‘Widow’s Bay’ Episode 8: Stalking Season

20:12Joanna Robinson:Sometimes when you gotta hag it up, it gets a little different. Last but not least, this is not an email. I just want to put this on the record. Okay. You have convinced me. What have I done? Via friendship to go see the film Speed Racer. By the time this episode drops, I will already have seen Speed Racer. at the Egyptian here in Los Angeles. Okay. In exchange. First of all, you're welcome. In exchange, you said you would watch Midnight Mass. I did. So I'm just putting that on the microphone. You haven't watched it yet. I haven't watched Speed Racer yet. This is a trade. But I will see Speed Racer.

20:43Joanna Robinson:Yes. When all the basketballing is done and perhaps you have some more of your life back. I think perhaps sooner. We can at least start sooner. Okay. You will enjoy some Midnight Mass and then you will understand why people are talking about Midnight Mass so much in relation to this show. I can't wait. You're all of it. My only question for you is, is there like a runtime equivalency here? Like, do you need to watch Speed Racer five times? But the thing is, I don't think I'll like Speed Racer and you know you'll love Midnight Mass. I know for a fact you are going to love Speed Racer. Did you know about one in three people with plaque psoriasis may also develop psoriatic arthritis, which causes joint pain, stiffness and swelling?

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23:10Joanna Robinson:Quick timeline for Widow's Bay. Just some major events that have happened that I just want to run through. So in 1702, and I shout out the Widow's Bay subreddit, which is just thriving. I got this off the subreddit. In the year 1702, a plague reaches the island. In the same year, founding father Richard Warren marries Sarah Westcott. He also carries a cylinder containing the heart of the plague affecting Widow's Bay. 1786, a deadly storm strikes Widow's Bay, forcing the residents to take shelter inside the church. four days later, they turned to cannibalism. So 1702 and then 1786. 1810, the SS Mary sets sail from Widow's Bay, but while returning to the island, the mayor orders the lighthouse to be shut down, coveting the captain's bride.

23:54Joanna Robinson:The ship crashes, killing everyone on board. That's 1810. 1846, the fog that stole the souls occurs. A supernatural fog engulfs the island, presumably carrying ghosts of the SS Mary sailors. 1873, SS Mary still featuring. a ghostly ship appears off the coast of Widow's Bay, the SS Mary, which had sunk 62 years earlier. Okay. Fast forward, 1951. A serial killer clown terrorizes the Widow's Bay Inn. Yep. 1962, a devastating New Year's Eve disaster strikes Widow's Bay. 2000, a serial killer targets teenage girls in Widow's Bay earning the nickname The Boogeyman. The year 2026. The fog returns? a sea hag emerges General Haggery ensues again this is quoting this subreddit but I co-sign our Queen Patricia gets tricked by a cursed book throws a party nearly gets everyone drowned in the bay accurate the boogeyman returns and a storm's a brewing so like in terms of calamitous things that have befallen Widow's Bay yeah this is just like a you know a rapid acceleration of all the things are coming back here in the year 2026.

25:09Joanna Robinson:A couple more incidents that we don't have years for. The witch burnings, we don't have quite a year for that. The captain from the inn who lost his mind. And then the ungrateful Hortense Fitzgerald, our most favorite incident. So that's, I mean, I don't know. It's just fun to think about, not fun, haha, but like it is fun to think about, you know, how many dates they've thrown at us. Yeah. But we don't have a sort of like every 10 years or every five years or something like that. the island and its capricious thirst for blood and souls to devour doesn't seem to have a set schedule that we understand yet.

25:45Well, it's when it gets hungry, the bell rings.

25:47Joanna Robinson:Got it. And then you bring whichever body you would like to sacrifice down into the little chair dungeon, open up the panel, or maybe you don't even need to open the door. Maybe it's going to open the door. You just leave whoever you want in the chair, be on your way, and you buy yourself eight to nine years of peaceful tranquility. In people scouring the items that are in the museum, there is like a barbed wire thing that almost looks like a crown of thorns. Like it's very Jesus-y in its construction. But right next to it is like a leather cuff that looks like perhaps it is a cuff that was once attached to said chair.

