On Widow's Bay Season 1 Episode 5, "What to Expect on Your Trip" (Recap & Analysis)

Added: 2026-05-22

[00:00:13]Okay, we're back to talk about Widows Bay, episode 5 on Apple TV. This episode title, "What to Expect on Your Trip", written by Colton Dunn and directed by Andrew DeYoung.

[00:00:23]After Reverend Bryce's death, Tom establishes a 7:00 p.m. curfew, angering everyone on the island who's trying to do things to cater to all these tourists. While looking through Bryce's things in his office, Tom, Wick, and Patricia discover a few things they decide to follow up on. Some psychedelic mushrooms, a page of writing from what looks like an old book, and a phone number that Tom or that Bryce called frequently. The number belongs to Todd, the shaman who helps people through their drug journeys.

[00:00:50]Uh Todd prepares some of the mushrooms for Wick to take so they can help find some of the answers that Bryce were looking for, but it's accidentally given to Tom instead. This sends him into a hallucinogenic state for the rest of the day, including during his search for his son Evan, his time working in the office, and while he attends a town hall where people are complaining about the curfew.

[00:01:09]Wick learns uh from the page out of the book that some of the island's mysteries might be buried with the town's founder.

[00:01:16]Evan and his friends tell stories about the boogeyman to some off-island girls, and then Sheriff Becher busts Evan right before he's about to break into the boogeyman's old house. When Tom and Evan are back together at home again, Tom gets sick and flashes back to when Evan was born, a day when Tom and his wife Lauren were leaving the island on a ferry. Lauren lost her eyesight, she started to become delirious, and then presumably died sometime after giving birth to Evan. Um I don't know if you saw last week, but um uh Widows Bay has entered their actors and actresses, their their episodes, their writers into comedy category for for Emmy consideration. Um probably not a surprise, but I I found it interesting in this episode in particular that despite some very dark and some really deep material that they explore, there was still the sort of comedic element that I just couldn't get get past. I just found found really great in this episode. This episode written by Colton Dunn, a former Key & Peele sketch writer and performer on the Superstore show. So, just again, just just great mashup that they just um are finding new ways to to give us every week.

[00:02:23]Yeah, I mean, I love the show overall.

[00:02:25]So, this episode um I I'm really looking forward to talking to you about it, Ryan, because for me, it didn't work as well as the previous ones.

[00:02:36]My alone in that? Or I mean, it was it was okay. I thought it was okay. It was fine.

[00:02:41]But, um I didn't laugh as much, and I didn't find really anything particularly scary. It was just there was a lot of plot, which we'll mention at the time, but >> there was absolutely a lot of exploration of plot, a lot of exploration of where we're going to go next. It's funny you say that. I actually thought some of the humor elements of this, particularly in Tom's reaction to the to the drug trip, uh the sort of the there were a couple of gags like when Patricia and Tom are released together. Um you know, I I did find a lot of of humor in this in this episode. There was sort of some meandering to where we need to go, but I actually did did appreciate that in this one.

[00:03:18]Yeah, I maybe let's start there. Let's start with the trip, you know what I mean? Because maybe that's part of it.

[00:03:23]Um and I have some thoughts about it.

[00:03:26]Uh so much probably hangs on how well that works for you. And maybe I got caught up in this a little bit in so far as um Uh I don't know. I mean, uh look, I want to be clear.

[00:03:40]I have I've never broken the law in any way, and I've definitely never done drugs.

[00:03:46]But, I'm not sure that the mushroom trip felt realistic to me, I guess. But, I mean, they they do say they do say that they're like only on this island, you know. Yeah.

[00:03:58]There's some super special kind of mushrooms that they make it sound like it's going to be just this absolutely wild ride.

[00:04:07]And um it is interesting, I think, structurally how they handled it because it seems more like Tom keeps blacking out. He keeps losing time.

[00:04:18]Yeah.

