The Prestige TV Podcast - ‘Widow’s Bay’ Episode 9: Cloudy With a Chance Of …

Episode Date: June 10, 2026

Jo and Rob shelter in place to recap the ninth episode of ‘Widow’s Bay.’ (0:00) Intro (4:15) Mailbag check-in (26:20) Let Rosemary cook (32:25) Parallels to Stephen King’s ‘Storm of the Century’ (44:46) Finale predictions Email us! [e-mail] Follow us on IG and TikTok! Subscribe to the Ringer TV YouTube channel here for full episodes of ‘The Prestige TV Podcast’ and so much more! Hosts: Joanna Robinson and Rob Mahoney Producers: Kai Grady and Devon Renaldo Additional Production Support: Justin Sayles and Jacob Cornett Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, welcome back to the Prestige TV podcast feed. I'm Joanna Robinson. I'm Rob Mooney. It is the Penn Ultimate episode of Widows Bay. Storms of Bruin. How are you feeling? I think we're past a Bruin. It's here.

It's here. The storm has arrived. It's arrived. We got several emails, I will say, and where can folks email us? Prestige TV at Spotify.com. We got several emails over the last few weeks about a Stephen King miniseries called Storm of the Century. Or if you were one of the actors in 1999 in that miniseries, Stom of the Century. Okay.

Anyway, I watched some of it. Yeah. It is very relevant specifically to this episode. And so we'll talk about it a bit in context at the end of our discussion of this episode. But what did you think of this episode of television, Rob Mahoney? I mean, there's a huge revelation that we've been... One singular. Yes.

Huge revelation. We have been dancing around for weeks. Spoilers. Huge revelation. We will be discussing it. All appropriate spoilers. There's a lot of people lining up in somewhat orderly fashion. And that's kind of it.

It's a table setting episode. a real table setter. Which is fine. This is the way these things tend to go at this stage of a season. It's a table setting episode. And if you cut out like Tom going back and forth in the lighthouse

and, you know, a Wick getting Bashir to the shelters like that, it's a shorter episode. It could have been an even shorter episode. That being said, for me, the great Dale Dickey is playing Rosemary.

Yeah. Giving her this. I rewatched that scene so many times because I just think it's so funny. Yeah. So like for me, worth, and this is, this is my feeling about Widows Bay in general, like, I'm greedy for more. And like, I want all of these episodes to be longer. And like, they always leave me wanting more, which is like, on the one hand, good.

But I just thought the Rosemary stuff was so phenomenal in this episode that, like, while I completely agree with you, it's a table setter and not a ton happens, we're setting up for a great place for the finale. Of course. Yeah, in isolation, I can see how you're like, okay, we're moving pieces around. It just felt like the least eventful. But you're right from a character standpoint. This is Rosemary's like Linsanity moment. If you'll spare the sports comparison. But like giving her her like clear out, let's just let Rosemary hold the room.

Yeah. And she does. With overlaying like projector slides. Yeah. Transparency. Sorry, the transparency. It's been a minute. I know. You're too young.

No, I was there. It's just been a minute. Just some quick programming for us, for our podcast feed, I should say. We got a couple emails or comments from people saying, hey, will you be covering the vampire list at? On this feed, no. On House of Our, in a quite serious fashion, yes. So if you want to hear week-to-week coverage of the vampire list at, including Mallory Bada's vampire fangs, there's like a lot involved. That's over on the House of Our feed. Who bought whatever duster or coat you're wearing?

Okay. It's right over there. I'm glad it's here in the room with us. It is very special. Thank you. It's a Penny Lane moment if I ever had one. So that's happening. Cape Fear, however, that's here, maybe.

Cape Fear. That's where we live. That's where we sweat. We had some questions after episode two whether or not we would cover week to week. We asked listeners if they wanted us to. We got a lot of emails. People saying, yes, please.

And then also, Rob and I have since watched episode three and we both agreed we are in for week after week. I'm in there like a dead skunk in a pool. Are we going to regret it come week eight? Maybe. Yeah. But we're calling this trash trapeze theater as in it's summer's here. Apple has presented us a la presumed innocent.

Another prestigey, skeezy fun time at the television show. So that's what we'll be watching. Yeah, we're here covering Widows Bay because we have come to really love all of the charms of this show. Absolutely. We're going to be covering Cape Fear because we don't know what to make of it, but we're down to slize it up a little bit. We're having a fun time. We had asked some questions about the writer of last week's episode, Emma Ketchum. We heard from Emma herself.

She emailed the pod. Incredible. Press YouTube at Spotify.com. How do you feel about the power that you wield to will an email from Emma Ketchum into the world? Well, I really love Emma emailed us and then a couple other people emailed us with information about Emma. But it's all the same, which is just basically that Emma was Katie Dipple's writer's assistant. And then Katie sort of gave her this opportunity. So this is her first writer's credit.

And I just want to... Episode eight, we should say. Episode eight. And the reason I want to sort of single that out is that it's rare for a writer's assistant in the first season of a television show to get a written by credit on an episode. So what to me that speaks to is Katie Dippold's like quite democratic approach to her writer's room. And especially coming off something like euphoria, which doesn't even have a writer's room, Like, hearing that it just makes me think very highly of this show and of this.

Because that's how you get more and better TV writers is that you like the assistants in the room learn and they get to grow and they get to put their credit on an episode. So I just think it's fantastic. Especially for a show like Widows Bay where if you step off the path tonally ever so slightly, I think it would be really, really glaring. And yet episode eight felt locked in in step with everything that they've been doing all season long. An incredible testament, I think, to Emma's work, but also to the greater, I'm sure the right. room in the construction and the streamlined nature of the way that this show is made. Right. It's an entire...

There's a cohesion to it. It's a cohesion, but it's a collaborative effort. It will be interesting if in future, if Witters Bay runs for a million years, which you hope it does, if in future you'll be able to identify, like, oh, that's a Neil Casey episode or that's a, like, whatever episode. But thus far, we're getting, like, a really cohesive. But, you know, like... If it has a stun gun and or a taser, that's an other catch-em episode. That's an episode.

