After what was already a heated premiere of The Waterfront—the new Netflix thriller centered on a wealthy North Carolina family desperate to protect their fishing business legacy—things get even more fiery in the drama’s second episode. (By the way, all eight installments of the show hit the streamer on Thursday, June 19.)
Last episode saw the reveal of the mysterious supplier Owen and now that Harlan (Holt McCallany) and Cane (Jake Weary) know exactly who they’re dealing with—literally—in their drug-running side business, tensions are even more inflamed between father and son.
And Buckley matriarch Belle (Maria Bello) also stokes the fire, both professionally (by secretly meeting up with a real estate developer regarding the family’s coveted shorefront land) and personally (by getting a little too friendly with said developer).
Here’s everything that went down in The Waterfront episode 2.
Dredging up the truth
But before we face the flames, we’ve got to head to the water, where the coast guard has discovered the floating bodies of Curtis and Troy, the two Buckley Co. fisherman who were unceremoniously thrown overboard by drug thugs last episode. That discovery certainly complicates things for Harlan and Cane, though Sheriff Clyde Porter, a.k.a. Owen (Michael Gaston), assures them that the coroner has ruled the men’s death accidental drownings.
The sheriff also alerts the Buckley men that it’s time for their next drug run, but they’re wary—the DEA is still poking around Havenport. Plus, Porter wants them to do the drug run themselves, not their lackies Reggie and Tom, because he doesn’t want to chance it after what happened with Hoyt. Harlan pushes back against Porter, but Cane is quick to remind him that the sheriff was very cool with blowing someone’s brains out last episode.
Plus, they need the money: Belle reveals that they’re four months behind on both mortgages and two months behind on a loan—that’s roughly $6.8 million due. They’ll have to come up with $2 million in less than three months to even begin to bring them up to date.
And Harlan thinks they can get even more—he believes Clyde isn’t the top dog in this drug-running scheme and is instead answering to someone higher up. “If we can find his supplier and establish our own supply line, then we don’t even need Porter,” he reasons. However, Belle doesn’t want them going full Breaking Bad. This is a temporary fix, she warns, saying that she’d rather make the money back slowly but surely (and legally) by partnering with a developer to build out their beachfront property. Harlan, unsurprisingly, is against that idea.
Flirting with temptation
Little does her husband know, though, Belle has already been meeting up with the hunky real estate developer Wes (played by Dave Annable), who isn’t just interested in the scenic beachfront property the family owns but also in Belle herself.
Over an intimate dinner, they bond over their less-moneyed backgrounds—she grew up in Havenport but way more inland—and Wes admires the elegant way Belle eats oysters. Despite the natural aphrodisiac, Belle refutes his advances and decides against joining him back at his hotel. “We’re business partners…and I’m married,” she reasons.
However, that rejection is very short-lived, as she follows him in the parking lot and plants a big smooch on him against his car, before bidding him goodnight.
Hot on his heels
And when she’s not making out with Wes, Belle is busy being suspicious about the restaurant’s latest hire, bartender Shawn (Rafael L. Silva), who she is convinced is an undercover informant for the DEA. (“He’s not a very good bartender,” she jokes to Harlan.)
Admittedly, his incessant questioning to Cane about the discovery of Curtis and Troy’s bodies definitely isn’t helping disprove that theory. Nor is the heated phone conversation she overhears after hours at the restaurant. Finally, she confronts him: “Who are you?” She already knows he lied about his background—his references and work experience don’t add up.
When she accuses him of being an informant, he confesses that his name is Shawn West, the son of Bebe West. And right before his month passed away in Galveston, TX, a month prior, she told him that Harlan Buckley was his father. Anyone else getting major Ransom Canyon vibes?
Working undercover (and under covers)
Speaking of new employees, Bree (Melissa Benoist) catches sight of her son Diller (Brady Hepner) working at the Buckley marina—Harlan gave him an after-school job without informing her, which is a problem because the court order says she can’t be within 300 feet of him without an appointed chaperone. “The boy’s a Buckley; he should be here, and you should get to see more of him,” Harlan tells her. She contemplates firing the boy but decides against it, though she remains uneasy.
She works through that discontent in a steamy motel meet-up with DEA Agent Marcus Sanchez (Gerardo Celasco). It seems the two have known each other for a while, both currently in recovery for addiction (she pills and he heroin). The Miss Glory case is his first out of rehab and he’ll get benched if he doesn’t have something concrete to go on, Marcus worries.
So Bree takes it upon herself to find that something—she sneaks into the Buckley Co. office and starts poking around Cane’s computer for evidence. She finds the boat transfer papers to Curtis and later brings a flash drive with the intel to Marcus.
In the line of fire
In the dark of night, Cane and Harlan boat over to receive the latest drug run—but when they get there, it’s a lackey named Stevie, not Owen, who is loading up the boat with the narcotics. Harlan gives Cane an unloaded gun for protection and tells him to keep his mouth shut during the deal. (“Words get you killed.”)
It ends up not being words that get the Buckley boys in trouble, but numbers—they’re apparently 10 kilos short. When Harlan gets lippy, the thugs take the butt of a gun to his head. Panicked, Cane comes up with a cockamamy story that he was the dope who miscalculated the drugs incorrectly. His rambling seems to convince them; the thugs call Owen—or, as Harlan overhears, someone named Grady—to get the okay and let the two men go free.
Later, Harlan goes to Clyde’s to confront him about the short load—the sheriff claims that Hoyd dipped into the product before he died, but Harlan is furious. “We could have been killed,” he yells, before punching Clyde to the ground. He tells him that he knows that someone named Grady is the real supplier and that the Buckleys won’t be doing any more runs for him until he meets Grady face to face.
Burning down the house
That planned double date between Cane and his wife Peyton (Danielle Campbell) and his ex-girlfriend Jenna (Humberly Gonzalez) and her husband goes, as expected, poorly. The former high-school sweethearts had tried to calm their nerves with some edibles and tequila shots, which leads them to drunkenly and awkwardly recount their breakup and Cane’s failed football dreams at the table.
Peyton is furious afterwards, saying that Cane’s behavior humiliated her and that he’s becoming more and more like his father. She storms off alone for home, where she is accosted by several strange men. They brutally attack her and douse her in gasoline and, right before the credits roll, one of them lights a match. Talk about a scorching cliffhanger!