{"id":471758,"date":"2026-05-06T19:34:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T19:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/471758\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T19:34:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T19:34:13","slug":"widows-bay-reveals-the-perils-of-dating-on-a-cursed-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/471758\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Widow\u2019s Bay\u2019 Reveals the Perils of Dating on a Cursed Island"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite all the warnings from his salty constituents\u2014and that perilous night he just endured at the local historic inn\u2014Mayor Tom Loftis (Matthew Rhys) has succeeded in making Widow\u2019s Bay a newly popular tourist attraction. He\u2019s thrilled! Things are looking up! So why won\u2019t the cursed island<\/a> stop throwing weird new worries in his path?<\/p>\n

This week, \u201cThe Inaugural Swim<\/a>\u201d introduced Widow\u2019s Bay<\/a> viewers to a quaint tradition in the seaside town, as well as another of its fearsome legends come to life<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Io9<\/p>\n

You\u2019d think being chased through a crawl space by the ghost of a killer clown would\u2019ve made Tom pull the plug on his tourism push. But he\u2019s happy as can be seeing all the new faces milling around downtown, and his mood brightens even more when he spots Marissa (Elizabeth Alderfer), a pretty visitor using the map in the brochure Tom created to find her way around the island.<\/p>\n

Or trying to, anyway. Since the map\u2019s not to scale, but mostly because someone\u2019s been going around altering the street signs (\u201cDickens Street\u201d now reads \u201cDickhole Street\u201d), Marissa is more than a little lost, so she accepts when Tom offers her a lift. He eagerly invites her to the \u201cinaugural swim,\u201d an annual tradition where the Widow\u2019s Bay mayor takes a dip in defiance of what he hastily describes as \u201cthe island\u2019s history of ocean dangers.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also mentions there are \u201csunset cocktails\u201d planned for after\u2014you know, if Marissa and her friends, who\u2019re visiting the island as part of a bachelorette party, are in search of nightlife. Marissa mentions they might be checking out a local dive (a place we know well after the first two episodes: the Barnabus Tavern) later on. Maybe she\u2019ll see Tom there?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s very casual. But Tom can\u2019t stop grinning about it as he goes about his town hall business, where we learn as an aside that Patricia (Kate O\u2019Flynn) is in charge of planning the cocktail event. Marissa is still on his mind later when he tells his son, Evan (Kingston Rumi Southwick)\u2014who is almost certainly behind the sign alterations, though his faux-shock reaction to the idea (\u201cSomebody did that? That\u2019s horrible\u201d) is deadpan gold\u2014that he\u2019s heading to the Barnabus to meet \u201ccolleagues.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"WidowsEvan (Kingston Rumi Southwick) with his girl dinner. \u00a9 Apple TV <\/p>\n

When Marissa doesn\u2019t show, Tom\u2019s bummed. It\u2019s not like they had made set plans or anything, but it\u2019s a blow to Tom\u2019s newly optimistic state of mind. His dream of making Widow\u2019s Bay a hotspot has seemingly come true, and when he sparked with Marissa, he dared to imagine more good things might not be far behind.<\/p>\n

But this is Widow\u2019s Bay, after all. You can never let your guard down. That\u2019s hammered in most horrifyingly when Tom, glumly driving home from the bar, spots a lone figure on a backroad. It appears to be an elderly woman in distress. But there\u2019s something odd about her. Why is she suddenly running at top speed toward Tom\u2019s car?<\/p>\n

He doesn\u2019t wait to find out, but he makes the mistake of not driving far enough away before stopping to freak out. The woman creeps up and scratches his arm\u2014a deep gouge that requires medical attention\u2014and Tom (dear lord, his scream!) soon learns a scar isn\u2019t the worst thing that could come from this.<\/p>\n

\"WidowsPatricia (Kate O\u2019Flynn) and Dale (Jeff Hiller) in the office. \u00a9 Apple TV <\/p>\n

Still, though, this is Tom we\u2019re talking about. He\u2019s somehow able to cling to denial when Rosemary (Dale Dickey) takes note of his injury the next day at the office and raspily informs him it sure sounds like he\u2019s met the sea hag. She\u2019s a creature known for scratching sailors and then hunting them down\u2014a trickster who uses her powers to make a man weak, get him alone, and seal his doom.<\/p>\n

That is worrisome. Even a diehard skeptic might start to cave at this point. But Tom, still reeling from his back-to-back humiliations, puts all his focus on the inaugural swim. After a few classic Widow\u2019s Bay technical difficulties, Tom successfully makes his speech and awkwardly heads to the water\u2019s edge.<\/p>\n

His journey to the buoy is smooth and perfect; it\u2019s maybe the most blissful moment we\u2019ve yet seen in Widow\u2019s Bay. Tom looks deeply satisfied.<\/p>\n

