In just a short amount of time, Widow’s Bay became our entire personality. We can’t stop quoting it or praising its wonderfully weird characters or wishing we could actually travel there, even with all its inherent perils.
With the season finale now out in the world and the big news that a second season is on the way, we’re now going down the rabbit hole with all the pieces of Widow’s Bay that will continue to haunt us until new episodes arrive.
1. What’s in Tom’s basement?
When Evan and Kelly snoop in Tom’s room, they discover a locked box full of family photos and creepy letters penned by Evan’s late mother, Lauren. When Tom realizes Evan has found a photo that proves Lauren didn’t exactly die in childbirth, as he’s always maintained, the first thing he blurts out is, “You went through the basement?”
No, Tom, Evan did not go in the basement. And neither did we. What other secrets are hidden down there, exactly?
2. Will Tom come clean to Evan about why he can’t leave the island?
Evan now understands that Lauren lived for a few years past his birth, though her health was severely impaired. However, Tom didn’t tell his son that Lauren was healthy until that fateful ferry ride. And he hasn’t told Evan that the island’s curse means that anybody who was born there can never leave.
There’s that brief flicker of hope after Richard Warren crumbles into dust and Tom buys the Red Sox tickets, thinking all his problems are solved. But with the reveal of Evan’s unfortunate lineage in the season one finale, it seems Evan’s chances of ever seeing the mainland are pretty grim.
Given the tension that we’ve seen between these two, it feels like Tom needs to tell Evan the whole truth. Not just that he can’t physically cross that Widow’s Bay perimeter, but also the reason why and his unique connection to it all. Will he, though?
3. Will anyone else find out about Evan? (Related: did Ruth survive her gunshot wound?)
Here’s where the big bloodline situation stands at the end of season one:
Wyck, Tom, Patricia, Rosemary, and Bechir know Ruth is descended from Richard Warren. (To our knowledge, Ruth does not know.)
But only Tom and Bechir (because Tom told him) know Ruth is not the last Warren descendent.
We can assume Bechir will keep prodding Tom for the truth. But will Ruth, who seemed so relieved to tell Tom about being Lauren’s “secret mommy,” agree to keep their family ties under wraps?
If Ruth even survived being shot by Bechir, that is? She opened her eyes, but… elderly woman, prescription drug overdose, apparent head wound, isolated island with limited medical facilities after a major storm—the odds aren’t great. (Why else would Tom have Sarah Warren’s brooch, Ruth’s precious family heirloom, to toss into the sea at the end of the finale?)
4. Eight more people have to be sacrificed, right?
Thanks to Dale finding the “FOR YOU” film in the emergency shelter, we learn that the island demands “one soul for each bell toll.”
This ties back to the Reverend Bryce’s earlier surprise when Tom said he heard the church bells ring. As the show is careful to show us, the bells are securely chained. They can’t ring on their own.
Bryce scours his office for guidance and finds instructions that read, in part, “should the bell toll, there are steps you must take,” directing him to a chamber “on the north side of the rectory.” (Because of the way the shot is framed, we can’t read the rest of what’s on the page.)
After that, he visits Todd, aka Shaman, and takes the mushrooms; presumably the island then communicates more specific instructions. We see him find the well with the ladder (later seen in “Our History”) in episode three. Whatever Bryce figures out is enough for him to take his own life rather than engage any further.
That much is clear. And we obviously understand the purpose of the chamber tucked beneath the emergency shelter with the spooky chair and menacing doors.
At the very end of “We Hope You Enjoyed Your Time!” we hear the bells ring eight times. That matches up with the eight people we know of who died throughout season one (Shep, Bryce, Richard Warren, the Boogeyman and his two victims, Todd the shaman, and Kenny).
However, what doesn’t make sense is the timing. Why is the island ringing the bells at the end of its cycle? Is it saying, “Thanks for the eight tasty souls; see you next time”? Nope. Here’s what we think.
If you’ll recall, at the start of episode two, “Lodging,” we hear the bells ring nine times. Nine souls. Kenny’s death in the sacrificial chamber counts toward the nine; the other deaths don’t. When the storm stopped as soon as Kenny got taken, that was just a temporary pause.
We think the eight tolls in episode 10 are the island making it crystal clear: it’s still feeding time. There are still eight more sacrifices to go, and they must pass through the creepy chair room.
