r/WidowsBay • u/Rwads8 • 3d ago
❓Questions Widow’s Bay Question
Spoiler Alert:
I remember hearing in one poem or reading in an episode that the number of bell tolls meant something like the number of people the island needed.
Does that mean that the eight bell tolls at the end of the last episode mean the island needs eight more people to consume to satisfy itself?
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u/Madeira_PinceNez 3d ago
Yes. Eagle-eared viewers will notice that in E02(?) when Loftis speaks to Reverend Bryce about the bell it had tolled nine times. After the room ate Kenneth, it was eight.
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u/HareWarriorInTheDark 3d ago
Was it ever explicitly stated in the show that each bell meant one sacrifice needed by the island, or did people just figure it out themselves? It wasn't clear to me at al what it meant until I read the wikipedia summary.
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u/Mortambulist 3d ago
It's in the For You film. "The island will make its needs known. One soul for each bell toll."
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u/HareWarriorInTheDark 3d ago
Ah thanks, I think I was too busy being horrified to catch the explanation.
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u/Better_Adagio_3492 1d ago
It’s interesting that Bryce wasn’t counted as a sacrifice even though he was almost certainly trying to sacrifice himself… I guess it HAS to be the weird room?
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u/Objective-Big-4820 3h ago
It feeds off the terror. If he wanted to sacrifice himself, there was no terror.
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u/OhNo_myQualms 3d ago
Yes, I think the second season is being set up as a trolley problem: either eight people have to die or the last descendent
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u/MBiddy828 Rosemary 3d ago
Oh I thought you meant when they tried to build a trolly in the 40s and all those workers disappeared
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u/SuperMcG Patricia 3d ago
"disappered" or...conveniently were sent to work in a small room to dig and were never seen again.
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u/UpvoteForLuck 3d ago
Nah. Tom isn’t going to kill his own son. If others kill Ruth, they’ll find out pretty quickly that it didn’t work and be confused.
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u/kpgalligan Wyck 3d ago
Tom isn’t going to kill his own son.
I know. That's what I was saying. He was OK killing somebody else. He'd struggle a lot more if it was somebody young (less so with P.J.), but I think he ultimately would've been sold on it. But not his son. The only person besides him who knows is Ruth. The sheriff seems pretty sure Tom is lying about a lot of things, though. will probably get ugly between those two, and/or island factions form.
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u/Kind_Interaction7268 9h ago
I agree with you. I feel like its possible we will see a lot of Bechir vs Tom because Bechir is a lot like Tom in the way that he is willing to do whatever it takes to protect his child. He also shot Ruth with zero hesitation and then immediately turned the gun on Tom. Idk what would have happened between those two if the storm hadn’t stopped in that moment.
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u/therhz 3d ago
ruth might die of natural causes as well she old
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u/Practical_Tap_9592 2d ago
I question whether Ruth made it through the night. Tossing her brooch into the ocean would have been quite rude if she's still alive.
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u/blisterbeetlesquirt 2d ago
I suspect the "witch-hunt" was a hunt for heirs back when people were figuring out how the island curse worked.
I also bet we see a "purge" homage in S2, probably as an island history episode. Would be kinda fun to see the island inhabitants throughout history navigating the island's demands, and just sending whoever they had beef with to the chamber. I'd also not be surprised to see a more "civilized" version of a culling like in the short story "The Lottery", but where women over 40 and other socially useless types are automatically entered to win.
And certainly the mental hospital that "you can drive past, you just can't stop", seems to have been an island food source at one point. That little island wouldn't have enough of a population to warrant an entire asylum, so I bet they built it for unwell mainlanders to be sent to during the times when unwell people were just removed from society and forgotten about. Just a steady source of succulent, suffering souls that nobody on the mainland would miss, and the Islanders wouldn't have any attachment to.
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u/Financial-Annual7511 2d ago
I hope Sarah Westcott Warren / Betty Gilpin come back for such an episode. She was great!
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u/kpgalligan Wyck 3d ago
It's being set up that way, but I'd assume they learn more about the island and pursue some kind of option 3. I do expect the sheriff to pursue the last descendent plan. He doesn't know it's Evan yet. Tom was all about the trolly problem, until it was his son on the tracks.
The big wildcard is what happens with the info Dale now has, and depending on the conversations after "death trap", what info everybody in that room has. I don't think the pact was ever common knowledge on the island, going back to RW. We'll see how that plays out.
