‘Widow’s Bay’s Kate O’Flynn Channels ‘Possession’, ‘Obsession’, and ‘Carrie’ in a Revelatory Horror Performance

Widow’s Bay’s recent Patricia-centric story unleashes a visceral evil that’s born out of something ordinary and highlights a standout performance from Kate O’Flynn.

“Something bad happened at the party. It went wrong.”

Katie Dippold’s Widow’s Bay has been one of the most exciting series of 2026, horror or otherwise. There are many reasons to check out Widow’s Bay, including its effortless blend of horror and small-town slice-of-life storytelling, its abject reverence for the works of Stephen King, and some totemic performances with its murderer’s row of talent. That being said, Widow Bay’s fourth episode, “Beach Reads,” highlights an all-time great horror performance from Kate O’Flynn. “Beach Reads” is one of the season’s strongest episodes, offering an exciting taste of what’s to come in this horror satire that’s as genuinely scary as it is subversive. 

“Beach Reads,” at face value, is telling a deeply simple story. Patricia (Kate O’Flynn) wants to throw a successful party to increase her social currency and feel less alone. Equipped with a newly found self-help book, Patricia is ready to make Widow’s Bay’s Sunset Cocktails party the social event of the season. “Beach Reads” really taps into that suburban and yuppie horror that stems from not knowing how to fit in and ongoing identity crises. Patricia is the community’s perpetual black sheep outsider, and “Beach Reads” argues that perfunctory social niceties with the “cool kids” can be just as agonizing as a demonic ritual sacrifice. Widow’s Bay elegantly blurs the line between these extremes. 

“Beach Reads” pushes this relatable premise to its antagonistic apex, fueling a supernatural catalyst that takes over the episode and turns it into Evil Dead meets Before Sunset. When it comes to revealing Patricia’s baggage from her past, her sordid affair where she was hunted by an apocryphal serial killer is treated like it’s akin to a bad credit score or a sexually transmitted infection. 

It’s a horrific event that’s defined her life and hung over her, yet something that’s oddly normalized due to it existing within Widow’s Bay’s black hole of evil activity. She’s targeted, but for being a survivor. There’s even some crushing subtext in “Beach Reads” that contemplates whether Patricia’s life was spared because she’s actually destined for something dark and selfish. She’s meant to be an arbiter of evil instead of someone who puts healing energy out into the world.