The Waterfront episode 1 recap: the kids are not alright

If you love pulpy family dramas that mix personal squabbles with professional troubles—think Yellowstone, Succession, MobLand and the like—you'll probably enjoy The Waterfront, a new Netflix thriller centered on the wealthy Buckley family and their (often bloody) battles to protect their fishing business legacy in the small coastal town of Havenport, North Carolina.

Written by Scream and Dawson’s Creek creator Kevin Williamson, the series debuted all eight of its installments worldwide on the streamer on Thursday, June 19, and the premiere episode kicked things off with a bang—well, several bangs really, as already the bodies are piling up in the drama's first hour alone.

Entitled "Almost Okay," the debut ep sees patriarch Harlan Buckley (Holt McCallany)—fresh off yet another heart attack, though that won't stop him from "drinking and whoring" around town—contending with a secret business deal set up by his wife Belle (Maria Bello) and son Cane (Jake Weary) that goes very, very wrong.

Here's everything that went down in The Waterfront episode 1.

There's more than fish on those boats

We're out on the water in the dark of night, with two men—whom we later find out are Curtis and Troy, employees of the Buckley family's fishing business—aboard the Miss Glory. Between the late hour and the ominous music, it's clear a clandestine meeting is in the works, but one that quickly goes awry, as a group of gun-wielding men take over the boat, tie Curtis and Troy up in fishing net and throw them overboard.

It's a concerning scene, no doubt, but most of all to Cane Buckley, who is not only the owner of that boat but also the mastermind behind that failed meeting. With the Miss Glory washed ashore the next morning—the hold fully cleaned out, and no traces of fingerprints or residue left behind—and DEA agents sniffing around the case, Cane desperately rushes over to the court office, where he bribes his cousin Lynette to have the ownership of the Miss Glory fraudulently moved from him to Curtis Sutton, with a predated and forged signature to make everything look legit. What exactly is Cane covering up?

Parents just don't understand

While his son is running about town like a headless chicken, dad Harlan is dealing with his own rough morning: namely, waking up in his mistress's bed to severe heart pain. At the hospital, his wife Belle—who doesn't seem surprised in the slightest at her husband's infidelity—informs him about the Miss Glory mess, which has Harlan angrily ripping off the IVs and medical monitors to track down his son.

It seems that, due to his cardiac issues, Harlan has informally stepped away from the family business, leaving things largely in Cane's care where the boats are concerned. (Mom Belle and sister Bree run the restaurant side of things, much to the latter's chagrin.) And while Cane keeps his cool when initially questioned by the DEA about what happened the night prior aboard the Miss Glory, he's far less collected when Harlan tracks him down, greeting his son with a hefty right hook.

It turns out that Cane and Belle had engineered a dangerous side-gig for the family's fishing boats: running drug deals onboard to pay off the business's considerable debts, which had accumulated under Harlan's leadership. The haul that Curtis and Troy were supposed to handle the night prior was for $10 million's worth of cocaine and opiates—the kind of sum a person would kill for.

Cane reveals that he's been working on the drug runs with Hoyd Piper (Scott Deckert), who is the middleman of a mysterious supplier simply known as Owen. A furious Harlan tells him to set up a meeting with Hoyt: "I'm going to take control of things."

Add mommy issues to the list, too

Clearly things are contentious between father and son in the Buckley family, but the parental relationship isn't so smooth between Bree (Melissa Benoist) and her teen son. A former addict, Bree is in recovery and has lost custody of Diller (Brady Hepner), meaning that she gets yelled at from her baby daddy for showing up to Diller's swim relay without a court order and can only enjoy a meal with her child under the surveillance of a court-appointed chaperone.

Bree is also frustrated that she's being saddled with training the restaurant's new bartender Shawn (Rafael L. Silva) instead of having a real grown-up job in the office like her brother, which seems to fuel some animosity between the siblings. That animosity seemingly won't be easing up anytime soon, especially if Cane finds out that his sister offered up Hoyt's name to that DEA agent.

Old high-school loves die hard

In between all of the Miss Glory drama, Cane runs into an old paramour, his high-school girlfriend Jenna (Humberly Gonzalez), a big-city journalist who is back in Havenport to take care of her ailing father.

There's a spark between them, which would be all well and good if Cane didn't have a wife, Peyton (Danielle Campbell), and young daughter at home. Jenna, too, is married, a fact that she reminds Cane of when he arrives unannounced and liquored-up at her father's home for a late-night chat.

Cane comes clean about why he never left Havenport—he had a full-ride football scholarship in Florida, but his father told him he'd never make it to the pros, so he turned it down—because he hates that he lied to her. Jenna tells him she hopes they can be friends.

Blood in the water

Cane brings Hoyt to meet Harlan on his boat—however, not even a $3,000 bottle of whiskey can ease Hoyt's nerves, with the dealer quickly clocking the two workers that Harlan has brought onboard as extra muscle. Accusing Hoyt of taking the $10 million of drugs for himself, Harlan has the men chum the waters to attract sharks and lift Hoyt above the deadly waters below. The sharp-toothed threat works, with Hoyt revealing that the pricey stash is locked up in a secret shed off the highway.

The men seek out the shed and find the contraband—until law enforcement shows up, that is. Hoyt begins to explain to Sheriff Clyde Porter (Michael Gaston) that he's been kidnapped and that the Buckleys are behind a massive drug deal but can't finish his pleadings before the sheriff shockingly puts a bullet in his head. Harlan gets it before the rest do: Sheriff Porter is the mysterious Owen.

Clyde tells Harlan that he always looked up to him growing up, but now the mighty Buckleys of Havenport owe him. And the first bidding would be to get rid of Hoyt's body, with father and son dumping the man into a swamp to let the gators take care of the rest. Just what are the Buckley boys getting themselves into?