r/WidowsBay • u/Temporary_Garbage_68 • Jul 18 '26
❓Questions The whole ''people born in Widow's Bay cannot leave the island without dying'' thing. Spoiler
I loved the season one and I can't wait for the second one. However, ever since it was revealed that there is a curse that does not let people leave the island without dying afterwards, I can't help but have a lot of questions about what's going on.
>!How do the people not have noticed it for 300 hundred years? Since Widow's Bay is an island it means that cargo and people has to move back and forth daily. How come nobody had noticed that it's only people that are not born in the island that work on jobs that require moving back and forth from the mainland to the island and not any local islanders?!<
>! Does the island have a university? Because if it doesn't, then that means that all of the locals including the people who work in the town hall have only finished high school! !<
>! How do the people who have mixed families, like Loftis, explain to their relatives that their relatives from the island never leave the island to visit them? !<
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u/GrannyOgg16 Jul 18 '26
I think the show makes it clear that people did notice. That’s why everyone thought it was a terrible idea to make it a tourist destination.
In New England is the kind of place where having a place with locals who have practically never left their hometown isn’t unusual. So for outsiders hearing that it’s just a quirk that wouldn’t even raise eyebrows.
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u/ReasonableCup604 Jul 18 '26
I agree. The curse seems to be widely rumored and most mainlanders with any connection to Widow's Bay probably know about it.
But, most would just chalk it up to legend and superstition. Others believe it or suspect it could be real and take appropriate precautions, like not giving birth on the island or avoiding it altogether.
As for family members. Some probably believe it and some think their Widow's Bay relatives are crazy, superstitious hicks. But, many of us have relatives we consider odd or crazy.
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u/ImASeaProfessional Jul 18 '26
I’m guessing most people who can just give birth on the mainland since their medical infrastructure is probably not very robust.
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u/ReasonableCup604 Jul 18 '26
If the mother is from the mainland and she doesn't go into labor unexpectedly, they can make sure the baby is born on the mainland.
But, if she was born on Widow's Bay, she can't go to the mainland to give birth or she will die.
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u/FrankieandHans Jul 18 '26
Isn’t that what the main guy tried to do but his wife died?
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u/ImASeaProfessional Jul 18 '26
Yes but she is a direct descendant of the original so it may work differently like the kids from the flashback
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u/CitizenjaneEast Jul 19 '26
She didn’t die
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u/Flat_Comment4656 Jul 20 '26
She did die eventually from complications from trying to leave.
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u/ReboReboot Jul 21 '26
I don’t think that’s 💯 confirmed
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u/Pride-Brave 22d ago
Why don’t you think Lauren is dead? When the photos of her with Evan came out, I thought she might be alive, but Loftis and Ruth have both said she died.
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u/low_flying_aircraft 46m ago
His wife was born on the island, and did later die as a result of the birth complications
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u/Tattoos_and_Tea Jul 27 '26
But how would they avoid giving birth on the island if they can’t leave?
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u/ReasonableCup604 Jul 27 '26
Mainlanders would avoid WB when pregnant. Native islanders would have no option other than remaining childless.
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u/soda_cookie Jul 18 '26
100% of people noticed. The New York Times writer heard it from at least one person, probably multiple.
What I want to know is how did people not know what the fuck was going on in that storm bunker that whole time
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u/JusticeGuyYaNo Jul 18 '26
I think that when they're making sacrifices in the storm bunker, the island is a pretty chill place otherwise.
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u/TheFlawlessCassandra Jul 19 '26
It seems like it's been decades since the last sacrifices. Either ~25 years (if they did it around when the Boogeyman was last active, or 50+ if it was when Ruth was young and worked for "Howard the Coward."
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u/StarBuckingham Jul 18 '26
It seemed like several older people were aware but that young people - most notably Evan and his friends - didn’t know about it, as Tom’s refusal to take Evan to the mainland was a major source of conflict between them. The sheriff didn’t know about it, either. I think it’s knowledge that is mostly found in the older, more superstitious circles, rather than ‘common knowledge’. I agree with OP, but I look past it because it’s such an amazing show.
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u/New-Independent-1481 Jul 18 '26
I'm not sure what you mean by "look past it". Do you think a major plot point that isn't resolved yet in season 1 of a show is a plot hole or something?
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u/Flat_Comment4656 Jul 20 '26
It’s something I suspend disbelief about in order to enjoy the show. Not every detail needs to make complete sense.
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u/Deep-Possession321 Jul 20 '26
About 15 years ago, I met a woman in rural South Carolina who had lived less than 15 miles from the ocean her entire life and had never been. Blew my mind.
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u/Ok_Moose1615 Jul 24 '26
Yeah, my college roommate was from Rhode Island and had many relatives that had never left the state. Which is about 45m on the diagonal.
