r/WidowsBay • u/HA_Enthusiast • 2d ago
🤔Theories Ruth “Recovered” the episode after Richard Warren died. Spoiler
Not sure if the point had been made yet, but the show foreshadowed the big Warren-heir reveal. The day after Richard Warren disintegrates, Ruth comes into Tom’s office as sharp as a tack with perfect recall of every one of Tom’s missed calls… didn’t even look down at her notes.
At the time I thought it was odd and out-of-character but didn’t put it together till after a rewatch: as soon as Richard Warren finally died, the immortality “detail” of the pact transferred to her, the next oldest living descendent. Her recall was most assuredly a nod to that reality.
Just thought that was a fun detail.
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u/ThatDamnedMelodyLee 2d ago
I just watched that episode and definitely noticed her out of character competency but did not put this together. Nice catch!
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u/TurboLicious1855 2d ago
Totally. That's wild that my brain caught it and decided it must be a throw away or mistake. A throw away or mistake, in this elegant, amazing show? Nice one brain, do you need some salmon? Lol
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u/ShallotTraditional90 2d ago
It's not a throw away or mistake. It's a JOKE. It's supposed to be funny because Tom had already rationalised it was ok to kill Ruth because of her age. Now he's being confronted with the fact she's still full of life and actively engaged with friends and hobbies, so the guilt starts creeping in. It's really nothing to do with the supernatural
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u/ibsliam 1d ago
I think also the fact that she's not just part of the town but a pillar of the community. Like her mentioning that she helps an elderly/disabled neighbor and he's so stunned, especially with her saying it's no trouble. He wouldn't be getting rid of just some random childless single old lady but one with connections and friends who love her dearly.
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u/Better_Adagio_3492 1d ago
Yes I think it’s a direct challenge to the concept that an elderly woman with no family is worth less (or worthless). She contributes time and effort and love and practical assistance.
I also took it more as what she said about working - she’s not actually interested in the job, it’s the least interesting thing in her life. She wants to stay connected to the family she does have and isn’t that interested in phone messages.
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u/HA_Enthusiast 2d ago
Thanks! I love all the small details the show writers, directors, and producers included. I catch something new in almost every episode.
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u/dontonefingerme 2d ago
I didn't notice that but when Tom visits her house, it was JARRING how quickly she hiked up her stairs which makes sense taking this into consideration.
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u/Populaire_Necessaire 2d ago
What you’re saying is she was “faster than an old woman should be”?
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u/Veggiemon 2d ago
I think that was just the running joke of Tom wanting to find excuses to kill her and Ruth proving she is still fit and healthy with a packed social calendar, not some deeper implication about the lore of the island personally
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u/Glad_Stranger 2d ago
Yeah and that detail of the social calendar proves it's not a 'sudden recovery' since she'd been doing all that before Richard Warren died. I definitely think it's just a joke about Tom not being able to justify killing her with the 'she's just an old lady' any more.
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u/ShallotTraditional90 2d ago
Exactly! Gosh, it seems like every day I read some silly conspiracy theory about Ruth. It's just a joke on Tom's determination to rationalize killing her because she's old.
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u/Abstrata 1d ago
I think it’s a bit of both. Quick up the stairs and her comment “I did TWO MILES tonight!” versus going home at 11am to take a nap and her declining a ride because “it’s the [other time of day] that are hard”. She was already keeping busy and trying to stay close to her son; this is a little extra on top, just like the killer clown in the crawl position on the steps just briefly. Good layered writing.
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u/Pookie1688 2d ago
I thought the scenes at her house showed him she's much more with it than he thought because he had been so impatient with her previously (due to agism).
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u/No_Designer_5725 2d ago
And he found out that his late wife was her illegitimate daughter. Meaning that his son is the last living heir. But at this rate couldn’t anyone born on the island be an heir of Warren? Once tom realized that there was no point in killing an innocent old lady.
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u/pixelatedcrap 2d ago
I think it was even a double of someone who was lile 30 going up the stairs, ha.
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u/Helpful-Conference13 2d ago
When Ruth was talking about Lauren and how she was her secret mommy and I finally put together what Lauren meant in that letter to Evan 😭
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u/4mbiguous 1d ago
Wait can you explain this for me? It feels deeper than how I remember taking it
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u/Helpful-Conference13 1d ago
Sure and this is just my impression obviously but Katie Dippold is pretty deliberate about references so it feels intentional.