[00:04:20]Um but in terms of uh I don't know, psychedelic element or whatever. I mean, there's the one scene where Dale's face it goes weird. Yes. And and that's about it. Mostly, it's just a matter of Tom losing time, I guess. And yeah, there are some funny bits in there like they're putting him on a leash and so on. But um I found myself feeling like it was almost like they cut out what would have been the funniest stuff.

[00:04:46]>> Yeah. On purpose. So, I kind of get it conceptually and I kind of like that, but I don't know.

[00:04:53]Yeah, it's funny you say that. I actually uh so I read Alan Sepinwall's review of this episode and he said essentially [clears throat] what you're saying there and that this was almost he thought in a way innovative that for the drug trip, they didn't show any part of the trip. They sort of show the rare lucid moments and sort of him coming out of it and being able to you know, sort of experiencing where he's at and not understanding what's going on.

[00:05:13]Um and so there was a uniqueness to it.

[00:05:16]Um I think Matthew Rhys did it all sort of how he was able to portray that, you know, it would have been interesting that certainly to see him, you know, in the midst of the trip, but it's coming out of it as we're trying to understand and be lucid and do his job as mayor and do his job to uncover these mysteries while he knows he's about to hallucinate again. Um I enjoyed that performance from him which sort of kept me sort of kept me really um I think attached to this one in terms of how much I liked it.

[00:05:46]Oh, yeah. And that's really interesting take it. I hadn't quite thought about it that way, but I think you're right. So, um where we're seeing the moments of his relative sobriety or lucidity, as you put it, probably the right word, you know. And we so, we're left to imagine that the rest of the time he's just totally wigging out or acting really, really weird, you know.

[00:06:07]Um and I do enjoy the way in which the show there and maybe even more generally does create that kind of space for the imagination to play in, you know, like David Lynch would say something like gives you room to dream. You know, it doesn't then spoon-feed you everything.

[00:06:29]And uh and I do enjoy that. So, I do think it was a good episode. I just found it, I don't know, to me, just in terms of my experience watching it, I wasn't quite as entertained as I've been in previous ones.

[00:06:43]And maybe that's not a big knock, because I think part of it will be with the show like that. If I mean, we've talked about before, it seems like they're kind of going for almost a horror premise of the week kind of thing. So, it's no surprise if some of those land better than others for you on like kind of an individual basis. Yeah, and you're right. We didn't really get that this week. I think there are some minor mysteries that are uncovered in this week. We get a little bit maybe a little bit more about the boogeyman, but that's, you know, again, 25 years ago.

[00:07:12]Um so, you don't really get the the what's the thing we're trying to solve or overcome or the obstacle we're trying to get past um this week. It did seem like it the one if I could sort of flip the coin on the other side of its head and sort of look at look at it from another way, the one criticism I'd have would be like what was the point of the trip, right?

[00:07:35]That they're I guess it was maybe it would have been different if it was Wick, but with Tom, we didn't really get anything out of what they were hoping to get out of it. It just sort of was this expanded time to get to what we would have revealed about Evan and what Wick was able to go do while Tom is under the under the trip. So, what was the What was it in service of?

[00:07:55]Yeah, well, I mean, I guess they kind of left it on a cliffhanger in a way, right? You didn't mention this in your um summary, but at the very end it is like he's uh I don't know. Is this real like approached by some mysterious dark entity? Yeah. Um and then we're done, right? So, uh you know, is there going to be more that we don't quite get in this episode that we learn later, you know, we were noting before we recorded looking at the title of next week's episode, which we haven't watched yet. And it seemed like there's a pretty good chance we're going to get a flashback episode, so we should be prepared for that. Although, we were also talking about to let everyone know if if they aren't up to speed that there're going to be two episodes coming out next week for whatever reason. Maybe that's part of it, you know, flashback episode, but then also get us back to the present timeline. Um so, and anyway, I don't know. Yeah, I I guess I did but I did feel that way, too, a bit, you know, like >> Yeah. Yeah.