26:20Joanna Robinson:So again, this is like a secret hiding in plain sight of this town. Who knows? Again, this is a question we were asking ourselves last week. Who knows? Genuinely terrifying. But again, as you're laying out all these dates, all I'm hearing is there have been hundreds of years of war and propagation. And there have to be so many more Warrens out there. I thought you said war and propagation, but war and propagation, sure. All right, so you think we're just crawling with Warrens. I think if this were true to the family tree, this island would be riddled with Warrens. Narratively, we're going to have one to two Warrens.

26:57Joanna Robinson:Let's circle back. I don't think it's physically possible for a novel to be longer than war and peace when you're trying to skate that by me, and I don't think it's true. But warm propagation could be. I don't think so. Is that just the Bible? Honestly, yes. All right. This episode, episode eight, we're finally getting to it. Rob, given your enthusiasm for Orinoco Flow, which appeared earlier in our prestige experience this season, industry, right? It was industry. When Enya came up, how did you feel about Caribbean Blue, Enya being here in this episode? ecstatic. Do you think Patricia is an Enya listener?

27:34Joanna Robinson:Does that track for you? Yes. She owns Pure Moods. I love it. Do you think how much did you, I mean, I'm so sorry that her order got fucked up and she doesn't want to get anyone in trouble. She just wants them to maybe learn from the experience. Patricia, satisfied with her work, she helped save the island, she thinks. Enya, on. Moderate to heavy pour of the red wine. Her preferred wine. Why are you being judgmental? I'm not judgmental. Okay. I'm celebrating. It sounded a little judgmental. She doesn't have to be around those like mean women who are like, we're all drinking white. If you want to drink red, that's fine, Patricia.

28:08Joanna Robinson:She just can drink red in peace, but not in peace because the boogeyman's there. And not in peace because she tried to get chicken parm and coconut cream pie, and she ended up with whatever like high protein diet nightmare this alternative order was. Unkillable monster trope in film TV and mythology. Okay. So as you noted, we are definitely doing Michael Myers here. I mean, other than Jaws, I would say the clearest comp we've done to another. Without a doubt. You know, and The Shining, I guess. But like, this is even clearer, I would say. And here's where I'm going to hopefully delight you with some stunt actor information.

28:40Joanna Robinson:Okay. So we have Aaron Armstrong, spelled in a really fun way, A-I-R-O-N. Aaron Armstrong is playing the boogeyman. um Aaron Armstrong played the shape in David Gordon Green's Halloween Kills the shape 1978 so he played you know Michael Myers essentially like in 78 right like that's so if you go on his Instagram it's just like full of him in the Michael Myers mask so like they got a guy he's been here who like has done this um he knows how to stalk he he can fall and get up again. He's got it. A fun fact is that the actor playing, he's only listed as employee, but the gas station attendant, the one employee at the gas station.

29:34May he rest in peace.

29:36Joanna Robinson:Is he dead? I mean, it was quite a throw. He got hurled into the canopy of the woods. It was quite a throw. He was only trying to run his gas station. And save a life. He really thought he was doing a good thing. That's also a stunt actor. His name is David Armstrong. So Aaron Armstrong and David Armstrong. Are they brothers? I could not conclusively prove this. So they do have similar cheekbones, but I could not find clear evidence. They have both worked on Marvel Netflix shows, The Defender Show. David Armstrong, who plays the gas station attendant, was the Iron Fist double for Finn Jones. he also he's been involved in a couple curse properties he was the he was Finn Jones double for Iron Fist and he was also in Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark on Broadway in the Spidey suit so these are things he's done but he's incredible like if you go on his Instagram and again I was trying to match these brothers but if you go on his Instagram like he's incredible but I love the idea that they I almost like the idea if they are brothers or if they know each other or whatever that they cast him just for this like this moment this lift and throw and they got like two season stunt performers to do this.

30:43Joanna Robinson:Like, I think that's kind of great. The brotherly love of one stunt performer who has been Michael Myers being faux Michael Myers, getting to throw his brother into the woods. I kind of like that as an idea. I genuinely do. And there's like history. Heidi and Renee Moneymaker, who are two of my favorite female stunt performers, sisters, like they're incredible. They're a dynasty. So I love this idea of a stunt dynasty. Anyway, so this is our boogeyman. What do you attribute that to? Is that nature or nurture? Is that just like, there's something in their DNA that is thrill-seeking? I think they're probably, no, I think they're probably like, you know, physically like predisposed to this kind of work.