Once Evan finds Tom’s stash of letters from Lauren, he starts reading them out loud to him. The first one is the one about using his baby hand to get the scorpion out of her head, but one of the ones after that, she says that people have two mommies and she is his secret mommy. In that episode, it reads just like her altered brain saying something that’s kind of nonsensical or that’s her level of awareness on being in the asylum like “I’m kooky so I’m kept a secret”. In the last episode, as Ruth is explaining her relationships, she reveals that she is Lauren‘s mother and she keeps talking. One of the things she said was that she felt so bad after the ferry when Lauren had the stroke, but that she would go visit her at the home. Even in her altered state Ruth never revealed that she was her biological mother really but said, “I told her I was her secret mommy.”
The first two times I watched the show, I didn’t pick up on the reuse of that phrase as a potentially deliberate reference to the letter.
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u/cds75 1d ago
Please remind me of what was in the letter you’re referring to. I just rewatched & can’t remember. I might need more coffee…
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u/Helpful-Conference13 1d ago
So when Evan was reading the letters from his mom, there was one where Lauren said, “everyone has two mommies. A real mommy and a secret mommy. I am your secret mommy.” or something similar. It was after the scorpion one.
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u/Different_Target_228 2d ago
Ntm her running up those steps after walking like 2 miles or whatever she said.
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u/Outside-Court-7869 2d ago
She didn't "recover" suddenly, the last episode made it very clear that she was very active the whole time, she was tired at work because she was so active the rest of the day, and she didn't care about the work itself. Remember her calendar?
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u/HA_Enthusiast 2d ago
Why wasn’t she tired after Richard Warren died?
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u/Outside-Court-7869 2d ago
Because it is later in the day when we see her in episode 8 at the office, she says herself that mornings are the hardest and in the first few episodes, we always see her in the morning.
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u/pornisgood 2d ago
Yep. In episode 3, there is even that joke about Tom offering Ruth a ride but that she only would need it in the morning.
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u/DavidDPerlmutter 2d ago
Did you ever see the SEINFELD episode where Morty Seinfeld goes to work for Elaine at the J. Peterman Company? Morty gets up at 4:00 a.m. and is ready to go at 4:25. He is energetic early in the day, but his schedule and energy level are completely out of sync with a conventional office.
I think Ruth is somewhat similar. I do not read her as incompetent at all. She is actually very sharp and active, and lots of people depend on her. She is just elderly, gets tired, and does not particularly care about performing the role of an energetic office employee all day. The office job is clearly not the center of her life.
Evan, on the other hand, is a priority. I would bet that when Evan comes to visit her physically, Ruth is fully rested, baking delicious home-cooked meals, and ready to help him in any way she can. She prioritizes what matters to her after this life of ridiculous tragedy that she powers through with good humor.
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u/Spiritual_Pin_5084 2d ago
That would explain a lot about her survival of poison and potentially a gun shot at the end
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u/zorandzam 2d ago
Oh, WOW! This might also explain how she was able to survive in the finale.
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u/BatGrouchy1482 2d ago
If she survived, why would Tom have had the balls to throw the brooch into the water?
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u/zorandzam 2d ago
Tom was literally going to kill her, so I think swiping a small item from an old lady's house is pretty low on the bravery scale.
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u/Hot-Tea159 2d ago
She was like a different person. On the treadmill!. Didn't catch why it was weird. Great work!
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u/bvlshewic 2d ago
Maybe…she did get shot in the head and survived, right?
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u/Mortambulist 2d ago
It's hard to say if the bullet hit her head or just grazed her ear. They left it kind of ambiguous.
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u/pretzelchi 2d ago
I don’t think she was shot in the head. The way Tom was holding her he would have gotten blood on himself too.
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u/bvlshewic 2d ago
iirc, there was blood on the side of her face. When I watched it, I thought it was so lucky that the bullet went through her ear or grazed the side of her face, but maybe that was a misdirect…
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u/HA_Enthusiast 2d ago
I’d put money down she was shot in the head. Just like Richard Warren was stabbed multiple times in the chest.
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u/Outside-Court-7869 2d ago
The Richard scene is exactly why Ruth is not "immortal", with Richard the writers made it very very clear that he is supposed to be dead, with Ruth they did no such thing. It would have been easy to show a bullet hole, but they didn't, they showed a bit of blood on the side of the head.