[00:08:55]we weren't getting I don't know. I did think it was pretty funny when Todd the shaman, as he calls himself, Yeah.

[00:09:03]you know, they they tell him that Bryce hanged himself and uh says something like Must not have gotten the Must not have liked the answers.

[00:09:14]Or [laughter] whatever, you know.

[00:09:16]Um and then and then then then Tom's going to do the same drug, you know.

[00:09:21]Uh so, there's definitely a good amount of of humor in this. Uh Patricia probably not the person you want as your um What's the right word? I don't you just companion or, you know, like she's supposed to be looking out for Tom while he's tripping on these mushrooms.

[00:09:40]I don't know if she quite has the the demeanor that you would like. Um for the person doing that, but Anyhow, yeah, I like kind of a lot of plot. They're sort of filling some things in. Um we should also talk a bit about the Boogie Man stuff. Mhm. Um I did really enjoy another moment that I did find quite funny. It was when the sheriff shows up and says, "Evan, get away from the creepy house."

[00:10:06]>> [laughter] >> Um Now, so but the one question that I have been in and sort of piecing things together is what we saw at the very end of episode one where they put the Boogie Man, right?

[00:10:21]Because Evan's friend, whatever his name is I think is the one who says, in telling the story to these, you know, tourist girls um that after the Boogie Man killed the teenage girls they tried to kill him and they couldn't, so they buried him in concrete. So, I'm wondering, you know, we saw that hatch or whatever at the at the end of the first episode and we haven't returned to that. Yeah. Um can we tie those things together? Is it like the Boogie Man's down there? And given that the show's established that all the supernatural stuff is real, is like the Boogie Man down there and still quote unquote alive and trapped and like, "Okay, we're going to get out at some point." or something. Yeah, I I I think it's very fair to consider that. I mean, especially considering we've now, I mean, literally and figuratively approached the house. We've opened the door. You know, Evan has, you know, got very close to to going in. At some point we've got to go in there and explore this. So, but we've got to figure figure that out. But I think that's a I think it's a very reasonable connection to make at this point.

[00:11:18]Yeah.

[00:11:18]It is creepy old house, you know.

[00:11:21]Yeah.

[00:11:23]Evan's grown on me. I don't know about you.

[00:11:26]Yeah. Yeah. Thoughts on the character? I mean, definitely at first I I he was kind of a I don't know.

[00:11:33]A brat or punk in a pejorative way like punk like an old person would say about a young kid not like you know punk rock.

[00:11:43]But uh he's grown on me a bit. I don't know.

[00:11:46]Well, it's it's interesting he was introduced exactly that way and it doesn't seem like he has or his personality has changed much since then.

[00:11:53]Though what we've gotten are these interesting little nuggets of his backstory and what he is concerned about and his you know his dad won't let him leave and why his dad won't let him leave and um how he wants probably nothing more than just a to break free from there. People you know saying in this episode, "What? You've never been off the island before?" You know, these types of comments or there's So you get this sense of why he is acting this way.

[00:12:15]He's just a you know 17-year-old who wants to you know see see what else is out there. Um and so yeah, there's some context to why he was introduced this way and I I mean when I find in the argument that they have um at their house, you know, a lot of times I'm like, "Yeah, I think I would be on Evan's side a lot of in a lot of these ways."

[00:12:36]Yeah, that's interesting. Now one question I did have we saw in the flashback or I mean I don't know if we should even take it as a flashback objectively or we're within Tom's perspective as he's tripping. But um we saw he and his wife leaving the island while she pregnant.

[00:13:01]And then whatever happened to her exactly. Maybe that moment in particular was kind of like, "Oh, did she really look ill like that?" Cuz she looks creepy in the hospital then.

[00:13:10]Um did she really look like that or is that um part of his trip? Regardless I don't know if I quite teased this out so I'll just ask you what you think.

[00:13:22]Given what we see here, are you under the the that Evan was born on the island or was he born off the island? Because I'm tempted to say like they were leaving the island to go to the hospital for her to go into labor.