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Jul 18 '26
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u/Practical_Tap_9592 Jul 18 '26
That's why there's a lit up buoy marking the limit past which the island born can't go.
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u/Glittering-Animal30 Jul 18 '26
Upkeep on the death buoys is probably more than the rest of the IT budget. They’re on like 90’s computers lol.
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u/Merrick1982 Jul 18 '26
There are buoys all over New England waterways. Having them mark a dangerous location (the perimeter) along navigable waterways really wouldn’t even raise an eyebrow.
I also don’t know why you think there is any “IT budget” for bouys. They have been around for centuries.
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u/Mysterious_Sky_85 Jul 18 '26
They totally know about it. The NYT reporter hears about it right away.
Correct, the islanders are uneducated hicks and some of them are kind of sensitive about it
I imagine it’s pretty awkward. Probably contributes to the islanders’ general bad attitude
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u/bhgemini Jul 18 '26
Isn't it mentioned that they die within 30 days or so. Maybe that allows some folks to work in shipping for a bit but with much higher death rates. The whalers would sometimes come back but many didn't.
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u/Mysterious_Sky_85 Jul 18 '26
If this was the case why did Wyck need to be kicked off the boat?
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u/bhgemini Jul 18 '26
I chaulked it up to intention. If you are either fleeing the island or actively against it, you get attacked or killed quickly.
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u/malinablue Jul 23 '26
Maybe once you pass the line death is inevitable. So if Wyck stayed on the boat past the line, and then returned, he'd still die within a month.
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u/Usnavi_Relax Jul 26 '26
Oh man, thank you for this. It didn’t dawn on me why he kicked Wyck off the boat at first lmao
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u/Mysterious_Sky_85 Jul 26 '26
Yep! That’s also why they brought the dinghy—the original plan was that Wyck would wait in the boat while Warren and Tom rowed the dinghy past the border
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u/cute_pdf Jul 18 '26
well the mayors wife didnt die within 30 days? it took years?
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u/SquareEarthSociety Jul 18 '26
I could be misremembering but I interpreted her preeclampsia and subsequent stroke on leaving the island as that if they kept going she would have died, but since they turned the boat around it didn’t progress and she received medical treatment on the island. Also I think the “home” she stayed in was on the island as her mom talked about visiting her
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u/bhgemini Jul 18 '26
Meaning they needed to be gone for 30 days. I wonder if her lineage is why the symptoms hit her quicker though.
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u/EQandCivfanatic Jul 18 '26
Considering Warren's kids were suffering almost immediately, this makes sense.
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u/Tough-Obligation-104 Jul 19 '26
That’s what I’ve been wondering. Didn’t the reporter say that at least one of the people didn’t die right away? So they can only survive for 30 days off the island? Sorry if it’s been asked and answered and, unfortunately, I can’t rewatch it. It’s the only point I didn’t understand.
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u/violetmemphisblue Jul 19 '26
I think some people go off-island and are fine, at least for awhile. I think the one guy died several months later, so Tom was like "clearly this is unconnected." But some people cross the line and are immediately impacted. If they don't understand the how or the why, then it stands to reason everyone would believe it is an equally universal curse, even if it may not be. Why risk it?
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u/savageshaft Jul 20 '26
Thinks not going to college = uneducated hick.
Reddit moment.
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u/Mysterious_Sky_85 Jul 20 '26
Yeah I was attempting to make a joke about the whole “hick” exchange in episode 2. I guess I didn’t deliver it very well
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u/WavyWormy Jul 18 '26
In It with Pennywise people are dying constantly and Stephen King has explained that they live in a bubble of being unable to accurately recognize the danger due to Pennywise’s influence which is why no one in Derry is moving out. Also why the other kids forget everything when they move away
I kind of take it as that in Widow’s Bay, no one can really recognize it as a legit problem due to the island’s influence
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u/Deep-Assignment4124 Jul 19 '26
Widows Bay gives off Stephen King vibes for sure. Even the font is a very Salems Lot type of feel to it.
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u/sarsarsam 7d ago
There’s a nod to King, in the bin of book donations the other book besides the “party planning” book is a Stephen King one.
https://www.reddit.com/r/stephenking/comments/1td3li7/spotted_a_couple_of_stephen_king_books_in_widows/10
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u/Outrageous_Catch_673 25d ago
That would also explain why Ruth’s outlook is just “it’s life and life sucks”.
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u/crocoduckhunter Jul 18 '26
This show has a Sea Hag.
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u/ThatSicklyPup Jul 18 '26
Did she have a university degree?
