“Welcome to Widow’s Bay,” the first episode of the new Apple TV series, Widow’s Bay, opens with mysterious fog overtaking a boat off the coast of New England. Shep, the captain, disappears, and it kickstarts the first of many mysteries in the new series.
After losing Shep, the whole island community of Widow’s Bay loses power before an earthquake strikes the town. And that's when we meet Widow’s Bay’s Mayor Tom Loftis, played by Matthew Rhys, who has just about had it with everyone in town.
From the jump, Tom has been trying his best to bring Widow’s Bay into the future. His vision of tourist prosperity is on the line when a travel critic from The New York Times is on the way to the island the day after the earthquake and mysterious fog. The lone restaurant in town doesn’t have power and needs to shut down, but Tom demands that the restaurant find a way to stay open to accommodate the critic and show them a good time.
Everything is riding on this article.
Shep Clark is missing
At his office, Tom is inundated with calls from concerned citizens, including Sheriff Bechir, played by Kevin Carroll, who tells Tom that Shep Clark, the captain of the ship, went missing in a fog. The sheriff tells Tom that he needs to close the port and stop the ferries because of the fog, but Tom, expecting the critic to arrive today even in the madness of the power outage and earthquake, begs the sheriff to keep the port open, which he does.
Then, Tom realizes that the 11 a.m. ferry actually arrived early, meaning the journalist is already on the island. Tom hangs up and rushes to find the reporter in hopes of making a good first impression.
Tom shows the critic around the island
Later, Tom meets Arthur, the critic, at the museum, learning the history of the island, starting with the island’s first mayor, Richard Warren, who helped settle the island. Gerrie, the caretaker of the museum, gets started sharing some of the not-so-charming details about the town’s dark past. Tom cuts her off to finish the tour.
Arthur questions Tom about the alleged curse on the island and the people who live there. Tom does his best to steer Arthur away from those dark details about the island’s past, including a cannibalism incident, bad storms, and more things.
Tom shares the itinerary for Arthur’s visit and confirms plans to meet for a lobster dinner at the Salty Whale later that evening.
Wyck tries to convince Tom the island is haunted
Shortly after, Tom is interrupted by Wyck, played by Stephen Root, who tries to convince Tom to cancel his plans with the tourism, the critic, and everything else. He warns that the island is cursed, and it’s been lying dormant for years, but now it’s waking up.
Tom refuses to believe Wyck or heed his warning. Wyck tells him to sound the siren and warn everyone that Shep is actually missing.
Right then, the sheriff calls, and Tom pretends that the call was to inform him that Shep was found. He excuses himself to go to the office to finish the call. Unfortunately, no one believes that Shep has been found.
Tom is just trying to manage crisis after crisis, but he can’t catch a break.
Wyck isn’t the only one who believes that the island is waking up, though. Patricia, played by Katie O'Flynn, tells Tom about the time she was visited by the ghost of a killer in the town, but Tom mocks her. Then, she storms out of the office.
That night, Tom returns home with a tuna melt from The Driftwood for his son, Evan, played by Kingston Rumi Southwick. He catches him smoking weed out on their porch. He tells Evan that he’s going to put bars on the windows if Evan keeps sneaking out at night. Remember, during the earthquake, Tom ran into Evan’s room looking for him, but he was nowhere to be found. He asks Evan to please just listen to his rules and warnings because he’s only trying to keep him safe.
Their conversation is interrupted by the town siren. Wyck didn’t believe Tom about Shep after all.
To get the siren to stop, Tom offers Wyck a sit-down conversation for a few minutes to hear him out.
Shep Clark finally turns up, but he's in bad shape
At a local establishment, Wyck presents Tom and Patricia with evidence that the haunting of Widow's Bay is starting again. You see, every so often in Widow’s Bay, the fog returns, followed by an earthquake, and then the haunting begins.
Terrible things have happened on the island, but Tom refuses to buy into Wyck’s stories. He wants to be the next Bar Harbor, to make some money, and put Widow’s Bay on the map, but Wyck is worried about the cost. He tells Tom to stop everything and start trying to help protect the town’s citizens, but Tom won’t budge.
When Wyck is about to leave, the door swings open, and in walks a very water-logged and half-dead Shep Clark, who collapses immediately.
Shep dies after he is possessed and tries to kill Tom
He’s alive and breathing, but they take him to the hospital, where he’s under the care of a doctor. He’s not in critical condition, but he has been sedated with enough sedative to knock out a horse.
Later, Tom talks to an asleep Shep in his room, and that’s when the weird stuff happens. Shep wakes up with white eyes and attacks Tom. He tries to kill him. Tom fights him off, and then Shep dies.
In the chaos, Tom arrives late for the dinner with Arthur, the reporter, who loves Widow’s Bay. He thinks the island is fantastic, but he can’t understand why this place isn’t Martha’s Vineyard. He does confront Tom about a legend that none of the people who were born on Widow’s Bay can leave the island. He mentions several people, including Marsha Dogan, who is maybe someone to Tom, potentially his wife or Evan’s mom, who left the island and died basically immediately after.
Tom doesn’t entertain the idea, but he says that he goes to the mainland all the time. Evan, Tom’s son, was born on the island, though, and Tom claims that he has been to the mainland, proving the curse to be untrue.
Arthur tells Tom that he thinks tourism this summer is going to be huge, and he lays out his vision for the article.
In the middle of dinner, Tom notices the fog rolling in and tries to call Evan to make sure he’s okay. Right then, the power goes out in the restaurant. Tom tries to keep everyone in the restaurant because he’s worried about the fog. Tom causes a major scene and yells, “There’s something in the fog!”
Right then, the power comes back on as the fog lifts. Arthur, growing annoyed, leaves dinner after complaining that he knows Tom is trying to turn Widow’s Bay into Salem with the weird happenings. He tells Tom that Widow’s Bay doesn’t need the gimmick.
Eventually, everyone leaves the restaurant, leaving Tom by himself at the restaurant. As he leaves, the camera takes us through the floor and to each level, revealing a haunted basement with a chair used for torture. In front of it, there’s a mysterious door.
And that's where the episode ends!
Overall, Widow’s Bay is off to an incredible start. This is easily one of the most interesting new Apple TV shows we’ve ever seen, and I can’t wait to see where it goes in the next few episodes.
Add us as a preferred source on Google