[00:13:34]I don't know.

[00:13:35]Maybe a little bit unclear. We have been told, I believe, in in other in past episodes that he was born on the island, that Tom was not.

[00:13:44]Evan was born on the island, and I think that they tried to make that as clear as they could when they're on the ferry.

[00:13:49]And I think Tom says three or four times, "Turn around. Turn around. Turn the boat around." So, if they are heading off island, whatever it is that does its thing to the people that can't leave there happens to Lauren, they turn back around, and Evan is then born there on the on the island, and that's where for this whole story comes from.

[00:14:10]However, Okay.

[00:14:11]>> I think we are we are left with sort of some maybe with some a bigger theme of this show that um do we believe everything that we hear, or even believe everything that we that we see? Because we've heard Tom tell the the girl part of the part of the bachelorette party that his wife died from complications in childbirth.

[00:14:31]Well, that's not exactly what we see here, assuming Evan being born. We see her sort of in this comatose state. So, what exactly happened? I'm not sure we we we know 100% yet.

[00:14:40]Right. So, I mean first, thanks, cuz I think I just wasn't quite following that well enough. And then in retrospect, I was thinking like, "Oh, I was pretty sure he was born on the island, but it seems like they were leaving the island." And I guess you're right, there is enough information in there that they turned around.

[00:14:54]Um so, that makes sense. And okay, so Tom thinks Evan can't leave the island, and maybe he's right. But it which is funny because at the beginning of the series at least, he's very much like, "Ah, this is all all this curse stuff is nonsense, you know." He will.

[00:15:07]>> [clears throat] >> Even though apparently his wife died from it. What else happened there? Has he been repressing that? Maybe that's part of it. You know what I mean? So, not necessarily when he says that his wife died in childbirth, that is the story he's also been telling himself.

[00:15:21]And the weirdness that relates to supernatural is something that he's sort of repressed that is coming back to him now as he is tripping on these mushrooms. So, that might be part of the significance and maybe we'll get a little bit more there as well.

[00:15:35]I couldn't help but think about Patricia last week, you know, has she told herself the story long enough that the boogeyman attacked her and she escaped, does she believe it now, or did that actually happen? We seem to be getting a lot of these sort of, you know, one point of view where we're told the story but what actually what actually happened and does that matter in the long run? I don't know.

[00:15:55]Good. Yeah, I know. Okay, this is a good moment for me to thread in uh the YouTube comment we got in this past week and and and talk about it a little bit.

[00:16:04]Doesn't directly relate to this episode necessarily, but um it was, you know, last week we were talking about that question with Patricia and thinking about the boogeyman attacking, you know, 25 years ago and thinking about his own being in their 40s and so on.

[00:16:20]There was a YouTube comment there was like, "Oh, no.

[00:16:23]Recall back in episode 1 Patricia said she's 28.

[00:16:27]And remember that um chef who seemed like an old guy uh his medical uh chart said he was 37.

[00:16:35]Uh time works differently on the island, it's weird, and aging will work differently or whatever." Now, I'm not convinced by that, but I do think it's an interesting question to note and bear in mind.

[00:16:45]I think when Patricia said that remark about being 28, I think she said something like it was her biological age. So, like I read it as one of those, "Oh, well, maybe I'm actually 40, but according to this, you know, um internet heart thing um I have the body of a 28-year-old." I read it that way and then I don't know if there are multiple ways you could read the thing with Chef, whether it's like the doctor who he's seen is not the most competent guy, He's updated his age, Or maybe in in the other direction it's that being out on the bay made him age age faster. Or something. But there's there's definitely something there and it does seem like maybe something we should note and and and look out for further information that might relate to. Yeah, it's just it's interesting that this show sort of there's very little you can point to that is concrete no doubt about it set in stone truth that um that we things that we know that took place that we are we have seen in the perspective of you know, we can take it as an as an honest viewer that this is actually what happened. Um reliable narrators, all of that. There's very very little of that in this lore and these mysteries and what happened and what these people experienced even in Tom's flashback, you know, it's on drugs. How do we know? So there's very very little. I just I just find that interesting and just putting in little asterisks by it as we get, you know, towards the now moving to the second half of the season.