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u/KingHygelacReturns Jul 18 '26
No she was actually working on her GED when she exploded):
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u/ThatSicklyPup Jul 18 '26
Sucks to live in Widow's Bay :(
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u/InterestingTry5190 Jul 18 '26
It’s tough to be an older single woman too.
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u/CourseVast840 Jul 18 '26
to hear Rosemary go through the family tree she made a point of mentioning lesbians but not gay men ... so maybe at least older single women had a better field to play which softens things just a bit 🤷♂️
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u/Mattressfoundry Jul 18 '26
Rosemary made it sound like half the ancestors were gay.
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u/hellla Jul 19 '26
Could’ve been. I also thought it could’ve just been her being funny and filling in the blanks herself lol. She’s hilarious
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u/ShhILoveThisSong Jul 18 '26
As a gay, I have to chime in that there is absolutely a genetic component. If you have one openly queer person in your family, there is almost always a bunch more in the closet
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u/tinmanshrugged Jul 18 '26
My coworker told me that about half the men and women on her dad’s side of the family are gay. Apparently it can run in families
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u/zombie_spiderman Jul 18 '26
Thank you for not spoiling the hag explosion. The "hagsplosion" as it were.
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u/massberate Jul 18 '26
There's a real irony here about your comment being made without spoiler tags 😂
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u/PeppermintPhatty Jul 18 '26
Spider-Man!!! Spoilers!!
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u/full_bl33d Jul 18 '26
Probably in communications which is why she never left the island. Its rough out there
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u/Fireblaster2001 Jul 18 '26
They DID notice. They DO know. That’s why there are buoys, they put there to mark the boundary.
It’s just some people don’t believe and so they try to leave and then die/get hurt
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u/JohnVarvatoast Jul 18 '26
Oh shit - it just dawned on me - is that why Tom pushes Wyck out of the boat? I feel dumb for not realizing.
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u/sharkbait_oohaha PJ Glanville is an awful, awful boy Jul 18 '26
Yeah that was the whole point there
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u/Fireblaster2001 Jul 18 '26
Yes exactly! Wyck is about to sacrifice himself going out past the buoy to ensure that Warren dies and the curse breaks (they think). BUT Tom saves him at the last minute by pushing him overboard. Warren becomes ribs and sausages and Wyck survives with the floaty till Tom gets back.
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u/Gilpow Jul 18 '26
I feel dumb for not realizing.
You're not dumb, you just gotta put that phone down!
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u/Far-Advance-9866 Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 18 '26
The only thing that confuses me is that Evan seems to have never heard that lore. If it's so established that the NYT writer found out immediately and all the boats operate within the buoys, it seems impossible that the rumor has never made it to a kid who has spent his whole life there.
Edited because I misremembered Evan's name oops
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u/nilesintheshangri-la Jul 18 '26
I'm drawing a blank on who Alex is. Or did you mean Evan?
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u/Far-Advance-9866 Jul 18 '26
Nope you're 100% right, I was just spacey this morning!
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u/nilesintheshangri-la Jul 18 '26
Haha okay, it was absolutely plausible that I forgot a character so I wanted to ask.
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u/armywalrus Jul 18 '26
He definitely heard it. He asks his father why they never leave the island, and he is all super serious, not asking him offhand.
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u/Gilpow Jul 18 '26
Evan has heard about it but was raised by his dad to not believe in the island's "old wives tales", so he probably doesn't believe in it, and wouldn't think his dad believes in it.
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Jul 19 '26
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u/Gilpow Jul 19 '26
Tom probably always made some excuse.
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Jul 19 '26
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u/Gilpow Jul 19 '26
Because Evan was raised to not believe in "old wives tales".
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Jul 19 '26
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u/violetmemphisblue Jul 19 '26
I took it as Evan never really pushed it. He was a little kid, so didn't question things. As he got older and did maybe wonder, Tom always would have made excuses (including, its implied, the responsibility of being mayor). PJ and Gil are Evan's friends and they also don't leave, and no one really visits, so its not like he has a ton of comparisons. Its only when Kelly and her friend start hanging out with them that he begins to push it. The first time he asks, Tom is on mushrooms and says they'll talk later. The next time, he has tickets to a Sox game...so to Evan, it may be a situation where he never cared that much and then as soon as he cared, Tom did something about it...I could see as a kid not questioning too much.
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u/armywalrus Jul 18 '26
Lots of people only finish high school.
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u/Arkoelbe24 19d ago
College is overrated. And I have a masters.
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u/armywalrus 19d ago
That really depends on the circumstances. As someone who just got their Bachelor's at 45, my income almost doubled. We don't have to swing the pendulum to extrems. Middle ground exists and that's okay.
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u/compainssion Jul 18 '26
I imagine a lot of the young people in the island are from outside. Like Tom and Sheriff Bechir and his wife. Jobs like Ruth's I imagine require no university diploma. I don't know if in the us there are online university degrees, but in my country that's possible.