31:17Joanna Robinson:And then like probably, yeah, you see your older sibling is like, you're both athletes probably because like all stunt people are probably athletes as kids, right? So you're athletes and then you see your older sibling like get into this thing and you're like, oh, wow, I want to do that too. And it's pretty great. But in terms of like the unkillable monster trope in film TV mythology, Michael Myers is not obviously like the original version of this. John Carpenter has said that Yul Brynner in Westworld the unkillable cowboy in Westworld was his main inspo there's also like Texas Chainsaw Massacre all sorts of stuff and then in mythology even richer across the globe this is a trope and usually there's like one thing that will do it in this case Patricia hopes it's incineration it's a decent bet who's to say the dustpan might return.

32:09Joanna Robinson:I don't know. But one mythological creature that I thought was interesting was Typhon, which is this Greek mythological creature, monster, unkillable monster with Echidna, the father and mother of like most mythological monsters, but was ultimately defeated by Zeus with lightning bolts. And I was just sort of like thinking about Patricia's taser in that context. Like what is the taser if not Zeus's lightning bolt of Widow's Bay. It's a great connection. I mean, the stun gun being the closest thing we have to Zeus, I find to be true of modern life. And I love that power for Patricia specifically, even if she's only at 2%.

32:47Joanna Robinson:Is it a stun gun or a taser? Is there a difference? I believe that is a stun gun. Okay. I believe the taser is the one that looks shape-wise, counterintuitively, a little more like a gun and shoots out the dart that then electrocutes. I think that is a taser. I believe so. Okay. But could be hideously wrong and we'll issue another correction if that is the case. This is a great bit. The like low battery on this, the needing to charge it, the tripping on the cord at one point. So one, charge your devices. Yeah. Two, proper cord management at all times. It will keep you alive. Keep the stun gun and or taser fully charged at all times, what you're saying.

33:24I do think, look, I have a couple of small notes execution wise. If you are someone like Patricia, are you not keeping the stun gun in like your bedside table? Like, why is that by the front door? Maybe she has one upstairs as well. Maybe she's got multiples. Maybe she's got three or four just like scattered around the home. Okay, that part makes sense.

33:41Joanna Robinson:Yeah, and this is the foyer one. Yes. I understand why from the moment that this dude is set on fire, why Patricia's like, I'm just going to stand here with the shotgun. And honestly, my favorite moment and stretch of the whole episode, even putting the Enya aside, just the whole thing of the shotgun to his head, beat for beat for beat every step of the way. Really wonderful stuff. I mean, I did just have the question of, I understand why Patricia is not doing this, but anyone else involved, the EMTs or otherwise, is there no curiosity whatsoever to take off this dude's mask? And maybe you already are so sure this is the exact same guy who was the boogeyman before.

34:16Do you not want to just make sure? Do you not want to see what state he's in? And I think earlier in the episode, too, when you first see the boogeyman and you first get this reveal that the mask has been stolen, I at least had the thought of, is this somebody playing a cruel prank on Patricia? And clearly that has proven wrong over time. This isn't a mortal being. who's getting up after every fall. But I didn't think it was Chris, but it's like, could Chris have hired somebody to scare Patricia for some cheap revenge?

34:43Joanna Robinson:I wouldn't put it past Chris. I'm just saying, you got to take off the mask. We've seen the Scream franchise. It could be anyone under the mask. It could be Skeet Ulrich. It could be Matthew Lillard. It could be anyone. Spoilers for all the Screams. Just the first one. Okay, fair. I preserve the rest. The thing that I really like about this is because this is a recurrence of the Boogeyman. Yeah. Um, because this is essentially like Halloween 2. Yes. Right? This is, uh, any, any version of Halloween where Laurie Strode is not believed about anything that happened to her. But specifically Halloween 2, there's a moment in Halloween 2 where I think it's Dr.

35:19Joanna Robinson:Loomis is saying like, um, you know, a law enforcement officer is like over the corpse of Michael Myers. And he's like, get away from him. Yeah. He's not dead. Yeah. Michael Myers slits that dude's throat, right? So like we get exactly that with EMT here. So I like that this is a sequel and this whole idea of like, again, believe women or whatever. Believe Patricia, except she wasn't always telling the truth, but she's mostly telling the truth. When she shows up at book club and she's like trying to help them. But also aren't we kind of like, get them, boogeyman. That's the thing. Like get Chris at least, you know?

