On this week’s episode of Widow’s Bay, “Beach Reads,” the Apple TV horror comedy turns its attentions to Patricia (Kate O’Flynn), who becomes fixated on the idea that if she hosts the perfect party, her life will suddenly become awesome. Or at the very least, the clique of women who’ve sneered at her since high school—on a small island where there’s literally no escape—might start extending a little more kindness.
In this spirit, the grand plan of “Sunset Cocktails” comes into being, with the help of Your Turn, a mysterious self-help book that appears in a donation pile one day and launches itself into Patricia’s path so she won’t overlook it. It’s seemingly full of great tips and encouragement, but its true nature shines through on the night of the party.
Turns out Your Turn is a spellbook in disguise. Not the cozy Practical Magic style of witchcraft, this is “enchant people into doing terrible things” territory. Fortunately, Patricia’s able to torch Your Turn before her party turns into a mass casualty event.
Speaking to the Wrap, Widow’s Bay creator Katie Dippold explained where this wonderfully demented idea came from.
“One of the writers had this idea of a self-help book that goes wrong, and it started a conversation about, ‘What are Patricia’s fears?'” Dippold explained. “One thing I always think about with Patricia is the thing that is scarier to her than the idea of dying is the idea of dying and no one caring about it. That brought in the one thing we always try to do when we’re using these horror tropes, which is tell a story about a character who is feeling very real, human emotions.”
Then, Dippold said, “The conversation became, ‘What if she had a party?’ And we got really into the stress of throwing a party and not knowing if anyone’s going to show up. I have experienced that myself. Everyone in the room had experienced that or something similar, and so we just went from there and really tried, as much as possible, to stick to that. Even though the book is scary, there’s nothing scarier to Patricia in that episode than no one coming to her thing.”
Ahead of the season premiere of Widow’s Bay, io9 talked to Dippold as well as executive producer Hiro Murai, who directed multiple episodes. As part of the interview, we asked about Patricia, who is such a unique character not just on this show but on any TV show.
“[Patricia] was originally loosely based on my mother and her neuroses. But Kate O’Flynn—[casting director] Allison Jones gave us her tape, and to be honest, it really wasn’t what I imagined. But I was like, ‘She’s great. She’s just Patricia!’ She brought something really special and unique to it that I hadn’t thought of. It’s just very layered, and she is just fantastic. She’s such a good actress; she’s like a theater actress that’s also naturally funny. We both loved her.”
Added Murai, “She found like a register that—it almost felt like she was haunted herself. You know what I mean? We were like, ‘That is not what we were looking for at all,’ but it just felt like [the character] was fully realized already.”
And O’Flynn also brought another important characteristic to Patricia: she seemed exactly like someone who would be from the very peculiar island of Widow’s Bay. “It’s like, oh, this person lives there,” Dippold said. “Yeah, 100 percent,” Murai agreed.
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