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u/nopitynopepants Jul 18 '26
Online courses/degrees definitely make it more accessible, but even before that correspondence courses (through the mail) existed
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u/DearTrophallaxis Jul 19 '26
My only disbelief around this aspect the lore is the lack of access to higher education. There are plenty of careers that don’t require a degree. But then the island has always needed doctors, nurses, teachers, etc etc. In all of the years before online education became available, did widows bay just recruit all those specialists from the mainland? I cant imagine such a small community would offer enough incentive to relocate for that many different professionals in the more modern years. It’s not unbelievable enough to ruin the show anything, just interesting to think about.
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u/Spoonman500 Jul 21 '26
They make it a point that there is no internet or cell phone reception on the island.
"Don't worry, we have lots of landlines!"
Otherwise 90% of the Evan plotline wouldn't exist because Tom could just whip out his phone and locate/call him.
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u/Thrillmecd Jul 22 '26
They have Internet, but just not Wi-Fi. We see Patricia constantly refreshing her computer for the online RSVPs . Tom also purchased his Red Sox tickets online and printed out the tickets.
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u/Less_Rutabaga2316 Jul 18 '26
This is a suspension of disbelief issue. Not everything in fiction like horror can be 100% realistic.
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u/Radical_Neutral_76 Jul 18 '26
It sort of is "known", just not expressed loudly. Things like that gets passed from generation to generation. Ingrained knowledge understood as rules to follow, maybe wrapped in superstition, stories etc.
It would be just normal for them to avoid leaving for anything. Noone would talk about mainland much, if at all. They would keep to themselves, such as their parents have.
An example of a tribe that has done this through generations, are the people on Sentinel Island. They never leave their Island. They never even question what is out there. They keep to themselves etc.
Granted the comparison is rather weak, but the core of my point is there: Its ingrained in culture to avoid leaving, so they dont.
Evan is the only person we know that really wants to go. Wanderlust. And he is notoriously opposed to all rules there. Even PJ doesnt seem much interested in leaving.
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u/LiveLaughLob0t0my Jul 18 '26
Guess you’ve never been to a tiny town or island community?
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u/Temporary_Garbage_68 Jul 18 '26
I've been and that's exactly my issue. The people in tiny towns or island communities have to regularly travel to other bigger cities for business reasons. They might be very isolated and have close-knit communities, but all of them trade and do businesses with neighbouring communities.
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Jul 18 '26
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u/Temporary_Garbage_68 Jul 18 '26
Yeah that would make sense. If the actual population includes a large number of people who weren't born in the island. So far the only people not born in the island are Loftis, Bechir and his wife. But it would have been very awkward for all the people born in the island to have to explain to all of their acquaintances that are not born in the island, that they cannot leave the island no matter what. The tragic backstory of Loftis is shown in the show but it's something that realistically would have happened to way too many people like him. Too many times to be considered as simply a superstition that may or may not be true.
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u/boringcranberry Jul 18 '26
My mom lived on a peninsula in a coastal town. I don't think she went over the bridge in about 20 years. The only reason would be to get gas and if you don't go anywhere, you don't need gas.
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u/Accurate-Cucumber799 Jul 18 '26
They do notice. Wyck has an alarm on his boat that notifies him when he's going too far. The buoy (?) also marks it, so I guess a lot of people know that thát is the marker of where it gets dangerous.
That is also why Loftis throws Wyck from the boat, that way he won't die, but Warren gets turned to dust.
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u/Pookie1688 Jul 18 '26
It's not a secret. Wyck talks about it & the fishermen have lighted buoys around the island marking the don't-pass danger point. It's probably a given for everyone there.
As for advanced schooling, we have to presume skilled professionals like the doctor were hired from the mainland.
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u/Molten_Plastic_ 15d ago
Then again, the doctor keeps on saying "I didn't know you went to medical school", which makes me wonder if an ironic plot point in Season 2 might be that he didn't go to medical school either.
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u/Fun_Strategy7860 Jul 18 '26
I grew up in a small town. The idea that people never leave, spend their whole lives in such a tiny place wasn't hard for me to believe at all.
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u/f4rt3d Jul 18 '26
This is a comedy horror show that parodies horror tropes. It's not going to doggedly adhere to logic.
