‘Widow’s Bay’ Season 1 Finale: For Whom the Bell Tolls

19:03Joanna Robinson:Yeah. She might have told him about Lauren. Yes. Possibly. And so Tom is out here doing a bunch of things he says are for the good of Widow's Bay. And Ruth is out here living for the good of Widow's Bay. Like she's the one who wants to be a part of a community, who wants to help other people. Like she is a genuinely good person who is offering hands to everyone around her. She's the one who will take in, Evan, in part because it's her grandson, but. On the one hand, yes. On the other hand, when she gets good and doped up and starts telling her story, like that's not necessarily like a good person story.

19:34Well, she's lived a life.

19:36Joanna Robinson:She's made some choices. She's made some choices. And she's rectifying with those choices in a way that Tom, it takes him way too long to do the very same. Her cross-stitch quote, a Tennessee Williams quote, the world is violent and mercurial. It will have its way with you. We are saved only by love, love for each other, and the love that we pour into the art we feel compelled to share. Being a parent, being a writer, being a painter, being a friend, we live in a perpetually burning building, and what we must say from it all the time is love. Shout out Tennessee Williams. Really impressed with her dexterity and eyesight that she was able to cross-stitch that entire massive quote in two tiny letters onto her cross-stitch.

20:12Well, she couldn't read her own Stitch handwriting by the end of it, but...

20:15Joanna Robinson:Listen, it's tough. But, like, the philosophy that pours out of Ruth in this sequence... Incredible. When she talks about, like, the trolley is life and I'm the lever. Like, all of that is just really good stuff, really well performed. I just think this whole conversation and that debate, like, this is an action set piece. You know, like, this is high drama. And it is, like, when I think about what I want out of a finale, Yeah, you want Bashir coming in with the gun. You want some kind of monstery element here on Widow's Bay. But I want people having these kinds of conversations and really reckoning with what it means to live in a place like this and what you're willing to excuse.

20:56And with all due respect to Patricia, who I won't say a bad word about, she hasn't really had time to articulate her perspective on not killing Ruth other than it's a bad thing to kill a person. What Ruth is saying here is it's not just bad to kill a person, but the act of choosing to kill a person for this reason is the choice you never come back from and I am not willing to do that like I am willing to live in a chaotic world I am willing to try to bring love into it however I can at the end of the day Tennessee Williams style but it simply wouldn't be me

21:26Joanna Robinson:can we put Tennessee Williams style on the quote card for this week I think that and what I love about the way that this finale works out because she's not dead despite being shot in the head I think we need to talk about that yeah but she's not dead and so So, you know, first of all, Bashir, of course, is the one who pulled the trigger. So Tom has plausible deniability there. But like... It's at least partly his fault. Oh, it's definitely partly his fault. But he hasn't really fully pulled that lever yet. But that decision, that trolley problem is still... There's just eight more people on the trolley than he understood there to be.

22:00Joanna Robinson:But he's still got to decide whether or not to pull that lever. Or can he like weasel his way around it and figure out how to make other people pull the lever for him or something like that? It's true. I mean, I think it's such an interesting refraction of the stuff we get from Wick and Tom earlier in the season about how he's a coward, right? Him being a coward kind of stops him, at least gives him after poisoning Ruth the moment of clarity to want to go save her. Like I think those things are folded into each other, but it also does just leave open the window for Bashir to come in and do something dangerous and violent and impulsive.

22:33But he's also doing that thing for the same reason that Tom has been doing so many things we learned over the course of this season. Like when Ruth is unconscious because he drugged her and he's kind of giving her his last confession before what he assumes will be her death. What he says is that like his wife warned him about all of this. And then when she had her stroke, it basically confirmed for him that the curse of Widows Bay is real, that all of the supernatural shit is real and dangerous. And he knew that. And the father in him wanted Evan to have as rich a full life as he could and wanted to bring other stuff to Widows Bay.

23:04and the mayor in him, who should have known that's a terrible fucking idea, invited it all in anyway.

