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

Spoilers follow for Episode 1,“Welcome to Widow’s Bay!”: We hope you enjoyed the three-hour ferry to New England’s best-kept secret! Ignore the warnings about the fog. Everything’s fine.

TERRY

Taps the keyboard…is this thing on? Hey Joe, it’s been a minute since we’ve written something together, but Widow’s Bay seems intriguing enough to pull us back in. It has all the hallmarks of a Terry-approved horror joint. We have a mysterious island. We have dense fog. We have aquatic horror. We have comedy. And we have a mystery.

Oh boy do we have a mystery.

I spent the first episode wondering whether Widow’s Bay and its uniquely odd inhabitants would give us a Twin Peaks vibe or a Stephen King/Midnight Mass vibe…and the answer is “yes.” But I wasn’t expecting a dose of LOST to kind of tie everything together.

It begins, perfectly, at sea with Shep (Tom Kemp), an old-timey fisherman on his boat, complaining to his friend back at the wharf about his love life and his wife leaving him. Their call gets interrupted when the power flickers, flocks of birds fly away from something and the camera pans to show us the island of Widow’s Bay in the distance.

On Widow’s Bay, the disturbance continues, disrupting the town’s power and radio signals and ending with a quake that awakens Tom (Matthew Rhys), the town’s mayor. The next day, things begin to head south immediately. Dense unusual fog is rolling in, the “fancy” restaurant is threatening to close for the day, no one seems to want to actually work and the New York Times has sent Arthur (Bashir Salahuddin) to write about the town in an attempt to drum up tourism.

The rest of “Welcome to Widow’s Bay!” focuses on building out the kooky characters, the town’s dark history (animal attacks, witch trials, and Godly cannibalism…oh my) and establishing the central conflict between Tom and the town.

See, Tom isn’t a local. He wasn’t born on the island. Instead his family would visit over the summers where he’d get into shenanigans with the local teens in an attempt to seem cool…when, in fact, he faked everything. To the point he’s called a coward by the town’s eccentric Harbinger of Doom (and possibly previous mayor) Wyck (Stephen Root).

But for some reason, Tom wants to see the town flourish. Maybe it’s because of his troubled son Evan (Kingston Rumi Southwick), who, it seems, has an addiction problem and, unlike Tom, was born on the island. We get brief mentions of Tom’s love-at-first-laugh wife (presumably dead), the fact Evan was a happy accident and…well, not much else to go on. Except that Tom really wants tourism to save the town from its shoddy infrastructure, power outages and ingrained superstitions that the town is “rotten.”

While the first episode keeps most of the characters’ histories close to its chest, it does provide some very intriguing locations and stories that creator and episode writer Katie Dippold can mine for both comedy and horror. There’s, of course, a light house and a haunted old hospital (“it’s safe to drive by…you just can’t stop”) and stories of a Boogeyman that sound suspiciously like the plot to Halloween, complete with a “The night He came!” quote by resident feminist Patricia (Kate O’Flynn).

Honestly, Widow’s Bay throws a lot at us in this first episode…and I haven’t even gotten to the spooky parts. So, I’ll toss it over to you, Joe. What are the vibes you’re getting with this introduction to the world? What do you make of the “phases” Wyck talks about as the island “awakens”? I need to know your thoughts on Shep’s sudden reappearance, the world building, the superstition that island-born residents can’t survive on the mainland…and what the heck is going on with the tunnels, the ancient electric chair and the bunker hidden deep beneath the streets of the town? Is it giving LOST to you, too?

JOE

Helloooo Terry! It has been a minute, hasn’t it? Well, I’m glad that if we’re picking up the writing baton again, we’re doing it with such an intriguing show because even just one episode in, Widow’s Bay appears to have plenty of things going on.

Let’s start with the LOST of it all. I’d say that if that final scene with the chair and the hatch weren’t there, we might not be so inclined to make those comparisons. But considering that’s where the first episode ends, it is a little difficult to get away from, isn’t it?

As it stands, I’m a sucker for these kinds of “small town with a secret” shows. I’ll confess that I sometimes worry they’ll overstay their welcome in terms of complicating the plot to justify more and more seasons, but for now, let’s just enjoy this first season ride.

Considering all of the different qualities that you listed, I was definitely getting The Block Island Sound vibes from this opening with Shep on the boat. But then as the episode progresses and we’re hearing ghost stories about people coming back like zombies, it’s giving John Carpenter’s The Fog.

All this to say that I think Katie Dippold has clearly done her research and consumed A LOT of likeminded texts in preparation for this series, which is wearing its influences on its sleeve. What remains to be seen is what new ideas she’s bringing to the table.

