"One soul for each bell toll. You will be tempted to comfort them. Do not. Their fear is necessary. They say it likes the taste.”
The season finale of Apple TV's Widow's Bay is now streaming, and the episode concludes with a shocking revelation that shakes Tom Loftis (Matthew Rhys) to his core.
The horror comedy series has become something of a word-of-mouth sensation thanks to its riveting mix of humor and scares, but there weren't many laughs to be found in “We Hope You Enjoyed Your Time!”
Following last week's devastating discovery that his elderly secretary Ruth (K Callan) is the last living descendant of Richard Warren (Hamish Linklater), Tom drives to her home after making the impossible decision to end her life and lift the island's centuries-old curse.
Meanwhile, Dale (Jeff Hiller) watches some tapes he finds in the storm shelter, and learns that the town’s leadership has secretly maintained Warren’s covenant with the island's malevolent entity by making regular human sacrifices.
Tom ultimately tries to go through with his grim undertaking, but Ruth survives his attempt to poison her and reveals that she had a child in secret... who grew up to be Tom’s late wife, Lauren (Meredith Casey). This makes Tom’s son, Evan (Kingston Rumi Southwick), the last living descendant of Warren, and the person who would need to die to satisfy the island and end the curse.
Unfortunately, Sheriff Clemmons (Kevin Carroll) - who is desperate to protect his unborn child - shoots Ruth before Tom can explain the situation (she survives, thankfully). Tom tells Clemmons that he doesn't know who the last descendant is, but before the Sheriff can press him any further, the storm subsides.
Back in the town hall, custodian Kenny (Michael Malvesti) meets a terrifying off-screen end when Evan's asshole friends lock him in the cellar with the creepy electric chair. This death satiates the entity... for the time being.
The finale ends with Tom and Evan surveying the damage caused by the storm, only to hear the sound of church bells ringing eight more times. The island is hungry for more.
While speaking to Collider, showrunner Katie Dippold touched on Tom's mindset heading into season 2.
"We’ll definitely have to get into it. I think he feels not good. Not to get too heavy, but you have these dreams of what life should be and I almost feel like I can Disnify things. What’s the Disney version of life? And when you start to realize all the horrors that exist in the real world, it’s hard to accept. There’s a lot of that acceptance at the end of the show, so that’s a big thing that we’re exploring."
In a separate interview with The Wrap, Dippold confirmed that Tom doesn't know exactly what those bells signify yet.
"I think that he isn’t sure exactly what those bells mean yet, but he knows it’s bad. He knows that there’s going to be some unfortunate… How do I put this? He knows it’s not good, and the audience knows even more than him in that moment. That’s something he’s going to have to contend with in the future."
Dippold also revealed that she has started working on season 2.
"I have. There’s a lot of stuff I would love to do. In some ways, I don’t know if this is weird to say, but Season 1 almost feels like a prequel to the idea of the show. Because I feel like we’ve spent so much time trying to lay the groundwork of what it would be like living on this island. If we started the show living on this island with everything already happening, you wouldn’t buy it. I think there could be a lot of very exciting things to do now."