35:53They really walk the line. And this is what great horror movies do. It's like you kind of do want to see some people die and you want to pick and choose who it is and you may be right, you may be wrong.

36:01Joanna Robinson:Protect Patricia. Obviously. But like some of those women get to go. Chris especially. Chris getting tased or stun gunned was like incredible. Incredibly funny. Yeah. A great just like surprise moment within this episode. But I love that kind of Halloween 2 dynamic or if you even want to take the sequel part out of it, Patricia as like somebody who is very fluent in horror movies almost. Like she's not doing any of the, I would say maybe putting aside the occasional like stop and wait to see if he shows up. But she's leaving nothing to chance. She's getting her traps laid. She's there with the shotgun.

36:36She's like, I am not, I'm not letting anyone fuck up this chain of incineration.

36:40Joanna Robinson:Well, the thing that I like, again, and Widow's Bay has been so good about this from the beginning is we are not so far ahead of the audience. So we see that the boogeyman mask is gone and immediately Wick's like, I'm going to the house and then I'm going to find Patricia. Yes. And even though Wick does not ultimately like is not integral into saving Patricia or any case, like he's on it. Right. And the Patricia as soon like, you know, she gets lured outside and doesn't notice that her front door is open, but like pretty quickly is like, there's fucking someone here. There's creepy breathing in this next room.

37:14Joanna Robinson:I'm out of here, you know? And so she's not like, I'm going to take my time, get ready for bed. You know what I mean? It's just sort of like she's with us, the audience, when we're like, there's a dude there and you've got to run. And the dread of that filmmaking, I thought, was really effective. From the moment you see the open door and you get the heavy breathing and you get her trying to sneak out the front. And just like you as an audience member are trained to every dark corner and trying to see, is there somebody there? Is there a boogeyman there? Is there a normal human there? Pulling us into that experience is such a key part of what makes effective horror.

37:47And the fact that they're able to do that and do the jokes at the same time, I'm just never going to stop being impressed by that.

37:52Joanna Robinson:I know, I know. Something that I really love is that, among all these other things, Cato Flynn's physical comedy, which we have been praising the whole time, her dancing in the previous episode, etc. Like, all of her running stuff is so funny. Her costume in this episode, the oversized shirt, the shorts, and then the like muckluck wool like slippers that come up to your like that whole look is so good. And just like so perfectly encapsulates this like beautifully awkward, storky sort of like run thing that she does. And I just think it's so good. She somehow manages to look like someone who is running for the first time.

38:33And that's really all you want in this kind of horror setup.

38:36Joanna Robinson:I have a question for the people, for the inhabitants of Widow's Bay. Okay. are they all on sleeping pills? Like, no one's waking up. Patricia's running around and screaming her head off and everyone is sleeping soundly. It's very quiet there, too. Yeah. Anyone's running around screaming bloody murder. Although, one of the things I do love about this sequence is how, like, out of breath she is. Like, she's almost, like, trying to scream but gasping instead. Really effective. But yeah, the banging on the doors, the screaming, you would think some neighbor. Also, who, like, what time is it? Maybe the episode says, but, like, is it a really late night book club or are just a lot of people asleep very early on this island?

39:15Joanna Robinson:I think it's like nine o 'clock. Okay. The Lovely Bones Book Club. I just want to say, Chris, who one of our listeners a while ago emailed to remind us that Chris is the name of one of the bullies in Carrie. So like, you know, a perfect naming for this character. Chris reading the Lovely Bones and being like enraptured by the quote unquote love story inside the lovely bones. I'm glad that her friends were making fun of her for that. Like, Goofy is not, you know, condemnation enough for Chris being like, oh, and they had their little, like, matching necklaces. Oh, my God. I was, I was... Everything regarding the lovely bones in this episode is very good.

39:57And just like the fact that they would pick that for their book club is very funny in a way that I cannot explain why. Like, exactly what that touches, but it certainly does.

40:05Joanna Robinson:You shouted out the, in the gas station the previous episode, They were playing 311 Amber, right? Yes. In this episode, we're playing absolutely Story of a Girl by Nine Days. How many days in a year?

