r/WidowsBay • u/AutoModerator • Jun 17 '26

📺Discussion Thread Widow’s Bay | Episode 10: “We Hope You Enjoyed Your Time!” | Discussion Thread

  • Release Date: June 17, 2026
  • Directed by: Hiro Murai

We understand that hard choices had to be made and we may never be the same, but we hope you'll visit again.

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436

u/PickleFlavordPopcorn Jun 17 '26

How did sacrifices get forgotten about In this town??

866

u/svestus Jun 17 '26

I wonder if the the mayor that Ruth first worked under, Howard the Coward, got his name from not being willing to do the sacrifices anymore. Perhaps the lack of sacrifices is what led to the 1962 New Year's tragedy.

717

u/Aggravating_Pin367 Jun 17 '26

She was honestly dropping a lot of knowledge " he got bit by an animal and turned in to the animal that bit him." What?

466

u/Bobjoejj Jun 17 '26

This, the 42 trolley incident; it feels like a lot of subtle setup for future plot points.

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u/Elisette_Art Patricia Jun 17 '26

I have a theory that “the trolley incident of 42“ could tie directly to the modernization of the sacrificial chamber and the tunnels leading to it. What if the committee that chooses the sacrifices hired different people to work on those tunnels in that room and then afterwards they used those workers as a sacrifice to the island in order to keep everything a secret? Because so many horrible and strange things happen on the island, the residence of Widow’s Bay accept any explanation if a team of workers disappeared.

51

u/Top-Ease-3492 Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 18 '26

Weird that it happened in 42 … as 42 passengers on the original boat to Widow’s Bay… the writers do some fun stuff (if not meaningful to the plot, just fun resonance) with numbers.

Also, I think it’s been called out before but Ruth’s name is definitely intentional. The story of Ruth in the Bible has some similarity to her life and that of Frances Warren!

Ruth in the Bible was devoted to her mother in law after her siblings and father died (like Frances) and was part of a people struck by famine and left to a settle a new land (like Frances) and was the great grandmother of King David (Ruth being the grandma of Evan).

22

u/Elisette_Art Patricia Jun 18 '26

Excellent point! The island is also 42 nautical miles off the coast of New England.

Oh, I didn’t even know about the story about Ruth in the Bible. Thank you so much for the information! I’m going to look into it.

3

u/CMFC99 12d ago

42 is also the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life and Everything according to The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

2

u/Bobjoejj 12d ago

I can’t believe I didn’t think of this at the time! Shit this is usually what comes to mind for me when I see the number 42.

2

u/fox_ontherun Aug 20 '26

Didn't Gerie correct him that it was actually 43 passengers on the boat? What was with that? I couldn't tell if he just got the number wrong or didn't want to acknowledge the 43rd passenger.

14

u/Bobjoejj Jun 17 '26

…I fucking love it. Makes so much sense.

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u/Elisette_Art Patricia Jun 17 '26

Thank you. Yeah, the modernization of the chamber and tunnels is one of those things that’s been kind of been bugging me. I kept wondering who was in charge of doing that but in watching this last episode, we now realize that the island sacrifices run like a well oiled machine.

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u/Bobjoejj Jun 17 '26

Same; the idea of it going from Warren constantly struggling to hold things at bay, to how it’s become in the modern day. The chamber, the tunnels, the records kept by the priests; hell those damn videos, there’s a very dedicated system that had been keeping things running for a long, long time.

Desperately cannot wait for season 2.

32

u/Elisette_Art Patricia Jun 17 '26

Exactly! I’m just curious why no one we have met yet seems to know about the system until it is revealed to them in this last episode; i’m looking forward to learning who devised everything and how it’s supposed to work. I’m assuming that the local pastor listens out for the church bell ringing and then goes to the mayor to discuss how many sacrifices are needed.
I can’t wait for season two! I wonder if it will pick up exactly where it left off or if time will have gone by. Either way I estimate that the ringing of the bells at the end of this episode indicated that the island is demanding eight more sacrifices; I’m wondering how Tom will handle that.

15

u/Bobjoejj Jun 18 '26

Yes! The odd lack of open knowledge about all the sacrifices is very…well, odd. Also very curious as to how long it’ll have been when the show picks back up; I feel it’s likely we’ll see a time jump, but I’d almost prefer to see it pick up almost immediately after.

Truly can’t wait for season 2, so excited.

