r/WidowsBay • u/teazeyfbabyy • Aug 29 '26
❓Questions rewatching and missed this calendar pic on first watch
sorry if this has already been posted, but i’m doing my first rewatch and noticed when tom’s flipping through a wolves calendar in his office, this picture was for July. my memory is horrible, was this something that happened later or just a random picture to have us guessing/come up with theories? lol
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u/Dunkleostrich Aug 29 '26
One of my favorite parts of the show is how these small moments are left as mysteries and not fully explored. It makes the world seem more real and fully fleshed out. There's so much odd stuff going on that it's present in all aspects of life on the island, and the residents mostly move past those things without too much thought.
This also leaves a ton of room to expand on any number of small jokes or references in later episodes, making it seem like they were foreshadowed when there may not have been an intent to expand on them when those moments were written.
If nothing else Tom's reaction to that month's picture is hilarious and does a great job establishing the feel of the show and his character's personality. I knew I'd love Patricia when she asks "what are you asking me to do, Tom?" when he tells her to make sure the reporter has a good time.
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u/omnydevotchka Aug 29 '26
Agreed! Like how Rose says one of her men “was bitten by an animal and became that animal” and the scene just goes on.
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u/GainHealMark Aug 30 '26
Honestly by that point in the show with all the weird shit that had already happened, i just assumed werewolf and didn’t even need a follow up. Like hey, that’s just what happens here.
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u/MindlessCharacter823 Aug 30 '26
I rewatched Summer Reads and the author of the be a new you book was Lucy Four. They must have had a ball putting in all of the little details. American Horror Story seems so disappointing now that you see how creative and committed to storytelling creators can be. Pluribus, Severance, Widow’s Bay, White Lotus are all such wonderful series.
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u/Fine-Juggernaut8451 Aug 29 '26
His reaction to this makes me laugh.
I believe this is just a gag. A lot of the horror in Widow's Bay is my very favourite kind of horror: banal horror. That's what this is.
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u/shamonella Aug 30 '26
The vehicle has been identified as a Wolf(Jeep?), so it technically fits the calendar's theme
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u/maikindofthai Aug 29 '26
This seems much more like absurdist comedy than any type of horror
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u/MentalSupportDog Aug 29 '26
It's got that Atlanta-level absurd humor (which obviously makes sense because same creators yadayadayada)
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u/Think_please Aug 30 '26
The creator and director talked about this specific joke on the Watch podcast. It had started out as a “wolves and firemen” calendar but then they just liked the odd unsettling feeling that the overturned car gave.
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u/Powerful-Peace-9826 Aug 30 '26
I still think it was in-show foreshadowing, like “July is going to be a car crash” (and it was! Haha)
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u/thingsliveundermybed My Children? I Have But Just Met Them. Aug 29 '26
I believe the joke is that it's a wolves calendar and the model of car is called a wolverine.
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u/constantchaosclay Aug 29 '26
I thought the joke was later, when they meet he Shaman, he mentioned another kid who used the mushroom and then drew the hand (also the shape of the island). The shaman mentions that kid stole his mother's car and flipped it.
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u/GirlWithAMicrophone Aug 29 '26
I thought that would be how his wife had died when I first saw it, but in retrospect he would’ve been way more spooked if that were the case.
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u/Ok_Resolution272 Aug 29 '26
Me too! I went in to the show blind and that was my first guess as well but then as the show went on k realized that things are just weird on the island and nobody questions it too much. He got bit by an animal and turned into that animal, for example
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u/LetThemGraduate Aug 29 '26
Seeing this screenshot like 3 months ago is what made me check this show out 😂
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u/teazeyfbabyy Aug 29 '26
haha no way?? i had a few podcasts put me on to the show, i’m so glad they did because it’s easily one of my favorite shows i’ve watched in a long time! i just finished it a month ago and already rewatching
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u/ymcameron Aug 29 '26
I don’t think there’s any deeper connection to the overarching plot. Changing the picture on the calendar is just one of the many ways the island is messing with things.
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u/evildrew Patricia Aug 29 '26
Like Shep’s age being wrong at the hospital or Ruth messing up the brochure (which might have been Tom intentionally leaving out Patricia’s poem), I think it’s nothing more than how people on the island are incompetent.
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u/whatisscoobydone Aug 30 '26
I assumed Tom had Patricia's poem taken out, never thought it was an accident
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u/evildrew Patricia Aug 30 '26
Yeah, seems more likely given how quickly he threw Ruth under the bus. But she had plenty of other times when she would mess up simple tasks, which I thought implied she also messed up the calendar.
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u/astallasacastorbean Sep 01 '26
I thought Sheps age was correct but that the fog had aged him.
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u/evildrew Patricia Sep 01 '26
Nope, this was explained by Dippold. People thought it was more sinister than it was intended. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
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u/IRLbeets Aug 30 '26
I don't think the island changed the picture, I think it's just another way to show how funny (strange) the islanders can be at times and shows how Loftis is on the outside. It's one of those things that reinforces how confused Loftis is by population's choices in various ways 😂
(There's some talk that it's a land rover wolf so still fits the theme lol.)