40:22Joanna Robinson:She looks so sad in photographs. She did. We absolutely love her, though. That's Evan's mom. When she smiles. When she smiles. Only when she smiles. Absolutely Story of a Girl, Nine Days, Amber, 311. This is a real time warp gas station sort of thing. And on the one hand, is it, this is the Muzak of 2026 is like 20 years ago music. But also the Lovely Bones was written in 2002. Story of a Girl, absolutely Story of a Girl is a 2000 track. The Boogeyman first appeared in like 2000. So like, is this just like sort of we're back in the time period of when the Boogeyman was first haunting the island?

41:00Joanna Robinson:Just like a subtle sort of time warp energy. I think it's probably some of that. And also some of this idea that we've talked about in previous pods of just like everything here feels a little behind the mainland, right? Like there's just like a disconnect between normal modern life and this place where there's shit for cell reception. Maybe there's no Wi-Fi whatsoever. We're streaming like old British horror movies. This is just kind of what the vibe is on Widow's Bay. The dream. Look, I would welcome it. I would welcome many parts of living in Widow's Bay, boogeyman aside. Can I just say that this, I think, further proves my theory that cell phones ruin most movies.

41:38Joanna Robinson:Okay. Because if Patricia had a charged cell phone that she could use to call Wick or Tom or anyone else, those two people probably specifically, to come help her, that's the end of the episode to a certain degree. But all you have to do for that is like, she was so scared or startled or she didn't bring it with her when she went to go check out the paddy wagon. and then she comes back in and it's like across the room. It's upstairs. It's in the creepy room with the boogie man, whatever it is. I just think this show is so much better because we cannot use the cell phone at all as a crutch, a narrative crutch.

42:11I'm not going to fight you on it. Thank you. Everything about life in general will be better without the cell phone connection and yet here we are tethered to them.

42:17Joanna Robinson:Yeah. Let's talk about Talman, Evan. If there's anything we haven't hit so far, what do you want to talk about? I think it is scarier somehow that Lauren wasn't possessed or afflicted by something supernatural and it is just like she had a stroke and a psychotic break. If that's all there is, maybe there's more to it. Maybe it's a deeper, darker story than that. But I think, I mean, you and I share, I think, a bond over these sorts of supernatural type stories. And when something just like very human and normal, but also depressing and tragic happens within them, it can be like the most gutting element.

42:53And that's where kind of my mind went in hearing what it seems happened to Lauren.

42:57Joanna Robinson:You're alluding to, I think, a very famous storyline that we won't spoil in case Mallory's listened to this podcast from Buffy Vampire Slayer. Yes. But like, I was also thinking about Buffy and I was thinking about the way in which like real life tragedies can become supernatural inside of this world. Because like if, you know, preeclampsia being becoming this sort of like, I don't know, Jane Eyre, like mad woman in the attic, like my hidden, like, you know, mentally unwell wife, like turning, turning something that sounds so literal and medical into this sort of gothic horror idea. of I've uncovered this secret that my father kept about my mother.

43:45Joanna Robinson:And the ravings inside of these letters certainly sound, you know, spookier than you would think. So yeah, it can go either way, I think in that regard. But either way, we're thinking about Buffy, which is very on brand for us. It is very on brand for us. But yeah, I just love the treatment of it within those sorts of concepts. It doesn't feel out of scope with the genre trappings of this show. It felt true to what the story is and has been. And the idea that of all of these secrets of, you know, dead slash undead founders who were buried alive, of like all of the mysteries of the island, that some are just like family mysteries that become this larger than life legendary kind of thing.

44:26Joanna Robinson:How did you feel about Matthew Rhys' performance in this episode? I mean, he's been having like so much slapstick fun all season. And we've raved about that. I love that aspect of what he's getting to do on the show because I think it's very different from what he's often asked to do. To me, he has always been, or most commonly been, the kind of performer who can just so easily tap into this deep, profound sadness on a dime. Absolutely out of nowhere. He's so charming. He can dial that part of it up, and then it just undercuts and just stabs you in the side with some bit of tragic backstory. And then Philip Jennings is like, well, this is the Welsh way, Rob.