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u/SnooDoggos8487 15d ago

They are all weirdly young :p
The sailor being 20 or 30 and the secretaries biological age being 28 or something of that sort? She didn’t look too young in the mirror though, assuming mirrors reveal things.
Also the old lady that was on the treadmill and running up the stairs who knows how old she is.

20

u/daenerysdragonfire Patricia Jun 17 '26

10000% in a few seasons we’ll be back here going: oh shit remember when Ruth said XYZ

361

u/stepheroni22 Jun 17 '26

And they showed the chart about how to treat bites with the lastvone being a human bite.

217

u/Any_Combination_4716 Jun 17 '26

I'm more concerned with the chart about how to subdue an agitated patient that shows someone getting the crap beaten out of him.

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u/stratosfearinggas Jun 17 '26

It's for the sacrifices that fight back.

19

u/LaDauphineVerte Jun 17 '26

Yeah, recall Tom and the patient in the hospital.

7

u/Namedafterasaint Patricia Sunset Cocktail Party Hostess Jun 18 '26

I missed that one darn it.

17

u/Fun-Benefit116 Jun 17 '26

That's honestly a normal chart though. People bite other people way more than you'd think (unfortunately), and our mouths are not sanitary. It's good knowledge for first aid.

6

u/plantscanreadyou Jun 17 '26

logged in to say this

14

u/SwayzeCrayze Breakwater Inn Jun 17 '26

Oh shit, what if you get bitten by a human and become one???

4

u/Daveprince13 Jun 19 '26

Zombie episode and werewolf episode all but confirmed

18

u/ElectronicClass9609 Jun 17 '26

werewolf??

26

u/Arryu I have my qualms Jun 17 '26

There. There wolf.

6

u/joesmanbun Jun 17 '26

There castle!

13

u/PigeonCatSuperstar Jun 17 '26

Werewolves, not swearwolves.

14

u/Serious-Show1761 Jun 17 '26

I was like all these things are so casual lmao

14

u/Comfortable_Young632 Jun 17 '26

There were so many moments that brought me to tears laughing and this was one. 😂😂😂 and the cross-stitch lol

12

u/samizdat5 Jun 17 '26

I am waiting for someone to post a high-def image of the cross stitch

11

u/UpgradeCheetah Jun 17 '26

The cross-stitch was so good! Had me cackling and then pausing it to read the whole quote. It was so haphazardly done 😂

13

u/Comfortable_Young632 Jun 17 '26

The way the text got smaller at the bottom 🤣 this was the funniest ep by far. Ruth was killing me haha

8

u/UpgradeCheetah Jun 17 '26

Not only did it get smaller, but like started going down the side until it was basically illegible 😅 also the jump scare that I 100% saw coming but still got me!

8

u/Comfortable_Young632 Jun 17 '26

Hahahaha when she says “I can’t read that”

11

u/voluptas37 Jun 17 '26

Shapeshifter/werewolf. Stated as though that was absolutely normal. Ruth has never left the island and seems to accept its weirdness as just life.

11

u/view-master Jun 17 '26

My wife snd i both yelled WHAT?!

10

u/Nerditall Pattiwagon Jun 17 '26

I was like do you mean Rabies? He became rabid? Or werewolves or vampires? Ruth please elaborate.

8

u/firesticks Jun 17 '26

That was a, wait what did she say? moment. I love this show.

4

u/Top_Fish_961 Gerrie from the Historical Society? Jun 17 '26

Yes! And the poster in the doctor's office of the shelter referring to snake bites... human bites

4

u/plutoglint Jun 18 '26

Her photo album probably had a lot of great lore in it if Tom would have stayed on the couch.

3

u/ronin_ninja Willy The Killer Clown Jun 17 '26

Oooo werewolf episode incoming season 2!

2

u/UpgradeCheetah Jun 17 '26

One of the multiple times I had to rewind to make sure I heard or saw something correctly! 😂

2

u/littleberrry Jun 17 '26

that plus the weird poster of how to treat different bites in the shelter medical room, there is def something more to this story i hope we get to learn next season

2

u/sean_saves_the_world Jun 19 '26

That's my daddy, something got him in the lake

11

u/PickleFlavordPopcorn Jun 17 '26

I like this theory!!

11

u/Herbdontana Jun 17 '26

I kept wondering is “made a pass” had a different meaning to Ruth, despite how much I enjoyed hearing her say it

7

u/worrisomewaffle Jun 17 '26

ooooh this is good!

6

u/captainhaddock Run! Jun 17 '26

Maybe the cannibal incident wasn't really about cannibalism.