23:10Joanna Robinson:Here's what I think is really interesting. A question we've been asked, you and I have been sort of debating all season is sort of like, what did Tom know? When did he know it? What does he believe in? And the answer was more complicated than either of us were sort of drilling down on because you were like, well, surely he knew because he didn't take Evan off island. And it's like, he knew on some level. He was in deep denial about it. But what I love about this is like, it's very final season of Breaking Bad. Like I did it because I liked it. When he says, I wanted more for him. Yes. And then he says, and myself.

23:44Joanna Robinson:Like he is looking at himself in the mirror here and he's just sort of like, let me be really honest. Again, Matthew Rhys delivering that whole speech of like, I laughed it off. I teased her about it. I don't understand why I didn't just listen. And this is sort of like a larger theme of the season. I have this like working theory in terms of like how did the message get lost? I don't know if this is overreaching, but there's this idea of like, do we listen to our elders? Like, do we listen to people? And it's just like people have been telling us all season about what's going on. And Ruth rattles off like, you know, all of these strange, you know.

24:21My dad got taken by a monster in the lake.

24:23Joanna Robinson:Yeah, my Aunt Betty just stopped talking. You know what I mean? We tried to build a trolley and all the workers disappeared. But like what Rosemary knows, Like all the old timers in the bar who were like goading Tom into going into the hotel, right, for the night. And then the old timer that they literally shut the door on in last week's episode. But like if you listened to these old people, perhaps we would have more pieces of the puzzle than we have at this point, you know? It's just everyone who's a little bit younger feels like they have all the answers or all the resources or like agile to the modern world in a way that acclimates them better to solve these contemporary problems.

25:01when these contemporary problems have been going on for hundreds of years because they are, surprise, mythical and demonic in nature.

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27:01Joanna Robinson:It is not really a Patricia and Wick episode, which is fine because they've had their time in the sun. Not, you know, Rosemary is also here and great as always, but she's had her time to shine. Bashir and Shell. I like Bashir's desperation. I like that we don't even have to see Patricia explain to him what's going on. We just like, he's trying to get to the bottom of the case and then he shows up, you know? I thought all of that was done really, really well. I thought his inclusion in this episode is perfect for the character he's been and what he's been going through all season. And we've been laughing at his exasperation and just like the reactions in those moments are really great for comedy.

27:41But when you really zoom out, he's a character who, despite the fact that he is in charge of the law enforcement on the island, has been given no information or at least like two steps behind.

27:51Joanna Robinson:I know, where did that information get lost? Right, like Tom always knows more. Lately, Patricia and Wick have known a lot more than Bashir. And so the fact that he is constantly playing catch up as far as what they know is what makes him so desperate in this moment. Where for him, like the clock is ticking, right? Like he is acting in a way where his child's life will be decided by what happens in the next couple hours. That's his understanding. Yeah, Shel is literally in labor. Based on the information he has, and he has less than Tom to process it. And he has less than Patricia and Wick to process it.

28:22And so it's another case where if he had just been looped in earlier, he might be making different decisions in a moment like this, or it might be a collaborative conversation between the four of them in a moment like this.

28:32Joanna Robinson:Well, that's like, you know, something I've been thinking about a lot because we've been covering these Batman movies on House of R, these Christopher Nolan examination of a society in a city. It's really a goth - You were wondering which was going to break first Bashir's spirit or his body. Or his body. But I think that the social contract, the benevolent lie, they're like the lies we tell to keep a society running is that is it ever excusable does everyone uh is the society better if everyone has all the information uh you know at the end of the day this is something we think about with the last of us as well alright Dale our guy Dale we've been waiting for Dale Jeff Hiller's character to get a really big moment I would say we still haven't seen all that Jeff Hiller can do no but like but he got a job run for his life I think it's a death trap.