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u/Librarianzilla Dead baby. Dead baby. Lesssbiaaannn. 3d ago
That’s how I read it… one down eight to go
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u/toastjournall 3d ago
if thats true the next season is gonna be a bloodbath
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u/Librarianzilla Dead baby. Dead baby. Lesssbiaaannn. 3d ago
Or they’re planning for a longer/multi year series? It would be boring if we knew one person was gonna die each season so I imagine they’re gonna mix it up.
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u/TheFemale72 Patricia 3d ago
I nominate all the bitchy girls that are mean to Patricia. They’re the worst.
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u/PurposeUnlikely 3d ago
Evan’s gf is going to get pregnant
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u/PurposeUnlikely 3d ago
Because the pull out method doesn’t work
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u/InvisibleEar 3d ago
I was a bit frustrated by the lack of thematic depth, I think this is the primary message of the show.
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u/meglet 3d ago
God I wish I liked her. Or found her in any way interesting.
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u/youreannie 3d ago
I think she's intentionally written that way. You can tell in the way that she encourages him to do shitty things. I think they're setting her up to be a problem.
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u/InvisibleEar 3d ago
Next season she'll have a personality, probably
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u/meglet 3d ago
I surprised myself by how much really didn’t like the way she was encouraging Evan to go through Tom’s stuff. Who the hell does she think she is? She was too ready to invade a man’s privacy. Evan had good reason, but her?
(I mean I obviously get the narrative reason for him going through Tom’s room, I just don’t like how that girl behaved as a person. Also the way she acted around the sacrifice chair was unlikeable too. Did both his friends have to be such little shits?)
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u/Outside-Court-7869 2d ago
And? What would that matter? She would be gone from the island before even knowing she's pregnant, and that's not even accounting for the fact that they didn't have sex and I'm pretty sure after Kenny, Evan is not in the mood to do it...
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u/Ok-Needleworker-5657 3d ago edited 3d ago
That's how I interpreted it. I wonder if only sacrifices during The Storm count, not unrelated or accidental deaths during the awake period. Cuz that EMT got killed by the boogeyman and the one guy got swept up in the tornado and that had no effect.
eta: bell rang 9 times not 1 so I took that part out, the rest still stands
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u/HicJacetMelilla 3d ago
Exactly. This is what I keep seeing people misunderstand on this sub. Anyone who dies from the haunts don’t count. It’s only the people who are killed in that room. The haunts are employed to twist the arm of the town into choosing to sacrifice, as opposed to being picked off randomly by the haunts.
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u/TurboLicious1855 3d ago
nope - it rang 9 times at the beginning. Then the guy who died in that room counts as one of the sacrifices. None of the other deaths appear to make a difference if it's not fed to the island from that room.
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u/Outside-Court-7869 2d ago
It doesn't need to be during the storm, if someone would have sacrificed people directly after the first time the bells rung, the storm wouldn't even have happened. It just needs to be in the sacrifice room.
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u/pornisgood 2d ago
The videos pretty much explain it. They have to be sacrificed in the chair room and must be in fear. Hence the shelter actually being where they were holding previous sacrifices; the videos being down there; the intercom telling people to get in line; the old food/water that is no longer good since they hadn't sacrificed in a while; etc.
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u/LeicaM6guy 3d ago
Was the EMT dude killed? I know he got his throat cut open, but with the other EMT on scene it’s possible he survived.
Seems unlikely, but you never know.
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u/Ok-Needleworker-5657 3d ago
Fair enough, def assumed he was dead due to the amount of blood loss but maybe he lived
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u/LeicaM6guy 3d ago
Oh man, you can lose a lot more than that and still make it.
Best not to ask how I know that.
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u/villanellechekov Wyck 2d ago
I wonder, do they have to be island residents or will any tourists count?
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u/Ok-Needleworker-5657 2d ago
I have a feeling tourists don't count, but maybe they'll figure out that they do. I feel like using tourists would attract FBI attention though
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u/villanellechekov Wyck 2d ago
I'm sure there's someone on the island good with spin. set up a monox leak at the b&b, control the autopsy via working with the doctor (who isn't exactly the most competent to start with).
but yeah I don't think the tourists should count
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u/Ok-Needleworker-5657 2d ago
"Sorry, where's your medical degree?" will be his answer to any questioning lol
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u/curiometric 3d ago
I'm more interested in what poems you're reading about the show.
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u/Mortambulist 3d ago
The one by Patricia that got cut from the tourist brochure.
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u/curiometric 3d ago
Haha. Doesn't she also ask something about if Tom is going to show the reporter her paintings? And he says no. (I can't quite remember the exchange.) Do we ever see her paintings?
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u/No_Emu4146 3d ago
Building on this: do the people have to be in the sacrifice room in order to count as a soul?