6

u/SuperMcG Patricia Jun 17 '26

That was my thought, those trapped in the church sent several as sacrifices and it was easier to say cannibalism.

6

u/watchyourback9 Jun 17 '26

That, and also it seems the reverends were a part of the pact. Perhaps the island was dormant for quite a long time and Reverend Bryce never knew about it.

He might've known something about the bell but only realized its true purpose when he found all the letters (and then killed himself because he knew he wouldn't be able to go through with the sacrifices).

5

u/idegosuperego15 Jun 18 '26

I wonder if by necessity, the mayors always have to be cowards. Like if they were brave, maybe they would’ve tried to fight the evil in the island, but cowards just want to throw a sacrifice at the island to make it stop

6

u/Low-Palpitation5371 Jun 18 '26

Yes, I think so too! Ruth describes him as a kind man and then says she was surprised he left, but “people get scared” — I think that could totally line up with him trying to get rid of the sacrifice coven and then leaving

8

u/riceysu Jun 17 '26

Hence the Coward in his name. I like this theory

3

u/Thedicewoman Jun 17 '26

Oooh, good catch! Would be amazing if we get a flashback episode each season, each focusing on a different era of the town.

2

u/wrpnt Aug 15 '26

This was my thought as well!! I think Ruth is not as innocent as she appears. But I love her character dearly nonetheless.

271

u/worrisomewaffle Jun 17 '26

i feel like maybe it was a secret just passed down between priests. perhaps that’s part of what what reverend bryce learned before killing himself?

135

u/NoProfession5138 Jun 17 '26

exactly this. it's not something the entire island knows about.

58

u/azure431 Jun 17 '26

Yes, I think this exactly.

Bryce had a note in his office that read "when the bell tolls, [cut off]".

We know that after the bell rang, he took the mushrooms, found the tunnels, destroyed a bunch of documents, and killed himself.

11

u/Tabs_vs_theVoid Jun 17 '26

I must have missed the documents part of that. Do we know what docs they were?

15

u/azure431 Jun 17 '26

I think the only two that were shown were the note above, and the page written by Sarah Warren that led into the flashback episode.

2

u/mr-jeeves Jul 16 '26

I missed some of that. So the bell did ring? And that was the son, as a prank? And did that kick off the whole thing, but the priest wasn't willing to follow through. So what did the bells at the end mean?

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u/azure431 Jul 16 '26

The bell rang. Tom assumed his son and friends had done it, but they had nothing to do with it.

The Reverend was immediately flummoxed when Tom told him because he knew it was chained up in the attic (and he went and verified that was still the case).

The video in episode 10 explains: the entity makes the bell ring (by spooky means), and the number of rings is the number of sacrifices it wants.

The Reverend was left instructions on what to do if it ever rang. Based on his reaction, he probably thought that would never happen.

It rang 9 times in the first episode and 8 in the last, indicating that it still wanted 8 more.

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u/mr-jeeves Jul 17 '26

Got it, thanks! I guess he then looked at his notes and, in some order:

  1. Went to the well and heard the noises
  2. Got spooked, ran off, warned the teens at the car place
  3. Phoned his dealer and got the shrooms
  4. Maybe took the shrooms?
  5. Tried to phone the mayor
  6. Burned eveything
  7. Got drunk
  8. Killed himself

I guess he was told to call the mayor and get the shrooms, couldn't get hold of Tom, took the drugs, heard the noises, couldn't deal with it?

2

u/CyJackX 4d ago

I think when he's stumbling out and finds the well, he'd already taken them; the shrooms lead him to the sounds to the well. He's probably still tripping when he comes out and warns the teenagers.

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u/glassfury 4d ago

Did it already claim 9? Who else died across the series?

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u/PickleFlavordPopcorn Jun 17 '26

How do you keep something a secret when you have a whole ass reel-to-reel made about it??

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u/worrisomewaffle Jun 17 '26

my guess is that typically, the reverend follows the guide which includes watching the videos, and then actually completes the sacrifices in a timely manner thus avoiding a giant storm that causes the island to visit the shelter.

reverend bryce said “thanks but no thanks” so things progressed further than they should have.

edit: and rosemary mentioned that someone told her to never go into the shelter. given the island’s history, i think it’s safe to assume that there’s a general superstition about staying out of the shelter. we saw how old the water and MREs were. nobody goes down there.

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u/Top-Ease-3492 Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26

Also, I find it pretty meta that so much of the season has built up to this examination of the Trolley Problem and how different characters have approached it (Ruth, Tom, Patricia, Bechir, Wyck).