One of the things that Widow’s Bay is doing exceedingly well so far is negotiating that line between creepy and funny. I wasn’t sure what the tone of the series was going to be like, but your Twin Peaks reference is spot-on. Between the kooky characters and their (often ridiculous) reactions and the suggestion that everyone in this town is going to die in the next 24 hours, “Welcome to Widow’s Bay!” is doing a great job of negotiating that balance between mystery and comedy. There are both great zingers (“Well, he died, Tom”), as well as great reactions (Tom’s excitable girlie reaction when Arthur suggests the island could be the next Martha’s Vineyard).

Rhys is always delightful, so he’s great at grounding everything; Tom is so clearly the exasperated outsider who is in well over his head and while I don’t love the conflict with his “bad boy” son (it’s just a bit too familiar), I’m sure it’ll pay off down the road.

Meanwhile the supporting cast is having a blast bringing this island of misfit humans to life. My favourite is probably O’Flynn, who I just watched in the great one-and-done Amazon series My Lady Jane. She was an absolute scene stealer and some of her reactions here suggest she might do it again.

But yes, back to the mysteries! I was surprised by Shep’s reappearance because we’re primed to assume he’s dead and/or that he wouldn’t turn back up until, at earliest, the end of the episode. The decision to bring him into the restaurant, and then have him attack Tom at the hospital is better, in hindsight, because it gives the episode some concrete action to rest on.

The attack sequence itself is fine, but I really liked the way director Hiro Murai stages the initial reveal. Tom is talking away and the audience can see that Shep’s eyes have turned white, but the mayor doesn’t. Instead he’s drawn in by Sheps’ incoherent mumbling, leaning closer and closer to Shep’s mouth so that we think he’s going to get bitten (I predicted he might lose the ear!). It’s a great game of managing expectations and subverting them, and if the show is this cheeky so early on, it portends fun things to come.

But yes, let’s talk about Wyck’s phases because at this point we’ve crossed off nearly all of them:

Phase One: Earthquake
Phase Two: Eyes turn white; loss of the five senses
Phase Three: Loss of erection (“Who’s trying at that point?” Patricia wonders)
Phase Four: Visit from Ghosts of the past, in zombie form

But back to you, Terry, for some quick predictions for episode 2. What does the siren do? Who’s your favourite character? And is it safe for an island to have so many levels of tunnels below ground?

TERRY

I'm glad you mentioned the nice balance of horror and humor. When I initially heard that it was going to be a horror comedy, I winced a bit. A lot of times horror comedies feel like comedy horror, where the creators are more comfortable with the comedy and sort of wave at the horror.

For every Shaun of the Dead and Slither, there's a Sharknado.

Katie Dippold’s previous movies didn't really help ease my concerns about the horror aspects of the show. I'm a fan of The Ghostbusters (2016), which she co-wrote with Paul Feig, but it and Haunted Mansion (2023) are her sole horror(-adjacent) films in a career made on sketch comedy (MadTV, UCB, The Big Gay Sketch Show) and pure comedies like The Heat, and Parks and Recreation. But the addition of Hiro Murai as the director showcases a savvy understanding of how to marry the humor with, if not horror, at least surrealism.

Murai’s work on projects like Atlanta and the next one which should make you interested, Joe. Not only was he a producer of Station Eleven, he directed what I believe is the episode of Station Eleven that kicked our teeth in.

All this to say, I am cautiously optimistic we're in good hands.

I'm not sure who my favorite characters are because the pace doesn't really help lay out character motivations and personalities. But I do love the ineffective assistants working for Tom. I have worked in an office like this, where people stay in their jobs for decades to the point it's like, “hey who cares? They'll call back. Or won't” with a comedic shrug that yells, “whatcha gonna do?” To that end Tom’s old assistant, Ruth (K Callan) deciding to leave the office – nap time calls– for the day while Patricia asks pointedly what exactly Tom's asking her to do to “entertain” the incoming reporter all ring funny, if a little tropey. But these tropes continue to work in shorthand and they are cast perfectly.

As far as predictions go, I think cinema time will move the narrative very quickly (with Arthur's assumption that Widow's Bay could be the next Martha's Vineyard) between episodes and we'll start to see tourists show up on the island. I get the feeling from the townspeople that they don't really want tourists. They're secluded and hidden from the outside world—and completely happy to stay that way.

Tourist clashes with the locals, the doctor dealing with a freakout with Shep, the impending “unnatural” fog and the power shutting off once in a while suggests Tom is going to have a very difficult time trying to sell their little bay to a new clientele.

I'm excited to see how these different groups will clash with each other as the island begins shuddering to life.