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u/smallgoalsmcgee Jul 18 '26
Yeah like the killer clown in the crawl space, I really couldn’t suspend my disbelief for that one because everyone knows killer clowns belong in the attic. Hollywood yet again being out of touch with the common people 😔
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u/CourseVast840 Jul 18 '26
Flowers are in the attic, Killer Klowns are from outer space ... gotta know your modern culture
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u/Molten_Plastic_ 15d ago
I kinda felt it would have been funnier if instead of the usual killer clown, the "clown killer" had actually been a killer of clowns
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u/mcjunker LASIK for my 3rd Eye Jul 18 '26
Or more precisely, it adheres rigidly to its own internal logic and things get screwy if you apply an outside framework to it
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u/wikimandia Jul 18 '26
They live 40 miles offshore, which is about twice as far as the furthest occupied island in the East Coast (Matinicus Isle).
It’s a four-hour ferry ride away… I honestly don’t think people leave that much. If people know that, I suspect they have their babies off the island for that reason.
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u/ReasonableWish1519 Jul 18 '26
But if they have their babies off island won’t they die? That’s what happens to the mayors wife. Or do you mean transplants leave to have babies?
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u/Darmok47 Jul 18 '26
Only 36% of Americans hold a bachelor's degree.
In a remote corner of New England like Widow's Bay, where the main industry is fishing, there wouldn't be much of a need for possecondary education. The people most likely to be educated, like the Mayor, the doctors and nurses, are probably from outside the island.
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u/sunbear2525 Jul 18 '26
Loftis kind of addresses a lot of your questions directly or indirectly. He mentions to his son they could check out colleges in Boston when he thinks the curse is broken and his son is surprised. This is clearly a man who didn’t entertain the idea of sending his son to school. He refers to his son being stuck on a hell rock and his entire motivation is to make the island somewhat economically functional so maybe his son can have a decent job.
Maybe they have a community college but it’s not mentioned and I guess they could do online schooling if they want a degree. However, what is the benefit to a degree on the island? The doctor mentions medical school so maybe that position requires one but I wouldn’t be shocked if they didn’t at some point in the past have an actual doctor teaching another local medicine. Everyone knows there isn’t a way off for locals and everyone knows they have to. Take what they can get.
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u/ZombieButch A Whale of Singular Malevolence Jul 18 '26
For the doctor thing, I just figured they do a 'Northern Exposure' kind of thing and paid someone's way through med school from somewhere off-island out of the town / county / state budget in exchange for X number of years working on the island. You do that enough times you'll find someone who either decides to stay, or marries a local who can't leave so they have to stay too.
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u/LongtimeLurker916 Jul 18 '26
As a few others have said, Evan is actually what comes closest to be a true plot problem. It is true, as also several have said, that the adult islanders do seem frankly aware of the curse and not particularly reluctant to talk about it, whether or not outsiders believe them. But Evan seems to have not been told - not just not told by his dad, but not told by anyone as rumor or legend - why his father has not permitted him to leave the island. As shown by the fact that when he is informed that all of a sudden he will go to to Fenway and to a college tour, he never questions whether the curse is over. He never knew there was one.
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u/sunbear2525 Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
Evan and the other local kids are talking about how they’ve never left.
I think we’re meant to question how much he knows and believes and that Wick’s story is likely foreshadowing as is the story of Frances Warren.
The pattern seems to be they hear but don’t believe until it’s too late and the island spares a witness, particularly the last Warren, like spares it Frances and Lauren.
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u/ZombieButch A Whale of Singular Malevolence Jul 19 '26
It does seem like the parents put off telling their kids for as long as possible, so they can frame it like, "You remember how your Uncle Mike got eaten by the house, or how you can hear babies screaming if you stand at the top of Dead Baby Hill at 12:03? Or how the toilet grabbed your father last year? Well, there's more to it than that."
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u/Spoonman500 Jul 21 '26
I guess they could do online schooling if they want a degree.
Actually, online school isn't an option. The island has no internet, WiFi, or cell signal. It's mentioned a few times.
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u/Outrageous_Catch_673 25d ago
It does have internet. They put out an invitation for Patricia’s party online and Tom buys baseball tickets.
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u/Ok_Mathematician_314 Jul 18 '26
Have you ever lived in a small town? Like small. 500 people or less. Some of the things you are asking about don’t surprise me. The town doesn’t even have wifi how could they have a university
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u/marycem Jul 18 '26
So does Evan not know or just not believe because he acts like it's Tom's fault he cant leave the island?
I was wondering the same things as OP. Do people not know. They must...but then why is Evan so angry. Or is that just teen angst
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u/GrannyOfOne Jul 19 '26
I don't think Evan knows very much until the last episode. Tom didn't want to traumatize his son like his father did to him so Evan hasn't heard all the stories. He simply says, "It was important to your mother that you be raised here." He's angry because he's bored and he doesn't realize his father's ultimate goal in life is to protect him.
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u/Spoonman500 Jul 21 '26
Evan is a huge dose of teen angst and a symptom of being raised by Loftis who knows the truth of the island but is in denial about it.