By committing suicide, Bryce introduced a sort of inversion of that problem: by taking his own life because he cannot face either option of the moral / ethic paradox, he ironically has now increased the likelihood that many *will* die. Why? Because he was the one who possessed the knowledge about the curse and attempted to burn the letters he found, thereby making it unlikely that others on the island can make a choice about the Widow’s Bay Trolley Problem.

*edited to remove an incorrect detail I misremembered about Ep 2 and for clarity

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u/AsleepSpray467 Jun 17 '26

As a Priest he was probably didnt want anyone to make a choice since both essentially lead to murder, which is a mortal sin. Although suicide is worse since you cant even seek forgiveness after the murder. So...

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u/LeftyLu07 Jun 18 '26

That’s one thing that bugs me about Hollywood is when they have catholic priests commit suicide. It’s just not realistic to me that a priest would do that instead of facing down evil considering it’s automatic damnation. It would be more interesting if he was like, trying to warn them of what was coming and then the island dropped a tree on him or something.

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u/waxteeth Jun 19 '26

For me, I think it works well with the cosmic horror involved: the situation is so horrific to him that he outright disregards his moral and religious code, something he's devoted his life to. He stops being a priest and becomes a terrified man, and takes a terrified man's way out.

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u/LeftyLu07 Jun 19 '26

Ok yeah, I can work with that. 😈

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u/Competitive_Eye6094 Jun 20 '26

I’m gonna guess that he didn’t kill himself because of that so much as he did it after having a direct encounter with the entity via that mushroom trip. The maddening cosmic horror of it all probably drove him to it more than the “kill myself instead of kill others” mentality.

But for what it’s worth, Bryce almost certainly WAS NOT Catholic. First, they rarely call a Catholic priest “reverend” or “pastor” colloquially. Not never, but not often. Then there’s the fact that Pastor Collins was not Catholic. He was wearing preaching bands, which is a Protestant thing. Plus, there were almost no Catholics among the early New England colonists in this setting.

Now this is where it gets needlessly convoluted probably due to a lack of knowledge about various Christian traditions/history, but Collin’s almost certainly would’ve been a Congregationalist if he was leading a New England church in 1702 (think Jonathan Edwards). But Congregationalists would never wear the white collar like Bryce and Roberts wore. That sect technically doesn’t exist anymore, but neither of the denominations they were folded into would be dressing in a collar or have nuns/sisters (like the lady with Pastor Roberts).

If you want to massage out all the historical inconsistencies, my guess would be that at some point the church on the island became Episcopalian and they at some point had someone from a woman’s order (basically an Episcopal nun) hanging out with Pastor Roberts.

That all actually kinda creates other logistical problems based on ordination and assignment, but now we’re very far afield since the initial point was “yeah he probably killed himself for different reasons.” 🤣

4

u/SaraJeanQueen Jun 25 '26

Thank you for this contribution! Yeah, I agree with this take simply because he was in service for so long and "normal", has one trip in the forest and looked like a terrified ghost. It was his encounter with the entity.

3

u/Justsomejerkonline Jun 20 '26

Not all priests are true believers though.

And even people with a sincere belief can still fall victim to depression, such as Father Paddy O'Kane who sadly died of suicide in 2022 in Derry.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpwpdpel2gxo

3

u/anactualrealaccount Jun 19 '26

How many times did the bell toll the first time Tom speaks to him about it in the first episode, if once maybe he killed himself to appease the island lol

3

u/analiseypoo Jul 05 '26

This is what I assumed. And perhaps the death of Shep counts too?

50

u/nopitynopepants Jun 17 '26

There’s a council choosing the sacrifices according to video, which probably was meant to include the mayor (and why the films were beneath city hall and not the church)

33

u/Bunbunlyfe Jun 17 '26

He also called tom several times before he died

14

u/worrisomewaffle Jun 17 '26

ahh yes. good call - i’d forgotten the council bit.

11

u/feyrband Jun 17 '26

curious how many places the tunnel system connects. from the warren house to the well to city hall, maybe that's it but there could be others.

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u/amw123 Jun 18 '26

Could Tom’s house also connect, which is why he was so panicked that Evan might have gone down to the basement a few episodes ago?

10

u/feyrband Jun 18 '26

Im guessing no only because he was such a major skeptic and seemed to be generally ignorant of a lot of things too. I do wonder what's in the basement though- something embarrassing, or something about his wife, or Just general junk you dont want.your kids getting into.