29:25Joanna Robinson:It's really good. But this is where I want to talk about an amalgamation of reference, of lost references. I mean, this is just your moment. Do you want, can we just get a spotlight in here right on Joe for this? Well, listen, okay. So the television series Lost. Yeah, I've heard of it. I love to bring up at the drop of a hat that you binged recently, I think so that you would like be able to understand what the fuck I was talking about. Just so I could live in your general orbit. You know, Widow's Bay and Severance and all the other shows are like, of course, forever inspired by The fact that they go into shelter number three was really exciting for me because that means there's shelter number one and shelter number two elsewhere on the island, theoretically.

30:03Other hatches, other stations.

30:04Joanna Robinson:And this is a thing in Lost is like there's the Swan Station, there's the Pearl Station, there's the Flame Station, and there's like different information. And so, you know, they've got some pieces of the puzzle here, but are there other pieces of the puzzle in other shelters around the island? That's possible. Plus now that Dale is just like full on, he got a job with the Dharma Initiative, basically. Right. The reel-to-reel. Yeah. So the reel to reel, we mentioned this, I think when we saw like the VHS video earlier this season, but the reel to reel of like, so. So you're an offering. So your original sacrifice, like, that's so lost.

30:35Joanna Robinson:You can't even stand it. Uncanny. And I'm like, I'm thrilled about it. I love that there's like a reel for them, like for the sacrifices and for you, the one who's doing the sacrificing. When I watched this episode at home and I saw the reel come on, I was like, Joe is going to be busting to talk about this episode. I was so excited. And then I don't think this is a lost reference, but I thought I'd bring it up anyway. When she's talking about Deirdre, there's this part in season one where John Locke is hallucinating Boone in a very trippy, a drug trippy sort of sequence. And Boone keeps saying, Teresa goes up the stairs, Teresa goes down the stairs.

31:14Joanna Robinson:And I was like, Deirdre goes up the stairs, Deirdre goes down the stairs. Anyway, if you, PrestigeTV at Spotify.com, if you spotted other lost references that we missed. Could easily be. But that was just like really delightful and delicious to me. Just a dart in the middle of the board. I really need a character like Mikhail with like an eyepatch who can't die. That would be really exciting to me. Well, I mean, PJ Glanville? Yeah, PJ Glanville. Could be. Let's talk about it. The teens. I like that you were talking about sort of the younger the generations get, you know, the more that people think I know everything.

31:46Joanna Robinson:And I do like that it was the teens who did the most obviously reckless thing inside of, you know, as we're gathering information here and there. Of course, it's going to be the teens. But like, is PJ Glanville a cursed demon teen? Like, did he lure Kelly and Evan into that hatch? Or was he for real looking for an escape and a way to smoke some weed? I'm not even willing to give Kelly that benefit of the doubt. These off-island girls, they are up to no good. Do you think Kelly is an agent of evil? I mean, I know we're still a bit away from full-on Odyssey talk, but like the level of charm, kiss, coercion that Kelly lays on Evan in this episode.

32:25I'm just saying like we're in some like, I don't know, reverse siren territory. I don't know what's happening exactly, but the two of them.

32:32Joanna Robinson:You're ready for the classics. I mean, I always am. Okay. I am more open than ever to the idea. So out on fiction, out on musicals, and on the classics. Well, the Odyssey is nonfiction. Right, right. Famously. Historical epic. The whirlpool is real. Yeah, yeah, yeah. PJ Glanville and or Kelly. I mean they're either mere teenagers which are a kind of demon or they're straight up demons I don't know I it could go either way for me yeah I suspect that they're actually just teenagers doing a foolish thing yeah but Kelly sat in that chair she sat in that chair PJ doing bits in the chair that feels believable in a teenage way to me but locking Kenny in here poor Kenny R.I.P R.I.P I should say we get a head count of who's in the shelter.

33:21137.

