The Waterfront episode 6 recap: sting operation

After half a season of The Waterfront—the new Netflix thriller from Kevin Williamson—we already knew that the Buckley family would do whatever it takes to protect each other and the legacy of their North Carolina fishing business.

Thus far, it's largely been Harlan Buckley (Holt McCallany), wife Belle (Maria Bello) and son Cane (Jake Weary) who have been doing the dirty work—you know, drug dealing, cop killing and the like. But last episode saw sister Bree (Melissa Benoist) enter the family side business in tragic fashion, as well as sadly breaking her hard-fought sobriety to do so.

She's not the only new family member who gets roped into the shady dealings between Harlan and his supplier Grady (Topher Grace) this episode, with a hunting trip gone very wrong for the young Diller (Brady Hepner). And that's not even mentioning the most shocking thing about this installment—we won't spoil it here, but one word: Jellyfish.

Here's everything that went down in The Waterfront episode 6.

Nursing old wounds

After last episode, Bree could use a good night's sleep. Alas, nightmares of her violent childhood stirs her from her slumber, and she wakes up to find herself hungover at Cane's house. He tells her that motel housekeeping found Marcus's body and the autopsy has ruled his death an accidental overdose. She didn't mean for him to die, she explains—she simply wanted to get photos of him using heroin for blackmail purposes. "You were protecting your family," he assures her.

The siblings play semi-hooky from work and surprisingly bond, him sharing his marital problems with wife Peyton (Danielle Cambell)—who is still in Durham at her parents' house with daughter Savannah—and her revealing the trauma she can't shake about witnessing her grandfather's brutal death at the hands of cartel members.

Her brother is shocked that he never knew about it, but Bree says that Belle made her promise not to tell, that it was easier to pretend. Their parents suck, they both agree, but Bree sobs that at least they never burned their house down with their child inside. Cane consoles her—is this a breakthrough for the Buckley kids?

Money on the mind

Last episode, Cane had gone to the bank to find out what really happened with the land deal with Wes (Dave Annable), finding out that the developer was buying up the family's debt from the bank, allowing him to essentially take ownership of the family's assets. He's furious that his mother showed Wes their finances—now he knows how vulnerable they are.

When Belle sees the damaging documents for herself, she sets up a meeting with Wes. "You were the one who blew the deal off, not me," he tells her, adding that she's not an honest person like he thought. He realizes that Harlan doesn't even know about the deal and that her guilt is about so much more than just the fact that they slept together.

She begs him to help her fix this, but he says that maybe it's an opportunity for her to tell the truth and do the right thing.

Change is inevitable

During his one-on-one chat with Bree earlier in the episode, Cane got real about where things stand with his wife—he admits that, yes, he would have married Peyton even if he hadn't gotten her pregnant, but also adds: "I mean, what else was I going to do?" Romantic.

If he had his way, he would seemingly have chosen Jenna (Humberly Gonzalez), who he calls to soothe his anxieties about all of the business mess swirling around him. She distracts him with a sweet story about their high school days, and he proclaims that he wishes he was the person she thinks he is.

However, by the episode's end, it seems those anxieties have assuaged—he shows up at her dad's house to declare that he's been thinking about they should have been and what they're supposed to be. They finally kiss and spend the night together.

Under the gun

Keeping up his habit of showing up to the fishery unannounced, Grady is waiting for Harlan in his office—he has an emergency shipment that needs to go out ASAP, but Harlan refuses, saying they don't do impromptu runs, despite Grady fattening up the Buckleys' payment as extra incentive.

Annoyed at Harlan's lack of respect, Grady spots Diller on a walk around town and invites him to go hunting with him. He Facetimes Harlan and Belle with the teen boy and they're horrified that their grandson is with him—gun ready, Harlan sets out for the trail to find them. He wants Diller to leave with him immediately, but Grady argues that the extra money he gave him should afford him a hunting trip with the lads.

Harlan begrudgingly agrees and the men largely have a mild day together, with the elder Buckley saying he's willing to chalk up their tension to growing pains and helping teach Grady how to shoot properly. However, as Gracy goes to take out a bird, he fires way too low and ends up injuring Diller, who they rush to the emergency room. The rest of the Buckleys race over to the hospital in a panic, none more so than Bree, but thankfully they're only flesh wounds and her son is fine.

The sting of death

Even though Harlan assures her it was all an accident, Belle is, understandably, freaking out that Grady shot their grandson. She feels her husband it taking this whole business to lightly and give him a harsh reality check in the form of the bank documents. "Our luck has run out and it's all fallen to sh** right in front of us."

And when she runs into Grady, flowers and balloons in hand, outside the hospital, she rages at him, landing a punch to the face. He goes to hit her back but Shawn, who had rushed her over from the restaurant to the ER earlier, defends her, going full Kill Bill on Grady and his men. ("Gay in small-town Texas," he later explains his black-belt taekwondo skills.) He knows those men are trouble, and knows that the Buckleys complicated history, so Belle invites him back to the house to talk about everything.

Later, when Harlan is at the fish house going through the bank documents, he hears a clatter downstairs. It's Grady and his men, seemingly coming for revenge for Shawn's beatdown. Grady says that he tried to make nice with the Buckleys, but now he has to put Harlan in his place.

He whips a Portuguese man o' war—a jellyfish-like siphonophore with a crazy-painful sting—and places it right on Harlan's chest as he warns: "You're gonna do what I want, when I want it or I'll make you suffer along with everyone you care about." And to really drive the point home, he dumps buckets of the stinging creatures all over Harlan as he screams in utter pain.