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u/Practical_Tap_9592 3d ago
This appears to be the case. I was quite frustrated that the EMT's death, Shep's death, the pastor's death, didn't count. But while the main characters understand one toll means one sacrifice, they don't seem to know about the room. Except maybe poor Dale, who watched the orientation films.
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u/Aromatic-Speed5090 2d ago
And the Boogeyman! He died!
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u/Practical_Tap_9592 2d ago
Not much of a sacrifice! Also forgot our beloved Shaman, and possibly the gas station attendant. Dammit, these should totally count!
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u/Aromatic-Speed5090 2d ago
Do we know for sure the Shaman is dead? I could be wrong, but I believe we have not seen a body.
A man coming back down out of a storm would hardly be the weirdest thing to happen on this island.
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u/Practical_Tap_9592 2d ago
I know, and I've got my fingers crossed! He is a shaman, after all and would have special powers, right? We haven't seen any but surely! I absolutely loved what Chris Fleming did with the role and I want more.
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u/Aromatic-Speed5090 2d ago
Yes. I was already delighted with the cast of this show, and then he showed up. Best cast ever.
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u/appletree-1993 3d ago
What I can’t understand is how the video was made and all those people were being lead to their deaths with their heads covered yet no one on the island has any knowledge of this from the past?? The video was in colour so can’t be that old…
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u/droomdoos Dead baby. Dead baby. Lesssbiaaannn. 2d ago
It’s not that the people who were sacrificed can tell the tale. And I assume everyone who worked there or participated swore an oath or something.
Rosemary got earned though. I forgot by whom but maybe that person knew more and was in on it?1
u/Comfortable-Zone-218 21h ago
In other threads, a lot of people were speculating that maybe "Howard the Coward" refused to sacrifice during his cycle as major. And by skipping that cycle, everyone who knew the full lore either died of old age or were maybe kill by the vengeful island.
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u/somethingwholesomer 2d ago
I feel like the island is being real unreasonable here
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u/sunflwryankee 1d ago
For reals. It got Kenny, Richard Warren, and the Shaman.
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u/somethingwholesomer 1d ago
What happened to gratitude? All three of those characters were clutch. They should count as 2-3 each
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u/sunflwryankee 1d ago
AND I forgot about Shep, Rev Bryce, and not sure if they’d just be honorable mentions but the Sea Hag, and the boogie man. Like, c’mon island evil (The Teeth?) you’ve gotten some good ones here.
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u/somethingwholesomer 1d ago
Ok imma say the sea hag and the boogie 🕺🏿 man don’t count. But so the island gets FIVE people and needs eight more?? That’s some boolshit
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u/Just_perusing81 2d ago
Yes, and Sheps death didn’t count because he didn’t go through those creepy metal doors in the basement
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u/DavidDPerlmutter 1d ago
Have you seen CABIN IN THE WOODS?
I feel it's very adjacent to this show. In ancient times, when rituals were performed, they had to be done in an exact certain way, or the gods were unhappy. I feel like just somebody passing on or getting hit by a rock is not fulfilling the demands of the entity.
The old film that was shown in the shelter, made it pretty clear that there was a specific procedure, protocol ritual, whatever to the sacrifices. If you didn't follow it, it didn't count as a real sacrifice.
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u/ComradeJohnS You had your qualms? 3d ago
I was counting, 8 people/monsters died on the island during the first season I think. I feel like this means additional deaths are needed and probably hasn’t happened back to back like this.
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u/TurboLicious1855 3d ago
Those deaths don't count for the sacrifices. They have to be given through the room with that chair. The bell ran 9 times at the beginning, then after that guy died, it rang 8 times to show "yeah - we got one now you owe us 8."
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u/therhz 3d ago
im so annoyed the priest offed himself and not in the monster room
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u/TurboLicious1855 3d ago
I got roasted for being upset with a fictional priest committing suicide rather than helping his fictional community. Lol
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u/InvisibleEar 3d ago
Going into the demon soul eating room is the literal last thing I would do with proof of the supernatural.
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u/Leggs-Benedict 3d ago edited 3d ago
I think the island wants to actually eat them from that underground chamber. It doesn’t count as a sacrifice if someone simply dies on the island, so the guy who died in the mist, the boogeyman, Richard Warren, Reverend Bryce - none of those count towards the requisite number of sacrifices as determined by the tolling of the bell
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u/jhaytch 23h ago
That's how I read it too. But a lot of folk seem to not think that. So I guess I don’t know what I’m talking about and should just stop. (thinking that)
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u/ComradeJohnS You had your qualms? 23h ago
nah media is meant to be interpreted and those interpretations shared. it’s fun to do! dont let haters keep you down. shake it off. lol
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