[00:18:17]Right. Because I mean it also that the technology is out of date and all of that, but we've already offered the interpretation that it just has to do with the island almost geographically or or whatever. Um Yeah. Yeah. Which I mean of course it's not a real place so uh but uh you know, somewhat plausible to me that some island in the northeast would still be on landlines and but you start thinking about it you go, well, you can't cell phones would work.

[00:18:42]Why is that? Is it because it's cursed, you know?

[00:18:45]You can relate everything to it and the show keeps kind of confirming that that is true. There's there is something going on at that supernatural type level. So we'll see how it all comes together here.

[00:18:59]Um Did you have thoughts about the actor placed on? I know you noticed his name here, Chris Fleming.

[00:19:06]I just I Yeah, I looked up Chris Fleming. I remember seeing him before. Um this is a comedian, I guess 6-7 years ago was you know one of one of these comedians to watch. He's been in a you know a few things here and there.

[00:19:20]I just thought his turn is this you know sort of I don't want to say out of touch shaman but someone that's you know fancy themselves as someone that can guide people through their drug journeys I thought was was really well done. They seem to be um putting some really interesting people in guest I guess you can call them guest roles.

[00:19:39]Um I unfortunately got spoiled as I was reading some things about the show of some people that are coming in later episodes. It will be an interesting guest roles.

[00:19:48]At least they're finding I think very unique people to play some of these some of these characters.

[00:19:54]Cool yeah looking forward to it. I mean I think the casting is great. Uh I'm not really familiar with Chris Fleming so I looked at I looked him up.

[00:20:01]And I noticed that he was in Corporate which I think has been recommended to me but I still haven't gotten around to watching but I noticed his character in that show was named Todd. So I don't know I'm wondering if there are now Corporate fans who are like suggesting it's the same character or anything like that but I haven't seen Corporate so it probably wouldn't be played anyway but definitely funny because he is a drug dealer.

[00:20:22]And that that was that was one scene that I found quite funny when they um Yeah. call him a drug dealer and he says he's a shaman but then the follow up of is that cocaine?

[00:20:32]>> [laughter] >> Because it's like oh yeah you know like it's it's one thing to claim you're a shaman who's offering people hallucinogenic mushrooms and ayahuasca and stuff like that but cocaine >> [laughter] >> Yes.

[00:20:50]I have to leave and don't look in any mirrors when you when you when you get in this room.

[00:20:56]Yeah yeah. And it seemed like he doesn't want to ever look in the mirror. Oh okay. So yeah.

[00:21:03]Oh face melting or you You But um all that was in the gaps. It will be interesting.

[00:21:10]I'm I'd be curious to hear even how they did that. You know, did they write what he was doing? Did they maybe even film what he was doing and then cut it out?

[00:21:20]Um or will we get little snippets that that come back to him later or something?

[00:21:26]I guess might be a possibility. Uh definitely is somewhat innovative and I like that way of putting it that you were mentioning and which I guess comes from Alan Wake all. I haven't read it myself, but that idea that we're only getting his moments of lucidity and quite thought about it that way and and I do like that. I appreciate what they were up to there.

[00:21:46]Mysteries with the town's found uh uh town's founder, all the stuff Wicks getting into. We have to sort of piece some things together there, too, because we're largely getting it from Tom's perspective. What do you feel like we know there?

[00:22:02]So, yeah, well, the little things we know is I sort of made a couple of of notes here that there is some kind of cylinder that contains some sense of the town's secrets or its origins. It's buried with the town's founder. Um they've uncovered it in some of these old writings, which by the way, this lady is like the historical society is like should be working in the Smithsonian or something. I mean, she's got She's like the best best person I've ever seen, you know, archive this or whatever that that they have, but she's uncovered the things. So, I think that's where we're headed in the next episode.

