Note: This article contains spoilers from “Widow’s Bay” Episodes 6 and 7.
History is alive in “Widow’s Bay” — literally.
That is the discovery Mayor Tom Loftis (Matthew Rhys) and his closest allies, Wyck (Stephen Root) and Patricia (Kate O’Flynn), make when Wyck digs up the grave of Widow’s Bay founder Richard Warren (“Midnight Mass” star Hamish Linklater) only to discover that he has been alive in his coffin for the last 300 years. But before “Widow’s Bay” even gets there, it takes a trip back in time to the early 1700s in its sixth episode, titled “Our History.”
The episode, directed by “Pearl” filmmaker Ti West, stars “Glow” actress Betty Gilpin as Sarah Warren, a mainland woman who arrives on the island’s shores to marry Linklater’s Richard. What she discovers when she arrives is an island wracked by a plague that seems to cause violent fits of madness, a number of children she has been entrusted to care for and an emotionally abusive, mushroom-mainlining husband whose very citizens have begun to turn on him.
“We spent so much time in the writers’ room talking about the history of the island, because I think one key thing to us — just to avoid it ever feeling too broad — was to give the island a real sense of history,” series creator Katie Dippold told TheWrap about the show’s midseason flashback. “We talked about the island’s founder and what it would have been like in the early days and the timeline of the island and the different mayors from different eras.”
“The more we talked about what it would have been like when the settlers first arrived, the more we started thinking about how interesting it would be to see that and just do a straightforward, dry colonial period piece that leans a little bit into the horror,” Dippold explained. “From there, it became, ‘Who’s the point of view?’ And it felt like the most fun point of view would be Sarah Warren coming to this island to meet someone to marry, and we just kept going from there.”
“Our History” gave “Widow’s Bay” the chance to continue its ongoing trend of weekly reinvention. Its setting and tone allows the Apple TV series to explore yet another niche corner of the horror genre and tell a colonial horror story a la movies like “The Witch” and “The Village.” The episode does that without sacrificing the comedic edge of the show’s earlier installments, either, which is a testament to both West’s work and Gilpin and Linklater’s complimentary performances throughout it.
“I’m a big fan of Ti West and especially ‘The House of the Devil.’ That movie has such a great sense of nostalgia, and he’s such a master at building atmosphere and dread. We lucked out when he signed on,” Dippold told TheWrap, adding of Gilpin, “She’s so good at everything. She really performs the hell out of that episode. You feel her fear and tension, but she’s also so comedically perfect. She’s always finding the right moments of humor that make you feel what it’s like to be in Sarah’s shoes. We wanted, again, to be very careful to weave humor in without taking away from the tension.”
“Our History” ends with Sarah absconding on a rowboat with Richard’s children, while a group of mutineers bury him alive next to his homestead. As Richard pleads for his life, he claims his children will die if they stray too far from the island and demands to be freed. Having already exhibited signs of immortality, his cries fall on unsympathetic ears, and he is sealed away beneath six feet of dirt. The living corpse that is unearthed 300 years later by Wyck is revealed in “Widow’s Bay” Episode 7, titled “Seasickness,” to be a desiccated, gaunt and pale, ghoul version of the Richard Warren seen in “Our History.”
Sitting upright in the bed of his former home, Linklater’s physically transformed Richard tells Rhys’ Tom that he found a mushroom in the island’s dirt in a moment when he was contemplating the deaths of himself and every other member of his suffering colonial settlement. “I thanked God, but something else came to me,” Linklater’s founder says. “I was starving, and it was starving, too. A covenant was offered for my settlement’s salvation, and I signed that pact.”
Tom reveals that, during his mushroom experience in last week’s “What to Expect on Your Trip,” he heard the same entity speak to him. Seemingly wracked with genuine grief over his children’s deaths, Richard offers to sail out with Wyck and Tom past the point where Widow’s Bay natives typically die and end the covenant that has haunted the island since its creation. For much of “Seasickness,” he seems prepared to follow through on that promise, too.
In the moments before he crosses the point of no return, though, Richard tries to go back on his word, attacking Wyck and Tom. The two nonetheless successfully manage to subdue him and — sure enough — Tom checks Richard’s coffin after crossing the boundary line only to discover the once-immortal founder reduced to nothing more than dust and bones. And so is how Linklater’s pivotal two-episode guest arc on “Widow’s Bay” Season 1 ends.
His performance across both “Our History” and “Seasickness” will no doubt remind viewers of his acclaimed turn playing a similarly duplicitous town leader in Mike Flanagan’s 2021 horror limited series “Midnight Mass.” But while Linklater told TheWrap the parallels were evident to him all along, Dippold admitted to not realizing the similarities until after he was already cast.
