After ten nail-biting episodes, one thing has become abundantly clear: no one is safe on Widow’s Bay.
The Apple TV series follows a tiny New England community tormented by a mysterious curse. Fans of creator Katie Dippold’s quirky show have seen their fair share of deaths, both horrific and hilarious, but star Matthew Rhys is doubling down on heartbreaking carnage for season two. In an interview with Us Weekly, he admitted that we should be “terrified.” Describing the upcoming sophomore season, Rhys warned, “No one is safe. Anyone can be taken down at a moment’s notice.”
We first meet Rhys as idealistic mayor Tom Loftis fighting tooth and nail for publicity that will invigorate the island’s tourist economy. Unfortunately, new interest in Widow’s Bay coincides with the awakening of a mysterious force that unleashes havoc on its citizens. White-eyed zombies, malevolent sea hags, ghostly clowns, and masked serial killers are just a few of the horrific beasts that haunt the traumatized population. But perhaps more sinister, episode two begins with an ominous church bell ringing, despite having been boarded up for many years.
WARNING: The following contains major spoilers.
We eventually learn that this bell tolls the number of human sacrifices required to coax the island’s monster back to sleep. Before the people of Widow’s Bay can rest, one human for each of the nine bell’s chimes must be offered up as an offering.
This ritual begins in the season’s final episode as a hapless security guard named Al (Shawn Fitzgibbon) becomes locked inside the killing room. A raging nor’easter abruptly stops as the island gets its first taste of blood. But in the wake of this destructive storm, the bell begins ringing once again, this time sounding eight times. We’re reminded that the tiny town still has a heavy price to pay.
Considering Rhys’ earlier quote, the loss will probably hit close to home. As we prepare for a return to the dangerous island, let’s run through the remaining cast of characters, ranked by most to least likely to die.
PJ and Kelly
Rarely have two teenage characters lobbied so hard to become monster food. We first meet PJ (Beck Nolan) causing trouble alongside Tom’s teenage son Evan (Kingston Rumi Southwick). Without wifi or social media, the boys are understandably bored, but Evan is at least likeable. Not only does PJ drag his friend into trouble, despite the cost to his prominent dad, but he’s the one to suggest they explore the town’s notorious Shelter #3 while a vicious storm rages overhead. PJ leads them into an eerie room where an execution-style chair faces a set of rusty storm doors that seem to lead into hell itself. When Al comes to corral the wayward teens, PJ bolts and locks the door. Moments later, Evan hears the man scream as something dangerous enters the room. When Evan returns, Al has disappeared, and the storm doors are sitting slightly ajar.
Tagging along on this misadventure is Kelly (Kylie McNeill), Evan’s crush. At first she seems like a sweet tourist looking for a way to pass the time. But on a quasi-date at Evan’s house, she convinces him to go through his father’s things to investigate his mother’s death. The shocked teen learns that his mom did not actually die in childbirth as he was told, but several years afterwards. Clearly hoping for a more salacious bit of family dirt, Kelly grows bored and leaves Evan with this newfound pain. We’ve yet to see how — and if — the islanders will officially choose eight human beings to sacrifice. While the adults of Widow’s Bay may balk at dooming two teens to death, the audience would probably enjoy this bit of bloody comeuppance. Let’s be honest, PJ and Kelly are so reckless that they could easily stumble into danger again and accidentally martyr themselves.
Kris
Giving PJ and Kelly a run for their money, Kris (Lauren Bittner) has earned viewers’ ire by bullying our beloved Patricia (Kate O’Flynn). A grown-up mean girl, Kris was once friends with victims of the Boogeyman (Airon Armstrong), a masked killer known for stalking and murdering teenage girls. While it’s understandable that she would carry trauma from this unthinkable loss, the callous woman dismisses Patricia’s own near-death experience. Mocking her former classmate’s pain, Kris turns new islanders against Patricia, isolating the already lonely woman and sabotaging her municipal events.
Thankfully, the intrepid civil servant takes matters into her own hands. When the Boogeyman rises again and stalks Patricia in her home, she manages to get away and crashes a meeting of Kris’s book club. With the killer conveniently out of sight, Kris again launches into another smear campaign. Fed up, Patricia simply zaps her with the last bit of juice from the taser she brought to defend herself. As Kris plummets to the floor, Patricia proclaims her “the worst,” and it’s difficult to disagree. Though Kris will surely survive this taser hit — and Patricia handily takes out the killer — Kris’ egregious behavior places her high on the list for sacrifice. After all, we viewers ride at dawn for anyone who messes with our Party Queen.
