Last week, Widow’s Bay hinted in its closing moments that things had not gone according to plan at the cocktail social hosted by Patricia (Kate O’Flynn), assistant to Mayor Tom Loftis (Matthew Rhys). Tom, of course, was being chased by a rapacious sea hag at the time and didn’t make it to the party.
In “Beach Reads,” we see exactly what went down to inspire that frantic SOS over the radio from Sheriff Clemons (Kevin Carroll)—and we get a glimpse into what’s going on beneath Patricia’s very intense exterior.
Patricia pops up throughout the first three episodes of Widow’s Bay, mostly because of her role at the town hall. Of everyone, she’s been the most supportive of Tom’s scheme to transform the island into a tourist destination—to be honest, it’s a pretty low bar—and she drives him around on occasion, while also holding him accountable for who he gives rides to.
But Patricia progresses beyond “co-worker who seems nice but is also very strange” in “Beach Reads.” We get an idea of what it was like for her growing up in Widow’s Bay and also what her life is like now. There’s a loneliness epidemic on the island, as we saw with Tom last week, but Patricia is on a whole different level.
As “Beach Reads” starts, we rewind four days (pre-sea hag). Patricia is sitting in the back of her bookmobile, the “Pattiwagon,” silently staring at tourists laughing and talking with each other. Nobody approaches her. Nobody wants any of her free books.
As she’s packing up for the night, she checks her donation bin and discovers a self-help title, Your Turn: Out With the Old and In With the You. She doesn’t notice that the author is named “Lucy Fours” or that for some reason, flies seem really attracted to it. Hmm. Lucy Fours.
She shelves the book and forgets about it. Next we see she’s nervously striding up to a house hosting a gathering she’s sort of been invited to but is clearly not welcome at. Widow’s Bay has mentioned a time or two that people born on the island tend not to leave, and in these scenes we realize just how damaging that can be for someone who was labeled a misfit early in life and hasn’t been able to shake it. Patricia’s previously established social awkwardness reaches volcanic levels in the presence of her old high-school classmates.
It’s one big cringe to see their habitual, casual rudeness toward Patricia, especially the queen bee, Kris (Lauren Bittner). And we can feel Patricia’s glee when she meets a woman who’s just moved to the island—and doesn’t yet realize that Patricia is an outcast.
But as we quickly discern, there’s a reason for this disdain beyond boredom and bitchiness. In the first episode of Widow’s Bay, we heard Patricia start to recount her teenage encounter with “the Boogeyman,” a masked serial killer who stalked girls on the island. It’s clearly a story she loves to tell, and she’s thrilled when the newcomer asks her about the murder victims, saying, “I was almost one of them!”
Her delight is interrupted, as is her story, when Kris “accidentally” spills wine on her. As she’s coming back from cleaning herself up in the bathroom, she hears the whispers. The other women don’t believe the Boogeyman ever targeted Patricia. They think she made it all up—and they don’t care if she hears them calling her crazy and pathetic. In fact, after she overhears them mocking her, they ask her to take a group photo of all of them, very pointedly excluding her from actually being in the picture.
It stings, but it also seems like she’s gotten used to being treated this way. When Patricia gets home, she notices the light is on in the Pattimobile. She investigates and notices that Your Turn has somehow fallen off the shelf and landed in the middle of the floor.
She starts flipping through. There’s a worksheet with two questions: “What do you love about yourself?” which leaves just two lines for answers, and “What don’t you love about yourself?” which has lines filling up the rest of the page. Nice. There’s also an oddly anatomically correct drawing of a naked woman that invites the reader to “circle your worst features.”
But the main point of Your Turn is its step-by-step guide to being the perfect hostess and throwing the perfect party. One great party can change your life, it promises! This is how Patricia, in desperate need of a life-changing experience, puts “Sunset Cocktails” in motion, with the reluctant assistance of her co-workers Rosemary (Dale Dickey) and Dale (Jeff Hiller).
