Widow’s Bay episodes 6 and 7 might be the best horror movie of the summer

The result is one of the best standalone horror stories of the summer, and a perfect entrypoint into the series even if you aren’t caught up on Widow’s Bay (although you really should be, it rules). Directed by Ti West (X, Pearl, Maxxxine) and Sam Donovan (Severance), respectively, these two installments break from the original story to make a surprising detour — before circling back to the main mystery with crucial new information.

Ahead of their streaming debut, Polygon spoke to showrunner Katie Dippold and the cast to unpack how they pulled off Widow’s Bay‘s most delightful surprise.

[Ed. note: Spoilers ahead for Widow’s Bay episodes 6 and 7.]

“Our History”

Widow’s Bay episode 6, “Our History,” jumps back in time by about 400 years to reveal the origins of the curse that’s still plaguing the island. Shot in black-and-white, the episode introduces the town’s founder, Richard Warren, who’s been mentioned several times in the show’s present. Here, he’s played by Hamish Linklater (Midnight Mass, Batman: Caped Crusader), and as the story begins, Warren has sent for a new wife to be delivered from the mainland so she can care for his motherless children. That wife is played by Betty Gilpin (Glow, American Primeval) and she soon discovers that her new husband has struck a deal with the devil to protect the island — a deal that’s transformed him into an immortal monster.

“The show is so bold to just drop this flashback to colonial times in the middle of the season,” Linklater tells Polygon. “Right in the middle, we’re going to have an episode where none of our stars are there and these two randos show up and take over the narrative. That’s baller.”

“Randos” might not be the most accurate way to describe to celebrate actors like Linklater and Gilpin, but it’s true that while plenty of shows have embraced the mid-season flashback episode, most of those episodes only flash back a few years (to the protagonist’s childhood at most), not four centuries into the past.

For Dippold, however, “Our History” was less about making a splash and more about following her own storytelling instincts. The episode emerged organically as they developed the world of Widow’s Bay.

“I know it sounds really basic,” Dippold adds, “but a lot of this show was just us following the fun. To surprise people with a pretty dry colonial horror episode, and still try to make it feel like the show, was very exciting to us. That was the real challenge.”

Casting Linklater to play the villain sealed the deal.

“We mentioned this old founder, Richard Warren, throughout the show, and so you want someone that is exciting,” Dippold says.

Early on in Widow’s Bay episode 6, Warren comes across as strange and perhaps cruel, but not necessarily evil. However, we soon learn he’s been murdering anyone who challenges his leadership. Then when his new wife forms an alliance with the local priest and sends an assassin to kill Warren at night, it’s revealed he’s not only evil but unkillable.

After making a deal with the devil to save the town, Warren becomes a demon himself, inadvertently cursing Widow’s Bay and everyone in it for as long as he or any of his descendants survive. Does this make him a villain? Not necessarily, according to Linklater.

“He thinks he’s doing the best for the community that he can under the circumstances,” the actor says. “He’s going to try to keep as many of them alive by killing as few of them as he possibly can, but the island’s going to want what the island’s going to want. The ends justify the means in his head. Also, he takes a lot of hallucinogens, so that may cloud his judgment.”

In other words: “I’m very comfortable with you calling him a hero,” Linklater adds.

The episode ends with the townsfolk finally defeating Warren after they drug him and bury him alive. Cut to the present, where the mayor digs up the undead body in a last-ditch effort to free the town from its curse. The version of Linklater’s character that emerges is very different from the one who was trapped underground several centuries earlier.

“In 106, he’s really scary,” Dippold says. “In 107, he’s kind of heartbreaking, but really funny. He has such a range in just those two episodes.

“Seasickness”

Image: Apple TV

Richard Warren emerges from his coffin reborn in Widow’s Bay episode 7, titled “Seasickness.” More corpse than man, he’s a shell of his former self — with fantastic makeup and false teeth that feel like an accurate portrayal of what might happen to an immortal man if you buried him underground for 400 years.

Linklater mostly enjoyed the opportunity.

“The freedom of sitting for three-and-a-half hours getting prosthetics put on you,” he says, trailing off momentarily. “You’re blind. You’re like this mole, and you’re like, Well, no one can touch me. I’m like a mole man. I can do whatever I want. I’m in total disguise. It’s like superpowers.“

As soon as Warren meets Mayor Loftis and Loftis’ enemy-turned-ally Wyck (Stephen Root), he offers them a deal: put him out of his misery and the town’s curse will finally be lifted. The catch, however, is that the only way to kill Warren is to get in a boat and bring him out to sea, because as part of the curse, anyone born on Widow’s Bay dies as soon as they leave the island.

So that’s exactly what the trio do, setting out that night in Wyck’s small boat. For Linklater, sharing a few scenes with Rhys and Root was a highlight of his two-episode performance, largely thanks to the mayhem that occurred behind the scenes.

“It was totally chaotic,” Linklater says. “Steven and Matthew, being on a boat with them, they’re just hilarious.”

“Hamish was coming up with some stellar improvisation lines,” Rhys adds. “I lost it when he goes, ‘I’m going to make you eat your own cock.’ I know I shouldn’t say that, but it made me laugh a lot.”

While their voyage initially goes pretty smoothly, all hell breaks loose after Warren eats some canned sausages and regains a bit of strength. Suddenly, eternal death seems a lot less appealing. He makes a break for it and tries to kill his captors.

Root recalls the experience of grappling with Linklater on the boat: “I’m fighting a zombie, really? When did I sign on for this?”

Ultimately, Wyck and Loftis manage to overpower Warren and kill him as planned. It’s a triumphant moment for our heroes, although with several episodes of Widow’s Bay remaining, you can probably guess that triumph will be short-lived. However, for everyone involved in the scene, the most memorable moment had less to do with the zombie fight or the victory that followed, and everything to do with the slimy snack that gave Warren back his unnatural strength.

“The food was disgusting on that boat,” Linklater says. “They have to fire the chef or caterer. I mean, geez, Vienna sausages are disgusting. Vienna should apologize to sausages for what they did to it. They taste like vomit.”

“What’s even better,” he continues sarcastically, “is when you have fake teeth, then you can’t even just spit it out because it gets inside of the denture. So the flavor is with you always.”

Adds Rhys: “Watching Hamish eat with a fake beard was glorious, much as he hated it.”

Widow’s Bay is streaming on Apple TV.