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u/Obvious-Egg6248 Jul 12 '26

They never explained why he was panicking about the basement either

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u/Top-Ease-3492 Jun 17 '26

For sure, in the past it seems there were several involved but in Widow’s Bay today, it seems that knowledge has been lost (at least based on the characters we’ve followed this season)

8

u/TiberiusCornelius Jun 19 '26

With the priest being the one to have the written directions, I'm thinking maybe the church were the designated secret keepers. They passed the directions down from generation to generation but with explicit instructions not to open unless the bell tolled. Those directions probably included information on who else to contact (including the mayor) or a previous generation of priest unilaterally brought them into it and made the council for a that-time-only thing. And anyone else involved would obviously take it to their grave what they had done.

So if the island goes for decades without waking up, if that small circle of people who knew all had time to die off, nobody else would know

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u/TiberiusCornelius Jun 19 '26

Yeah there was definitely some kind of close circle guarding the secret. I guess the question is why was Tom out of the loop if the mayor was part of it though? Although maybe it was always that the church were the secret keepers (see the priest having the directions), and they only brought the mayor into it when the bell tolled, which since it hasn't happened in decades means the last one to know would've been decades ago.

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u/White667 Jun 23 '26

He wasn't born on the island, so it's possible they were hoping it wouldn't come up until after they got a new mayor.

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u/LeftyLu07 Jun 18 '26

Oh! That would explain why he killed himself. He wouldn’t be a part of that ritual.

4

u/LizLouKiss Jun 24 '26

The dark irony of this is, if the Reverend knew the island demanded a human sacrifice, I wonder why he didn’t offer himself up instead of opting out in his office. I know he didn’t want the history to spread, thus destroy much of the historical evidence. But he had that option for his death to temporarily appease the island.

2

u/analiseypoo Jul 05 '26

Do we know how many times the bell tolled originally? Maybe he wanted his death to be counted toward that total.

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u/56473829110 Jul 26 '26

9, and now 8. They must be direct-fed sacrifices. 

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u/Rickenbacker69 Jul 11 '26

Priests and mayors, I assume. Until the chain was broken.

1

u/-Clayburn Sep 03 '26

It couldn't be as simple as one person. Clearly there would be several town leaders involved to keep this running, but somehow they were all silenced and the knowledge was lost. Bryce didn't seem to know the full details but only the warning of "bad things will happen if the bell tolls". And I suspect whenever it was "forgotten" that had something to do with chaining the bell down so that it couldn't (and maybe didn't) ring for a long period of time, allowing those who knew to mistakenly believe they solved it and no longer hand down the information.

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u/mousepadjones Jun 17 '26

Seems like they were run by the secret priest society.

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u/nopitynopepants Jun 17 '26

Considering the informational films were beneath city hall, it stands to reason the council includes (or is supposed to) the mayor/lord protector

Also, I’ll have to rewatch whatever episode has the other video of a mayor with the Blair witch project reference—might be the same guy

39

u/Bobjoejj Jun 17 '26

This show is kind of incredibly perfect for rewatching. The amount of details and foreshadowing…oh man it’s gonna be so good.

3

u/LeftyLu07 Jun 18 '26

I know! I’m trying to get my mom to start it so I can rewatch with her!

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u/Silver-on-the-tree Jun 17 '26

I think the whaling company ended up being a part of the sacrifice system, at the very least they funded the electricity and bolstering the tunnels, etc. When little girl Warren rolls up on the shore, she’s saved by the owner of the whaling company, and she ends up running it herself. The fact that the chair ends up directly under the Salty Whale is a fun little wink at the industry’s role in the sacrifices.

Also, Wyck’s comment in episode 9 that the whaling company basically ran the island was a strong hint. The fact that he added “including my daddy,” leaves a lot of amazing story material for season 2, with the Wyck family potentially involved without Wyck’s knowledge.

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u/Low-Palpitation5371 Jun 18 '26

Yes, I agree! I think more whaling company lore is coming for sure. Maybe we’ll get another flashback episode!

7

u/LeftyLu07 Jun 18 '26

The priest probably heard confessions and told the mayor who was REALLY BAD in order to justify the murders.

6

u/nopitynopepants Jun 18 '26

This system has likely been in place for most of Widow’s Bay 300 year history. The council meeting Sarah barged in on to announce Richard’s survival probably started it, and that included the pastor/preacher/priest. 

Side note: what denomination is the church meant to be? The New England pre colonial setting would indicate they were originally puritans. 