The planning soon becomes an exercise in obsession, as Patricia nabs the Salty Whale as a venue and starts coordinating food and drink ideas, music playlists, and—after a smirking Kris informs her there’s a competing event being held the same night—making sure the Elks Lodge cancels Bill Rooney’s birthday party.
Throughout, Your Turn is constantly by her side, dispensing valuable advice. At one point, Sheriff Clemons (checking the town’s CCTV cameras for the sea hag, at Tom’s request) notices Patricia has spent an entire night at a downtown picnic table, reading and reading and reading. Not noticing anything around her. Not noticing it’s 3:00 a.m.
It’s odd, but Patricia is odd, so he sort of shrugs it off. Before we know it, it’s party time. After an agonizingly slow start—and some tentative concerns from Rosemary, which Patricia does not want to hear—guests begin to trickle in. Improbably, Kris and her gal pals turn up, and Patricia finds the courage to confront her: “Why are you always so nasty to me?”
Kris lays it all out. She’s certain Patricia is an absolute liar who has inserted herself into the Boogeyman narrative for purely selfish reasons. “My friends died, and you are just so, so starved for attention that you had to make that about you,” she snaps.
We don’t know if Patricia has been telling the truth or not, but Kris’ tirade is ferocious enough to make her retreat to the kitchen for a little sob session. Just then, the page that Your Turn has flipped to catches her eye: “Serve the punch now,” it advises. And once the punch, which Patricia has carefully crafted according to Your Turn specifications, comes out, a surprising thing happens: the sunset cocktail event turns into a rager.
People are dancing! Laughing! Even Kris is having a good time! When the police get a noise complaint, Clemons—who was just about to go home for the night—remembers catching sight of Patricia’s strange behavior earlier and decides to answer the call himself.
In the meantime, we see Patricia has seized the moment to deliver a toast. It’s a corny but sweet message about making new friends and new beginnings; she reads most of it straight from Your Turn. Everyone says “aww!” and applauds, then the partygoers decide to keep the fun going at the nearby beach bonfire.
Patricia is ecstatic. The night could not have gone any better. Then, Clemons breaks the spell. As gently as he can muster, he asks our hostess, “What the fuck are you doing?”
Suddenly, we see everything that Patricia has been… bewitched from perceiving. The punch isn’t fruity; it’s full of animal blood. The flower arrangements on the tables are creepy Blair Witch-style stick bundles. Patricia’s cute tiara headband is actually a hideous crown of antlers. And Your Turn is no ordinary self-help book; in actuality, it strongly resembles the Necronomicon, and Patricia has just uttered some kind of sinister incantation rather than an uplifting toast. “Lucy Fours,” you old devil!
The frights don’t end there; the spell has overtaken the partygoers, and they’re now marching in a zombie-like stupor directly into the cove. (You can see now why Clemons made that panicky radio call.) Patricia’s able to incinerate Your Turn before anyone actually drowns, but when they awaken waist-deep in water not remembering how they got there, people are understandably pissed.
So, yeah. The party is in fact a full-blown disaster—the awakening darkness in Widow’s Bay made sure of that—though it certainly could have been worse!
A dejected Patricia is trudging home when suddenly Wyck and Tom, fresh off their battle with the sea hag, pull up. She starts to explain that “something bad” happened at the party, but Wyck advises her to “file that under ‘deal with it the fuck later.’” Right now, they need her help for the next disaster. As she climbs in, we can see that despite everything, she’s got a tiny smile—it’s sure nice to be needed and included after everything that just happened.
The story briefly shifts to the other unresolved thread from “The Inaugural Swim,” in which Reverend Bryce (Toby Huss) was seen staggering around, muttering about “evil” and grappling with forbidden knowledge about what happens when the church bells, which are chained in place, manage to ring anyway.
Unfortunately, it’s too late for Bryce. As Wyck, Tom, and Patricia realize in shock, he’s hung himself, apparently overcome by fear and despair. The last shot of “Beach Reads” is Tom’s ashen face as he registers just how dire and gruesome things have gotten—and realizes at the same time it’s surely about to get so much worse.
New episodes of Widow’s Bay arrive Wednesdays on Apple TV+.
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