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Widow\u2019s Bay<\/h2>\n Beach Reads<\/p>\n
\n Season 1<\/span>\n Editor\u2019s Rating*<\/span>*<\/span>*<\/span>*<\/span>*<\/span><\/span>\n <\/p>\n\n<\/nav>\n<\/div>\n<\/section><\/div>\n\n Photo: Apple TV\/Copyrighted<\/span>\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\u201cBeach Reads\u201d is the most consistently uncomfortable, squirmy, and scary episode of Widow\u2019s Bay<\/em> so far. Yes, I absolutely do mean that as a compliment.<\/p>\nThis deep dive into the nature of Patricia\u2019s tense relationship with pretty much everyone in town is not quite as hilarious as the season\u2019s first three installments, although there certainly are some funny moments. (Please see literally everything about Dale\u2019s DJ set.) But \u201cBeach Reads,\u201d written by Mackenzie Dohr (WandaVision<\/em>) and directed by Sam Donovan (Severance<\/em>, The Crown<\/em>), is an incredibly rich, compelling text that furthers our understanding of the horrors that haunt this island while also slyly critiquing the cultural mechanisms that pit women against each other.<\/p>\nThis episode marks the first time that we\u2019ve seen Patricia (an exceptional Kate O\u2019Flynn) outside of her town-hall role. Notably, when we initially encounter her, she is by herself, minding the book mobile that no one seems particularly interested in visiting. (It is called the PattiWagon, which, A+.) Right away, we feel a little sorry for her. As It\u2019s a Wonderful Life<\/em> teaches us every Christmas, the two worst things a woman can be are unmarried and a librarian, and Patricia is basically both. Oh, also, everyone hates her. \u201cBeach Reads\u201d explains why, starting with a wine-and-cheese party.<\/p>\nWhen Patricia shows up at the gathering, it\u2019s obvious she was invited out of politeness and not anyone\u2019s desire for her company. Instantly, her presence makes everything more awkward, and not in a fun, cringe-comedy kind of way, but in a visceral, painful one. Every time Patricia tries to contribute to a conversation, people ignore her, as if she hadn\u2019t spoken some semi-relevant words out loud. Finally, a woman named Shelby, who has only recently moved to Widow\u2019s Bay and hasn\u2019t been taught to avoid Patricia, dares to ask her if she knew any of the victims of the Boogeyman murders that took place when Patricia was in high school. This is the question Patricia lives for, in the same way that Ben Stiller lives to be asked about the New York Knicks. \u201cDid I know them?\u201d she says. \u201cI was almost one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Patricia eagerly explains how all those years ago, she got weird phone calls from a heavy breather she thought was the Boogeyman. Then the guy actually came to her house, but she was able to avoid getting killed by hiding under her bed. After excusing herself briefly from the conversation, Patricia returns to find the other guests whispering to Shelby about Patricia\u2019s history of dishonesty about almost being a Boogeyman victim. \u201cThey even checked the phone records, and it proves she never got the calls,\u201d whispers one of the gossipy ladies. \u201cShe\u2019ll tell anyone who will listen,\u201d adds another. \u201cHonestly, it\u2019s so pathetic.\u201d The members of the community believe that Patricia is trying to cast herself as a final girl, the one who survives the horror movie thanks to her resourcefulness and intelligence, when she\u2019s actually just a liar.<\/p>\n
One of those women, Kris (Lauren Bittner), whose entire demeanor screams former head cheerleader, finally confronts Patricia at her sunset and cocktails event. \u201cSamantha was stabbed, and she hid in the dryer,\u201d Kris says with barely checked rage. \u201cThen he turned it on, and she baked to death. Jen hid under her covered pool, but he was already waiting there for her. But you. You hid under a bed. That must be his kryptonite.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy friends died, and you are just so, so starved for attention that you had to make that about you,\u201d she adds in a blow that knocks Patricia out for the count. Suddenly, Kris\u2019s irritation with Patricia makes much more sense. But is she entirely correct? Or is Patricia unpopular and, sure, maybe a little attention-starved, but still telling the truth about what happened to her?<\/p>\n
That is the essence of what this episode is about and, in a lot of ways, this whole series, too. It\u2019s about the stories we\u2019re told about the people around us and the ones we believe about ourselves, and how those become so ingrained in us that it\u2019s hard to see the actual unvarnished truth in all its complexity. To put it in simpler terms, it\u2019s about not judging a book by its cover, a theme that \u201cBeach Reads\u201d cleverly highlights by shifting our sense of perspective repeatedly, and by introducing an actual book that absolutely should not be judged by its cover.<\/p>\n