As for the bunker…I have no clue. But I'm excited to find out.

EPISODE 2 “Lodging”

“Cherish the historical charm of our local inn, which Mayor Loftis will prove is safe by spending a night there alone.”

TERRY

We seem to be channeling my favorite part of mysterious shows like LOST and From, where the narrative gradually teases out its stories, peppering in little nuggets that will pay off later. It’s the honeymoon period of the show, where the mystery takes us along before it has to ultimately pay off everything it teased. If “Welcome to Widow’s Bay!” gave us a little taste of the island life at the macro level, “Lodging” goes micro and mostly centers on the local inn where tourists will be flocking to in the near future.

The episode begins with Tom and Patricia in Tom’s car, driving while admiring the work put into creating pamphlets for the town. While Patricia is upset her poem didn’t make it in, Tom wants her to re-read the part of the NY Times article proclaiming Widow’s Bay to be the next Martha’s Vineyard. She reads literally the only part of the article that mentions it, but it brings a smile to Tom’s face. Everything seems to be coming up Tom!

A couple little moments add to an underlying tension, though. The first is a church bell that goes off in the middle of the night, loudly ringing and waking up Tom. The other, smaller detail, are the enhancements Tom seems to be pressuring the locals to implement. We’re given one example right off the top when Tom stops by the local coffee shop to try the new (and probably very expensive coffee maker). The coffee shop owner tells him how expensive it was and that none of the locals have bought coffee from it, while Tom keeps insisting that everything will be okay when the tourists come.

It’s such a small moment, but it pulls a lot of weight in establishing the precarious position the residents of Widow’s Bay are in. You have to spend money to make money, sure, but this is their livelihood that Tom is putting on the line. Not his.

This reverie is quickly broken by the sheriff’s car whizzing by, sirens flashing. Turns out Wyck, our Harbinger of Doom, is continuing his quest to lock up the town before disaster strikes and he has his eyes set on the local inn. He’s reintroduced to the series nailing plywood across the doorway while the owner Kurt (Neil Casey) tries to talk him down. The inn, Wyck claims, is haunted. Wyck proclaims that Tom doesn’t care about the town, only the money, and the verbal confrontation builds until Tom shouts, “Fuck you, you dumb hick.”

This conversation neatly and explicitly lays out one of the underlying conflicts in Widow’s Bay: Tom is not only a coward and an interloper, but he’s the worst kind of interloper: a snake oil salesman who, Wyck believes, wants to make a quick buck and leave, while the townsfolk are stuck with expensive cappuccino machines and increasing debt.

Back on the supernatural side, “Lodging” soon outlines a litany of historical events that happened at the inn which explain the hauntings. It truly runs the gamut of tropes, from the Captain’s Suite, where the titular captain lost his mind and killed his family with an axe, to Ungrateful Hortence Fitzgerald, who fled her wedding and becomes the Town’s version of Bloody Mary, to killer clowns, heads in dumbwaiters, and a crawlspace that would make me nope the fuck out.

What follows is a pretty standard sitcom-type storyline, where Tom is pressured by the locals (who obviously take offense to the “dumb hick” comment) into staying the night, locked up in the inn alone, armed with a list of supernatural experiences to check off. The cherry on top is the camcorder they require Tom use to document his evening.

Honestly, the camcorder is probably my biggest disappointment in this short 36 minute episode. In horror, the camcorder is a loaded item. It immediately suggests Found Footage and I was sad that the episode didn’t lean into that sub genre of filmmaking…at all. Outside of a couple shots of Tom’s face, it doesn’t factor in at all. My concern last episode was that the show wouldn’t understand the horror roots and this is one of the first missteps, for me. Outside of the final moments, “Lodging” doesn’t really lean into horror the way a single location horror short should.

That said, I appreciate the little details and visual gags that screenwriter Kelly Galuska and returning director Hiro Murai pepper in throughout. My favorite moment that made me bark out a laugh was after Wyck leaves the inn and Kurt pulls on the door, realizing that the board Wyck had nailed into the door…was ineffectually just nailed onto the door.

And while I knew where the haunting at the inn was going (you don’t introduce a security camera and not have some pay offs), the little detail where William didn’t sign the honor bar’s ledger (nor was he called out the way Tom was) is blink-and-you-miss it, but represents a show that gets the little things right.

Yes, the story is filled with tropes and cliches, but aside from my desire for a bit more horror in my horror-comedy, I’m having too much fun to really care right now.

Over to you, Joe. How is the show’s balance of horror and comedy treating you right now? Did the urban legends and the perfectly polite (until he wasn’t) William (Tim Baltz) work for you? How about the cabinet full of concerning board games? And what do you make of the only real bit of lore-building we get, in the form of Reverend Bryce (Toby Huss) and the mysterious clanging church bell?