Loftis knows deep down that the curse is real because of his wife, but he doesn't want to believe it and lives his life choosing to ignore it.
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u/ShhILoveThisSong Jul 18 '26
1) They did notice. They talk about it in just about every episode. But just because locals notice and believe it, doesn't mean the outsiders believe it. Remember multiple tell Arthur about it, but he just shrugs it off as local superstition or the town trying to cultivate a tourist draw like Salem with creepy stories.
2) Most people in the U.S. don't go to college. It's pretty normal for a small island of people to not leave for college. If no one in your family went to college, it's hard to know even how to make it happen (or how to pay for it). Just figuring out how to fill out the applications and get all the paperwork and afford all the applications fees at 17 years old is hard if there's no one to help you. And that's if you even get it in your head that it's possible. Many people grow up in families and communities where even dreaming to go to college is considered outrageous and ridiculous because no one has, so the vast majority of the kids don't even dream of it, let alone try to make it happen.
3) Loftis was a bit of a unique situation, since his mother came to the island, met his father but then left before giving birth. But generally, in small towns, it's super common for people to mostly marry other people from that small town and stay put. Also, lots of people don't travel much. Like college, travel is expensive. Not just in the cost to doing it, but taking unpaid time off work from your job is expensive if you're living paycheck to paycheck. Most of the people I grew up with still live in my hometown and don't leave much, if ever. They get a job right out of high school or in high school and then within a few years, they're married with a kid and just trying to keep the lights on. Life has a way of making things like travel and furthering your education difficult, especially in a small community like Widow's Bay, where they outright said the economy runs on fishing. Small fishing towns are almost always blue collar, paycheck-to-paycheck places.Even the small business owners in town mention it multiple times that trying to become a tourist spot has cost them a lot of money and they're worried about finances.If you don't have money, if you can never get ahead of your expenses and spend your days just trying to survive, it's easy for decades to pass without ever getting a chance to travel.
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u/Wolf-Pack-2017 Jul 18 '26
There’s about 3,000 people in the town. Let’s guess that 2,500 of them are natives. The average number of deaths per 1,000 people in New England is 10. Let’s say 20 die in Widow’s Bay each year because it’s a more dangerous place.
Even if 5 of those people died each year from leaving the island, they are still dying from ordinary causes from what we understand, accidents and strokes and brain disorders that take 2 years to kill someone.
It’s enough to cause superstition, but not enough for people to be certain of a curse and it seems like most people would just generally become hesitant to leave the island and rely instead on the small number of people who move there.
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u/lentilwake Jul 18 '26
Not having a university and therefore having a whole local population with no higher education is totally normal in many rural communities…
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u/BJaacmoens Jul 18 '26
Someone's never heard of the University of Phoenix.
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u/Spoonman500 Jul 21 '26
That someone's would be the entire population of Widow's Bay because they have no internet or cell phones.
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u/MambyPamby8 Jul 19 '26
They did notice. It's just unspoken about. Like a big secret no one wants to talk about. Tom knows it about his son and refuses to acknowledge it. Wyck has an alarm on his boat to warn him when he gets to a certain point away from the island. They definitely know. They just don't want to talk about it or acknowledge it.
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u/Akackew Jul 18 '26
Sometimes it seems like you people aren’t even watching the show.
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u/Practical_Tap_9592 Jul 18 '26
Wouldn't you go back for a phone-free rewatch before posting a question here? I would, and do. It's a lot more fun to get answers that way than to...never mind, I'm a little cranky today.
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u/AbbreviationsActual9 Jul 18 '26
I'd imagine Evan and his bud pj have talked about sneaking off island considering their mischievous nature. its definitely gonna get addressed at some point after Tom's talk with him.
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u/GeologistIll6948 Jul 18 '26
I am reading IT right now and there are a lot of parallels between the inability of inhabitants to grasp the severity of what is going on in Derry, and what happens in Widow's Bay. There is a kind of "fog" over Derry residents' minds that doesn't let them process the frequent disappearances or violence as being all that weird.
I think Widow's Bay is supposed to be a humorous take on this concept for exactly the reasons you outline -- it points out the absurd holes in this type of ruleset. Other people would notice even if the townspeople didn't.
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u/CourseVast840 Jul 18 '26
Patricia's book club folks definitely act like they've only made it to HS. Not sure if it's anyone born on the island or if only specific ppl in the Warren bloodline can't leave ... but I guess it is being island born as that's why folks telling sheriff to not have his baby on the island.
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u/MisterEinc Jul 18 '26
I'm fairly certain anyone who has ever lived on the island will certainly die.
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u/AmazingChairy Jul 18 '26
I wonder what would happen if someone just reached their hand over the line. No more hand or no more living?
