Hello Reader!

It seems fitting that my latest TV obsession is the talk of the town this week. Garnering a total of 19 Emmy nominations, Widow’s Bay is taking the world by storm, and rightfully so.

This is a show that I would not have chosen for myself because I’m not terribly into anything that has a jump scare in it, but when my friend described it as “satirical horror,” I thought I’d give it a go. And hooboy, was I hooked from the get-go.

I just finished watching Season 1 and I’m already excited to rewatch it to pick up on everything I missed the first time around (this is definitely a put-your-phone-down-and-pay-attention kind of show, which is amazing). The storytellers are definitely playing with us, especially in Episode 4, “Beach Reads.”

This email does contain spoilers, so save this one and come back to it later if you haven't watched the show yet. You can find it on Apple TV.

Patricia is one of the show’s beloved main characters. She’s a 40s something who grew up on the island and is a little bit of an outcast, longing to be the center of attention, just once in her life.

In addition to working for the mayor’s office, she runs a bookmobile, where a book titled, Your Turn:Out with the Old and In with the You gets donated. After getting snubbed at a get-together, this book “finds” her and she sees it as a solution to her problems.

Underneath all of the comedy and absurdity is something deeply human. Patricia is desperately seeking belonging. She's determined to throw the perfect party, convinced that if she follows the book's advice, she'll finally become a woman everyone wants to be around. She decides to throw a sunset cocktails event and the whole town is invited. When no one RSVPs, she finds a way to draw the crowd.

As the evening unfolds, things get...weird.

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While Patricia is focused on appetizers, punch, whether everyone is having a good time, and feeling supported, she’s completely missed the fact that her beloved self-help book is actually an ancient spell book. She’s unknowingly practicing witchcraft while insisting she’s simply hosting the perfect sunset cocktail party. But we’re so invested in whether Patricia will finally become the life of the party that we are looking at the story from her point of view, and we miss it too.

When Bechir finally walks into the room and immediately recognizes what’s happening, our reaction isn’t, “Well, that came out of nowhere.” It has us backing up to see what details were glaringly obvious that we might have missed.

We are taking in relevant information before we have any reason to notice it. The mirror catches a reflection that, if you look again, doesn’t line up with the vibe of the room.

After we get snapped from Patricia’s reverie back to reality, Rosemary’s subdued criticism and the snarky comments all make perfect sense.

Most people think a great reveal comes from hiding information. In reality, great reveals come from hiding the significance of the information in front of you. Your audience doesn’t need to miss the clues. They simply need to downplay their importance.

As storytellers, we’re constantly teaching our audience where to place their attention. Every story has a spotlight, and whatever sits inside that spotlight feels important. Everything outside of it fades into the background, even if it’s quietly carrying the truth you will eventually reveal. If you recall, back in Week 8, we talked about The Sixth Sense pulling off a similar move.

That’s why this episode works so beautifully. Patricia’s longing to be liked becomes the spotlight. Her desire becomes our desire. Her blind spots become our blind spots. The writers never trick us; they simply invite us to see the world through Patricia’s eyes until someone with a different perspective walks into the room.

So how do you translate this technique that’s rooted in visuals into verbal storytelling?

Pick a story you like to tell on the mic that includes an element of suspense.

1. Name the goal you’re handing your audience. Patricia wants belonging, and that desire becomes our focus. We are so dialed in on her goal that we miss the rest. What is the goal that is so strong that your audience adopts it as their hope, instead of listening with any suspicion? Get that clear first.

2. Plant the true detail early, and say it plainly. The mirror works because it’s shown to us in the middle of a moment that we are focused on something else. In a talk, this might be a detail you drop early and never mention again until the reveal. Write that detail down to weave it into your story.

3. Give the detail a job that isn’t “foreshadowing.” If it sounds like a setup, your audience will clock it and anticipate how it resolves itself. Instead, it should play an ordinary role: a throwaway aside, a bit of self-deprecating humor, a detail that seems to just be scene-setting. It should feel like color, not a clue.

4. Test it out. Tell the story to one person who doesn’t know the ending. Watch their reaction to the reveal. If they connect the dots, you’ve planted it well. If they don’t remember the detail at all, it was too buried in your delivery. If they saw a twist coming, you leaned on it too hard.

That last step matters more on stage than on the page. Tone and pacing can bury a plain fact or spotlight it, so the only way to know you’ve hit the balance is to say it out loud to someone and watch how it lands.

Until next week,