33:22Joanna Robinson:Now it's 136. You got to sacrifice eight out of 136. And let's strike that right now. Eight out of 135? Because if you kill Patricia, so help me. There will be health to pay. Patricia's off the table as far as who we're sacrificing to the island. Well, I don't even know that everyone was in there. Well, she said everyone was accounted for except for Ruth. But I don't, like because... Oh, and I guess we have Tom and Ruth to count in that headcount as well. Right, but like Chris in the mean, like book club girls weren't there or they didn't want to pay them to be in the episode. I think they're in the background somewhere.

33:52Joanna Robinson:the entire population of the island is 137 people and you're also telling me that nobody knew that Shell was pregnant. I think the entire population of the island is much smaller than 137. Because it's the off-island girls and dishes. A bunch of them are, yeah, people who are there as tourists. Yeah. What is the population of Widows Bay? I'm curious. I'm going to say under 90, you know? That's tough, Rob. This is a two-restaurant town and one of them sucks. really tough how do you born in your graduating class in high school 1200 people yeah so we were slightly bigger than Widows Bay but you know they make them of all sizes it turns out it's true alright who knows what and where do we go from here so okay the storm breaks do you think Bashir gets back to the shelter and gets shell on a boat in time that she doesn't give birth on the island or does she give birth on the island well let's say this clearly a lot of these things are left hanging so that the writer's room can go any number of directions with season two.

34:49Like they don't have to make any hard commitments on a bunch of different fronts right now, this one included. I don't think he makes it back in time because Bashir needs to be a critical part of season two based on what he both knows and doesn't know.

34:59Joanna Robinson:Oh, right. And if Shell gets off the island, then they're gone. They're out of there. They're never coming back. Why would he stay? Why would he stay? Okay. Our listener, Eric, said, the point is, like Storm of the Century, a decision will have to be made, one that pits Tom against the entire town. seems like a neat way to close the season. So like, in a big picture way. We're not there yet because everyone doesn't know. So, Evan knows about the chair and what happened to Kenny. Yes. More so even than PJ and Kelly do. Than PJ and that off-island girl. They can draw their own conclusions, but Evan knows.

35:35Joanna Robinson:Okay. And the hatch is still partially open. Yes. We know that. Bashir knows Ruth was not the last descendant. But not who it was. Tom knows that Evan is the last descendant. He does indeed. Dale watched the reel-to-reel. I'm excited to have Dale more centrally in the plot. Well, actually, let's rewind to Tom for a second, because Tom, I believe, based on the information earlier in the season with Reverend Bryce, he, I think, does know that the bell tolling means trouble, right? Yes. But not necessarily exactly what it's called for. Right. Dale has the mathematical equation. He does. One toll the bell, one soul.

36:11Joanna Robinson:Dale does not strike me as a person who is not going to share that information. at least with like Rosemary and Patricia so they don't know yet but I feel like the office is going to know something it's gonna be gossiping okay um the brooch is in the water tides come back in Tom I'm just gonna say that I don't know what what information would be gleaned from the brooch washing back up ashore but like tides come back in well I mean especially if you believe if you originally did believe that this daughter died out in the ocean then the brooch washing up would be plausible anyway. So I thought it was just kind of putting our brooch watch finally to rest.

36:50Joanna Robinson:And I just think Tides come back in. I think they do come back in. So maybe we will see it again. As far as the brooch itself, clearly that is a tying of a plot thread. We get the, you know, the reveal that Ruth does have it as we suspected that she is among the war and bloodline. We kind of knew that coming into this week. And so it wasn't a big like, wow, she's got the brooch. to me it was more like I appreciated the character beat we got over Ruth kind of like beaming with pride over this like family heirloom over this thing that like cursed her to death well and Tom having a concrete reminder of why he was there because he was just sort of like softening and sort of like easing out of his mission and then the brooch brought him back with laser focus snap to reality eight chimes of the bell at the end so I'm sending Chris into the hatch are you sending anyone else into the hatch?

37:39I already voted for you. I'm sorry.

