Widow's Bay: Kate O'Flynn on Why That Nightmarish Party Is the 'Best Night' of Patricia's Life

SPOILER ALERT: This post contains MAJOR spoilers from "Beach Reads," the fourth episode of Apple TV's Widow's Bay.

There ain't no party like a Patricia party because a Patricia party is also a Wiccan ritual intent on destroying half of Widow's Bay.

In the fourth episode of Apple TV's horror-comedy Widow's Bay, town hall assistant Patricia (Kate O'Flynn) is desperate for a win. Her attempts to (re)connect with the women of the island have floundered yet again after the validity of her story about surviving a serial killer that terrorized their town when she was a teenager continues to be called into question. But nevertheless, she persists, this time by planning a party for her uninterested neighbors with the help of a brutally honest but empowering self-help book that falls off the shelf of her mobile library truck. What ensues is one of the most nightmarish and cringe comedy-filled social events in Widow's Bay's history, which is saying something given all the talk of communal cannibalism and sacrifice that populates this town's colorful past. 

"When I read the script, I felt goosebumps," O'Flynn tells TV Guide. "I was really excited. Obviously, there were echoes of Carrie and The Wicker Man, but my memory of Carrie was the pain of it and that was definitely somewhere in this story with Patricia. I also thought about the film Eighth Grade by Bo Burnham, and the feeling of watching it because the social anxiety in that felt quite useful as well."

While she is initially programming against a more exciting invitation across town, Patricia pulls some strings to drive everyone to her party. She informs Dale (Jeff Hiller) that he is the DJ for the evening, despite having no experience or an ad-free YouTube account to work with; and she ropes in Rosemary (Dale Dickey), but refuses to listen to any criticism or concern. Mere seconds away from screaming at people to have fun, Patricia takes a nod from the book to serve her specially brewed punch, and suddenly everyone starts falling in line. The drinks flow, the music hits the right vibe and she is the belle of the ball.

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It is only later, when Sheriff Bechir (Kevin Carroll) recognizes surveillance footage of Patricia acting strange, that he discovers her real party favors — mutilated animals, Wiccan paraphernalia, and an antler crown that does nothing to help her public persona. She's been tricked by the self-help book, which turns out to be a spell book seemingly bound in skin. Even though she's been snapped out of the fog, her poisoned punch has put everyone else under a spell and sends them walking like a zombie horde into the bay to their deaths. Patricia manages to burn the book to break the spell, but now she has a new scandal to live down, and Poison Patricia is right there for the picking as a new nickname. But maybe that's exactly what she wanted.

"It felt important that, in spite of the collateral damage and the fact that she nearly kills everybody on the island, it's still the best night of her life," O'Flynn says.

In creating the richly detailed episode, which begs for a few rewatches to catch all the hidden easter eggs of what's really going on, O'Flynn says the production had endless meetings about how far to take Patricia's party from hell. First on the agenda was the antler head piece, which needed to be scary but not too deranged so Patricia could still be pulled back from the Satanic edge.

"There was so much discussion over that headdress," she says. "I remember reading that reveal for the first time and finding it absolutely hysterical on the page. Then watching it back, it's sort of heartbreaking. It's funny when you read something one way, then you actually see it. You never quite know what you're going to get, in a very satisfying way. But we talked about whether it should have teeth. Should it not have teeth? How big is too big? Is it too small? Is it too scary or too much? I think there was a bird nest in one of them."

Patricia is so eager to be liked at this party that she has willfully allowed herself to be blinded to her own action, including the immediately suspicious switch in the behavior of her initially dismissive guests. By the end, she is blissfully dancing in the middle of everyone, basking in the attention she has always wanted. Episode director Sam Donovan scheduled a choreography workshop for O'Flynn to figure out Patricia's dancing style, but it didn't take long to figure it out.

"We were just talking about how Patricia definitely watches music videos on VHS and rewinds them and learns the moves and she's got really eclectic taste," she says. "We knew that Sam wanted to use 'Rhythm of the Night' as the music for it, and that music video is kind of like the witching hour. It's amazing. So we used a bit of that and then we went into like '90s hip hop, found a couple of moves that she would have learned and then put a bit of Bob Fosse in there as well. Then I just kind of freestyled with whatever struck me on the day."

As the camera pans around the crowd with Patricia holding court in the center, a split-second shift shows what's really going on — no one is actually dancing but rather standing completely still with their mouths gaping open. O'Flynn says that's not visual effects.

"That was Sam's idea that they'd all have their mouths open, and we did a shot of it and that's all them," she says. "Patricia doesn't notice, so I kind of didn't notice it. It was sort of thrilling, and it was just hysterical to be doing these moves and to have people around me just loving it, and then you cut to that scary bit and it's the most awkward thing in the world."

While Patricia does save the day, O'Flynn says it is crushing that she's only made herself even more of a social pariah. But in the final moments of the episode, Tom (Matthew Rhys) and Wyck (Stephen Root) come pick her up to go hunt down a terrified Reverend Bryce (Toby Huss). In an instant, she has found a team and a purpose — maybe just enough to help her forget she just bewitched Widow's Bay.

"She's devastated, but then she's picked up by Tom and Wyck," O'Flynn says. "Sam very purposefully started that episode zooming in on Patricia alone in the bookmobile, and then you end it zooming in on her in the truck when she's found her buddies. Suddenly, they are a team. She's found her community, and a cause does make people feel good. Life becomes simple in a way. That cause helps her break through that constant feedback loop of getting people to like her and change her reputation."

But what role does Patricia play in the coming night against the horrors of Widow's Bay's history?

"She's brave, but she is not a leader I don't think," O'Flynn says. "She's an amazing foot soldier though and if she believes in something, she'll fight to the death. That's Patricia."

New episodes of Widow's Bay stream Wednesdays on Apple TV.