After the wine-and-cheese party, Patricia discovers a copy of Your Turn: Out With the Old and in With the You<\/em>, a work of self-help randomly left on the floor of the PattiWagon. At first, this appears to be a typical 1950s etiquette book for women, albeit one that seems extremely fixated on destroying the reader\u2019s self-esteem. (\u201cWhat do you love about yourself?\u201d asks a worksheet inside, followed by two lines to note the positive qualities. \u201cWhat don\u2019t you love about herself?\u201d asks the next question, then leaves three-quarters of the page blank.)<\/p>\n\u201cAll it takes is one great party to change your life,\u201d the book advises, which is an absurd thing to claim unless your name is either Kid or Play. But despite some initial skepticism, Patricia completely buys into that philosophy, takes over planning of the municipal sunset-cocktails event, and decides to make its success a referendum on her worth as a human being.<\/p>\n
It isn\u2019t until late in the episode that we realize Your Turn: Out With the Old and in With the You<\/em> is actually some creepy-ass spell book designed to put all the partygoers in a trance that leads them to attempt to drown themselves. That book is not the only \u201cobject\u201d that looks wildly different when examined through another lens.<\/p>\nDuring the party, when Patricia appears to be making a heartfelt, well-received speech, we can see in the mirror that something else entirely is happening. Rather than reacting warmly, all the attendees are standing still with their mouths agape as if they\u2019re auditioning to replace the guy in Edvard Munch\u2019s The Scream<\/em>. Once Sheriff Bechir shows up at the Salty Whale, everything that Patricia has been doing \u2014 making punch, wearing a tiara \u2014 is revealed in all its stark horror.<\/p>\nThe punch is filled not with strawberries and other fruit, but pieces of dead animals and their blood. Patricia\u2019s tiara \u2014 \u201cSeriously, what the fuck is on her head?\u201d Kris says of the fascinator \u2014 is actually a crown of sticks and thorns that would fit in beautifully in an episode of Yellowjackets<\/em>. Bechir, one of the few people in Widow\u2019s Bay with a sharp mind and basic common sense, realizes Patricia must be under a spell as soon as he sees the security-cam footage of her typing furiously in the park, completely oblivious to a major bike accident unfolding behind her. (In another clever POV switcheroo, we hear the sheriff\u2019s call for backup over the police scanner \u2014 \u201cAll available Fire and Rescue to Patricia\u2019s Cocktails. I don\u2019t know what the fuck is going on!\u201d \u2014 in a different context than we heard it in the previous episode. The same goes for the irritated answering-machine message Patricia leaves for Tom, who, per \u201cThe Inaugural Swim,\u201d wisely ditched the event to vibe with Marissa.)<\/p>\nThe sunset-cocktails twist allows the audience the joy of revisiting moments and comments from earlier in the episode, when we did not yet realize we were watching some weird blood-drinking death ritual. The understated way that Rosemary reacts to literally everything, for example, is an absolute riot. \u201cI didn\u2019t understand one word of that speech,\u201d she says with remarkable calm, considering that everyone at the party has gone full zombie. \u201cI know that you asked me to be supportive, but I have my qualms. That\u2019s all I\u2019m gonna say.\u201d<\/p>\n
Patricia realizes that she must destroy the spell book, which she does by throwing it in the bonfire that looks much more like a funeral pyre. It works; suddenly everyone snaps out of Munch mode, wonders how the heck they wound up knee-deep in the sea, and goes back to doing what they always do: blaming Patricia. Even though she just saved them, all they can see is that she nearly got them killed, which, I mean, is technically fair? But there\u2019s more to Patricia than just one mistake or the (possible) error she made by exaggerating her own experience with the Boogeyman. But that\u2019s all they will ever see in her, and it leaves Patricia bereft and lonely. At its core, this episode is a portrait of the pain a woman endures when she says she was victimized and no one will believe her.<\/p>\n
While Patricia is not able to throw a party that transforms her life, she does ultimately get what she wants by the end of the night: the feeling that she matters. Tom and Wyck pick her up so they can investigate what\u2019s going on with Reverend Bryce. \u201cWhy don\u2019t you get in with us?\u201d Tom says. \u201cWe might need your help.\u201d You can see on Patricia\u2019s face how much she likes to hear him say that they need her.<\/p>\n