Wyck
Once the show’s kooky harbinger, Wyck (Stephen Root) has slowly worked his way into our hearts. We first meet the curmudgeonly fisherman as he frantically tries to thwart Tom in bringing tourists to Widow’s Bay. Remembering past seasons of death, he knows what follows the mysterious mist and desperately tries to sound the alarm. It’s not until Tom experiences the island’s peculiarities that the two men become uneasy allies, with Patricia serving as a welcome buffer. This quirky trio attempts to break a centuries-old curse when they dig up the corpse of Widow’s Bay founder Richard Warren (Hamish Linklater) — only to find the man still alive. Through shrewd investigation, they realize that the pact Warren signed with a demonic entity can only be broken when all his descendants have passed away.
After commissioning a detailed genealogy, Wyck locates the last remaining Warren, an elderly spinster named Ruth (K Callan). Reasoning that she’s already lived a productive life and has no family to leave behind, Wyck prepares for the unthinkable. Arguing that he would not hesitate to take his own life if it meant ending the dreaded curse, he justifies this murder as an act of defense. It’s likely that Wyck will get this chance and add himself to the list of eight. We also learn that he carries guilt for the death of his best friend in the last sacrificial wave. Though a beloved member of the show’s core cast, Wyck may seek atonement by offering himself to the island’s god.
Ruth
As the season one finale approached, Ruth’s death appeared to be imminent. Insisting on killing her in Wyck’s place, Tom drugs the woman’s tea with a lethal combination of prescription meds. While waiting for her hopefully peaceful demise, Tom listens to the story of her life, including a shocking number of would-be suitors. But as the woman slowly fades away, she reveals a devastating secret. After having an affair with a married man, Ruth gave the resulting baby away and watched the child grow up from afar. Tom’s dismay at discovering this bonus descendant quickly turns to horror as he learns that Ruth’s secret daughter was his wife. This means that Evan is the last of the Warren line and his death is all that will save the town.
In the wake of this jaw-dropping disclosure, Tom has a belated change of heart. But before he can get Ruth medical help, Bechir (Kevin Carroll), the town’s reluctant sheriff, arrives to end the curse himself. He shoots the elderly woman in an attempt to save the life of his own imminent child. While Ruth manages to survive both murder attempts, she is admittedly in failing health. Wyck’s original argument is sound: she probably doesn’t have much time left. While Ruth’s poignant answer to the Trolley Problem confirms that she would not commit murder, the woman known for neighborly care would probably see her death as another turn of the island’s dark fate.
Kurt
The owner of the local (haunted) Inn, Kurt (Neil Casey), is clearly aware of the Island’s curse. We first meet the bearded businessman as he welcomes Tom for an overnight stay inside the notorious Captain’s Suite. But Kurt is careful not to cross the threshold himself and will not stay in his own inn overnight. He does maintain strict control of the honor bar via cameras and an intercom. When Tom is haunted by a murderous clown, Kurt downplays the risk to tourists. He agrees to spend ten, then thirty seconds inside the dreaded room to prove that there is nothing to fear. But when Bechir reopens the hotel room door, we see a very different Kurt. His disheveled clothes and the ransacked room make it seem as if he’s been trapped for days rather than mere moments.
We do have some sympathy for Kurt. He’s sunk every penny he has into refurbishing the historic building, no doubt purchased before the ghosts made their presence known. But, despite firsthand knowledge of dangerous paranormal phenomena, he still insists that nothing is wrong and plans to open the inn to guests. It’s frankly egregious that he would send unwitting visitors to stay inside his haunted rooms while retreating to the safety of his own home. A helpful Sacrifice Tutorial video suggests that victims may be chosen because they owe a debt to society. It’s conceivable that the Widow’s Bay community will decide that putting innocent tourists in danger is a sin worthy of ritual death.
Bechir
This honest yet grumpy lawman has been trying to escape the island since episode one. Clearly underwhelmed by the tiny community, he’s counting the days until he and his pregnant wife Chelle (Sipiwe Moyo) can move back to the mainland. But Bechir hides the impending delivery from his coworkers, missing an important warning. When Patricia notices Chelle’s baby bump, she tells Bechir about the island’s curse: anyone born on Widow’s Bay is doomed to stay there until they die. Attempts to sail past the aquatic border will result in death or debilitating illness. Having witnessed the return of the Boogeyman, Bechir takes her warning seriously and scrambles to get his wife off the island before she can give birth to their child. Unfortunately, a savage nor’easter coincides with Chelle’s first labor pains, and they find themselves trapped in a crowded storm shelter.