37:41Joanna Robinson:Not me on the island. Not Chris Ryan. Not me. I mean, I think clearly there's got to be some random towns, people who do not run the hotel and or wait. What was the name of the waitress who's very bad at her job? Oh, yeah. I don't remember, but sure. Whoever packed up that like straight piece of meat. I feel like it's Kathy, but I could be wrong. And denied Patricia her like coconut cream pie and chicken parm. That person deserves to be voted into the hatch. Okay. And who's doing the voting? I mean, like, it depends of the entire sort of, like, Parks and Rec Department get all the information or not.

38:18If it were me, I wouldn't sacrifice any of my coworkers.

38:22Joanna Robinson:But if I were in charge of this island and I were Tom and I was trying to keep my son alive, would I not keep luring off-island people? You know, like, and Sweetie Totting, that's another musical reference. I'm also familiar with Sweetie Totting. Anything that has been a movie musical, I've seen it. I'm just not out here trying to go to theater. That's why you don't like musicals, because you saw the fucking Johnny Depp Sweeney Todd. It's actually real Sweeney Todd. It's actually pretty good. That's not true. I liked it. Don't like Johnny Depp, but what can I tell you? But like luring randos off.

38:52Joanna Robinson:They're not one of us, and we'll feed them to the hatch. But even that would have to be underhanded at a certain point. If the word gets out that when you go to Widow's Bay, you've got an 80 % chance of survival, I think that's going to stump tourism a little bit. Well, listen, if it's the next Martha's Vineyard, who's going to miss eight people? and we don't know how long the island will sleep after it eats. So, you know. Yeah. It's going to need a considerable nap to buy Tom some time to lure in more people. I feel like we're going to feed, like, it could just be, like, one person per season goes in the hatch.

39:21Joanna Robinson:Could be. You know, you could, like, run this for eight seasons if you wanted to. But also, here's my bone to pick with the island, among many other things. The evil entity that is ruling the island. So you're good with, like, 90 % of what it's doing, but this one thing. Oh, yeah. As you know, I love terrorizing people. But, like, If people die because of the chaos on the island, so like the shaman Todd getting sucked up into the weather event, et cetera, et cetera, whoever the boogeyman killed, I think it's unfair of the island to not count those as sacrifices. I kind of interpreted that it did.

39:55Joanna Robinson:If it was nine bells early this season and it's eight now, then only Kenny counts. Well, maybe it's interest. You know, the VIG, it's like it's a real thing. I don't think those other random, I think you have to shove the person into the hatch. or sit them in the chair in order for it to count. So if it's just normal day in the life calamity of boogeyman or cyclone or sea hag variety. Witch party, sunset cocktail. I guess that's true because in addition to, you know, the guy got sucked up by the cyclone, like also everyone that the boogeyman killed, the EMT who got his like throat sliced or whatever, you know, we're not, we're not seeing chimes sloshed off on their account.

40:33Joanna Robinson:And if you go back to Richard Warren, like there was the plague that was killing people, but there was also Richard actively killing people. It's a great point. You know what I mean? So like the plague is the island saying, I'm hungry, you fucked up, you haven't fed me. I'm going to cause a calamity. And Richard's like, if I drag these five people down the ladder and down the tunnel into the chair, the plague will stop, right? I think that completely adds up. I also like the way that that could set up season two where personally, I would love to see a little more acceleration in terms of the island's hunger.

41:07I don't want it to be just like one person a season. I want to see a version of Tom that has to actively engage in like luring these people to their deaths.

41:14Joanna Robinson:Yeah. In order to keep this secret. It's eight. It's eight. That's a lot of people that he has to feed. I mean, I want to see him try to pull it off. You want like a montage. I don't want a montage. I want it to be like a dexter-y undercurrent of season two of like Tom has to live this double life. And find the shitty people on the island. You know? How shitty do you have to be? Do you have to just be that like shitty off-island douche guy who is like, my MRE is moldy. Like, fuck you. That guy can probably go. Do you have to be Chris who's kind of mean or do you need to be a killer or something like that?