Sadly, they find Bryce dead, having hanged himself from the back of the door to his office. Patricia may have broken one spell and saved a number of souls. But apparently, the island can\u2019t be defeated that easily.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Clues to Consider: <\/strong>Let\u2019s think about what happened during the 24-hour period that unfolded during the past two episodes. Tom was attacked and nearly murdered by a Sea Hag. Reverend Bryce discovered a possibly haunted well, declared that \u201cThere is evil here,\u201d then killed himself. Patricia threw a cocktail party in which she inadvertently cast a weird spell that almost made everyone there kill themselves. Is it possible that the island needs to periodically \u201cfeed\u201d itself by having people die? Is there a quota it must meet? If that\u2019s true, it would add credence to Patricia\u2019s story about surviving the attempt on her life by the Boogeyman. Maybe she lived because the island didn\u2019t need her to die, not because she was smart enough to scoot under the bed.<\/p>\n\u2022 So Many Horror Allusions:<\/strong> \u201cBeach Reads\u201d packs in more references to horror movies and stories than any episode of Widow\u2019s Bay<\/em> so far. First of all, the wine-and-cheese part is hosted by a woman named Lenore, a name that figures prominently in Edgar Allen Poe\u2019s work, most famously the poem \u201cThe Raven,\u201d which is about the narrator\u2019s grief for a woman who died far too young. You know, like the victims of the Boogeyman.<\/p>\nThe Boogeyman is an obvious reference to the nickname for Michael Myers in John Carpenter\u2019s original Halloween<\/em>. But even Patricia\u2019s house and the way it\u2019s filmed when she walks up to its front door function as an homage to that film. The fact that Patricia says she also got heavy-breathing phone calls from the killer adds a whiff of Scream<\/em> to the mix, as does the Ghostface-style expressions on the faces of the hypnotized sunset and cocktails crowd.<\/p>\nWhen Patricia keeps refreshing her evite to see if she\u2019s received new RSVPs, the way she keeps tapping the same key echoes Jack Nicholson\u2019s psychotic typing in The Shining<\/em>. (\u201cAll e-vite and no work make Patricia go berserk.\u201d Or something.) And the transformation of the party guests not only evokes Scream<\/em> and The Scream<\/em>, but also Invasion of the Body Snatchers<\/em>. Footloose<\/em> is also name-checked, which is technically not a horror movie but is about a small town that stubbornly refuses to change. Although living in a place without dancing sounds pretty scary to me, so maybe Footloose<\/em> is a horror movie after all.<\/p>\n\u2022 Give It Up for Kate O\u2019Flynn: <\/strong>The more I watch O\u2019Flynn\u2019s work in this series, the more I admire what a deep performance she\u2019s giving. In this episode, her physicality as Patricia is on full display. The way she hunches her shoulders and ambles awkwardly from point A to point B is so believably graceless, as are Patricia\u2019s dance moves, which make Elaine Benes look like Misty Copeland. O\u2019Flynn has to thread a very tight needle that allows us to find Patricia pathetic in ways that are sometimes amusing, sometimes tragic, and sometimes both simultaneously. She does that beautifully in the scene where she sobs, then yawns, then sobs again after Kris yells at her in front of the whole crowd. If she wasn\u2019t as good as she is, this episode wouldn\u2019t work at all. Thankfully, she is.<\/p>\n\u2022 Funniest Line of the Week: <\/strong>This is really hard because, again, everything about Dale\u2019s gig as a DJ is pretty freaking funny, from his objections to Patricia\u2019s playlist suggestions \u2014 \u201cIt\u2019s like she wrote down every song she\u2019s ever heard in her life\u201d \u2014 to the ad for baldness medication that interrupts Montell Jordan\u2019s \u201cThis Is How We Do It.\u201d (\u201cI don\u2019t have premium,\u201d he says weakly.) But I have to give it to one line from the book from hell, a.k.a. the work of literature formerly known as Your Turn: Out With the Old and in With the You<\/em>: \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a success because it\u2019s your turn,\u201d the devil (I mean, the book) tells Patricia about her party. \u201cUnless the turnout is low \u2014 that\u2019s a verdict on your social value.\u201d Friends, I guffawed.<\/p>\n\n\n
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Widow\u2019s Bay Beach Reads Season 1 Episode 4 Editor\u2019s Rating 5 stars ***** Photo: Apple TV\/Copyrighted \u201cBeach Reads\u201d is the most consistently uncomfortable, squirmy, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6839,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/pyxis.nymag.com\/v1\/imgs\/28c\/79a\/47ee7898e675e7521ea8c9373a8ad67878-widowsbay-ep4.rsquare.w400.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5254,1365,1366,1363,1364,5253],"class_list":["post-6838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rj","tag-apple-tv","tag-overnights","tag-recaps","tag-tv","tag-tv-recaps","tag-widows-bay"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rjbarrett.redirectme.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rjbarrett.redirectme.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rjbarrett.redirectme.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rjbarrett.redirectme.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rjbarrett.redirectme.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rjbarrett.redirectme.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rjbarrett.redirectme.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rjbarrett.redirectme.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rjbarrett.redirectme.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rjbarrett.redirectme.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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