That's her trademark. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, you know, when you watch, like, certain shows, like, Lost or X-Files, you know, and, like, Darren Morgan would come on and do these, like, extremely weird episodes. You're just sort of, like, excited about that. So we love writers on this show. All right, Hannah reached out to give us a Babadooking that I wanted to share. Please.

And if you're coming in late to the season, just to establish that Katie Dippold, of course, showrunner of Widows Bay, author of this incredible, Babadook tweet. The one good thing to come out of Twitter. The one, well, I don't know. Have you seen what Hunter Biden's been doing on Twitter lately? I'm trying to check out on that. No, like genuinely, it's great.

I think I'm good. Thanks. I think I should share it. I need some tweets. The concept of Babadooking, we have determined, is like showing up to something, misreading the tone of the event that you're arriving to and really kind of making, unwittingly making a spectacle of yourself.

Most often misunderstanding the dress or the coat or the attire or Yeah, I think just the general vibe is appropriate to. Hannah wrote in to say in college, and she attached a photo, it's always great when they attach a photo to the Babadooking emails. Hannah wrote in to say, in college, I went to a Halloween party full of intimidating, unwelcoming, calisies and sexy whatever's, and boy, did I regret, dressing as Angela Merkel. I was, I failed miserably at Flipcup, had a bit of a tantrum, got way too drunk, and complained shrilly about being a woman in a position of political leadership.

I've had about a million Babadook moments since, but I did learn from that Halloween the next year I went as sexy Boris Johnson and terrified all my friends. I mean, there is a near distance from Angela Merkel to sexy Boris Johnson somehow. Like, that's, I can see how one costume could become the other. Absolutely. I'm pulling it up now. This is really something. This is a great photo.

This is quite a good Angela Merkel costume. I agree. I agree. The wig work is fantastic. All right, Mimi wrote in about a detail in episode 8 that we missed, noting that when Tom and Patricia and Wick are eating breakfast in there like, we did it. It's done. that there was a woman who had, like, one of Tom's brochures that he got printed up,

where I think the one that he, like, tries to rip up in this very episode. So at the beginning of the episode, she's, like, holding this brochure. And then at the end of the episode, when Patricia goes to the hospital to, like, visit Bashir, she's there with, like, a neck brace and, like, her arm in a sling. So it's just sort of like, from we did it to, we're still fucked as represented by this one, like, background actor. I thought it's a really fun detail. Mimi pointed out to us.

Lauren pointed out Lastic or maybe like a couple weeks ago about Patricia's career as a painter as an artiste. And I don't know if that's going to come into play but do you feel like it came into play in this moment when she turned into the Widows Bay subreddit and noticed the missing finger on the portrait inside of this episode? The opportunistically ripped so only the finger is exposed on the rear side of the canvas.

I was re-watching Matthew Reese having to like slam it down on the table to get it to like the exact right place where it could conceivably rip there. I think it rips on like a speaker tower or something like that. Anyway, it's great. Really good. As we mentioned, Rosemary does the full genealogy to get to the reveal of Ruth, not Evan Loftus, as the last remaining Warren. Nor Patricia, nor Wick.

And I should say, this was sort of your initial instinct where you were like, it should be someone who has like been here in the background the whole time so we know them, but sort of waiting to step into the limelight. So how do you feel about Ruth as a choice for that? I like the choice of Ruth or someone who's not Evan. And we talked about this a little bit, but I think making it so that if it is Tom who has to make this sort of decision, he has to weigh the life of this person. And he's kind of increasingly nudged toward human sacrifice as he realizes that, oh, it's just one person. Oh, it's an elderly person. Who cares if it's Ruth? I could be talked into this in this particular moment. But making him

choose between someone's life and his son's future, right? The idea that Evan can't leave the island unless his other person dies. He'll never see the Red Sox play in person. I don't know if that's a blessing or a curse. We'll have to do some polling here at the office. Wow. I think that to me is more interesting. Consolidating everything into Evan feels like a little bit of a narrative traffic jam. What I do think is interesting is that this episode sets up. Tom as a father concerned about his child's future and then also Bashir as like a father concerned about his wife and his potential baby's future. And so you still do get this sort of like parents concerned

about their children aspect, which when we get to the Stephen King's Storm of the century sort of comp is very much in the water there. Well, with the Bashir part too, this episode left me wondering, is the decision of what to do with Ruth going to be a Tom decision at all? We see him and Wick and Patricia wrestling

with that idea in this episode. But Bashir and Shell, and there are conversations in this plot line, they make me feel like there's another shoe to drop. And it feels like what if it is not Tom who makes that call? What if it is sort of like the broader community has to decide? This like angry mob that's been burbling all throughout the season, they have to decide who they are and what they're willing to give up.

Because everyone, Bashir included, they have things that stake in this too. So I was going to save all of the Storm of the Century stuff for the end, but I should say like the big climatic sort of event of Storm of the Century, this four-hour miniseries that aired on ABC over three nights in 1999 is a town meeting. And the whole town has to decide what to do in terms of sacrificing

someone to end a storm and defeat. A classic Stephen King is it the devil kind of person. I don't know if this is going to be a town meeting or not. It could be angrier than that. Maybe it's everybody stuck in the shelter. It doesn't need a town mobbing more than a town meeting.

I don't know if like whose rules of law is it. Like I don't know if all. All of the congressional approvals are going to be required to get this thing off the ground so much as people are going to make a rash emotional decision about whether they, how they want to attempt to survive whatever this storm is. Our listener Janner wrote in to say, to give us a broad theory. They said that Katie Diplice said the series is, the season is about denial. The first scene of the series is Shep talking about his decision to end his relationship, even though his partner has very clearly already ended it. She's literally packed his bags.

But Shep is still narrating events as if he is the one making the choice. he is in denial about something painfully obvious. I wonder if the same is true for Loftus. The assumption is that Loftus is in denial about the curse, but that doesn't hold up. He resists the island lore for a while. But after his encounter with the sea hag, he relents. By the middle of the season, he enforces curfew, moves with the logic of the curse. I think his denial is about something else.

