The Waterfront Boss Kevin Williamson Talks Netflix Drama's Fatal Finale, Looks Ahead to Possible Season 2
After eight episodes of deception, betrayal and gunshots to the face, the Buckley family's drama reaches an explosive conclusion in the finale of Netflix's The Waterfront, leaving fans to wonder… what's next?
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One thing's for sure, after getting killed by Cane during the family's mission to rescue Bree, we've definitely seen the last of Topher Grace as unhinged heroin smuggler Grady.
'We wrote that character with Topher in mind,' series creator Kevin Williamson tells TVLine. We wanted someone who was lovable and fun and funny … and to turn them into a psychopath. It's a lot of fun. Give a funny man a gun and see what he does with it.'
But just because one Buckley nemesis has been taken out, that doesn't mean the family is out of the woods. Given their laundry list of questionable actions, there's no shortage of ne'er do wells looking to work with (or against) the Buckleys in future seasons. And from what we see in the finale, there's also plenty of trouble brewing within the family itself.
Below, Kevin Williamson addresses some of those lingering finale developments, teasing how they might affect a second season of The Waterfront. Grade the Netflix series below, then read on for what the future could hold for the Buckley family.
After killing Grady on the boat (two shots to the face oughta do it!), Cane has a brief-but-crucial moment with Harlan at the hospital. 'Buckley Seafood was a family business — me and my father, side by side,' Harlan tells Cane. 'That's how I've always known it. That's why I wanted you to stay. I didn't want to be alone.' Cane doesn't say anything back, but his silent nod and teary eyes speak volumes.
'I think they they peeled a few layers of the onion,' Williamson says. 'I don't think they've gotten to the core answer of who they are to each other as father and son, but I do think Cane got an answer that he wanted. He has always wondered why his father treated him a certain way and why that dynamic was what it was. Cane is wrestling with the roads not taken. He wanted one thing out of life and ended up with something else, and he's got to get right with it. Part of that means fixing things with his father, so I think he has mended a lot with his dad. There's a lot more understanding, but I don't know if they've reconciled completely. There's going to be more stumbling for them to do as father and son before they fully repair that relationship.'
The finale is especially harrowing for Bree, who wakes up on Grady's boat after being kidnapped, only to discover that her son Diller has stowed away to rescue her. Grady ends up shooting Bree in the leg and pushing her overboard, but thanks to Diller's quick-thinking, she remains afloat on a life raft. After tying her leg with a belt to stop the bleeding, Bree hallucinates a conversation with her younger self about witnessing her grandfather's murder.
'You were just a girl, you couldn't have done anything,' she says. 'I've got you.' With her last ounce of strength, Bree sends up a flare for help, and the finale ends with her recovering in the hospital. It's an important breakthrough, especially when she refuses heavy pain medication to avoid risking her sobriety, but Bree's life is far from fixed.
'We've just sort of tapped into the surface of her trauma from her past and how that could heal her,' Williamson says. 'But will it? We're a puzzle, as human beings, and I think she still has some missing pieces.'
One of the finale's biggest question marks is where things stand between Cane and Peyton, following his brief affair with Jenna. When he tells his wife that it's over, and that he wants them to be good again, she seems strangely unfazed. 'You and me, we're fine, understand?' she says as she kisses him and beings to prepare his dinner. 'I'm gonna see to it.' She says a lot without actually saying much at all, so let's go to Williamson for some much-needed intel:
'I think Peyton knows what she wants, and she's going to get it,' Williamson says. 'Early on, she makes this big statement about how she's never going to be like Belle, but I think she might be wrong about that. The journey for her is going to be, well, how does she fix things? How is she going to make her husband love her? I think it's going to be a great journey for her. It's going to be very surprising, and she's going to take a few left turns.'
Following Wes' botched land deal with the Buckleys, the finale ends with Emmett handing Wes over to Belle on a silver platter. More specifically, we see Wes being tied to a chair and tortured, as Emmett reintroduces Belle — this time as Wes' new boss.
'In the first season, Harlan is the patriarch of the family, and Belle has always taken her place, puppeting him and controlling what happens to the Buckley family behind the scenes,' Williamson explains. 'All of her little shenanigans have been done behind Harlan, and in the shadows of Harlan, and now she's ready to shove him out of the way, stand front and center, and really take the reins.'
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