Each week Joe and Terry discuss an episode of Apple TV’s Widow’s Bay, alternating between our respective sites. This week, Tom (Matthew Rhys) takes drugs…accidentally.
Spoilers follow for Episode 5, “What to Expect on Your Trip”: We apologize for the curfew. Please remain calm as we determine what’s happening. On a separate note, keep your teenagers inside after dark.
JOE
Drink that coffee, Terry, because – as the title implies – Tom is taking us on a trip. A drug trip, that is; on the same stuff that may have contributed to Reverend Bryce’s (Toby Huss) death last episode.
If you were hoping for follow-up in the wake of “Beach Reads”, episode five is bound to disappoint. Even though this literally follows on the heels of Patricia’s (Kate O’Flynn) disastrous party, there’s only a few references that speak to what happened on the beach: there’s a service for Bryce; people want to press charges against Patricia; and Tom has imposed a curfew on the town, including grounding his son Evan (Kingston Rumi Southwick) in his office.
Aside from that, however, this is another semi-standalone, although it’s not a conventional monster of the week. Instead it’s a hallucinatory drug episode! While investigating Bryce’s office for clues about his “suicide” (because, c’mon) Tom, Patricia, and Wyck (Stephen Root) find two clues: a charred piece of paper and a handkerchief full of mushrooms. A frequently dialled number in the phone leads the trio to The Shaman (real name Todd O’Connor, played by Chris Fleming), a hippie figure who mistakenly doses Tom’s coffee with Truesight mushrooms that “will take you where you need to go even if you’re not ready.”
From there director Andrew DeYoung has a blast mimicking Tom’s impaired status as he frequently loses time, loses perspective, and sometimes even loses his ability to speak. I loved these visual tricks, which include smash cuts to a new location whenever the light goes off to extreme low-angle close-ups that practically situate the camera inside Rhys’ nostrils. It’s a little reminiscent of hallucinogenic drug trips from other media, but there’s still a freshness to it.
It also turns the episode into a delightful mystery to be solved. Each time Tom wakes up (often in the middle of something) we immediately have to collect information about where he is, what happened to the people he was with, how much time has passed, and what he’s done. I loved how Wyck and Patricia flit in and out of the narrative, despite the fact that they effectively promised to watch over him*
*There’s clear evidence that they both got extremely tired of his belligerence, from demanding to know where Evan is to running off on them; hence the scene with Gerrie (Nancy Lenehan) the archivist when Tom is literallytethered to Patricia by one of those children’s bungee cords. It’s pretty funny.
More to the point, though, we’re getting a few welcome tidbits that advance the island lore and character backstories. Wyck manages to decode the paper with Gerrie’s help (his ex, right?) and they realize it’s from the diary of Sarah Wescott Warren, the wife of Richard Warren, the man who colonized the island. There’s reference to a plague, as well as the curse being kept in a cylinder Richard wore (glimpsed in his painted portait) and possibly even the suggestion Sarah was murdered by her husband.
The episode also gives us a little tidbit of backstory for Tom. Waaaay back in episode 1, we heard the rumour that island-born residents can never leave, which is definitely what Tom’s episode-ending visions seem to suggest about his dead wife Lauren (Meredith Casey). This isn’t exactly revelatory since most of the lore about the island has proven to be true; if anything this is merely confirmation for why Tom is right to be worried about Evan’s not-so-idle threat to “leave the island and never come back”.
Over to you, Terry: did you like tripping with Tom? What do you think happened in the aggressive meeting with a bunch of business owners, including hotelier Kurt (Neil Casey), about overturning the curfew? (Sidebar: I loved the ominous whiteboard message: “When I turn around everyone close their eyes”) Does any of the Evan stuff, including getting high in front of The Boogeyman’s house, work for you? And just what was growling in the dark?
TERRY
I had a blast with this episode, Joe. Like with “Beach Reads,” the supernatural event of the week (in lieu of monster) ties closely to characters as well as to the town’s history in fascinating ways. Director of Photography Cody Jacobs has a fun time introducing dutch angles, the smash cuts you mentioned, twisting photography, zooms from darkness and into darkness…it runs the gamut. And while the story might be something we’ve seen plenty of times across horror media, his playful cinematography really makes the episode pop.