45:01Joanna Robinson:Is it? You know? Yeah. We're a sorrowful people. I'm sorry about that for you and I guess for Matthew Rhys, but damn if it isn't effective. Yeah, he's so good in this episode. Like, he's so good always, but like, I just think and establishing all of that with Tom and Evan, with them finding, like him coming clean, him having this other stash of photos of Lauren behind a book, like, I don't know, more at the ready for him to grab. I don't know why they were tucked away there. I think just the idea, though, that these are being hidden for multiple reasons, right? Like there's the things he's keeping from Evan.

45:38And then there's just like the parts that he's keeping from himself. So like he doesn't want to have to grapple with on a daily basis. And so that part of like this, like the person I love wouldn't want you to remember the person who wrote this letters is such an understandable and deeply depressing idea. And one that would weigh down a family and weigh down a father. And the idea that we're seeing him try to understand, like, what do I share with Evan? when. And I'm going to bring out these photos that are sad to me, that bring me down. Because in this moment, they're like a heartening idea. The idea of who Lauren was and the life that she led before all this is somehow like now the happy thing that brings them together.

46:19Joanna Robinson:We did get an answer from production on this show about the parentage between Tom and Evan. Did we? They labeled the email, Rob, don't read this. I did not read it. Do you want to close your eyes for a second and I'll just tell the camera? Let's do it. Okay. We'll just zone out for a little bit. Do your thing. All right. We're done. That was it? I just mouthed it. They have to leave me my lips and they have to watch the video in order to mouth. You got to throw in the subtitles, I guess. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's information we have that Rob doesn't have. Thank you for protecting my innocence.

46:55Joanna Robinson:I always protect your innocence. So let's talk about, we've got two more episodes left. Yeah. What, you know, obviously this, you know, it isn't over. So our intrepid heroes are going to try to figure out what, you know, if there's a Warren still alive. Yeah. How do we eliminate them? And presumably the reveal that it's Evan. The last two episodes are called Emergency Shelter. So a storm's a brewing. Yeah. And we hope you enjoyed your time. Bashir and his pregnant wife. you know, have been told by Patricia, get the fuck off the island. Yeah. But if this is Jurassic Park rules and a storm is a Bruin, can you even get off the island?

47:46You think this is like Isla Nubar? Like you gotta get in my chopper?

47:51Joanna Robinson:Well, you gotta get on the last boat or else the storm's here and you can't get on the boat. We're on a ferry schedule. Yeah. It seems morning-based from what we've seen. although I imagine there is a later in the evening off the island, right? That makes sense. Yeah. I mean, we've already had copious warnings about like, oh, if there's thick fog, we're going to throw that schedule to the wind. Like it's nothing. So bad news for Bashir and his wife, bad news for all the off-island girls still on the island, bad news for the many visitors around the diner who were just like having a good time planning their holiday.

48:22Joanna Robinson:You don't care about the off-island girls. Don't pretend now that you care about the off-island girls. I care about their general well-being. Okay. In the pecking order of people who I wouldn't mind dying in Widow's Bay. Yeah, like Chris and some of the mean girls. Really, Chris, most of all. Yeah, Chris, most of all. The other women are like along for the ride. They're enablers, though. They are. They don't stop Chris from that bullshit. I'm not excusing them. Yeah. And just the idea of like the whole like buh-bye, you don't have any friends because you're a psycho, just completely uncalled for.

48:49Joanna Robinson:I mean, and then she got stun-gunned and or tased and it was great. Can we stop for a moment and just appreciate what Patricia has been through over the stretch. Like you alluded to some of it, but it's like she almost kills the entire town in a bonfire. Yeah. That night she goes with Wick and Tom and finds the Reverend's dead body hung on his own door. Then she spends the next day babysitting Tom through his spooky mushroom trip. I mean, kind of off and on. But she's got things to do. She's popping around town. Worst babysitter ever. It's not great. I'm not saying she did a great job. Terrible job.

49:23Then she encounters the eternal corpse of Richard Boren, dug him up, clearly has seen some shit.

49:30Joanna Robinson:Possibly offended him by something she said. And then is chased down by the boogeyman. This is like 72 hours. Yeah. You know? She's been through it. She's allowed to stun gun somebody. And if it happens to be Chris, all the better. I really agree. And you're right. I'm not that you thought you were wrong, but I Googled it. You're right. It's a stun gun. We're just fact checking gun shy this week. We're just like, you know what? I don't want to be wrong again. Every eye will be fucking dotted. Okay, so Bashir and his wife. Anything about Wick in terms of these final two episodes that you're thinking about?