There have been enough hallucinations, visions, and reality-bending moments throughout the season that I would be surprised if our understanding of something basic about reality on this weird island, complete with insane asylum, remains intact. My guess is that Lafitt is denying something more than the curse itself and that the season ends with a collapse of whatever he's been clinging to. That's interesting. But establishing denial as a big sort of theme of the season, I think is interesting. I think it is interesting. I wonder, though, with Loftus specifically,

how much he was ever fully in denial versus that's what he was projecting to the world. Because... I think he wasn't denial. I think the backstory with his wife suggests that he's at least like, like tangentially aware and maybe even personally familiar with some of these like supernatural elements that he then as mayor pretends to not believe in. Possibly, but also like the way he describes it to Evan is like complications preeclampsia. You know what I mean? Like so perhaps he was like,

man of science, man of faith. There's a man of science explanation for this. And like once a sea hag cornered him in a bathtub, he's like, uh-oh, I'm a man of faith now. I think it's when she splashed on him. I think it's when he saw our shaman Todd get sucked up into a cyclone. A big, mean, dark. Yeah, what's the difference between cyclone and tornado? Land, touching land. Is it? Really?

I think so. Wait. Is this a stun gun versus it? I'm just realizing I don't know what a cyclone is. Okay. Cyclone versus tornado. I feel like, oh, cyclone has been used to describe anything that rotated counterclone. clockwise so often tornado and a cyclone are interchangeable.

I thought one it had to do with like touching Lint, maybe not. It's been a while since I watched Twister. You're saying the cyclone needs to touch grass. Pressyctv.com if you paid closer attention to either twister or twisters. If you're a meteorologist, if you're in it for the science, not the money, then please get at us. Let us know. Eric wrote in, this is the email I was reading where I was like, huh, before we started recording, you're like, okay, Joanna. Something I really enjoyed of the whole genealogy journey that Rosemary goes on this episode is that as it begins, one of my favorite things about the movie Hot Fuzz, which is a movie we've already referenced a couple times in establishing this.

The greater good, all of that. One of us, all of it. It's how all the townspeople have these like Anglo-Saxon names. So their last names are like what they do, you know, so there's like Gardner and Tiller and like. and so Wheeler, et cetera, et cetera, Cartwright, Wainwright, blah, blah. Warren, which is sort of Guardian, and then, like, Fisher, like, it's a whaler who rescues

Francis out of the sea. His last name is Fisher. So, like, Francis Fisher, great actress, but also the name of a character on the show. So, like, you have those Anglo-Saxon names sort of at the beginning, and then it changes as you go down the history. but Eric wrote in to talk about the name Warren. So like protector, nurture, stewardship of the land, like that's a thing that Warren can mean.

But also, like a Rabbit's Warren, it can be a complicated series of tunnels or a maze. So we were already talking about the like tunnel system underneath Richard Warren's house. So this like double meaning of like Warren as Island Protector, but also Warren as in like the Rabbis Warren under the system of tunnels underneath this island. I thought that was fun. Do you think it's possible that the storm shelter connects to those tunnels? Yeah.

Do you think it's inevitable that it connects to those tunnels? Are we stumbling into the sacrifice room? That, okay, when Dale turns on the lights, Emmy winner Jeff Hiller I think has not been used to his full extent this season. Has not.

Dale Dickey got our time to shine in this. Seemingly Ruth will have plenty to do in the finale, I assume. Yeah. I don't know when we're getting our episode for him. Maybe it's a season two situation. Could be.

But of the core city hall cast, I think you're right that he is the one member who has not really had a spotlight moment yet. Other than DJing. Right. And the mushroom trip sort of like mask moment. That is true. That was horrifying. But like his face, so I want more for him to do.

But his face, like when he turns on the lights, I same. Hard same. Would I go down into that shelter? I'm not sure. Where are you going? anywhere else That looks so haunted It's the storm of the century

Of centuries It looks so haunted down there Better haunted than dead I don't know I might use my like Sort of California earthquake mentality To be like can I just stand in a doorframe Will that protect me?

Somehow in this case I don't think it's gonna work Okay fine Also I wanted to note that In this episode one thing that I loved Is that Tom and Patricia Have this like very nonverbal understanding of each other. I want to maybe go back and track it all season,

but there's a number of times where Tom just sort of like nods at her. And then she just like does, you know, like turn on the fan, close the door, do whatever. The old man who shows up to... Yeah, the old timer. I mean, really to be like the harbinger of the store to come. Yeah. But really just the exposition drop.

That scene is so funny. Closing the door. The very slow, calm, quiet closing of the door. Yeah. As he just continues a pace outside. I love that he's like simply credited as old-timer in the closing credits. I was calling him in my notes Old Basel Exposition. How do you feel about that?

You're just bringing Michael York back into the mix after you for you. We simply must. I love that for you. Okay, I wanted to read this email that we got from Nicole about Patricia, which I really loved. Specifically about Patricia in episode 8. She wrote, I thought this episode, episode 8, like All Great Horror, had a cutting social commentary this time with Patricia. Her performance of the final girl running from the boogeyman at first is actually very quiet, almost performative. It screams the actions of a woman who is so insecure.

She doesn't want any reparation or negative repercussions for others because she got a disgustingly disparate dinner from what she ordered. It's the meekest, funniest cries for help I've ever seen. Patricia is screamingly, painfully relatable. Watching her run from the boogeyman in a way that didn't disturb others was the funniest thing I'd seen in months until I got to her, holding the shotgun against the boogeyman's head in four different locations that killed me. So like for Patricia to go from like help, help a bit to like stun gunning, tasing. Even just barging into the girl's night to begin with. To the shotgun situation is this like evolution for Patricia.

And for Patricia, you know, what Nicole singles out another moment in that episode when, which I didn't really clock when Patricia is talking to Bashir about Shell being pregnant. and she says, like, how old is she? Yeah. I thought she was just sort of asking as, like, it didn't even occur to me that Shell could be, and she kind of is, but also inside of this episode, when they're debating about what to do with Ruth,

and they're like, she's not married, she doesn't have kids. And Patricia's like, well, glad that, you know, I'm not at a warrant dissenter, you would already slip my throat. This idea of, like, doesn't want to have less value if she's not married if she doesn't have kids,

you know, up against Tom Loftus, who's like, you don't understand I have a child to protect. because she or theoretically, I have a child coming that I want to protect, you know? And so, like, the value of the unmarried, you know, doesn't have a child woman on side of this island. And so does Patricia have this moment inside of episode eight where she finds out that Shell is pregnant? And she's like, like, is this still possible for me? I thought maybe I was like past myself by date to a certain degree, like, which is a theme that has been running up, you know, for a lot of the women inside of the seasons.