41:45I think Chris is like worthy of a stun gun perhaps on occasion, but maybe not of sacrifice.

41:50Joanna Robinson:So I didn't love this part, but in terms of amping up the fear, we see this sort of like cattle call, these offerings in their like underclothes, like tied up with bags on their head. It's like sort of marinating in their fear in order to satiate the island. I mean, this is a thing. If I'm being forced to feed the island, let's say, eight steaks, why do I have to pepper those steaks for the island? Like, it's a numbers game. Why do I have to make it extra tasty for the island? I don't care if the island enjoys the sauce. No Bernays for the island, as far as I'm concerned. Jill, let me tell you, its satisfaction is very important.

42:28That seems to be dictating a lot of the terms around here.

42:31Joanna Robinson:But it isn't like I'm spiritually hungry. It's feed me eight souls. And I'm like, done. I did it. See, I think you're fulfilling the brief, but not the spirit of the brief. Okay. To go back to our emails, we did get a lot of emails other than the people saying, you're so dumb. It's definitely Evan. Why are you so dumb? Fair enough. How do you have a podcast? There is a lot of people wrote in to talk about Tom's drug trip episode. And the fact that at the end of that episode, when he sort of hunched over his own toilet, But staring into the abyss, he makes a bargain with God, he thinks. I'll do anything to protect my son.

43:10That's a dark mushroomy God.

43:12Joanna Robinson:To protect my son. I will do anything to protect my son. And then the abyss talks back to him. So has Tom officially entered into his own warren pact? Does that matter if like another Lord Protector of the Island communes with the Abyss or it's just a war? I mean, all of Tom's descendants are also a war in Descendant anyway. So I'm not sure it much matters at the end of the day. Yeah, he's kind of looped in both as like Lord Protector of the Island and looped into the bloodline by marriage. Right. I would think this responsibility would fall to him anyway and he would be kind of tied into this.

43:49But I also haven't seen him ink any bodily fluids to parchment yet.

43:54Joanna Robinson:Wow. the options are limitless. I mean, you needed all, you needed three? There were more than I would have liked involved. Our listener Matt wrote in, friend of the pod Matt, wrote in to say he had already seen the episode so he emailed us this earlier in the week. Did you think that Ruth would shuffle off this mortal coil before naming her secret daughter and that season two would launch with Tom and Co using the few clues e.g. married baby daddy, daughter worked in an ice cream parlor to ID her? And might you have preferred that to the comparatively expected Evan reveal slash conundrum. Yeah, I mean, I think that would have done a bunch of different things.

44:28For one, yeah, they didn't have to play detective in season two to try to piece the clues together. It would also lead to that moment of profound regret after killing Ruth to find out the truth that this didn't actually do anything. And this is one of the areas on this episode where I'm a little mixed and mixed in a way where it's just going to have to wait until season two to figure out what to do with it. The idea that they didn't kill Ruth, not that I want Ruth to die, but in like a loose end sort of way because if Ruth is alive, she knows what Tom knows, which is that Evan is her heir and could say that to anybody at any time in a way that could be explosive for the plot.

45:05She also presumably knows that Bashir shot her in the back and I don't know how you just like hand wave that away. How does she know that? I mean, he's in the room. I guess she never acknowledges him in any way but she at least knows that she was shot by somebody, no?

45:19Joanna Robinson:I don't know. it depends how that head wound is manifesting. I have a lot of questions about that head wound. But here's the thing. That part of the story and reveal and what's happening with Ruth notwithstanding, the one thing I was really waiting for at the end of this episode that we never quite got was some kind of check-in with Patricia and Wick on the other side of it, right? These are two people who had been lobbying for opposite sides of what to do with Ruth and how she deserves to be treated. Yeah. If Ruth doesn't know, Patricia does know exactly what happened here. That somebody shot Ruth.

45:49and it was either Tom or Bashir.