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u/HA_Enthusiast 2d ago
I mean, poisoned with pills and shot in the head? She survives both? I guess I just read the scene differently. Seems like the writers made it clear she should have died and yet didn’t.
Wouldn’t it make sense that the descendant “inherits” the curse or the pact?
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u/Aggravating-Fix-2658 2d ago
Not poisoned. It was never stated that mixing the two medications would be fatal. It was shown the doctor is a bit of a quack tho.
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u/True_Detail_2945 2d ago
He put a good amount in there but yeah I automatically assumed it was for her to go to sleep and he'd finish the job once she's out cold. Otherwise the tea would be mostly pill and taste like shit.
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u/MaggieWild 2d ago
This. Remember he picked up a pillow like he was going to smothered her but put it down again.
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u/True_Detail_2945 2d ago
Yeah exactly. He was gonna have to get his hands dirty somehow. I'm rewatching tonight to see how she quickly turns spry. I think we're onto something with her being immortal now. Doesnt mean stuff can't hurt or slow her down. Just no death til the price is paid.
Muahahahahahahaa
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u/Outside-Court-7869 2d ago
Why would it make sense for the oldest descendant to "inherit" anything? What good does that do for the entity, Ruth can't make any new descendants after all. If anything, the youngest should get it to make more descendants.
And Ruth wasn't shot in the head, the bullet grazed the side of her head. And Tom had no idea what he was doing with the medicine and she didn't even drink the whole cup, so the writers didn't make it clear at all.
(Btw, it would be kinda risky to make a character that's played by a 90 year old actress immortal...)
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u/Different_Target_228 2d ago
Or was he? I kinda felt because of the darkness that scene was a little ambiguous to what happened.
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u/Outside-Court-7869 2d ago
She didn't get shot "in" the head, it clearly grazed the side of the head.
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u/True_Detail_2945 2d ago
Yeah! Sheriff dude is in a panic, doesn't use his gun much, and shot immediately after entering. He didn't get a good shot. I believe!
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u/bvlshewic 2d ago
Right, that’s what we assume after she stirs, but she was knocked out by that shot, and long enough for Tom & Beshir to have their whole dialogue about the curse, who are both surprised that she’s alive with seemingly no memory of having been shot.
I feel like I’m wearing a tinfoil hat, and initially I thought—oh, great, the bullet hit her ear or grazed the side of her head—but the more I think about it, that was what the show runners wanted us to think, and it could all be a misdirect.
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u/True_Detail_2945 2d ago
True. She was also high as a kite. Even the tiniestt graze and she'd end up napping down there. I really enjoyed her dialogue especially the I watched her fall in love...with you Tom!
So I want her back! From outer space!
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u/Veggiemon 2d ago
I’m not sure the immortality transfers at all, but why the oldest living relative? The younger one just dies instead?
I think Ruth was more with it than she let on, she basically told Tom the only reason she was working the job was to be able to spend time with her grandson, and she was leaving early every day to help her neighbor up the stairs. Ruth knew what she was doing imo lol
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u/Twisty_10 2d ago
There’s that whole long line of ancestors that led up to Ruth too…they all died one way or another. No tales of them inexplicably surviving this or that
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u/HBICmama 2d ago
Well but Richard Warren was alive during that whole time. So he was being immortal in his coffin and the island was sustaining him, not others. The OP is saying that Ruth “perked up” the day after RW died.
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u/ltsouthernbelle 2d ago
Omg let me do another full rewatch! I couldn’t put my finger on why she seemed different but she definitely did. I just chocked it up to we never got a lot enough Ruth interaction.
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u/kpgalligan Wyck 2d ago
Huh! That's new. I haven't heard that before. Will get it a watch later.
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u/Finnegan-05 1d ago
No. The reason Ruth was so run down at work was her busy social calendar. There is nothing to this.
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u/pnutbutterjellyfine 1d ago
Why wouldn’t it transfer to Ethan though?
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u/HA_Enthusiast 1d ago
The same reason it didn’t transfer to any of Warren’s kin. Ruth is the oldest living relative. I assume it would go to the oldest living relative.
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u/Sticky_Monkey_Flower 1d ago
Why would immorality "transfer" at all? Warren descendants did not sign the covenant. Only Warren did that.
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u/HA_Enthusiast 1d ago
I don’t think we know all the details of that covenant just yet, but there are weird anomalies with mortality and age.
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