For sure. I mean, it's clearly part of the cortex of the show. for many of the characters. And I also love that Patricia has all that going on where she is constantly being confronted with her age, with the fact that she is single, with her role in this community and how ostracized she feels within it

from the people she went to school with. But she's also the moral center of this episode. Like she's the one saying, hold the fuck on. Are we talking about shooting Ruth in the back of the head? This is ridiculous. Whereas people who do have kids or people who just feel like they have different motivations

are very willing to at least consider this really barbaric thing. Do you view that scene with like Tom? And the episode ends with we don't know what Tom's going to, I mean. We can suspect. We suspect what Tom is off to do. But he has not answered what he's going to do. So if Tom is the undecided and you have Wick being like, you got to.

I can make it peaceful. Right. And Patricia is saying, you simply can't. That's the sort of like angel, are these like the angel devil ideas that are going to be in his head as he navigates whatever trolley problem, moral decision that he has to make in the finale. I'm glad you brought up the trolley problem because I feel like if you are on the side of Ruth needs to die to liberate the island, couldn't you just not go help her and hope that the storm kind of do its thing?

We know where Rob stands. Rob would kill Ruth. Hard disagree. I would give my life for Ruth personally. But I'm saying if you are on that side of things, there is a very dangerous component right here in the community that they are even letting. out, we need to go save Ruth from this. We need to bring her to the shelter.

Well, it was a nice way to establish Ruth is early in the episode. Ruth is not here. Yes. So whatever's going on with Ruth is going to be a secondary location that Tom and then, you know, the mob that you're predicting will have to go to.

Did you find it odd at all? I think especially in an episode that was this short and maybe even this thin from a certain point of view, that we don't see Ruth whatsoever. We don't get any flash to like her at her house or anything. What's she doing?

Do you think? I mean. Napping? Trying to work some kind of technology and failing miserably. It's not going well, I'm sure. Yeah. But we're talking a lot about Ruth. And I feel like in a different kind of show,

there would be like a cut to Ruth at her house doing whatever she's doing and cut back. Clearly the show is withholding that. And I wonder, like, what is the dynamic that Tom is going to be walking into when he does get to her house? Presumably, that's where he's going. Okay. So you're like, is Ruth filming her only fans content? you know what? Maybe.

Live your life. If we've learned anything from euphoria, live your life. A couple of things before we circle back to this rosemary moment, which is just so incredible. The pre-rosemary presentation is Wick coming into our office. We get this really interesting whale blubber comment from Wick where he talks about this was the dominant industry of the island

up until his father's time. So into the 20th century. And the captains like ruled the island. And we've had some indications of that of like, you know, captains doing certain things to have their way. Does that, is that setting up anything for this season? Is it setting up something for future season? What do you think?

I was really thrown by this. It was an odd bit of like focus. Like we're going to kind of bringing it up a couple different times in the episode, kind of framing things in this way. Yeah. I mean, maybe there's a short term like, what's the expiration in a whale blubber? Like if there's some whale blubber down in the tunnels

to work some torches, is that a thing that would still be functional after all these years? If you're a whaler, are you not a whaler? Press you should be at Spotify.com to let us know how one preserves. Like, can you just seal it in a jar like jam?

Is that what you're saying? I would presume it's kind of already preserved. Blubber? Yeah. No, all fats go random. And you know this as a chef. Well, sure, but they have a much longer shelf life than expected. A stable shelf life. Yeah.

Okay. Okay. You can keep lard out on your counter for a long time. Okay. And then did you freeze frame Mahoney on Rosemary's desk drawer? I did. I was most intrigued by the three diaco can school. I couldn't tell whether they're empties or fools.

I tried like going with a. No, they're fools. You think they were fools based on the way they rock. This is what I was looking at. I was like, they feel full to me based on someone who has an unfortunate. unfortunately very intimate understanding of the weight and density of a Diet Coke can. So we're glad to welcome Rosemary to the team. When she pulled up in the drawer, I was like, Rob will probably freeze frame this, but I should do it just to just in case he doesn't.

And then when I saw that the Diet Coke's were there, I was like, Rob certainly was all over this. Okay. My sister. You and Rosemary. She mentioned that it's a castle doctrine town. Do you know the difference between the Castle Doctrine and Stand Your Ground? They feel of a feather to me. One needs to touch ground now.

Castle Doctrine only applies to your home, your vehicle, or sometimes your workplace. Okay. And then stand your ground is anywhere. Stand your ground is anywhere? Any public place where you have a legal right to be. So you can't break into someone's home and claim stand your ground, but you can't in the Walmart, I guess. I really underestimated how medieval Florida is. Stop.

You would think Castle Doctrine would be the more medieval than stand your ground, but stand your ground is. Holy shit. Yeah, tough. Really fucking tough. All right, let's get to Rosemary's presentation. She's smoking. Yep.

Got to take a break. She's not, she's doing, she's smoking and presenting. But she's got a break to light up. Oh, yes. Hold for dramatic effect while I light my cigarette. This is just so good.

Like, all of her muttered aside. Yes. I just want to applaud Dale Dickey for this. I just think she's absolutely incredible. The first time I watched it, I was like a little impatient because I was like wanted, I was eager to know the answer.

And I was like, what are we doing? Come on, as are Tom and Wake and Patricia. But the second, third, fourth, fifth, however many times I've watched it since, I'm just marinating in every single delivery that she gives is so good. What are some of your highlights here? Well, first of all, I think the performance is great. And not just hers, but the reaction shot Olympics that are happening among the other three characters, really delightful.

But structurally, like from a writing standpoint, turning a, like, Game of Thronesy Star Wars. or so you kind of like lineage reveal into like, you know what, we could just say this. We could make this dramatic. We could give you a flashback sequence and we kind of did. But also what if we just do like a full family, multi-generational family tree for a third of the runtime of this episode. It's a very funny thing to do. And yes, there isn't impatience to it, but it's also so deeply funny.