45:52Joanna Robinson:She has some information. She and Wick have some information, but is Tom going to tell them about Evan? No. No. And Tom doesn't know what Dale knows. It's true. And Dale doesn't know what Evan knows. And so in terms of putting together the pieces of the puzzle, There's so many. we've got plenty of runway in season two for that. And what I was looking for was not a complete clarity from any of these characters, Patricia included, but an emotional response to this very impulsive decision. and like regardless of knowing all the facts, like you know Ruth got shot and you can start putting pieces together and I would have appreciated some kind of check-in with, and this is kind of my larger consideration with this episode is, Patricia and Wick just don't have a lot to do.

46:31Joanna Robinson:No, but I'm kind of okay. Again, I'm kind of okay with it because Patricia just got her like boogeyman. Patricia gets two full episodes. Very true. To be the star. Yeah. Wick got his Jaws episode. You know what I mean? And so like they were very central in other episodes. so they took a backseat in this episode. But they're so central. To me, this was almost a moment where Dale gets his absolute shriek, this place is a death trap. And the physical comedy of that, I mean, the show is, Widow's Bay is lousy with curses and the show is lousy with amazing physical comedy. I don't want to get rid of that Jeff Hiller moment, but I did have the thought that it was like, why couldn't this have been Wick in the room, right?

47:10Aren't we more tied to Wick's place into this story? And he's someone -

47:14Joanna Robinson:Because then Wick wouldn't tell anyone. He wouldn't, I mean, Dale, I guess that's true. It's like you need the blabbermouth to find out the information. Yeah. I guess I just want the characters that we've spent more time with to do yet even more. Well, here's where we agree. Yeah. This was a longer episode of Widow's Bay, and I loved it. All of the episodes of season two should be longer. And if this episode were even longer, then Wick and Patricia would have something more to do than hand out MREs, etc. Moldy MREs at that. Tough. Really tough. The bite chart. Before we go, I want to make sure that we mention this so we don't get emails about it.

47:48Joanna Robinson:Human bite on the bite chart. Pretty interesting. I mean, clearly just everything going on in the storm shelter, even before we see the reels. This is not a great place. The empty gun rack. The giant red alarm button. Yeah. Just sitting there waiting to be pushed. Yeah. The how to subdue someone instructions on the wall. Yeah. All of the little breadcrumbing that takes us to the eventual. So you're an offering. I thought was really just superb. If you're reading this, I'm already dead. If you're reading this, I'm already dead. so that was presumably from an offering yeah who was down there who was given the courtesy of a blanket yeah and then wrapped it up in the blanket yeah that was very to me like video game lore where you're playing a Resident Evil game and you find an abandoned blanket and it has this like note in it that someone has hastily scribbled and you can like read the note I've played a video game alright anything else I think we did it I think we really did it yeah how did you feel about the season overall fantastic and not only just fantastic but like the joy of watching it spread and seeing like Guillermo del Toro or anyone else being like, hey, this is the best fucking thing I've ever seen.

48:54Joanna Robinson:Hideo Kojima's thinking of video games. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then seeing more and more people, you know, people around the office here today where I've been all day. We're eagerly talking about the Widow's Bay finale. And coming off of something like Euphoria, which like felt like a mixed bag in terms of worthy of our attention and going into something like Cape Fear, which like we're really excited about because it is like bananas, but it's not great. But Widow's Bay is great television and we're so lucky it exists. And I'm just like, I don't know. I'm just like thrilled that this exists and tons of people, it feels like tons of people watched it.

49:29Joanna Robinson:I don't know if that's real or if I'm in a silo, you know? I think anecdotally, it has become a sensation of a kind. Like we'll see if the numbers ever get announced as far as how many people are watching this show, but it is talked about and it is invested in. And I think most rewardingly, it has like paid off that investment. It's the kind of show where the deeper you go into it, like the lore is expansive and the theories are real and validated or sometimes red herring. Like it just feels like the kind of show that's not just well conceived, but well constructed. Yeah. And I love that, like what it's done for like Kato Flynn, who people love as Patricia, like what this potentially could do for her career.