Determined to save his child from a lifetime of island imprisonment, Bechir rushes to Ruth’s house and takes the decision out of Tom’s hands. Informed of Ruth’s secret child, he demands to know who the last descendant is, unaware that he is threatening the life of Tom’s own son. It’s possible that as the dust settles, Bechir will find himself locked in a deadly battle with the mayor. Or perhaps the crime of shooting Ruth will land him on the sacrifice list. But a stronger possibility is that the harried father-to-be will give up his own life in order to protect his unborn child.
Tom
It’s not often that a show’s marquee star dies in the sophomore season, but in horror, anything is possible. We know that, like Bechir, Tom will put his life on the line to shield Evan from the Widow’s Bay curse. He also admits a debt to the town after leading the charge for tourism just in time for the deadly season. Of course, he just tried to murder Ruth despite his last-minute change of heart. With the town in need of martyrs, Tom may mirror Wyck’s altruism and offer himself to the hungry gods, especially if it means protecting his son.
But this idea raises an interesting question: can Tom be considered one of the community’s sacrifices? As the mayor, he finds himself in the rare position to convene with whatever lives beneath. After emerging from his coffin, Richard Warren will only explain his sinister covenant with the current leader of the town, indicating Tom’s sanctified place in the bonds of the curse. Will whatever monstrous entity Warren met in the freezing Widow’s Bay woods accept Tom as an offering? Though he may try to surrender himself, it’s possible the island’s monstrous force will consider the mayor untouchable, a necessary officiant of the ritual.
Evan
On paper, Evan is the most obvious casualty, alongside his newly-discovered grandmother Ruth. As the last Warren descendant, his death will break the centuries-old curse and allow Widow’s Bay to live in peace. But hasn’t the boy already been through enough? Not only has he been stuck on the tiny — and tech-free — island every day of his short life, but he’s also grown up without a mother, Tom’s wife having succumbed to the border curse. Adding insult to injury, Evan has just discovered his father’s dark secret: his mom did not actually die in childbirth, but lived with psychosis for several years before passing away in a mental institution. A series of disturbing letters she wrote to her young son are the icing on the trauma cake.
As the season ends, it’s unclear whether Tom will tell his son about the Widow’s Bay curse and his relationship to the community’s founder. What’s certain is that Evan now has no hope of leaving the island any time soon, derailing any college plans. If he does survive this deadly era, he will need to consider the curse before choosing to marry and have children of his own. Young and endearing, Evan has become a symbol of the island’s future, while his death would set his neighbors free. The resolution of this ethical battle will probably stretch into the show’s endgame. In season two, we’re more likely to see Tom die for his son or risk his life to sign a new covenant, negotiated to ensure Evan’s survival.
Patricia
Patricia may not give the best first impression. When we first meet Tom’s prickly coworker, she seems a bit cold and standoffish, not to mention a wet blanket on his tourism plans. But we quickly fall in love with the lonely woman and realize that she’s just severely misunderstood. We feel her pain when she tries to make friends by throwing the perfect cocktail party. We cry with her when the bubble bursts, revealing the witch’s spell possessing her guests. Patricia also becomes a key member of the trio battling the island’s curse, not to mention constantly caring for Tom. But it’s her heroic destruction of the Boogeyman that proves the young woman’s surprising strength.
Patricia is constantly on her guard and not likely to fall victim to monsters or ghosts. She probably won’t be chosen as a sacrifice after ridding the town of its slasher killer. O’Flynn has emerged as the series’ breakout star, easily stealing scenes from veteran actors Rhys and Root. Her deft takedown of the Boogeyman is easily the first season’s crowning achievement. Fans have fallen in love with the plucky municipal worker who runs a bookmobile in her spare time. There’s no way Widow’s Bay would kill her off, knowing fans like myself would take to the streets.
Rosemary
The town’s resident genealogy queen, Rosemary (Dale Dickey), has grown up on the island alongside Wyck and has insider knowledge of its disturbing lore. Cool as a cucumber, she hangs around the story’s periphery, knowing exactly when to insert herself and when to remain a fly on the wall. Wyck asks for her genealogical assistance because he knows he can count on her discretion, and that she will not disappoint. Amidst the “dead babies” and “lesbians” who make up the Warren family tree are murder mysteries and scandalous secrets dating back hundreds of years. Rosemary not only knows where the bodies are buried; she knows how to keep herself out of trouble.
As season two approaches and we’re looking for victims to sacrifice, Rosemary might emerge as a possible candidate. But as the town’s tight-lipped keeper of secrets, she probably knows of some loophole that will allow her to squeak by unscathed. Rosemary is a classic New England islander, stubborn and obstinate to a fault, but she’s entirely unflappable and calmly handles any crisis that comes her way, a cigarette clutched in her hand. Rosemary will probably outlive us all. And then be around to log our deaths in her handwritten genealogy chart.