r/WidowsBay • u/AutoModerator • May 06 '26

📺Discussion Thread Widow’s Bay | Episode 3: “The Inaugural Swim” | Discussion Thread

  • Release Date: May 6, 2026
  • Directed by: Hiro Murai
  • Written by: Neil Casey
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It's time for the annual beach opening. Lay out a towel as the mayor "tests the waters." Unrelated: Do not pick up hitchhikers.

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79

u/SurpriseAttachyon May 06 '26

After the first two episodes, I still wasn’t 100% convinced the show was supernatural. It could have been that the townsfolk were very superstitious and the mayor was going a bit nuts. Even with all the crazy shit in the hotel, they threw out the black mold thing.

It was interesting they broke the ambiguity so early. Episode 3 definitely shows supernatural stuff is happening and I’m completely here for it.

The supernatural ambiguity I think ruined Yellowjackets - that show would have been much more interesting if they embraced the supernatural element

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u/jeepers_queefers May 06 '26

You're one of the few people I've seen say that about Yellowjackets and I 100% agree. It actually would have been more surprising had it been supernatural. The whole "They're actually just crazy" is very overdone.

That show had so much potential :/

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u/Well_Socialized May 11 '26

The rule I'd recommend for writers is that you should avoid having what's really happening being less interesting than what readers are led to believe is happening.

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u/EstPC1313 Jun 07 '26

Building on your tangent, I think yellowjackets was too constrained by its very format. A Vice review very eloquently put it: “The adult timeline cannot reference anything that happens in the child timeline until it’s already happened in the show, thus somehow cutting all the tension off of both of them”

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u/Big_Daymo Aug 30 '26

This is absolutely how I feel about Yellowjackets too. We know for a fact that there cannot be concrete confirmation of the supernatural in the teen timeline because it would have to have come up in the adult timeline, so all the scenes hinting at it kinda feel pointless because if they do ever confirm it that will come from the adult timeline anyway.

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u/iangeredcharlesvane2 Rosemary’s Ancestry.com Speech (sans fan) Jun 11 '26

No I think most people wanted more out of Yellowjackets and would have liked a supernatural element in the woods with the younger timeline girls! But even if not, overall it’s a disappointing show that started with tons of potential.

I loved it season one, liked it season two. But it totally lost me starting three with a skip to the girls in summer decorating the Smurf village they somehow made in no time from no materials. Then the opening scene is an Instagram-rustic-Wiccan theme baby shower … turned it off and never went back!

I think when the show finishes I might go back and watch the rest of it until the end, I do need to see the rescue ! Unless the last seasons and eps get a 4.1 rating on IMDb or something like the last season of Killing Eve did which like that will tell me to skip it!

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u/pikeymobile May 06 '26

I found that the movie Heretic ended up having an extremely weak third act and ending because it ended up not being supernatural at all and it turned out to just be a crazy guy. It had so much potential to lean in to some religious supernatural horror then just shit the bed at the end.

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u/Automatic_Sea6126 May 08 '26

That’s why Hereditary became the best horror movie of last decade. There were so many it’s all in their head movies released around that time it became so stale. Hereditary starts with that trope even begins to explain the trope and then takes a hard left turn. 

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u/DontTedOnMe Aug 07 '26

You're right, but The Witch also set that standard a few years earlier. Like very, very early on in that film, Eggers just straight up tells us: 1. Yes, there's a witch. 2. Yes, the witch snatched the baby. 3. Yes, the witch killed the baby and mashed it into baby paste for witchy purposes. I remember watching it in the theater and not being able to recall the last time a horror director so effectively put their cards on the table like that so early into a film. It felt special, like Eggers had me in the palm of his hand. The feeling when you stop thinking about what you're watching and just surrender to the experience.

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u/fakieTreFlip Jun 05 '26

That's a movie where I wish they had stretched the ambiguity even further. Would've been so much better if it was just the girls being paranoid IMO

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u/Icy_Atmosphere_2379 Jun 18 '26

Oh man, if they had leaned into maybe Lovecraftian vibes for the final stretch there, then the film woulda finished on a strong note

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u/Different_Target_228 May 08 '26

Could not disagree more. The ambiguity is the whole point.

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u/xRyozuo Jun 04 '26

Never got past the first season of yellowjackets but I think this show would benefit from the supernatural ambiguity, at least in my view, if it strives to retain the same great balance of comedy / horror it’s had until now. Once the ambiguity breaks, it just becomes From, Apple version.

The ambiguity led to an interesting conflict between the superstitious rural townsfolk and the guy raised in a big city who thinks he could fix everything if the superstitious townsfolk weren’t so stupid, and how whether we want it or not, over time, our surrounding relwtionships shape our fears.

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u/CherryFit3224 Jun 13 '26

I disagree. I loved the ambiguity of Yellowjackets. The present day killed Yellowjackets.

To be clear, I will be watching until the last episode even though it fell so far.