It's so funny. I think in part because of the bits, I mean, dead baby, dead baby, lesbian. Happy pride. I'd be right to everybody out there The whole like when he grows up He won't be shooting blanks He's a stud These jacker rabbits

The Jacker rabbits The family that swims together Drowns together That actually does seem like it should be an expression And that's the first inaugural swim Apparently so They kept going after an entire family Drown together

I've seen Claire Bell's portrait She thinks she's something The first time She went through it And she said the family that swims together Drowns together I thought that was like an incest Comment

I thought so too But then we got to the actual incest. She's like, none of my business unless I have children. In this case, they did. I mean, just like everything was so funny. I wish I had been like a fly in the wall when Dale Dickie breaking this down at a home, figuring out how where she could find, like milk the most comedy out of this, came up with Jacker Rabbits as a pronunciation for Jack Rabbits.

It's so funny. I thought this was like a masterpiece of comedy. A plus stuff. I have a question for you. Yeah. I've written down a couple of my feet. favorite names from the family tree. I would like for you to select your favorite of these.

Thank you. Hezekiah Collington. Really good. Holly Oak Warren. Holyoke Warren. Hard to beat. Yeah. And then the last is a two for Sophia the heretic who married Byron Fairclaw.

Yeah. Which of those would you say is your favorite? Well, listen. Sophia the Heretic really made the best of it. Really did. Holyoke Warren really stood out to me. We did get an email about when we, when we, when we and all the other listeners were predicting that it was going to be Evan,

so the Warren family line passing down through Lauren. One of our listeners was like, does that make her Lauren Warren? And like, as we know, the Warren name is not involved in all this, but Lauren Warren is very funny. So, yeah. This whole sequence. I mean, again, it's just like punchline after punchline after punchline after punchline after punchline.

And there was something about the specific delivery of next thing you know, your dad's dead and your stepmom is taking you on an adventure destination, hell that was very Chris Farley and Tommy boy to me. When he's like giving his like over the top like running off the rail speeches trying to sell these brake pads. There's like I don't know of a higher compliment in comedy than I can give them that. I think also, you know, all of her very passive aggressive like stuff about Tom. I can't hear. I can't hear when the fan is on.

This is usually when we just repeat Patricia jokes, but it's Rosemary's time to shine this on. And then I think, oh, when she was like, she's like, all the kids died, a fascinating murder mystery. And then we don't have time. And was the dad. I hope we get that story in season two. I would love it. Like, I hope we get some of these stories. Give us that full flashback.

Yeah, exactly. The full murder mystery? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Did you connect it all with the person who has put a lot of work into a presentation and just wants everyone to know how much work you did? Rob, I think you know I did. I say this because I personally also have a little, we all have that. in us. But Rosemary's cooler than I am because at the end I would have been like, did you like it?

Was it good? You want the bat on the head in addition to the focus and patience. I really need. I really need that. If I could be paid in affirmations, I would be. Guess what? You can. Leave your comments below.

Hit Joe on social media. That's not how the internet works wrong. I tried. It's deformations from the internet every single time. One thing that we haven't really noted, but our listeners have been writing in for a couple weeks about is that after the drug trip episode with the hand turkey

sort of thing, a lot of people have, if you rotate the hand turkey and sort of flip it, that's the shape of the Widows Bay Island. Oh, okay. No, it like really is. I mean... No, it like really is. And they keep showing that map.

This was a little bit of a bridge too far for me. You're wrong. It's true. I think you've been on the Lost Island too long. Absolutely not. I don't know about this one. On the sort of Jurassic Park Islidablar comp that we were bringing up last week when they look at like the sort of, is it a Doppler map? Is that what it is? I think it's a Doppler map.

Yeah, the weather map. The overwhelming storm. With the Hand Island. But that was very Jurassic Park, a storm's a coming sort of moment. The shape of those hand turkeys is so loose. You could turn it and Roershack into literally anything. Google image search, Widows Bay Island map. I've seen the side by side.

And it's true. I am not so compelled to think that that is it. Emma Ketchum or any other writer on Widows Day. I'm happy to be wrong. I just personally do not see it. Please prove wrong. With the one-to-one synchronicity. All right.

Can I talk a bit more about Storm of the Century? I would love it if you did. Okay. Written for TV, so it's not based on a book. Stephen King wrote this for television. Stephen King miniseries, like, you know, there's the It miniseries, which is quite famous. Salem's Lot, which is quite famous. I really remember, I think it was like the year or two before this, they did a shining miniseries because Stephen King famously hates the Kubrick movie.

They did it with Stephen Weber from Wings in the Jack Torrance role. Not what I would have picked. Here we've got Tim Daly from Wings is the lead of this particular endeavor. A very young Julianne Nicholson, like one of her very first roles is as one of the townspeople. Basically what happens is in classic Stephen King fashion, a mysterious man comes to town. this happens in needful things, this happens in the stand, etc. Oh, the stand miniseries. Also very good.

Comes to town, he knows all of the dark secrets of everyone on this island, and he will just, like, say it to them. He'll be like, hey, remember when you gay bashed a man? He lost his eye. You should go see his hazily eye patch. Happy pride. Like, literally, that's one of the secrets that he under us. He just walks around and tells people.

The first thing he does is he just kills the shit out of an old lady. I believe he beats her with his cane. Okay. And so I was thinking a lot about Ruth when I was thinking about this old lady who dies right at the beginning of this. But what happens is he's... Old ladies are not a monolith. You're right. How dare you, frankly?

How do you go from patriarchy good, actually, to this? The world may never know. But after he's like terrorized the town and then Tim Daley's character, as is often the case in these Stephen King's stories, is the sheriff. and he is like the beacon of good and truth on this island. And he refuses to like get rid of this guy right away. He's like due process. I believe in due process. But eventually there's this huge town meeting where this guy is a lot.

