{"id":458628,"date":"2026-05-20T16:21:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T16:21:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/458628\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T16:21:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T16:21:14","slug":"widows-bay-just-dropped-its-funniest-and-saddest-episode-yet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/458628\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Widow\u2019s Bay’ Just Dropped Its Funniest and Saddest Episode Yet"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, \u201cBeach Reads<\/a>\u201d elevated Widow\u2019s Bay<\/a> yet again, giving us a witchy party from hell<\/a> that pinballed between triumphant glee and agonizing embarassment. (Mostly the latter.) But the Apple TV show, one of the brightest surprises on streaming right now, hit yet another new high with \u201cWhat to Expect on Your Trip.\u201d<\/p>\n

The episode shifts the focus back to Mayor Tom Loftis as he navigates an unwanted, disorienting, frequently terrifying emotional journey\u2014assisted by magic mushrooms so potent you\u2019ll need to go to a cursed island to find them.<\/p>\n

\"Io9<\/p>\n

We open on a patch of black mushrooms in the snow. A figure appears in the background\u2014we can\u2019t tell who it is, but based on the hair and clothing, it isn\u2019t a character we know\u2014and falls to the ground, moaning, before crawling to the plants and gobbling them up.<\/p>\n

In Widow\u2019s Bay, it\u2019s the morning after Tom\u2019s sea hag attack, Patricia\u2019s cocktail disaster, and the discovery of Reverend Bryce\u2019s suicide in the church. At the town hall, Tom orders Dale to issue a 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. curfew, community fireworks be damned.<\/p>\n

Tom has also confined Evan to his office, both for safety reasons and because he\u2019s tired of the kid disobeying him. But it\u2019ll be a challenge to hold him there, especially with the easily distracted Ruth keeping an eye on him. Bad vibes are percolating between father and son.<\/p>\n

\"WidowsEvan plots his escape. \u00a9 Apple TV <\/p>\n

At that moment, though, Tom has to head to the nearby church. There\u2019s a memorial for Bryce underway, and Patricia and Wyck are searching his cluttered office. They aren\u2019t finding much, though Tom notices Bryce carved \u201cMy eye is open\u201d onto his desk; he also finds a pile of black mushrooms. As Tom picks up the phone to check on Evan, he notices on the log that Bryce tried to reach him the night before\u2026 and had made repeated calls to another number, too.<\/p>\n

They dial it, and Patricia\u2019s able to get an address and an \u201cappointment\u201d out of the guy who picks up. When they arrive, they meet Todd, a former classmate of Patricia\u2019s who calls her \u201cPatty.\u201d He\u2019s not a drug dealer, he insists; he\u2019s \u201ca shaman.\u201d (He is clearly a drug dealer and is played by comedian Chris Fleming, a delightful bit of guest star casting.)<\/p>\n

When Tom shows him the mushrooms, the shaman knows immediately what they are. \u201cThat is a brutal fucking ride,\u201d he exclaims. \u201cThat shit is gonna take you where you gotta go regardless of if you wanna go there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Known as \u201cTruesight,\u201d it only grows on the island, and its effects are akin to getting \u201cLASIK for your third eye. Blasts that thing open. Pow!\u201d<\/p>\n

Todd then regales everyone with a worrisome story about another friend who did the mushrooms and emerged a dubiously changed man. But even after what happened to Bryce, Wyck\u2019s undeterred. He says he\u2019ll try them, hoping to gain cosmic insight and save Widow\u2019s Bay.<\/p>\n

Sounds like a plan, except Todd thinks Tom is Wyck and puts the mixture in Tom\u2019s tea, which the mayor unknowingly chugs down to the last drop.<\/p>\n

By the time everyone realizes what\u2019s happened, a hysterical Tom must accept the fact that he\u2019s about to take the trip of his life\u2014amid a town in crisis and his relationship with Evan nearing a breaking point. \u201cDon\u2019t squander this,\u201d Wyck urges him just the same. If the mushrooms hold any answers, it\u2019s up to Tom to find them.<\/p>\n

\"WidowsKurt the innkeeper yells at the mayor. \u00a9 Apple TV <\/p>\n

Tom may be in a tizzy, but Widow\u2019s Bay viewers are blessed, because Tom high on mushrooms makes for extreme hilarity. We already loved everything about Matthew Rhys\u2019 performance as Tom. But he really shows off his flair for comedy in \u201cWhat to Expect on Your Trip\u201d as Tom attempts to go about his regular civic business, interacting with co-workers and Sheriff Clemons, and facing down a room full of local business owners who are furious about the curfew.<\/p>\n

Most of these folks have no idea that Tom is barely clinging to reality as he surfs through blackouts, freak-outs, and auditory hallucinations. He wakes up in different locations having no idea how he got there or what he\u2019s in the middle of doing. Adding even more panic, Evan is AWOL, having long since slipped out of Tom\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