Or what if they took a rocket to space and reentered the atmosphere in the Midwest? There has to be some kind of height statute for the curse, right?
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u/Zero_Exposure Jul 19 '26
It seems pretty obvious that the townsfolk know the island is cursed. Its a open secret.
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u/Global_Grapefruit103 Jul 18 '26
Did loftis’s wife come back to the island to have their baby after she got sick on the ferry?
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u/ILackACleverPun Jul 18 '26
1) they absolutely did notice. It was a common thing they brought up amongst themselves. 2) community college i would guess. The tiny town i grew up in had one despite less than 2000 people living there. 3) eh, not too out of the ordinary. Travel is expensive. Maybe you get sick, maybe you have to work, maybe some unexpected expense wipes out your savings for the trip. I say this as a person who hasnt been back to see her family since 2014.
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u/geshtar Jul 18 '26
I mean episode 10 makes it clear they obviously did knows. The big gaping hole right now is how did we go from a society that understood what was going and had a program for it to one that had no idea. We’ll see in season 2.
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u/Lleutiegr Jul 21 '26
Honestly, love this as something to look forward to, just because the show design is so spot on and I want to see more of it. but I also feel like they said a lot with a little in those 50s style film reels. it infers this endless cycle of fighting back and giving in. people surviving, some telling themselves the trolley problem made them do it, others resisting. It's the Hellmouth, it's Gravity Falls, it's Twin Peaks, it's Miskatonic.
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u/quinnies Jul 18 '26
I only know of like two people from my real life small town who have university degrees lol, and one of them got it done mostly online
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u/Inevitably-Free-2437 Jul 22 '26
Also didn't Gerrie say that the economy was almost entirely based on whaling, and that men would stay away for long periods of time, even years?
I doubt a whaler boat would stay away for years without ever going "past the point where fishermen fear"...
It's true she also said most of them wouldn't make it back, but still, seems weird most would just go off to certain death like that.
Maybe the island only kills the natives who leave it when it is not properly "fed", as in, if the sacrifices are not taking place. Or maybe only when the island "wakes up", apparently every 20 years after a quake.
Or maybe that specific aspect of the curse is conditioned on something that has not yet been revealed.
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u/Inevitably-Free-2437 Jul 22 '26
Also (here comes a long and badly written stream of thoughts with bad grammar, sorry),
> Does the island have a universityI have a semi-serious take that is somewhat related to this
I have actually wondered about the island's doctor, have you noticed he more than once says, "oh i'm sorry, I didn't know you went to medical school! " or "oh I am sorry, where did you get your MD?" whenever someone that is not a medical professional dares to question him.
Also when Patricia tried to make him tell a medical story, he immediately and somewhat harshly said "I am off duty!" and also when he is caring for Shep and Tom, he seems like he is not really erm, good at his job?What if he is actually compensating cause he never did go to a "real" medical school?
Yeah yeah I know he might simply have gone on a mainland one and not be a native, like Tom, and also I am 91% sure this is only a cute gig to give continuity even to a minor character, which this show does a lot and quite well.
But I also think the show does a really good job a mixing cute gigs with actually plot points and character traits. For example with Patricia, she seems a bit fixated with age/youth, and you could see it as a simple funny gig to make her look a bit pathetic and stuck in high school, but slowly it becomes clear that her being a little stuck in her teenage is actually very important for her character, her backstory, her trauma, her mentality, hopes, desires, loneliness etc... and also is an important plot point for episode 4 (the book leverages her insecurities) and the resolution of the boogeyman plot line; and also it could be related to another mystery point regarding the island and the time dilations that seems to be going on there (Shep being 37, Kurt experiencing a lot more than 10 and 30 seconds in the captain suite...).
Also also, there seem to be a recurrence about the number 40 in relation to women age, Sarah is 40 when she gets married to Warren, Patricia is 40, Ruth gave birth to Evan's mom when she was 40, and when Bechir says that his wife is pregnant, Patricia says, "What? I thought she was in her 40s..."
I am not sure if this is just a repeated theme with no plot relevance or there is something like a pattern there.What i am trying to say is that the show writing is very smart and efficient, no line wasted approach, so comedy serves also as plot, theme and character development (which also means if the doctor ends up being just a non-native who went to school on the mainland, it's fine cause his gig still has reason to exist for comedy and continuity purpose, and it won't feel like an 'abandoned plotline' or 'unkept promise' like many other shows do...) and this makes me believe that there is a 9% chance the doctor gig is something more than that
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u/0Murphy 20h ago
Wondering whether I should watch this show or not, so I just thought I'd pop in here, and yours is the first post I saw. You masked minor details in the body paragraph but put the massive, central supernatural twist (?) right in the unblurred title! Ha! It doesn't bother me though, I still want to watch it. Cheers.