Played by Canadian actor Comfior like comes in and just like tells everyone in the town their various secrets. And then he's like, I have but one wish. And then I will go away and the storm will go away. I would like one of your children. give me one of your children. I need to train up an apprentice. I need an heir to my demon ways. And give me one of your children,

or else you'll go the way of Roanoke, the famed colony that disappeared. He's claiming that he's the one who made Roanoke disappear. He's like, so either give me one of your children, or I will take all of your children anyway, and you will all walk two by two into the sea. And Tim Daly, hero of the hour, is like, we can't do this.

for our souls, we cannot do this. And it's basically him against the entire town. And he's like, we don't know that he has these powers to do this. We don't know that he is like a supernatural evil. And if we make this decision to give up one of our children, like, how do we live with ourselves after? Which is the question that Patricia asks inside this episode. What does this say about us?

His wife, however, is like, we got to do it. We got to give up a child. The twist is, sorry, spoilers for this. thing, it's Tim Daly and his wife's child is the one that gets taken because the whole town votes and they decide to give up a child and then they draw lots. It's very much like Shirley Jackson's lottery and it's his child. And then his child is taken. And then the epilogue is about how he moves to San Francisco and like yada, yada, yada. And then like a bunch of people who survived this incident on the island wind up killing themselves anyway because how do you live

with yourself after you've done this thing? Completely. And I imagine in very Stephen King fashion you never quite know if that mysterious man had the demonic power to do what he said. You do, because he's got like, he's got fangs. Well, but it's one thing to have fangs and another thing to be like, a cane that comes to life. But I'm going to make you all march two by two into the sea? I don't know if he could be overstating it. Yeah, it could have been like actors do on their CV when they're like, yeah, I can ride a horse. Absolutely.

I'll just have to learn how to do it by shoot time. I can do that. That's fine. So yeah, Patricia kind of standing in for this sort of like Tim Daley voice of like, we cannot do this for our soul's sort of. of role. The accent work inside of this particular 1999 ABC miniseries is

outstanding and fantastic. This is the same island that Dolores Clarebourne takes place on just as a fun fact. Anyway, we've had a lot of lizardsers write in about it. I thought it was like worth, you know, as every because I couldn't think of another sort of like horror movie comp

for this, a storm has come to the island and we have to make a choice to sacrifice one people for the greater good of the island, the greater good. Like, I couldn't think of a better comp than this. Did you, did anything come to mind for you? I was in the same kind of quag my heart. Because, yeah, most horror,

I mean, to the extent you would even call it horror. There's the mist, which we've been talking about since the beginning. But even the mist is something like a little more monstrous. Yeah. Like, you know, there is something within it that is very similar to Widows Bay. Yeah. But it's not strictly there is a storm that could kill us.

Right. It's not like the, like, in this case, even the mystical black tornadoes, or Cyclone, feels like a demonic but weather event. Should we just call it a Nor'easter? Apparently this is what a Nor'Easter is. Blanket, Nor Easter. Yeah.

I was kind of caught between, like, this isn't a pure weather disaster kind of story. Right. And we have all these horror elements. Like, what is the midpoint of all of that? And I found myself in a similar space. I couldn't quite find that exact property. But you stumbled upon it and a lot of our listeners did.

Our listeners are the ones that flagged it for me. I completely missed this in 1999 when I was a senior in high school. Shout out. the 90s when like Stephen King could write an original story for ABC that would air on Valentine's Day and two other nights. So fun fact about that. Where did that go for us? What do we have now that we we traded that off for? Nothing.

No? Despair. TikTok. We just gave away our child and got nothing in return. Exactly. Brutal. Anything else we want to talk about. On that idea, before we move on, the inversion of that concept of we're not trading a child but we're trading this elderly woman potentially in her life.

And we're doing it for the sake of our children, I think is a nice moral quandary to kind of riff on that idea. And this is another area where I'm just kind of waiting for that other shoe to drop, the kind of almost throwaway line from Bashir that he hasn't really told Shell about anything that's at stake yet. I mean, for one, she's definitely like starting to go into labor. It's Brexton Hicks. Don't worry about her. I mean, we have penultimate contractions. This woman is going into labor in the finale. She does not yet know that her unborn child would be like locked to this island for life.

Yeah. I would think that information has to come out and I would think that other people who are not quite aware of it would be upset by that information as well. Okay. About their own kids to clarify. So for the finale, we have everyone's in the shelter except for Ruth and Tom. Yes. PJ Glenville's there. The off island girls are there.

Evan's there, et cetera. Do you believe Evan when he said I won't go anywhere to Tom? He did seem oddly agreeable. It seemed very earnest. It is. But they've had a real sort of like, you know, connection. There are socks games left in the season. It's an emergency.

And it feels like maybe this teenager under these circumstances is actually willing to listen to his dad. Okay. You think Bashir is going to, at least Bashir is going to find out about the stakes of what's going on. I think he already has an inclination, but he hasn't really shared with Shell anything that Patricia has told him. No, but he doesn't know about the Warren. and send it question. I think clearly more people are going to have to be aware of the potential trade in play here.

That someone, they may not know it's Ruth, but like someone will have to die or some ones will have to die and we'll see how they all deal with it. We meet a couple different employees of the island. There's Kenny who Rosemary will not let help pull the portrait off of Tom. No. A really funny. Okay. Emmy winner Jeff Hiller has not had a ton to do.

but his delivery of like, poor Rosemary. Her sciatica is acting up. We relate to her sciatica. Absolutely. That whole thing. She's like, Tom, don't move. Your lung may be collapsed. Don't speak.

Really funny. But we've got Kenny who shows up and does a couple things. We already met Garrett at the lighthouse. I'm sure we've met Kenny before. Perhaps he's the one who talked to the trash can. I don't know the extent of Kenny's overall. And then there's the guy on the radio. Yeah.

Mitch, I believe. Mitch, who says it's all crumbling. It's all going. It's all going. Something to that effect. So what's going? The island buildings. In storm of the century,

the lighthouse collapses into the ocean. Is Garrett's lighthouse going? I hope not because I am not ashamed to admit that Garrett bit works on me every time. It's very funny. When he showed up in the window, it's really funny. It's very one note, but it's like you could play that note over and over and I will laugh at it. I was thinking about the, you know, when people, Patricia's like people have died, Tom.

I was thinking about who's died, right? So Todd, we presumed Todd got sucked up into the Nor'Easter. I don't see how he survives that. Him and his tube socks. But great wirework, I thought. I thought it was really good. I also thought it was really good. Do you regret now, you know, you were sort of knocking Todd a little bit?