50:01I mean, we have to get closure with Jerry. They have to have a conversation, no? Or you think this is it for them?

50:06Joanna Robinson:Do you think, are you rooting for Jerry's husband to die so that Wick can step in? I didn't say that. I'm also, for the sake of fact-checking, not sure they're married. Maybe they're just, you know. Oh, her fella. They're partners. They're dating. I don't know. You're right. I didn't ring-check the fingers. Maybe Jerry's a swinger. I don't want to make too many assumptions. Whatever happens in Widow's Bay stays in Widow's Bay, clearly, because you cannot get off this goddamn island. Because the last fairy's gone and a storm's a-brewin'. Yeah. All right, so we're going to take shelter. Something we have not talked about, Dale and Rosemary, they're barely in this episode, but we do get this great, like, is it skin cancer?

50:39Joanna Robinson:Yep, moment with Rosemary and Dale. Ruth is also here. Ruth, crucially, I will say, basically says, hey, the angry mob has been calling for you. She names a bunch of people and this sounds like sort of the action committee that is coming for Mayor Tom Loftus. So is that going to play a part in the final two episodes? Simply has to. So yeah, what are the reminders we get of loose threads? I think the angry mob for sure. Just the existence of Rosemary and Dale and Ruth, who I imagine if everyone is like battening down the hatches, sheltering in place sort of thing. We're going to have to account for them.

51:11Yeah. you know touching base on the Wick Jerry stuff but not concluding it are there any other kind of dangling threads that we should keep an eye on

51:20Joanna Robinson:um I don't know where are the off island girls what is PJ Glanfield doing he may not be an immortal spirit but he's up to no good he's up to no good has everything been resolved church wise has everything been resolved black mushroom wise bell wise never is that reptile still at a walkabout I don't know By the end of the season, will we see somebody in real-time present tense put in the sacrifice chair? Are we going to see the big steel doors open? But then is it over? If someone gets sacrificed before the season's over, is the curse satiated or does it thirst for more blood? I mean, to me, that's like the out, right?

52:03It's not as so simple as like, do you kill your son or protect the island? It's like, there is another path here to buy time.

52:09Joanna Robinson:Well, right. this puts Tom in the Richard Warren spot. Richard Warren, who's like my children, you know, had this tender, you know, thought towards his children, not towards his second wife for sure, not towards his first wife, it seems like. Nope. Not really caring about the wives, but yeah. Also, some of the, you know, it's interesting for Bashir's wife to show up in this episode because a lot of people have pointed out that like other than now Bashir and Shell, we have not seen any existent couples. Well, Jerry and her fella, I guess. But like that Tom is single, that Wick is single, that Patricia is single, and that we have not seen like any other, you know, couples.

52:53Joanna Robinson:And they're like, is that Widow's Bay? Is that, you know? I mean, it's a pretty limited dating pool. Like you - You can marry an off-island person. But you got to convince them to come. Like, I'm just saying, you get to the bottom of the hinge bucket real fast in Widow's Bay. Like you keep swiping And the app is just like Sorry guy I don't know Two extremely handsome EMTs showed up Now only one of them Walked away But two of those guys Come from Really hot Like I think Patricia Keeps encountering Like incredibly hot men On this island So I love this for her You know I thought she and that Other EMT had a moment I mean she at least She at least tried To save his life Maybe kind of did Certainly saved Bashir's life Yeah Patricia's a hero You know I agree If the dating pool Isn't good enough for her Who is it good enough for I was really worried when Bashir got slashed in the belly.

53:38Joanna Robinson:I'm glad that he seems okay. Along those lines, I mean, just the coolest thing anyone can do on screen is reload a pump-action shotgun. And the fact that Patricia gets to do it, let's fucking ride. I also loved her, like, I mean, obviously, sorry, we're all over the map now. But I will say the whole, like, her plan that she forms to, like, put gas in the ground and then use her stun gun, not a taser, to light it up. And then she's like, oh, wait, I have to go pay for gas and runs inside. Like, hey, guess what? This show rules. It's so funny. It's such a funny payoff for just the slow walking Michael Myers thing in general.