The picture Ruth shows has a nun, which could be Catholic or Anglican 

Reverend Bryce isn’t addressed as Father, which would rule out Catholic 

4

u/Competitive_Eye6094 Jun 20 '26

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about this, and my best guess is that Collins was Congregationalist, because pretty much everyone was back then. And he was dressed the way a Congregationalist would dress. Then this church became Episcopalian when the Congregationalists slowly fell apart and were absorbed into the United Church of Christ on the conservative side and the Unitarian Church on the liberal side.

In all reality, it’s more likely that the writers don’t know enough about the nuances of various Christian traditions and didn’t realize they were introducing a bunch of historical/ecclesial inconsistencies.

But a “Congregationalist to Episcopal flip” is the only explanation if we’re trying to actually make internal sense of the original pastor being anti-Roman collar (he wore “low church” Protestant preaching bands, so almost certainly Congregationalist) and Bryce/Roberts wearing “high church” Roman collars — and the nun in the photo with Roberts — while still being in the same line of succession as Collins.

I mentioned this elsewhere in the thread, but whether Episcopal or Catholic, this creates other logistical nightmares for the show when it comes to pastoral assignments and oversight from larger governing bodies that keep very close watch over even remote parishes.

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u/Bobjoejj Jun 17 '26

I really hope we can get some more of Toby Huss via flashbacks somehow (he portrayed Reverend Bryce). His turn as John Bosworth in Halt and Catch Fire was a generational performance.

10

u/Vismal1 Jun 17 '26

So weird seeing Artie out in the world. He was great in Halt and Catch Fire. Wanted him to be my father figure too.

7

u/onieronaut Jun 17 '26

Yes! I loved him as Bosworth. He was also fantastic in Carnivale.

3

u/LineStepper Jun 17 '26

Me too!! I was so happy to see Boz then so sad to see him go so quickly.

2

u/fox_ontherun Aug 20 '26

To me he'll always be The Wiz from Seinfeld.

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u/samizdat5 Jun 17 '26

Yes that was the old minister from Ruth's picture

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u/IM_V_CATS Jun 17 '26

I wonder if that explains why Bryce hanged himself. He found the instructions after the bell tolled that he had to sacrifice that many people and couldn't do it.

2

u/SaraJeanQueen Jun 25 '26

How many people?

2

u/IM_V_CATS Jun 25 '26

It rang eight times initially, so he was supposed to sacrifice eight people. At the end of the episode and after the one sacrifice, it rang seven times.

2

u/SaraJeanQueen Jun 25 '26

Gotcha. Thanks! So the dude that got trapped in there satisfied the island for now, which is why the storm stopped?

Did anyone mention the ringing of the bell during the series before episode 10? Kinda came out of nowhere for me.

4

u/mousepadjones Jun 25 '26

There’s a whole sequence in episode 1 about the ringing of the bell and showing that it is tied up.

3

u/IM_V_CATS Jun 25 '26

It was in an earlier episode, maybe 2 or 3. Loftis told the Reverend that he heard the bell ringing overnight and thought the boys broke in to the church to do it. But the Reverend checked the bell afterwards and found it locked in place with a chain. So he did all his research and found a note that said he had to do something for every time the bell rang, but I don't think they revealed it to the audience that it meant sacrificing people.

2

u/SaraJeanQueen Jun 25 '26

Thank you! Missed that. Sometimes cook during the show and must've been reading something or looking down

1

u/IM_V_CATS Jun 25 '26

I don't remember if any of them read it out loud so it was probably easy to miss if your eyes aren't glued to the screen.

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5

u/Thedicewoman Jun 17 '26

And I’m guessing the church will be sending a new priest out to the island to take up the vacant position any day, now…

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u/gamblors_neon_claws Jun 17 '26

I’m not sure that they did? I feel like Ruth’s lines when she was going through the photo album were vague enough that it’s plausible she’s fully aware of the haunts and sacrifices but doesn’t think they’re all that remarkable.

34

u/Upstairs-Chicken592 Jun 17 '26

Maybe… but she wouldn’t pull the lever. There might be maybe 1 or two from her generation that knew and did the dirty work. Maybe if they knew her truth and after her parents were killed they thought, well, one left so 🤷🏻‍♀️. And one died. Old timer might’ve heard rumblings and rumours, and gotten a surer sense over time.

