After spending the night in the island's haunted inn in episode 2, "Lodging," Mayor Tom Loftis is up against a supernatural sea creature in Widow's Bay episode 3, "Inaugural Swim."
The episode is a roller coaster ride of misunderstandings, monsters, and horror as the small island community of Widow's Bay spirals into chaos.
On his way to work, Mayor Tom Loftis (Matthew Rhys) finds a lost woman, Marissa (Elizabeth Alderfer), on the side of the road and picks her up and takes her back to town. She claims that she's staying at the inn, and it's lovely. Tom invites her to the inaugural swim later. Basically, Tom opens the ocean to the tourists and townsfolk of Widow's Bay to kick off summer.
Marissa asks Tom to meet her at the town bar later that night.
At work, Tom reprimands Patricia and the rest of his team for not spreading the word enough about the swim and her cocktail hour after the event. Patricia (Kate O'Flynn), though, gets hung up on the fact that Tom never helped her on the side of the road when she had a flat tire and that Ruth (K Callan), the older woman who works at the office, walks to work every day. Clearly feeling guilty, Tom offers Ruth a ride home and she declines, but she says the mornings are hard.
Tom is attacked by a Sea Hag
Later that night, Tom goes to the bar, but Marissa never shows, so he heads for home. On the drive, he sees and older woman wandering on the road. Feeling guilty, he offers her a ride home, but it's clearly a ghost or ghoul or something scary. She starts chasing him, and Tom flips it in reverse and tries to get away. He looks back, and she's not there. He breathes a sigh of relief and then feels a clawed hand scratch his arm.
The next day, he calls the sheriff and tells him about the incident. Tom doesn't think anything of it, but the doctor thinks it looks more like an animal attacked him. At work, Tom tells the story of the woman attacking him, but Rosemary (Dale Dickey) finds it deeply unsettling. She tells Tom the legend of the Sea Hag.
According to Rosemary, the Sea Hag scratches her victims and uses their blood and skin to track them down and kill them later. She warns Tom to take this seriously before suffering a coughing fit.
Tom is attacked by the Sea Hag again
Tom dismisses her and heads for the beach. At the Inaugural Swim, Tom, who was warned by the doctor to stay out of the seawater, decides to swim anyway. He swims out to the buoy, and everything seems fine. Then, he sees the Sea Hag in the water. He tries to do his best Michael Phelps impression and beat her to the shore, but she swipes him again, scratching a deep cut into his leg. Oh, this is not good!
Officially freaked out, Tom visits Wyck (Stephen Root) and asks him what he should do. Wyck says to find a box and lock it and stay in there until the wounds heal, which will make the Sea Hag lose his scent. He also claims that the scratch is slowly spreading poison that will paralyze Tom. For the third time, Tom shrugs him off as peddling ridiculous lies.
Reverend Bryce finds evil in the woods
Reverend Bryce (Toby Huss) walks through the woods following voices and stumbles upon an old well. He hears something in the well. Then, he goes to the junkyard where Tom's son, Evan (Kingston Rumi Southwick) and his friends are hanging out. We learn that has never left the island, even though Tom claimed that he did.
Reverend Bryce tells the kids, "There is evil here." Then, he wanders off, clearly shaken.
Tom shuts down Marissa
That night, Tom meets Marissa for drinks at the Driftwood. After a nice night, Tom starts to feel weird. Marissa clearly wants to hook up, but Tom doesn't think it's a good idea with all of this Sea Hag stuff. In fact, he's growing suspicious that Marissa is actually the Sea Hag, so he leaves the Driftwood alone.
At home, Marissa knocks on his door, and Tom loses it, clearly freaked out about the Sea Hag. He shoots her down for the third time. He tells her, "I know what you are," and she finally gives up. The unfortunate thing is that Marissa is real and actually interested in Tom. She is, in fact, not a Sea Hag.
Wyck kills the Sea Hag
Shortly after, Tom loses the ability to move. He passes out and has a vision of his wife, who passed away. Then, he's attacked by the Sea Hag. She climbs up on top of him while he's in his recliner, but Tom is able to move slightly. He pulls the lever on the recliner and sends the Sea Hag flying over the chair.
He crawls through the house and makes it into the bathtub. The Sea Hag finds him easily. She's about to kill him when Wyck shows up and shoots a spear through her heart, vanquishing her in a pile of sea muck that sprays all over Tom.
Wyck helps Tom out of the bath when Reverend Bryce calls and leaves a message. He tells Tom that he heard it, the bells at the church. Then, he ends the call with "I'm so sorry. God forgive me." It sounds a lot like a goodbye.
The episode ends with Sheriff Bechir calling in for reinforcements. He claims something has gone very wrong at Patricia's cocktail event.
We'll find out what happens in Widow's Bay episode 4 on Wednesday, May 13, on Apple TV.
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