54:09I really thought they nailed so many of those aspects.

54:12Joanna Robinson:That's what happens when you get one of the Armstrong brothers potentially to play Michael Myers. This is why you go to the source of one of the random Halloween sequels slash reboots to get a version of Michael Myers. There's one shot in particular where we get a lot during the chase of Patricia kind of runs off screen and then you're kind of waiting for the boogeyman to catch up. and on one of those occasions the boogeyman is like three times closer to the camera than you expect and it's just like it's something like that where it just kind of depressurizes the situation you get kind of the jump of being scared but also the relief of the surprise at the same time just yet another way this show is just kind of perfectly calibrated also the score is really good in terms of the sort of like mimicking of the Halloween score but doing its own special thing at the same time it's a tough one to mimic you know Carpenter's Carpenter for a reason anything else?

55:01Joe, I do have one last thing. If you were Jerry or a member of the Historical Society, if you're a fine citizen of Widow's Bay, are you eager to put the implements of a mass murderer who may be an immortal beast of some kind, like the boogeyman, on display in your museum? Are you putting the mask in there?

55:20Joanna Robinson:If you're also saying like the witches caught them, burned them, like if that's your vibe, Jerry, I think you are. If you're like cannibalism for, you know, like that's what the whole historical society is. That feels like history. This is not an outlier at all. I guess not. Especially, look, we live in a true crime era. For the people of Widows Bay, this is true crime. Maybe I am just a little squeamish around this idea, but like serial killer notes and recollections and masks feels a little grotesque. I don't even like true crime podcasts. Like I don't like a murder podcast. I'm not. You prefer the lived experience.

55:52You prefer to be doing the murders.

55:55Joanna Robinson:But so would I go to the historical society? No, not ever. Not once. But again, options are limited on this island of recreations. So something to think about. We got to get Evan off here. We got to get him to college. To college. Gets to ponder. He was so excited. He doesn't want to walk the freedom trail, but he has a lot of other things that he wants to do. Well, now that he's known one off-island girl, he's like, are they all like that? And I need to investigate. And clearly he wants to go to campus, whatever campus that might be in the greater Boston area. Or off campus, you know? Hey. All right.

56:25Joanna Robinson:So that is Widow's Bay, episode eight. If we missed anything on like Broach Watch or anything else, press THV at Spotify.com. I did enjoy all of the Secret Warren emails that we got this week. Some great stuff. Genuinely amazing. If you are one of the Armstrong stunt brothers and you're actually brothers, and I could not confirm that, please let us know. Anything else that they should email us about, Rob? Or if you're Emma Ketchum, right? Those are our two asks for the week. And Aaron and David Armstrong, email us. I think that's it. I think that's a great podcast. Okay. I think we did it. I think we said everything completely factually accurately.

57:02Joanna Robinson:Possibly. Maybe for the first time in podcast history, but we did it. All right. Thank you to Devrinaldo, Kai Grady, Jacob Cornett. I also heard Chris Waller's voice. So Chris is around here somewhere. Thank you to Chris Waller. Thank you to Mysterious Basements. Thank you to Broaches. Thank you to Broaches. I mean, they just, For sure. They're always doing important work. Yeah. Thank you to a lone sausage link in a styrofoam container. Nothing has ever looked sadder. Thank you to Patricia for phoning in her complaint. It fell on deaf ears in a full voicemail inbox. Sure. But she didn't want to get that person in trouble.

57:39No. She's not trying to cost anybody their job. No. Just wants them to know so they can learn.

57:43Joanna Robinson:That's very me energy. Thank you, Rob Mahoney. Thank you, Jill. I should say, Friday Night Lights, we did an episode that's in the feed. We did. If you guys didn't check that out. Euphoria finale will have happened by the time this episode's dropped. But it'll be there on the feed for you to revisit. Will we ever be the same again? Who's to say? And then, of course, more What is May. And Cape Fear is something we're going to be starting soon. We will be covering Cape Fear. Also on Apple. Apple spooks and chills and fears. It really is stalking season. Oh, also, the Hacks finale aired last night.

58:17Joanna Robinson:I haven't had a chance to watch it yet by the time we're recording this, but I might drop like a Hacks finale reaction into our Euphoria finale. Just like a brief, like, this is how much I cried or whatever. I would love that. Okay. Bye.

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