50:06Joanna Robinson:Be like, you know, Matthew Rhys, the Rhys-a-sons as you, I get it. Not to be confused. With the Rhys-a-sons. Um, you know, and the appreciation for like veteran, you know, like Dale Dickey has been around, you know, et cetera, et cetera. So I'm just, um, I'm thrilled. I'm thrilled with Widow's Bag. I couldn't be happier. Just make the episodes longer next season. Thank you so much. 12 episodes, an hour long. That's what I want next season. And we should say. Three people go into that. As many as we can fit. Yeah. I don't think we've officially like talked about this on the podcast. We may have mentioned in passing this episode, but if you have not caught up on the news, the show has already been renewed for season two officially.

50:44Yeah. Very exciting. Did that affect the way you watched this finale at all? Knowing that we were going to get more or did the suspicion that we were going to get more already kind of flavor things?

50:53Joanna Robinson:I felt like for sure we were going to get more. But I think I would have been really bummed if this finale came and A, it wasn't renewed or B, we didn't know whether or not it was going to be renewed. I think, so yeah, knowing that we had more to come. I think there's no way Matthew Rhys doesn't win an Emmy. I know you don't give a shit about the Emmys, But like, I think there's no way that Matthew Rhys doesn't win an Emmy for Best Lead Actor in a Comedy. Yeah. He already has an Emmy for Primetime Drama. That's two Emmys for Matthew Rhys, none for Keri Russell. And that is a crime. So let's even up the word shelf.

51:31Joanna Robinson:That's a fucking war crime. The Rhys-Russell household. You know, she's got her Golden Globe for Felicity. But like, we need to get some Emmys. And I don't know if the diplomat's going to do it. Like, we need to get some Emmy brass up there for Keri Russell. I have fun with the diplomat. No, I mean like it's fun, but is it going to win her the Emmy she deserves? I don't know. Fuck it. Make her the island. You know, let's bring Keri Russell into season two. I would love Keri Russell to be season two. Let's do it. I hope she, I mean, she's, her years as Felicity have really primed her for cozy sweaters and I think she just like is born to be here.

52:00Maybe she is the poor off-island woman to be sacrificed and lured in by Matthew Rhys. His charms, clearly not lost on her.

52:06Joanna Robinson:His new love interest, but eventually he has to shove her into the hatch to save his son. Yeah, what happened to the bachelorette party? We never saw that woman ever again. I think they caught a ferry and got the fuck out of there. She did. She tried her damnedest to meet Tom where he was. After they all walked into the ocean during sunset cocktails, I think they were like, bye. We're done. A brutal time for everybody. Cheers to our sunset cocktails. Absolutely. Cheers to us. Cheers to the sunset cocktails. Cheers to everybody who's been following along with our pods this season, Joe. This has been an unexpected delight getting to cover this show with you.

52:37Joanna Robinson:Come join us for Cape Fear. It's bananas. It's kind of great. and kind of terrible, but really kind of great. This is a great primer, though. Like, if you've been living and dying with every loose end of Widow's Bay, come dig in the trash with us. We're just like dumpster diving on Cape Fear. Come raccoon it up with us this summer, you know? It's just going to be a little grosser and a little more seedy, but I think it will reward your obsession in a totally different kind of way. I really agree. Thank you to Kai Grady. Thanks to Dev Rinaldo. Thanks to Jacob Cornett. Everyone's here pulling a late shift at the office.

53:08Joanna Robinson:We really appreciate you. Thanks to everyone who tuned in live. Thanks to you if you're catching up later. Thank you to the Demon Teens. Yeah, of course. Thank you to Ruth's thriving social calendar. Absolutely. Thank you to Herbal Tea. Of course. I'm a big peppermint tea fan, so I love that it's a fast, steep. Chamomile, get lost. Yeah, chamomile, get the fuck out of here. All right, we'll see you soon. Bye.