I do love that scenes don’t so much bleed into each other as smash into each other, giving the episode a rather cacophonous tone. It does a great job of keeping the viewer off-balance and suggesting things, rather than explaining them. My favorite jump cut was to Rosemary (Dale Dickey)’s car, parked unceremoniously at a gas station.
Tom wakes up, hot dogs falling out of the front seat, and it’s revealed that there’s red stains dripping down his shirt and Rosemary’s nowhere to be seen. It adds a bit of tension to the sequence because there was a brief moment where I was afraid he did something to Rosemary.
The visual language plays between horror and comedy here, as the stains could suggest a messy eater (with the hot dogs) or something violent. I love how that scene plays out, suggesting things instead of telling us, from Rosemary’s comment to not park the car anymore, to the visual gag of smashed milk containers and broken glass doors suggesting Tom had quite an episode in the convenience store.
At the townhall, I have to confess I missed the whiteboard message, mostly because I was more focused on the camerawork and the way the smashcuts keep us offkilter. It doesn’t surprise me that there’s a message on the board that ties into the narrative, though. The last time we saw the whiteboard it had a cartoonish Jaws-inspired shark and here the stark suggestion of closing eyes becomes a repeated refrain throughout “What to Expect on Your Trip.”
“My eye is open” is scratched into Reverend Bryce’s desk. The mushrooms Tom found in Bryce’s office will, in the words of Todd, give you “Lasik for your third eye.” Tom is also warned not to look into mirrors, suggesting he doesn’t want to see what it will reveal. Meanwhile in the drug-induced flashback, Lauren loses her sight as she rides the ferry to the mainland.
The other theme that “What to Expect on Your Trip” plays with is the idea of control and, more specifically, losing control. Tom has always been a rather wound-up individual, so seeing him at the mercy of the mushrooms really unmoors him. At one point, he’s literally clutching at his binders and organizers as if they’re a life preserver against the tide of chaos. You mentioned the hilarious moment when it’s revealed that Patricia has Tom on a leash (“Sit!” she admonishes him like a dog), but that also not-so-subtly ties into the way Evan feels he’s being treated. Whether he’s being locked in Tom’s office, grounded in their home or pressed about a 7 PM to 7 AM curfew, Tom has him on a tight leash.
Speaking of Evan, you asked whether The Boogeyman and Evan stuff worked for me. On one hand, I love the way The Boogeyman has been slowly teased out across the first half of the season. Every week, we seem to get a little nugget of what happened and here is the most concrete evidence of his past. The creepy house. The implication is that when the town couldn’t kill him, they buried him (presumably alive!) in the basement and covered everything with cement.
Considering how much the past seems buried in Widow’s Bay, I’m waiting for history to come crawling out of the ground and force the town to face a reckoning. At least, I’m assuming that’s what’s happening here. If Thinner taught me anything, a curse isn’t just placed upon someone/something without a reason.
So what’s the reason?
Would I have liked to go inside The Boogeyman’s house? Absolutely. But I am enjoying the way Widow’s Bay teases out the mystery. What I don’t like is pretty much anything to do with Evan. Right now, he’s not so much a character as a caricature. Sure, he ties thematically into Tom’s need to control and I’m sure Tom knows more than he’s letting on about the seeming inability for people to leave the island. But as a character, he’s very one-note and the note seems to be “be annoying.”
I really need the show to do more with the character or sideline him. All he’s done across these five episodes is pout/complain about being treated like a child, get high in a junkyard and get high in front of The Boogeyman’s house. Boring and uninspired.
Finally, that demonic breathing/growling at the end of the episode…I will echo you and say, “what is going on there?!” I want to know more. And hopefully we’ll get that when we go back to Gayly Dreadful for episodes 6 & 7, “Our History” and “Seasickness”
Widow’s Bay airs Wednesdays on Apple TV
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