[00:22:35]Um they'll uncover some of this stuff, but all we know is that some of the answers might be buried wherever that is with the town's the town's founder.

[00:22:43]Yeah.

[00:22:44]And who was the guy at the beginning who found the mushrooms in the snow? Um does that kind of matter?

[00:22:52]I'm wondering if that's coming in a in a future episode. Yeah, I mean, clearly that's there for a reason. And it did not look like, you know, the most modern of I mean, it's hard to tell, but not not modern dress or you know, modern grooming. So, we'll see what see that person who that person actually is.

[00:23:09]Yeah. Yeah. No, I definitely read it as like well, back in the 1700s or or something like that myself.

[00:23:19]So, um really curious to see where it goes.

[00:23:23]Yeah, we've got two episodes next week, so we'll cover both of them.

[00:23:27]Um anything else you want to say on this one before we wrap up?

[00:23:31]Um I think that's I think that about covers it. Um interesting different perspectives. I think that's part of what makes the show so so great. I think you can get a lot out of it no matter what you're you're you're watching it for, whether it's just sort of some of these if there's mystery elements, there are horror elements, there are comedic elements. I mean, the performances, I mean, even even Jeff Hiller in this episode I thought was fantastic and you know, in his like you you know, 10 words that he said and you know, in the way he was shot during the trip. I mean, you just there's so much just to to dig into here.

[00:24:02]And pay it to Jeff Hiller. And it it's interesting, you know, maybe when I at some later date rewatch this episode, I'll find I'll like it way better or be laughing way more or something. Like who knows? Maybe it was something in the mood I was in when I watched it or um yeah, various things. I mean, it definitely was good and I'm enjoying the show. I was going to mention I did watch a brief little um interview on YouTube, maybe it was from Screen Rant with uh Katie Dippold and some [clears throat] of the cast members Matthew Gray Gubler, and um uh Katie Wynn Key O'Flinn? What's Katie O'Flinn, I think. Yeah. I think that's right. Um anyway, it was interesting. Uh I didn't realize that I guess this show uh Katie Dippold originally wrote like a spec script to get hired on Parks and Rec.

[00:24:52]So, the idea has been out there for a while.

[00:24:55]Wow, okay. And then now they're getting around to making it. Also, it's always like weird for me when I hear what Matthew Rhys actually sounds like when he's not acting and it's just I do have a theory or theory but maybe this is just a personal opinion that I think he has the best American accent for a British actor. I just think he does it very very well. I mean he's been doing obviously across three different television shows in the past 15 years. I just think he does it very well.

[00:25:27]Definitely got to give him credit for how well he does it. I mean all of these actors who but you know do an American accent for the sake of acting and then you hear them you know whether they're British or Australian or whatever there's a lot of actors that that this sort of applies to but I agree Matthew Rhys he definitely that's the thing like I actually forget that he doesn't talk that way when he's not acting as an American you know.

[00:25:54]Um but that was an enjoyable little thing. I guess I didn't have much more to pull in from that um but Oh I mean that Katie you know Katie Dippold is also behind the um Babadook tweet. You know what I'm talking about though? Oh I think we talked you know we may have talked about that before. Yeah.

[00:26:14]>> talk about that on here? Yeah. Um Anyhow just kind of killing time.

[00:26:21]I guess we're done. Um thanks as always Thanks as always for listening to the podcast. Hopefully you enjoyed it.

[00:26:28]Hopefully you do leave a good rating review all that good stuff here on YouTube. Hit the thumbs up. Please subscribe to our YouTube channel. We really appreciate it. Check out tvobsessive.com. You can learn and read more on all sorts of TV shows. Want to follow us on social media. Search for TV Obsessive you should find us and we'll be back with the podcast next week talking about Willow Bay episode six and seven. So again now two episodes next week.

[00:26:50]That's right. Two episodes and we're looking forward to that. We will see you next time.

[00:27:02]>> [music]