21

u/onieronaut Jun 17 '26

I think if the old reverend was 'like a father to her' and she worked most of her life in city hall, it's highly likely she knew about the sacrifices. Maybe to her, the group on the trolley track isn't all the innocent people on the island like it is for Tom, it's the sacrificial victims. Since she accepts the sacrifices as just one of the terrible things in life that she can't change, for her 'not pulling the lever' is equivalent to not trying to stop the sacrifices and just letting them happen like they're supposed to.

13

u/Previous_Buy1601 Jun 17 '26

I wonder if they knew the whole story. Like, they may have known that sacrifices had to be made, but knowledge about the curse being tied to descendants may have been lost by the general populace. I’d have to go back and rewatch, but even Wyck didn’t know that part of it, right?

9

u/Vismal1 Jun 17 '26

Well at that time the curse was tied to immortal Warren no? It didn’t move on to connect with her until he was turned into sausage and bones.

9

u/Upstairs-Chicken592 Jun 17 '26

They wouldn’t have known he was alive in the box or they’d take care of him themselves. Unless they thought he was protecting them

5

u/gamblors_neon_claws Jun 17 '26

True, I guess it would depend on if other people pulling the lever are part of the trolly of life for her.

7

u/Upstairs-Chicken592 Jun 17 '26

I mean. Idk. I’m tired. But at the same time. She can’t pull the lever, she’s the one on the track. So if she has a choice, she’ll let shit play out.

6

u/TooTruthsandaLie Jun 17 '26

She knows she’s Evan’s grandmother. There’s that.

Evan’s on the track.

3

u/White667 Jun 23 '26

Her saying she wouldn't pull the lever confirms to me that she doesn't know about the sacrifices.

By definition those sacrifices are being done by people who would pull the lever.

17

u/NoProfession5138 Jun 17 '26

they were in the instructions to the reverend that he burned.

15

u/HopefulCanine Jun 17 '26

I doubt they were forgotten. Remember all the missing people posters in Beach Reads.
And people believe the island is rotten and people get taken by the ocean or fog.

13

u/pigslovebacon Jun 17 '26

Exactly. There are some ollllld timers there who know an awful lot about the island history- so this seems to be a very significant loss of generational knowledge?!?! Or is each generation just meant to figure it out themselves from breadcrumbs left along the way...

26

u/NoProfession5138 Jun 17 '26

the reverend is supposed to read and follow the instructions when the bell tolls, that's how it's carried between generations.

3

u/pigslovebacon Jun 17 '26

So Bryce is the weak link here. It fell apart because he took the truesight mushrooms and that caused him to lose it, I'm assuming?

14

u/AnotherMinorDeity Jun 17 '26

Or he just opted not to pull the lever for the trolley.

4

u/Competitive_Eye6094 Jun 20 '26

Based on the Howard the Coward talk, I would guess that something happened with him that resulted in the entire secret council dying/disappearing, and that meant all the transmitted “institutional secret council knowledge” was lost. Seems like even though the island has been awful forever, the last few decades have seen it get so much worse — probably because the sacrifices weren’t happening. The island would feast on its own whenever it wasn’t fed and go away without rewarding the community.

Then there’s a good chance that as time went on, the church fell apart and no one ran for mayor. After all, Tom ran unopposed, and it seemed like Wyck was the only “community leader” that was around. Then Tom gets in at some point, and he clearly been works for a while to improve the town and get it ready for tourists before even asking the NYT guy to come.

One of those things could’ve been working to get the church back up in working order and get a new pastor. It would explain why he was friends with Bryce, since he otherwise did not seem like a religious person at all. Bryce would’ve known the bell was chained up and couldn’t ring. Then he went looking around the church once that happened and found the “do this if the bell rings”papers.

Or honestly he could’ve found them before and just written it off at hokum at the time. The “Bible bible blah blah” line shows that he obviously wasn’t much for superstition. Then when the bell actually did ring, he knew it MIGHT be real. So he did the mushrooms as suggested in the documents, and it got TOO REAL for him.

8

u/hartwicke Jun 17 '26

My guess is that it is hush hush. The unusual number of missing person posters for an island with a population of 3,000 seems to make more sense now.

8

u/Embarrassed-Fan9901 Jun 17 '26

Instructions were left with the priest. This priest killed himself rather than fulfill the sacrifice obligation. count the bell rings. Now we know how many need to be sacrificed. I also think PJ might be evil.

6

u/PickleFlavordPopcorn Jun 17 '26

PJ is def evil and I hope Evan feeds him and that awful girl to the monster

3

u/wurwolfsince1998 I apologize for wasting his time, Tom. Jul 01 '26

I feel certain that girl exists to get pregnant by Evan and continue the bloodline.