Complicating matters, Richard Warren, who made the original bargain, kept things pretty secretive between himself and “that which keeps us alive.” However, he did shout out some important information as the villagers were burying him. The pact must be honored, you can speak to the entity “through the mushrooms,” and it requires sacrificing “life for life.” Otherwise, “the terrors will not cease.”
Did the pastor that Sarah Warren asked for help back in 1702 follow up on that and take his own mushroom trip? Someone must have traveled that path and transcribed the instructions that Bryce found in his office. But who?
5. Why don’t any of the Widow’s Bay lifers seem to know about the human sacrifices?
Think of another famous cursed island, Wicker Man’s Summerisle. The police officer lured there from the mainland doesn’t realize he’s about to be served up to ensure a robust harvest, but the locals are 100% in on the plan. That’s not the case in Widow’s Bay, where the characters seemingly have no clue about their own gruesome tradition.
To our knowledge, Bryce is the sole person with any information about it, which he only finds after rummaging through the papers in his office. That seems odd on an island full of crusty old-timers who seem to know a lot about its distressing history.
In the season premiere, when Wyck is warning Tom that “it’s starting” and that there will be disasters to come, he has a lot of institutional knowledge about what to expect. But he also says he doesn’t have all the information “because this town has its secrets.”
Who’s keeping those secrets? Neither Rosemary (gossip extraordinaire) nor Gerrie (town historian) seems aware of the human sacrifices. Thanks to the “FOR THEM” film, we know the victims were chosen not by an individual but rather by a committee.
What happened to the chain of information? At the museum we learn Widow’s Bay is home to 3,000 people. Did all the insiders happen to perish in one of those unfortunate accidents the island is so famous for?
And another thing: who shot the films that Dale finds in the finale? When exactly were they made? Why did they feel the need to produce instructional videos for the participants—and what’s the identity of the creepily chipper host?
6. What is the island’s slumber cycle—and can we please flash back to more disasters?
Widow’s Bay has a delightful habit of referencing catastrophes from the island’s past. However, it feels like the supernaturally active times don’t really occur on a cycle; it isn’t like Pennywise reliably emerging from the sewers every 27 years.
There was the deadly storm in 1786 that infamously led to cannibalism. The 1846 “fog that stole souls.” The witch trials, date unknown, which are still a great source of local pride. The “revenants of doomed sailors” thing that happened with the ghost ship in 1873.
There are also many horrors associated with the Breakwater Inn; we met the “Clown Killer of 1951,” but what about the New Year’s Eve disaster of 1962 (something Widow’s Bay creator Katie Dippold has mentioned as possible spinoff material) or the massacre in the captain’s suite? And “Ugly Hortence,” who could forget her?
And what was the deal with the teeth the first settlers found when they arrived? What happened to the 43rd settler?
We loved the 1702 flashback, both for the important details it brought to the story and because it was a lot of fun to see Widow’s Bay amid one of its ghastly vintage struggles. That was certainly no ordinary plague. More like this, please!
7. More exploration of Widow’s Bay itself
We saw a lot of the harbor area, the downtown, and some of the residential streets. But it would be fun to explore more. The abandoned hospital—the “Old Home,” where Lauren spent her final years—certainly seems intriguing, especially when Rosemary’s over here saying, “It’s perfectly safe to drive by the old hospital. You just can’t stop.”
What other freaky, forgotten sorts of places are there? We imagine there’s something unnerving lurking on every block, and we want to see it all.
We’re also curious to learn more about what the outside world makes of Widow’s Bay. The New York Times travel article brought a lot of tourists over from the mainland, and those visitors no doubt returned home full of colorful stories. Might more newcomers arrive to shake up the status quo, in ways both good and bad, in season two?
8. More Rosemary and Dale!
We loved the Patricia episodes. We want even more Patricia in season two; we need to see her paintings and read that poem we heard so much about.
But we’d also love to see more of the other town hall weirdos come to the fore. Rosemary and Dale bottle episode! Maybe throw some Kathy in there too! Make it happen, Widow’s Bay season two! (Katie Dippold has said she’s planning on it, so we have our hopes sky high.)
What do you hope to see from Widow’s Bay season two? Are there elements you hope the show leaves deliberately unexplained? Do you have any clarity or fan theories to add to the above? Sound the siren and join in the comments below.
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