. Most specifically, who manipulated Patricia? That book was obviously planted for her to find and want to read. And is the folk horror witch (?) controlling her in league or did she force the book on Patricia. And why?

As for the horror nods, the moment Sheriff Bechir watches the CCTV feed and sees Patricia sitting in the same place at 3 AM and the time just elapses gives Paranormal Activity vibes. When the true book is revealed, it looks like it's filled with the same kinds of pages in Evil Dead’s Necronomicon. The burning effigy on an island was very The Wicker Man. The little stick figures felt Blair Witch. Just a lot of little asides.

Your final question is one I pondered for awhile because I liked the cringe comedy. I live for the awkward feeling cringe comedy gives. But I think it also complicates the Patricia and Kris dynamic. Why did Patricia go to a party where twenty years of experience has probably told her she's not really welcome? Is it because she's starved for attention or because she's so lonely even this bad kind of interaction is good enough? It's wild to think that a comedy like this could have so many little thematic layers, but I think Mackenzie Dohr knew what she was doing.

At any rate, I'm hoping that if the format of the show is going to continue being a “monster of the week” show, it leans more into this type of episode than last week's.

I guess we'll find out when we go back to Queer.Horror.Movies for Episode 5: “What To Expect On Your Trip”