Five episodes into its first season, Apple TV+’s Widow’s Bay delivers its most unhinged hour yet. “What to Expect on Your Trip” shatters the lead character’s skepticism, trading dry wit for a hallucinatory plunge into trauma and dread. Anchored by Matthew Rhys’s stunning performance, the episode reveals how the island’s quirks have always been a mask for something far more terrifying. Here is my review.
In the immediate aftermath of Reverend Bryce’s shocking suicide, Tom, Patricia, and Wyck tear his office apart looking for answers. They uncover a disturbing clue: the phrase “My eye is open” is violently carved into the wood of his desk, sitting beside a hidden cache of strange black mushrooms.
Seeking answers, the trio consults an eccentric local hippie named Todd, who explains that the fungi are highly dangerous, legendary local psychotropics nicknamed “Truesight.” Todd warns them about the psychological toll, but a chaotic mix‑up leads to Tom being heavily and accidentally dosed instead of Wyck.
What follows is a brilliant, disjointed, and deeply stressful bad trip told entirely from Tom’s fractured perspective. With rapid smash cuts to black, the narrative mimics his blackouts as he repeatedly wakes up in new locations with no memory of how he got there—frantically stumbling through a high‑stakes town curfew meeting, vomiting in public trash cans, and desperately trying to maintain political composure while visibly losing his grip on reality.
While the mayor is effectively incapacitated, Wyck steps up as a reluctant detective, combing through scorched scraps recovered from the Reverend’s desk. With Jerry’s help, he deciphers a hidden diary page written centuries ago by the wife of the island’s founder, Richard Warren. The decoded letter drops a major lore bomb into the series’ mythology: the true heart of the island’s supernatural curse resides in a physical metallic cylinder Warren wore permanently around his neck, finally giving the team a tangible object to hunt.
On the home front, Tom’s attempt to ground his delinquent teenage son, Evan (Kingston Rumi Southwick), by locking him in the mayoral office fails spectacularly. Evan easily slips past distracted staff to meet up with local kids. After a day of smoking weed and goading each other on, they dare him to open the front door of the legendary, boarded‑up “Boogeyman’s House.”
Before Evan can cross the threshold, Sheriff Clemons intercepts the teens and escorts him away with a stern but relatively light warning. The real damage comes later, when a drug‑addled Tom finally tracks Evan down and erupts in a paranoid, feral rage that publicly humiliates his son and drives their already strained relationship to the breaking point.
The episode ends with Tom having an emotional breakdown, revealing why he's fought the island’s folklore. As he vomits the psychotropics, a trip triggers a repressed memory of his wife Lauren. Years ago, they tried escaping Widow’s Bay by boat so she could give birth on the mainland. When they crossed the bay’s perimeter, Lauren went blind and screamed. They turned back, saved the baby, but Lauren became vacant and catatonic. Weeping, Tom begs God to protect his son. Instead of a response, a rumble from the plumbing and shadows seems to accept his plea as a supernatural bargain.
“What to Expect on Your Trip” stands out as a remarkable mid‑season highlight that fuses the show’s dark comedy with a deeply unsettling psychological thriller. Rhys delivers a genuinely versatile performance, swinging from the chaotic absurdity of the mushroom trip to a raw, gutting breakdown in the bathroom flashback. The direction is outstanding, using quick cuts and a fragmented timeline to trap viewers inside Tom’s paranoid, disoriented mind, turning a routine town meeting into near‑horror. Learning the truth about Lauren adds a powerful new layer to Tom: he’s not just an arrogant politician ignoring ghosts, but a terrified father desperately trying to bury a reality that already destroyed his family.
Overall, I give this episode an 8.5/10.
What did you think of this week’s episode? Leave a comment.
You can catch Widow’s Bay Wednesdays on Apple TV+.
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