It was like the one part of the show that didn't feel as part of the show. And now it's been sucked up into a storm. Problem solved. You're welcome. You believe our gas station attendant is dead. certainly an EMT is dead at least one EMT how many EMTs can this island have

What do you think the loss, the losing the one gas station attendant an EMT and our drug dealer Is the infrastructure of the island Undercut in any kind of way? Drug dealer. I think drug dealer is undercutting his spiritualism personally.

Is that cocaine? Okay, maybe it's not all spiritual. Well, plus we got at least one of the sailors at the beginning that you alluded to in the cold open to the show, Shep. So maybe a couple people around the edges, too, who have kind of disappeared into these various storms.

That's half the commerce of the island? Yeah, I'm just like worried about the, I mean, it's no longer a whale blubber centric economy. They're trying to thrive on tourism and putting all these people's lives at risk in the process because they didn't deal with their deep-seated hauntings. So let that be a lesson to all of us. I did love this Rosemary sequence, obviously, in this episode.

It's one of my favorite things that's happened this season. I did feel like it kind of, like, should not have been Jerry's time to shine also. Jerry, historical society, would she not be the genealogy expert? But I guess that's Rosemary's job. I did think it was notable. The time for the white gloves is clearly over. We are just handling Sarah Warren's diary with all kinds of hands. Honestly, one of the, like, my favorite gags in this episode is when Patricia is explaining to Tom, the connection between the finger and the diary.

While the portrait is still on him. While the portrait is on him and is one foot away from him and throws it at him in a way that he just cannot even move, bounces off his chest onto the floor. Yeah. The jokes are still flying. But yeah, no one seems to have much regard for conservatorship anymore. Anything else you want to predict for the finale or feel like, well, here's the question. Well, we had been asking a question, do we think someone's going to be sacrificed? And if Ruth dies, or does it need to be someone in that chair for you to feel like, you know, we got the sacrifice you were looking for?

Well, let me ask you this before we even get there. Yeah. I mean, I talked about how I felt about Ruth being the secret Warren in general. How, I would say you're even more theory inclined than I am. Did this feel both in who it was and how it was revealed, like a satisfying conclusion to that mystery for you? Yeah, I think especially wondering how it's all going to play out in the finale is interesting to me. Like, Tom having to confront Ruth, and we've seen sort of, relationship all season.

As Patricia says, like, you know, you often entrust your son to her. She might not be a great caretaker. But she says yes. So, like, yeah, and I really love that actress who's playing Ruth. So I think I'm really excited to see how this is all going to play out. You know, so that is interesting to me. Evan's stuff was still, like, incredibly compelling and interesting to me. Yeah.

And I'll be interested to see, like, if she does die in the finale by Tom's hand or anything. else, is that it, is it over? Or is there more to come because we want a season two, three, four, five, six of this show? I think you're starting to feel it with Widows Bay. Like the homeland style temptation of we have something, it works. I wouldn't say Ruth is like as much of a dramatic lead. But the idea of putting the curse to rest would be putting to rest this version of the show. I don't know what you would do after that. I don't think they can do. I don't think they can wrap it. I don't think I don't think they can wrap it all up in the finale because I think they want more seasons of this show, as do we?

As do we? Yeah. So either Ruth does not die or that the genealogy chart is not quite complete. You're besmirching Rosemary's work on the transparency on the overhead projector. She had 30 minutes. And a lot of that was just marker on transparency. Well, I will say, Patricia said she might already have that genealogy. So she might have had a lot of that already written out.

Written out, though? Maybe. On transparency. She's just waiting for her moment. Her penmanship is excellent. If she had to, if I had to like rush that present, though she was in no rush. But if I had to like whip together that presentation, my penmanship would not have been as good. I don't think any of ours would have been.

Okay. It was sterling all around. The pacing, the thunder crashes, dramatically speaking, she had it all worked out. Also the score this season. Yeah. Also, like, I guess because she would have had to photocopy Ruth's, like, City Hall badge onto a transparency. also her like... While the power is a precious resource.

Yeah. Also her like, what was it like Miss Widows Bay? 1959 or whatever. Yeah. Shout out to Ruth. Yeah, shout out to Rosemary. She's lived a life.

She's doing her thing. I will say this was a... Would you kill an old woman to save your island home? I already said no. I'd be out there trying to save Ruth. Yeah, I thought I would hit you again and see if your answer had changed

now that we've talked about it. It has not changed. I know how you feel about killing old women, but not all of us feel that way. I don't know for the whole island. Wow. Actually, no, here's what I would have done. Yeah.

I would tell Ruth. And I would say... You want a guilt trip Ruth. No, I'm just give her an option. You don't have to do it. No worries if not. The whole island is dependent. But you could save the whole island.

It's your choice. Would you save the whole island if it was you? Yes. If I had lived as long as Ruth had lived, that's easy, I think. I mean, she might have a lot left to do. I'm sure she does. You know? I just feel like we're being very presumptuous about Ruth's life.

For CTV, this is the trolley problem. It is the trolley problem. For CTV at Spotify.com, if you have a strong opinion one way or another about what you would do, if you were Ruth or if you were off to murder, Ruth. Yeah. Anything else you want to say? Here's one thing I do feel strongly about. This was the end, at least as far as I could see of it, of brooch watch, no?

Oh, because Ruth... I mean, what else is it going to tell us that we don't already know, unless there is a second warrant out there who has this brooch? but we even get a close-up on it. Are you putting Evan back on the table? I'm not putting anything back on the table. To me, it's just like we've had so many indications, including within this episode, in the flashback of like,

let's zoom in on this brooch. And then the reveal, we're just going to tell you over a transparency slide, which may just be kind of like a misdirect and, ha-ha, this is funny. Fair enough. But we were just kind of waiting to see that brooch on somebody or in somebody's desk drawer or like dresser or whatever. I don't know what it would do for us at this point that we don't already know. So if it's just at Ruth's house, you're like, what's the point?

Yeah, I don't know that we needed all that. Okay. And now our brooch washes ended? I get a real misdirect. We have to keep the lighthouse on just in case. What if it's crumbled in the sea already? Then we're officially fucked. Because of a cyclone and or a tornado.