But what is that peculiar shape bobbing up and down a few feet away? Has the sea hag come to stalk her prey?<\/p>\n

Of course she has. In a sequence that pays cheeky homage to Jaws\u2014not the first time this episode has referenced it; did you catch that chalkboard shark in the town hall?\u2014Tom, a mayor who can\u2019t wait to open the beaches, frantically makes his way to shore; Sheriff Clemons (Kevin Carroll) steps in to \u201crescue\u201d him as he thrashes around in the shallows. The crowd that\u2019s gathered for the occasion (and has been watching this entire display) politely, hesitantly applauds.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no more evading the truth. Tom\u2019s got a hag problem, and there\u2019s only one person he can turn to: Wyck (Stephen Root). Though these two have had some major clashes, the mutual dislike is perhaps starting to crumble a bit as they share the realization that Widow\u2019s Bay is approaching a crisis.<\/p>\n

That does not mean Tom will immediately obey Wyck\u2019s recommendation of locking himself inside a chest until his wound heals. Otherwise, it seems, he\u2019ll die when the hag crawls into his bed and sits on his face. (That\u2019s her MO, apparently.)<\/p>\n

\"WidowsEvan and his friends. \u00a9 Apple TV <\/p>\n

It\u2019s silly-sounding enough that Tom\u2019s able to dismiss it, again, despite everything. He even pushes it to the back of his mind enough to go meet up with Marissa. She\u2019s been elusive since their first encounter but has invited him to the Driftwood Diner for dinner.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a sweet first date. Marissa is funny and cool and offers genuine sympathy when Tom explains that he\u2019s not divorced; he\u2019s a widower\u2014his wife, Evan\u2019s mom, died in childbirth years ago. There\u2019s seemingly real chemistry there. But when Tom suggests they hit up Patricia\u2019s cocktail shindig, Marissa offers a more intimate alternative: why not go back to Tom\u2019s place instead?<\/p>\n

In that moment, Tom\u2019s walls go back up. Maybe it\u2019s the mention of his much-missed spouse. Maybe it\u2019s that Marissa seems a little too good to be true. But he politely turns her down, and it ends there.<\/p>\n

Or does it? When he gets home, he has two messages waiting (because in Widow\u2019s Bay, a place without cell service, is also a place where you still need an answering machine): Patricia, wondering why he\u2019s not at the party, and Wyck, reiterating his dire warning about the sea hag. \u201cIf she\u2019s not inside yet, she\u2019s gonna find a way! You won\u2019t be able to fight her off!\u201d<\/p>\n

Moments later, there\u2019s a startlingly loud knock at the door. It\u2019s Marissa, who\u2019s taken it upon herself to find out where Tom lives and try her luck a second time. Tom, who\u2019s realizing how little he knows about her, refuses to let her in, yelling, \u201cI know what you are!\u201d<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t blame him. He\u2019s spooked, not just by the threat of the sea hag, but by the prospect of new romance. And \u201cThe Inaugural Swim\u201d has certainly made it very easy to assume Marissa is the sea hag in disguise. Why else would she be pounding on Tom\u2019s door after he rejected her at the restaurant?<\/p>\n

Except, well, Marissa is just a regular woman who decided to be persistent with a guy she liked. As she leaves Tom\u2019s door, we see her get into a waiting taxi and tell her friend she feels humiliated.<\/p>\n

Tom will probably never find out the truth, though, because shortly thereafter, as he\u2019s starting to feel very groggy\u2014and has a sweet vision of his late wife, Lauren (Meredith Casey)\u2014the sea hag appears and starts chasing him around his house. Tom, cowering in his bathtub, is close to succumbing when Wyck appears with a shotgun, blasts the hag into supernatural ash, and ends Tom\u2019s torment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy is this happening?\u201d Tom asks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d Wyck sighs. \u201cYou just survive.\u201d Has Tom finally learned that crucial lesson?<\/p>\n

\"Widows\u00a9 Apple TV <\/p>\n

Next week, we\u2019ll presumably find out more about the apparently very troubled Reverand Bryce (Toby Huss), not to mention what\u2019s behind that frantic radio call from Sheriff Clemons regarding Patricia\u2019s cocktail party. What could have gone wrong? In Widow\u2019s Bay, anything is possible.<\/p>\n

New episodes of Widow\u2019s Bay arrive Wednesdays on Apple TV+.<\/p>\n

\n

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel<\/a>, Star Wars<\/a>, and Star Trek<\/a> releases, what\u2019s next for the DC Universe on film and TV<\/a>, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite all the warnings from his salty constituents\u2014and that perilous night he just endured at the local historic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":471759,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[265],"tags":[593,18,117,19,17,128,192813],"class_list":{"0":"post-471758","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-apple-tv","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-tv","14":"tag-widows-bay"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116529310917545272","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}