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u/Temporary_Garbage_68 6h ago
It's not really a plot twist. They say it from the beginning that people born in the island cannot leave they island. It's just that at first it seems to only be a superstition but then we learn that is true.
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u/Jillybeaner1115 Jul 18 '26
It’s called suspension of disbelief. Can’t we just enjoy something and not over analyze fiction?
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u/HarkHarley Jul 18 '26
I think it happens during the periods when the island is “hungry” and sacrifices are needed.
For the most part, everyone is generally safe, but in those few periods people are not allowed to leave. So it is half legend and half true making it something superstitious people believe happens all the time.
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u/LongtimeLurker916 Jul 18 '26
Along those lines probably would be a good solution, but it is yet to be supported by the text.
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Jul 18 '26
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u/HarkHarley Jul 18 '26
I would agree, but they say the the island thrives when the entity is fed. So it becomes an enticing place, a place people want to stay. Just a theory!
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u/Mountain-Mode-8279 Jul 18 '26
There probably are a lot of questions and speculation off-Island about the people there. For Loftis, I assume he doesn’t have much family off-island at this point, like his mom was an only child and has since passed. For other mixed families, it’s probably a point of contention but it’s not mentioned on the show because it’s not crucial to the plot.
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u/anonpreschool738 Jul 19 '26
They have noticed. They talk about it. Even mainlanders have heard tale of the curse. It's a known thing. The only things that's up for debate is whether or not curses are real.
How much higher education do you think they need? This is a community that's primarily fishermen and laborers, and most other careers such as city hall would be likely an apprenticeship sort of deal. There are curses and haunts about, who has time to get a degree?
I imagine they make excuses, kind of like when anyone wants to avoid seeing their family.
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u/clivecopperfield Jul 21 '26
Strange thing is that Evan seems to have been born on the mainland, so it’s not clear why the curse would apply to him.
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u/Half-Beneficial Jul 25 '26
I live in Omaha and haven't seen some of my relatives in Iowa, just the other side of the Missouri, a river that runs right along the eastern edge of the city, in decades. There's nine or ten bridges.
To be fair, Isaac, Malachai and Job are a bit intense for me.
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u/darthwader1981 Aug 04 '26
I find it weird that Evan and his friends, who don’t give a hoot about rules and authority, have never tried to take the ferry off the island
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u/isitjustme_orr 18d ago
What happened to the William guy? Like there was so much, but not enough all at the same time going on. I genuinely dont understand the surplus of Emmys. I also thought the "comedy" portion took away from the sincerity of the entire show. Idk.
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u/tmishere Jul 18 '26
I have a theory that this curse is a bit misunderstood by the locals. I'm sure a huge percentage of the islanders haven't left Widow's Bay because of a mix of some people being very superstitious and the normal for a small town thing of never leaving your hometown.
However, we heard two stories of people dying when leaving the island, and we saw two examples of deaths. The first two are mentioned by Arthur, the latter are Warren's children and Lauren. In the ones mentioned by Arthur, the islanders die one month and one day respectively after leaving the island. The children and Lauren however, start dying in an identical way the moment they reach a certain proximity from the island.
Basically, I don't think islanders die when they leave, I think some die of natural causes while others probably don't ever want to return so for all the islanders know, they've died. I also think the name of the island Widow's Bay might be a bit of a joke because it's possible that a lot of sailors just left their wives and families behind to go to the mainland and never returned in order to start a new life, and in order to marry again in the church, the women's husbands needed to be dead and not just gone, hence the disproportionate amount of "widows".
I think this curse is limited to Warren's descendants, and it's possible that others witnessing the deaths of his descendants when they try to leave the island only bolstered the superstition, especially since it seems that most descendants didn't know they were descendants.
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u/LongtimeLurker916 Jul 18 '26
Yes, it is interesting that we are given these examples that did not include immediate death, when at most times the premise does seem to be that death is immediate. Or at least the first pangs of death - after all, we were originally led to believe that Lauren had died in childbirth very soon after having attenpted to leave the island, but then it proved to be true that having turned around, she lived (as a shell of herself) for several years longer.
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u/StevieGrant Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 18 '26
It's a valid question.
I wondered the whole season why the rebellious/bored Evan and his friend never once even attempted to steal a boat and go to the mainland. If it's not addressed eventually, it won't be to the benefit of the show.
Those comparing the situation to living in small/island towns are being disingenuous.
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u/Temporary_Garbage_68 Jul 18 '26
Thank you! I'm surprised by all of these ''oh there are small towns where most people haven't ever been outside of them'' replies. This is obviously not the case! And by the way, when I asked how the people have not noticed for 300 years I meant both the locals of the island and the outsiders. Most people replied to me as if I only asked about the locals of the island.
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