JOE

I’ll tackle the church bell yet, because it's the kind of subtle kernel of mythology that I love to latch onto: we specifically hear from Tom that he, Patricia, and Rosemary all heard the bell, but the look on Bryce’s face clearly anticipates the moment he investigates and finds the bell fully chained up and the ladder up covered in cobwebs. Bryce then proceeds to seek out a letter that we see only in close-up, so the audience is kept from seeing more than a few words that read “steps that must be taken if the bell tolls.”

Obviously this is an omen that the Church is either a) in on, b) responsible for monitoring, or c) both, but I really enjoyed the fact that more than just Tom heard it. And the fact that Tom and Bryce have a better working relationship than nearly anyone else we’ve seen the Mayor interact with (“blah blah, Bible, Bible”), but Bryce still doesn’t confide in him. Intriguing…

As for Tom’s memorable night at the inn, yes, it’s all pretty predictable. I enjoyed the bizarre tourist video that plays on every channel, complete with man disappearing around the bend of the beach and replaced by a demon. This anticipates William’s outline in the darkened hallway when Tom first meets him, and - I’ll admit it - the very creepy moment when William begins to bend down at the crawlspace door. The clown stuff is too IT-coded for my tastes (just as the party Tom hears through the vent and the overall haunted lodge is clearly The Shining), but that moment, when my imagination ran wild with what form William would take, was a nice genuine scare (I half hoped it would be an enormous man ducking through a la It Follows).

I will say, though, the bizarre games in the parlour were my favourite touch of the episode. We play the misogynistic “Daddy’s Home” which seems to suggest Daddy is a drunk, an adulterer with the neighbour, and/or threatened by a younger boss at work. There’s also Teeth, which is simply instructions and a large pair of pliers. And my favourite gag that didn’t pay off, but still could down the line: Run, which consists exclusively of cards that read “Not Yet” until presumably you’re being chased?

These little moments of calculated set dressing and production design are what’s making the show stand out for me, Terry. So yes, the camcorder feels like a VERY BIG missed opportunity not to include some Found Footage (what are we even doing?) it wasn’t enough of a red flag to make me worry the show will drop the ball. Plus: we’re still so early in the season that some of this could still come back later.

I’m curious about your thoughts on time, though. You mentioned LOST back in episode one, and “Lodging” seems to suggest that time is a bit fluid in particular spaces, notably the Captain’s Suite. Kurt has a harrowing 10, then 30 seconds, which seem to last for hours and then maybe days, judging by the depth of destruction he manages to accomplish. But is there something more to it than that (is the black mould reference simply a red herring?)

On Puzzle Box shows and movies, everything can mean something…or it can mean nothing.

Ok, Terry, take us home: does Apple’s two episode release strategy make sense to you here? Do you think we’ll ever get an episode from someone other than Tom’s perspective? And what are your predictions for episode three?

TERRY

I’m very curious to see what happens when the visitors begin to arrive at the island. Right now, we have a lot of lore building and scene setting happening. I’m enjoying the kind of methodical way it’s laying out its story, even though it has a bit of a “creature of the week” vibe which I’m historically not too keen on. I think the fact the episodes are only 30-40ish minutes helps with the pacing, but I am afraid it’ll end up feeling a bit slight if it continues this framework. Opening with these two episodes gives the viewers a good taste of what’s to come, though the way that Apple generally begins a new series is they make sure the end of the first week’s episodes gives a bit of a cliffhanger. And I didn’t really get that here in episode 2.

Joe, I’m glad you brought up different perspectives because I really do hope that we get some perspective episodes centered around specific characters. One of the things Widow’s Bay has done well so far, is building out the kooky characters inhabiting the island. I’d like to get to know some of the populace better because, right now, aside from Tom’s staff and Wyck, the other townspeople seem to be episode based. I get that time has passed, but the events of the first episode don’t really linger past their introduction.

As for episode 3 predictions. The title has me very curious. “The Inaugural Swim” suggests more aquatic horror and, as an aquatic horror girlie, I hope we get some fun either homages or twists on expectations. In the background, I would imagine we’ll start to see more involving the church and other mysterious places as Widow’s Bay builds out its mythology. I would hazard a guess that the first episode’s underground bunker shots won’t show up until closer to the end of the season. That seems like a Season 2 hook waiting to happen.

Right now, I’m just vibing with the show and I hope it continues to deliver creepy delights and funny asides. The vibe will continue as we head over to Queer.Horror.Movies to discuss Episode 3, “The Inaugural Swim.”