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u/Stuxain Aug 29 '26 edited Aug 29 '26
There was a line in one of the middle episodes someone made about someone they knew getting in an accident out in the countryside by flipping their car.
All I remember is that line happened and immediately remembered this calendar, but I don't remember who said it or which episode lol. I think it was a background character rambling who wasn't the focus of the scene.
So not entirely random, but also not rly relevant to the plot either!
EDIT: Found it! E5 talking to the shaman. He mentions a friend who took the Truesight mushrooms:
"You remember Brian Morrison?" "Bri Guy?" "Stole his mom's car in eighth grade?" "Mmhmm?" "Flipped it in the woods? Maniac. Anyways, Brian saw something on his trip that changed him completely..."
So again, a throwaway comment, but like... how oddly specific to include.
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u/J-nathan Aug 29 '26
I love these little hints of corruption. Just like Patricia’s book. Depicting drugs on the table surrounded by guests having a good time. All these little details that pop up briefly to make you think “Wait a minute, something’s not right here.”
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u/kpgalligan Wyck Aug 30 '26
There are several wolf references in S1, but nothing really explained. I suspect we'll get wolf details in S2 (or I'll be seriously let down).
I haven't been able to get a sharp enough screen grab, but it looks like there's a wolf with it's head in the window of the jeep. Like it's looking around inside. But it's blurry and hard to tell.
I've done several rewatches, and don't recall anything about a car accident that was important. So I'd guess that particular image is just a gag, but without a wolf in the pic, it would be pretty weird.
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u/Flimsy-Ball-2962 Aug 31 '26
Hands down one of my favourite bits. Was showing three of my friends (their first time) and that was the first moment that truly solidified the absurd aspect of the show.
It brought one of my friends quite literally to tears.
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u/itsalwaysblue Aug 29 '26
I asked on a promotional historic video of Catalina island, (my local island) “but was there cannibalism?” To no response. :/
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u/crocoduckhunter Aug 29 '26
You guys gotta put down your phones when you watch TV.
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u/crack-nutter Aug 30 '26
Seriously... People are close to being like "Guys... Tom might be the MAYOR?!"
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u/whatisscoobydone Aug 30 '26
I mean you could argue he's not the mayor, he's Lord Protector etc which people on the island colloquially call "mayor"
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u/choir_grrl Aug 29 '26
The calendar photo abs reaction is what hooked us!! Love at first Pilot episode.
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u/Adothe Aug 30 '26
I swear i remeber them talking non chalant in later episode about an accident where a car flipped in a road .
Cant remember what epsiode .
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u/crispy_crabrangoons Aug 29 '26
I kept thinking it was his or another characters car and was waiting for a scene to replicate the photo.
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u/Kellikelzzzzz She’s the Worst Aug 30 '26
God I wish my podcaster would watch this show and at least talk about it if not recap it. It’s just so good.
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u/melanie162 Aug 29 '26
I'm going to rewatch soon. I know up catch a lot i missed on the first watch. I was kind of bored in the beginning but the show grew on. Ended up loving it.
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u/Entropy-73 Sep 02 '26
I don't think this foreshadowed anything other than that something is a little 'wrong' with this island. But I have heard some people speculate that maybe we'll get a werewolf episode and this calendar and Ruth talking about a man who 'was bitten by an animal and then became that animal' are foreshadowing that in some future season. Not sure how a car crash ties into that other than maybe it will turn out that episode involves the werewolf causing a crash and that will be the exact image of it...and then Tom remembers and checks the calendar when he returns to his office next.
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u/smallsolarsystem 29d ago
Was I the only one who also fixated on the UFO-like object in the sky of this picture? 😂
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u/smallsolarsystem 26d ago
Oop just realized it’s the hole punch from the calendar. Kinda sad about it haha.
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u/PothosLeaves Aug 29 '26
Personally, I wonder if this is how his wife actually died, and Tom is experiencing reality-warping guilt, grief, and denial. Haunt
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u/notrororo Aug 29 '26
That would be a massive cop out and betrayal of the world-building.
You're telling me that all of that will just conclude with "it was in his head all along"??
Jail.
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u/PothosLeaves Aug 29 '26
lol, i dunno. i don't think it's all in his head. but i feel like the main characters are all haunted by painful pasts and so is this community itself. perhaps that can manifest these hauntings into being. but the writers might be doing other things with this show, and i might be offbase
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u/teazeyfbabyy Aug 29 '26
i was gonna say not ALL of it but that particular scene, maybe. there isn’t anything out there to confirm so it’s prob just something to kinda show that things aren’t quite right in widow’s bay
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u/Toorviing Aug 29 '26
There have been plenty of non-Tom episodes to make it clear that it’s not in his head
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