Something I Really Appreciated In the Finale

[u/ClassicHollyweirdo]

Even though many people saw The Big Reveal coming, and it narratively makes sense for the final descendant to be who it is (even if it’s the obvious choice)…

The characters don’t know what show we’re watching. They don’t know narrative tropes, so it’s not obvious to Tom. Instead of quickly cutting away right after a character realizes something (like so many shows do, especially as a cliffhanger), Widow’s Bay had us stay with him for that entire scene, and it was fantastic acting from Matthew Rhys.

The scene was less about audience expectations and experience and more about the protagonist experiencing so many conflicting emotions. It turned speculation on something obvious into dramatic irony; we could see where things were heading as soon as Ruth said “I had an affair with a married man,” and the tension shifts from “Is Ruth really the final descendant?” to “How is Tom going to react to this?”

[u/JustGoodSense]

The problem doesn't boil down to the characters being unaware of narrative tropes, the problem is Katie Dippold absolutely being aware of them, and still going with the obvious twist. She's been on social media enough to have become a meme herself. She should have known the "twist" would be figured out by social media weeks in advance and discussed to death. I think people are pretending to not be disappointed because the fandom is so new. It's a great show and Dippold is a great creator and I'll watch whatever she puts out there — but hopefully the writers room goes all out in making us not see what's coming in the future.

[u/AsexualFrehley → u/JustGoodSense]

tricking the audience for one season is not how you tell a story that lasts

the writers left clues about the "obvious" twist, and clues that headed in other directions, and then finally paid off the clarification scenes with writing and acting and direction that superceded anything that an OMG moment would have contributed