The Waterfront Recap: Pouring Gasoline on the Problem
Hey, good news: Peyton Buckley wasn’t burned to death in front of her house while all of us watched. With the level of violence The Waterfront is comfortable with, that definitely could’ve been a possibility. Instead, the two men sent to Cane’s house only wanted to scare Peyton and stopped the trail of flames just before it reached her and just after it unlocked a new nightmare scenario for me. The assault was a message. A crystal clear one. And Harlan knows exactly who sent it.
Could Sheriff Clyde Proctor be any more of a dick? The answer is an unequivocal no. Harlan goes to the police station to confront him for almost barbequing his daughter-in-law, and his response is basically, oh, what a shame; maybe you should take some time and rethink your stance on this whole meeting Grady thing. Clyde is so adamant about keeping control over this drug-running partnership that he decides to walk into the Buckley’s restaurant and have a sit down with the Buckley he is beginning to think is really in charge: Belle. Again, he makes sure there is no mistaking his message: If Harlan doesn’t fall in line, he will start killing members of her family.
Like I said, Clyde’s a real dick, but he’s a gravely serious one, and while it has become apparent that Harlan might see this gig as a permanent one, as a return to how things used to be, Belle (and Cane) sees it as a means to an end. She doesn’t want to get into a pissing contest with the sheriff. She doesn’t see the reason to pick a fight with a powerful person when they just need some money. Is this belief that this job could actually be temporary naive? Maybe! But that’s not the point right now. The point is she isn’t willing to sacrifice any of her family members in order to prove she has the power in the situation, and she wants Harlan on board with that. She wants him to go make nice with Clyde Proctor. She wants him to be Clyde’s friend. Harlan hates this idea.
It turns out that having to argue with Harlan to see the merits of keeping the guy who could kill their family happy is the last straw for Belle. I mean, this woman’s out here letting him sleep with sloppy chicks named Rhonda and being unbelievably kind and lovely to Shawn, (one of!) Harlan’s love child. She hands the guy pictures of his mom with her and Harlan! She holds Shawn’s hand and tells him he hasn’t done anything wrong. She is there for him. She’s no saint but she has gone above and beyond and there had to be a line somewhere. This is that line. And that is why, after Clyde and Harlan and the stress and frustration, she texts our silver fox real estate developer Wes to get laid. Sure, it looks like she immediately regrets it — she is so awkward with Wes after as she tries to leave the hotel room as fast as possible — but get yours Belle! You deserve this.
She especially deserves this because it is obvious that things are only going to get worse for the Buckleys. I know this because while Harlan is telling his wife that yes, he’ll try to make amends with Clyde, he is also doing things like rounding up the two guys who attacked Peyton and holding them at the back of the fish house so that Cane can take a tire iron to them. Cane refuses to do this because, as we know, he does not want to become his father. It’s honestly a miracle Cane has any type of moral compass when, again, it’s his dad basically telling him he’s a pussy if he doesn’t beat these guys’ faces in. It’s a weird parenting technique, but Harlan is unorthodox.
Cane removes himself from this situation and once again nears a full-on breakdown. My guy is stressed out! And when he’s on the verge of a panic attack, where does he turn? Not to his wife, who just got violently assaulted the night before and is pretending she is fine, albeit for the stench of gasoline she can’t get out of her hair and the handgun she’s waving around her living room. (This means, of course, she is not fine.) No, instead, Cane seeks out Jenna at the hardware store. The two recognize that the dinner didn’t go great — “no, [Peyton] totally supports me doing recreational drugs with old girlfriends” — but they also admit that they both could use a friend at the moment, and the best friend they’ve got happens to be one another. They spend the afternoon drinking and talking, and Cane gets pretty vulnerable; He won’t tell Jenna what’s exactly going on, but his line about bad decisions ruining every part of his life except for Jenna, his “one sweet distraction,” is sort of lovely and heartbreaking when you forget about all the drug running and people getting shot in the face and covered in gasoline.
Thankfully, Cane eventually returns to his house, where his poor wife has to spell it out for him that, yes, of course, she wanted him home with her; she needed him home with her; he should want to be home with her. He wishes he could be better and more open. He’s trying. And then she sobs into his arms, finally.
Add Cane to the list of Buckleys who have yet to realize things are going to get much, much worse than this current low. Fortunately … unfortunately (?) that realization is on its way thanks to Harlan’s next move. Good on him; he does actually want to make good on his promise to Belle to smooth things over with Clyde. He heads over to Clyde’s garage, where he’s still working on one of his cars, and makes a peace offering by way of a drink. Of course, it doesn’t take long for Clyde to figure out that the “peace offering” is a pretense: Harlan has an idea, a deal he really thinks Clyde should hear about. He thinks Clyde should introduce him to Grady and let Harlan organize all the runs from here on out. Harlan has experience, and it’s better for everyone if Clyde keeps his hands clean. He promises that the cut Clyde is getting now will stay the same. It’s laughable that Harlan actually brings this bullshit deal to Clyde, who is as hungry for power and control as Harlan is, and the sheriff knows it. I mean, no one is laughing because this is a very serious show — has any character laughed even once yet? — but I certainly was. These dummies.
Things in the garage escalate. Clyde pulls a gun on Harlan. They wind up wrestling on the floor, reaching for the gun. Clyde grabs it and is about to turn it on Harlan when Harlan … uh, well, he sort of takes a screwdriver and stabs it through Clyde’s jaw and up into his nose. Maybe it’s a you had to be there sort of thing but it is so, so gross. And Clyde dies instantly. Oh, and then Harlan starts to have another cardiac incident. So, that whole thing about the Buckleys realizing that things can and will and are getting worse and more dangerous for them? That’s happening right now.
Bait & Tackle
• Bree helps Marcus get onto the second boat Cane and Harlan are using for runs, and he’s able to make a copy of the GPS log, but it’s still not enough evidence to convince his captain to keep the investigation going. Some of that is, yes, the lack of real evidence against Cane, but some of it is that his boss doesn’t trust him since he is so fresh out of rehab. Marcus will have to leave town if there’s no break in the case, and he’s also dying to shoot up. Seems like a messy situation for newly sober Bree to be mixed up in!
• Oh, dear lord, Bree is flirting with Shawn. It’s going to be so fun when she finds out he’s her brother.
• Is Wes too good to be true? He must be up to something, right?
• Apparently, Jenna’s husband Scott has left town already because he’s “not good around sick people” and doesn’t want to be around Jenna’s dying dad. So, uh, Scott sucks, and I’m sorry to say it but I cannot wait until she cheats on him with Cane.