We know where he is, though. He\u2019s with his stoner friends and the tourist girls, who act unimpressed by the local legend of the Boogeyman. We\u2019ve heard it in context with Patricia, but here we get even more details. The story goes that the killer wouldn\u2019t die, in a very Halloween sort of way, and the townspeople opted to seal him up inside his house, where he remains to this day.<\/p>\n

\"WidowsEvan and his \u201coff-island\u201d pals. \u00a9 Apple TV <\/p>\n

While this is happening, Wyck drops by the museum to show Gerrie a strange scrap of paper he found in Bryce\u2019s office. As part of their friendly conversation, we learn they were once childhood sweethearts.<\/p>\n

Patricia and Tom (leashed because he keeps flailing around) also head to the museum, and Gerrie, Wyck, and Patricia realize it\u2019s a page ripped from the diary of Sarah Warren, an important figure in Widow\u2019s Bay history. She was the second wife of the town\u2019s founder, and she had some not-so-nice things to say about him in what was apparently her final entry. He was violent, for one thing, and seemed fixated on the \u201ccursed\u201d item he wore around his neck, a small cylinder that he\u2019s seen wearing in a museum portrait.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m wondering if he could\u2019ve been buried with it,\u201d Wyck wonders. But this mystery takes a back seat for now, since Tom is over here bleating out unhelpful interjections and demanding to know where Evan is.<\/p>\n

The next time Tom comes to, Rosemary is driving him home, though she insists on making a quick stop. Flash forward, and we see the aftermath of the chaos Tom has caused there. (His loafer, abandoned in the puddle of milk!)<\/p>\n

Speaking of Evan, he\u2019s up to no good as usual. It\u2019s dark, so we are well past the town\u2019s new curfew. The kids\u2014who\u2019ve been smoking weed all day\u2014dare Evan to go into the Boogeyman\u2019s house. He agrees and gets as far as opening the front door. But to his relief, he\u2019s stopped by the arrival of Sheriff Clemons, who orders him away from \u201cthe creepy house.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"WidowsDale notices Tom is cracking up. \u00a9 Apple TV <\/p>\n

Clemons lets him off with a light scolding, but Evan\u2019s super-fun day comes crashing down when he gets home and Tom\u2014still spiraling\u2014screams at him in front of his friends. It\u2019s embarrassing for everyone. The argument continues into the Loftis home, as Evan calls his dad a \u201cshitty mayor\u201d and asks why they never leave the island. \u201cIt was important to your mother that you be raised here\u201d is Tom\u2019s bullshit-sounding explanation.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd never go anywhere?\u201d Evan protests. It does seem awfully restrictive, or it would under normal circumstances. The angry teen warns his dad that one day he\u2019s going to leave Widow\u2019s Bay and never, ever return.<\/p>\n

Tom trudges upstairs as his very not-super-fun day winds down, but there\u2019s one last gut punch waiting for him. As Tom barfs up the mushroom-tainted contents of his stomach, he has a flashback to the last happy moments he had with Lauren. His wife, Evan\u2019s mom.<\/p>\n

\"WidowsRuth\u2019s gonna have to leave work by 3 p.m. \u00a9 Apple TV <\/p>\n

She\u2019s very pregnant. This is worrisome because as Tom told his date in \u201cThe Inaugural Swim<\/a>,\u201d his wife died from childbirth complications. Tom and Lauren are on the ferry leaving Widow\u2019s Bay when everything changes in an instant.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t see anything!\u201d she screams. The boat quickly turns around, and she gives birth back on the island.<\/p>\n

Tom watches himself relive this nightmare. The doctor tells Tom the baby is perfectly fine. But what about Lauren? She is not perfectly fine: sitting up in bed, completely motionless, eyes vacant, head tipped at an odd angle.<\/p>\n

Tom weeps at this awful memory, and we can understand why he\u2019s been so reluctant to acknowledge that Widow\u2019s Bay has a supernatural wrongness about it. It\u2019s touched him so deeply and personally; he just hasn\u2019t been able to face that truth. In this moment, he utters a desperate plea to God to protect Evan. \u201cI\u2019ll do anything,\u201d he whispers.<\/p>\n

And something hears his plea. Probably not God, though? Whatever it is, it lets out a deeply sinister rumble, seemingly enticed by the prospect of a bargain. Is it the mushrooms talking? Or could it be the evil that envelops Widow\u2019s Bay answering back?<\/p>\n

New episodes of Widow\u2019s Bay arrive Wednesdays on Apple TV+.<\/p>\n

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel<\/a>, Star Wars<\/a>, and Star Trek<\/a> releases, what\u2019s next for the DC Universe on film and TV<\/a>, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last week, \u201cBeach Reads\u201d elevated Widow\u2019s Bay yet again, giving us a witchy party from hell that pinballed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":458629,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[3288,93,61,60,282,146601,175421],"class_list":["post-458628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-apple-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-tv","tag-tv-recap","tag-widows-bay"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}