Too many disasters at play. I feel like we did it. I mean, this is already longer than the episode. We'll be back for Cape Fear. I'm really excited for the finale. I'll be really sad when this is over. Very much so. I don't know if you've experienced this, but I just like,

We already mentioned earlier in the season, but I just have really been feeling like every week the noise around this show has been growing and growing and growing and growing. And people are just like completely obsessed about it. And are you watching it, et cetera, et cetera. So I don't exactly know what the numbers are, but this feels like, and, you know, on the heels of Plurbus, which was a great hit for Apple, obviously the Severance phenomenon.

Like, I've sometimes made fun of like the Apple TV programming in the past because, like, sometimes it can be spotty, but, like, if they're finding their lanes, if they're, like, we're doing, they're finding their brand. Like, originally they were just sort of like, we've got Oprah and Steven Spielberg and Reese Witherspoon and, like, that's who we have, right? And now if they're like, we do weird little sci-fi things, you know, and they try to do big sci-fi IP, right? Like, foundation and stuff like that. But, like, if they're like, we've got severance and pluribus and Widows Bay, these incredibly original, like, fun, quirky. theory shows,

etc., etc. We've got your summertime trash trapeas theater. We found a paperback in an airport. Certainly did. That was once made into a great movie and now we're going to make it

into a weird TV show and we got some actors you wouldn't believe to be in it. There are bodily fluids on these pages. You don't even want to ask questions about. So, you know, and then whatever else may come.

So, like, I think those two things have been quite successful for them. and we'll see what else. There's a bunch of shows on Apple that don't feel like they exist, but there are some that are really breaking through in a more consistent way. I wonder in the former category,

as we're kind of lumping this with a severance or a pluribus or shows like that, how this particular episode will land with the people who have been loving Widows Bay. Because for me, I'm going to be honest, like this show does not hang on its mysteries for me. They're a fun seasoning, little side project,

but like, I'm here for the horror, I'm here for the goofs, I'm here for the character work. All that stuff is kind of front and center. And then I'm just kind of intrigued by what's around the corner. But if you have been living and dying with the background of every frame, and I think the show has largely rewarded that. And Ruth is the secret worn and you feel underwhelmed by that revelation.

I'm just, I'm eager to see how people take this episode. Well, but I feel like people will be underwhelmed no matter what. That's just the nature of the, of the, of the, of the Reddit, yes, and of the Reddit detective. Yes. Because like, if it had been Evan and they would have been like, yeah, we figured that out like weeks ago. So the most underwhelming thing is being. right. Can be.

Or, you know, yeah, or there's some satisfaction. I figured it out and I was right. There's that. If it's like a completely, the thing that's great about Ruth is sometimes in a theory show, the answer is not what the breadcrumbs have been laid towards, right? So it's not that. But it's so far afields that can like some of the later Westworld seasons that it's just like very clear that the showrunner was so intent on outsmarting the people watching the show.

Yeah. that they came up with an answer that, like, does not really make logical sense. But Ruth makes, like, this is a character who has been here. Yep. Right under our noses. Right under our noses. And I think it's an interesting question of, like, what would you do if an elderly, unmarried doesn't have children, woman, you know, versus the island.

Yeah, a true old maid. A true old maid. But so really, I think what you're articulating is, like, you can't always get what you want. But if you try, sometimes you still might find you get what you need. What did you hear on the spooky radio sounds? that were playing when Tom was going into the lighthouse. Mostly that he couldn't turn his volume down, which sounds like my personal nightmare.

Like no volume control. Like I don't even know what's going to come out of this thing, but I have no control over it. I don't know what the second song was, but I'm pretty sure I think the first song was Bohemian Rhapsody, because I heard any way the wind blows. But I don't know that if I were Apple,

I would pay for Bohemian Rhapsody just for a garbled radio sort of sound. Well, how much do you have to pay for rights if it is a sliver of a snippet that has been manipulated. I wonder if you could find a cover of Bohemian Rhapsody and just garble that into the radio or just have someone pop into a series. Freddie and the Mercury's tribute band covering Bohemian Rhapsody.

Exactly. The vampire listat does Bohemian Rhapsody. Incredible. Anyway, if you heard what those songs were or Emma Ketchum if you want to let us know, PrestiTV at Spotify.com, let's wrap it up. We did it. We're back with Cape Fear.

We're back with the finale. we, okay, should we, let's announce it. Okay. Why not? We do want to say for the witness of a finale, we're not sure yet if we're going to do it live. If we do wind up doing it live like we did for the Euphoria finale, watch our socials. We will announce it. We will definitely let you know.

Yeah, yeah. But we're not sure yet. It depends on the NBA playoffs. Oh, finals. Sorry, unfortunately. As does literally everything in my life. Okay. Just like, will this series go to six games?

Determines my entire schedule and existence. Here are things I know. Okay. The Knicks. Yep. The Spurs. Yep. Wemby.

Sure. The Spurs won, so the Knicks will not get it in four. That's true. But they could get it in five. They could. And Timothy Chalemay, among many others, would be very excited if they did. As would, at least one Safdie brother. Okay.

As would, Ben Stiller. Ben Stiller. Sarah Michelle Geller. Is she a Knicks fan? She posted a photo of her in Freddie Prince Jr. In like the 90s at a Knicks game. And she's like, Knicks fan day one. They're my hometown team.

I was like, all right. It's a little bandwagon of SMG, but okay. And Hathaway legit. Okay. You know, it's a star-studded row over there. Which stars are rooting for the Spurs? You know, it's not a deep list. They don't have anyone.

Shea Serrano? You know? San Antonio. It's a different caliber of thing out there. But you know what? That's what I don't have Donald Trump showing up to their game. So you win some, you lose some. I think that's a real win.

I'll trade all the Chalames in the scene for no Donald Trump in my game. Okay. Thank you to whale blubber. Yeah. Preserved or not. Thank you to three very full cans of Diet Coke in the back of a drawer. Thank you to Rob Mahoney. Thank you, Joe.

Thanks to Devereinaldo. Thanks to Kai. Grady. Thanks to Jacob Cornett. And we'll see you soon for Cape Fear. Bye.