“I just think Hamish is wonderful. He’s always surprising, and I completely forgot that he was in ‘Midnight Mass’ when we cast him!” Dippold said. “I love ‘Midnight Mass,’ but he just seems like a completely different actor in that show to me.”
Below, Linklater talks to TheWrap about the joy of getting to parachute into the middle of “Widow’s Bay” Season 1, his character’s god-like complex and the cathartic satisfaction of pleading for your life on your actual birthday.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
TheWrap: What was it that drew you to this role and project?
Hamish Linklater: Katie’s writing was No. 1. I’m also a huge fan of Hiro Murai. “Atlanta” was so amazing, and I loved the way that show could jump around and be whatever it wanted to be. The idea that they were going to do that with a horror comedy? That just makes TV better. It makes viewing better. It makes entertainment better. And getting to work with Matthew Rhys. I mean, that guy? You want to play tennis with him — both metaphorically and also… just tennis.
Did you think about Father Hill in “Midnight Mass” when you read the scripts for these episodes?
Linklater: Oh, yeah, 100%. I play a leader of a fishing village community that kills people, so yeah, I saw certain parallels! I was like, “I don’t want anybody to do that better than me, so I better take the job.” [Laughs] But really it was just Katie’s writing, Hiro’s involvement, the fabulous directors that I got for my episodes and getting to work with Matthew and Stephen.
Did you know all along that Richard was a two-episode role, or did the plans for him change at all along the way?
Linklater: Yes, I did. They told me from the beginning that was what it was going to be and we actually shot those two episodes in reverse order. So the flashback episode was the last episode they shot of the season. They shot all the other episodes, everyone was sent home and then we got colonial.
What was it like to get to do that? Basically just make a mini colonial horror movie on your own with Betty Gilpin and Ti West?
Linklater: It was so fun, and we shot it on the property of the real Rebecca Nurse from the Salem Witch Trials. The same Rebecca Nurse from “The Crucible.” We were at her house! I was buried alive in her backyard. It was so haunted and crazy and cool. Everything about it was dope, and Betty is such an elite athlete. It was awesome to be with her.
You don’t really get to be funny at all in Episode 6, but you do in Episode 7. What was it like to get to be both the absurd, undead ghoul and the straight-man to Betty’s more comedic Sarah?
Linklater: Well, because of the order we filmed the episodes in, I got to be absurd first, and then I handed that ball over to Betty when we got together. It was so fun. It was so fun to be on the boat [in Episode 7], to be covered in prosthetics, to be basically blind from the weird lenses that they gave me and the crazy teeth made it so I could barely talk. I was basically shackled, and then I got to dance around with Stephen Root and Matthew Rhys — eat disgusting food, make up an accent. It was a real ball, and they gave such latitude on set, too. They were like, “Come on, entertain us. Let’s see what you got.”
As a viewer, you’re not really sure what to make of Richard or his motivations for much of “Seasickness.” How would you describe his journey throughout the episode?
Linklater: I think he discovers how wonderful life is during the course of Episode 7. He gets stronger and, you know, he wants to live. Who doesn’t? You always do, no matter how awful life has been. You don’t want to give it up, and that’s the place he gets to in that episode. We also shot that scene on the boat on my birthday. I always feel like I’m 300 on my birthday every year now, so it was nice to have the cameras rolling one of those times, at least. [Laughs]
Do you think Richard feels any real remorse for what he’s done? Or does he feel justified in his actions?
Linklater: In his mind, everything he’s done has been for the greater good. Certainly for the good of his children, but also for the greater good of the island. These are means that he believes justify the ends, when it comes to the island’s welfare and his kids’ welfare. That’s the story that he’s been given by the island, so in his own head, he’s a pretty good guy.
Yours and Matthew’s coffin argument where you just start cursing at each other is one of the funniest bits of the show so far. Was that all scripted or was some of it improvised?
Linklater: That went on for a long time. That was nice. We were told to just go, and the same was true of the scene Matthew and I shot on the bed in that room at the start of the episode. That scene takes so long. I was like, “This show is crazy,” but they just told us, “Actually, do it quieter. Longer. Slower.” I thought, “They’re gonna cut this down,” but apparently not.
Do you have a favorite memory from filming?
Linklater: Being thrown into a coffin on your birthday, screaming, “Let me live! Let me live! Let me live!” Yeah, that’s… that’s pretty macro on the micro.
New episodes of “Widow’s Bay” premiere Wednesdays on Apple TV.