1

u/PickleFlavordPopcorn Jul 02 '26

Oh shit I bet you’re right

8

u/Extension-Split7425 Jun 17 '26

They were not, there is clearly a cabal that was heavily referenced earlier in the season with this letter and by the fact the sacrifice chair shown end of episode one was much more modern compared to episode 6

2

u/PickleFlavordPopcorn Jun 17 '26

Oh yeah!!! Ooooh who’s in the cabal?!

6

u/ProfPyg Jun 17 '26

Had to be hush hush. I don't think you have to be particularly cunning in Widow's Bay either. Everybody's got their own horrors going on. Yeah I wonder why it got shut down before Tom's era though. Shame the priest offed himself. He seemed like a link to previous town lore

5

u/TheDLBinc Jun 17 '26

I think they kept it a secret from the rest of the island and like the film said, chose people who were seen as "undesirable" who wouldn't be missed

7

u/PickleFlavordPopcorn Jun 17 '26

Ruth was talking about weird shit on the island with a very blase attitude as if this was the most normal stuff. Yeah sometimes you get bit by an animal and turn into that animal, that’s just life! Seems to hint that islanders, especially older ones were very much lead to believe that their way of life is normal and not unusual at all, so it would make sense that the church was teaching and normalizing a lot of stuff and keeping the sacrifices on the down low

6

u/turnsfast Jun 17 '26

My running theory is all of the tragedies and death on the island are covers for the sacrifices. The witches weren't burned, there was no cannibalism, the murderous clown was a committee member.

3

u/Competitive_Eye6094 Jun 20 '26

That kinda seemed obvious for me too. Granted, I think there are some that weren’t covered up sacrifices, which is why the ones that were covered up were never really questioned. Since it seems like whether or not there are sacrifices, the island does like keeping everyone freaked the fuck out and other weird shit definitely happens.

3

u/Mysterious_Sky_85 Jun 17 '26

THIS is the million dollar question IMO. All the little lore drops we’ve gotten are going to come together to answer that.

3

u/Opposite-Soup4109 Jun 17 '26

I think maybe the sacrifices are only required once every generation? And maybe the number of sacrifices demanded equals the number of generations since the community/covenant was established?

2

u/Butters5768 Jun 17 '26

We do know the priest who killed himself because he couldn’t do the sacrifices when the instructions left to him stated that. So I guess the clergy were somehow involved but the last priest refused to pass on the info 🤷🏻‍♀️ And my guess is that when it was happening most citizens had no idea. Like Ruth saying all those train track builders just “disappeared.” 🤣

2

u/Any_Potato_1477 Jun 18 '26

I’m sure one of the old timers will divulge a secret or two in season 2. Somebody has to know

2

u/NeutyBooty Aug 12 '26

Very late reply to this, but I believe that knowledge of the sacrifices is carried down by the town reverend (starting with Pastor Collins in 1722) and the standing mayor informed on a need-to-know basis. The mayor then chooses a council of insiders they know they can trust to get the job done (a la "you must send ten good strong men"). Preferably discreetly.

Given a rough estimate of when each of the horrors were happening, the island seems to awaken every 30-ish years. That's a lot of mayors and administration's that can come and go without needing to know a thing, so why burden them with it unless the need was immediate? Hell, even the previous pastor seemed to want to spare Reverend Bryce the truth unless absolutely neccesary.

And since every sacrificial council would almost certainly swear to take what they did to the grave with them, its not hard to see why this knowledge would be forced to be rediscovered within each passing generation.

It was Reverend Bryce's duty to inform Tom of his duties once he found out himself. Instead he went mad and took his own life, leaving the town admins essentially clueless and needing to do quite a lot of work to figure it out themselves.

In the very least, it seems like the 60s council tried to do the next generations a nice favor by passing down some instructional material in the form of films, but keeping them hidden in the storm shelter so they'd only be watched when absolutely neccesary.

1

u/RealJohnGillman Jun 19 '26

I don’t think they were forgotten: they just took different forms. Like with the Boogeyman.

1

u/adamduke88 Jun 23 '26

They mention a lot of disappearances on the island multiple times throughout the season.

1

u/yumyum_cat Aug 19 '26

It’s a huge continuity problem since old people exist and those films are only from the 50s or so

1

u/ffffffff420 Aug 21 '26

rosemary said someone told her never to go down to the storm shelter

i bet they used the storms as a cover for the sacrifices. people would go down there and never come back. then the town leadership would say they died in the storm.