The Waterfront episode 7 recap: a rough day at the office

We survived JellyGate folks — and so did Harlan Buckley (Holt McCallany), the patriarch of the Netflix thriller The Waterfront.

Last we saw him, Harlan was being tortured aquatic-style via some Portuguese man o' war by Grady (Topher Grace), his sociopathic drug supplier who's none too happy with the Buckley family at the moment. The Waterfront episode 7, entitled "Nice Try," sees Grady's men staking out the Buckley residence, and Harlan responding in turn with a firearm cameo.

With things very much on the outs with Grady and Co., Cane (Jake Weary) makes moves on a new drug-run partnership, one that will bring up the pain of the family's past as well as have dire effects for its future. And, as has become tradition at this point in the show, you can expect a shocking cliffhanger with this one.

Here's everything that went down in The Waterfront episode 7.

The gang's all here

Things aren't looking good for the Buckleys: they have 43 days to pay off their debt, even as their partnership with Grady is becoming less and less worth the money they're bringing in. So Cane brings up Emmett Parker (Terry Serpico), the man who came up to him at Porter's funeral.

Turns out, he's a member of one of the most powerful drug-dealing crime families in the area, with an operation way bigger than Grady's opium set-up. Harlan's father used to work for them, until things soured badly and Emmett's dad ordered a hit on the Buckley man, killing him. (Those are the violent memories that have been plaguing Bree's sleep, FYI.)

Harlan doesn't want to get involved with them — but too bad, because Cane has already set up a meeting with the Parker family. "I'm trying to save everything you've built; we are out of options here," Cane proclaims.

Later, during the meeting between families, Cane propositions that the Buckleys will allow the Parkers to use their boats for drug runs for one year to push their product at their pace. If they run into law enforcement, the Buckleys will take the heat themselves. In exchange, they want $12 million, seven of which they'll need upfront.

The Parker patriarch Jeb (Gerry Bamman) brings up the fact that they’re double-dipping on suppliers —they’d need exclusivity, which means no more Grady. “I'm not sure Grady will be amenable, but I'm sure you can handle that issue," Harlan says. At least with them, he reasons, he always knew where he stood; Grady has no sense of honor, no moral code.

They agree to the terms, with the Parkers promising that they’ll “take care” of Grady that evening.

Daddy issues

Bree rushes to Rodney’s (Joshua Mikel) house under the guise of there being an emergency with Diller (Brady Hepner). But when she arrives, the court-ordered chaperone is there asking for a drug sample. Rodney thinks she’s using again and is legally allowed to request a screening anytime, but Bree refuses and tells him to call her lawyers.

Later, Rodney shows up to the restaurant in a panic — Diller didn’t come home last night after the two had gotten into an argument. The boy had overheard his father ask the chaperone for a petition to relocate them to Virginia Beach, far from Bree.

Bree takes off searching for her son, finding him hiding in one of the boats at the Buckley marina. She won’t tell Rodney or force him to go home, but she says he should. If Rodney wants to move him to Virginia Beach, there’s nothing they can do about it, but she says his father loves him and so does she: “You are the only reason that I will never stop trying to be better, whether you are five or 500 miles away.” Diller decides to go home and face his dad.

Catch and release

Despite his plans to return to Texas, Shawn (Rafael L. Silva) is still lingering around Havenport. (He’s been studying bartending more than he’s been studying the bar, he jokes.) But Harlan is happy to spend more time with his son. With Shawn wanting to know the truth about the family, Harlan suggests they take a day off to go fishing and talking on the boat.

However, as they’re driving, they get accosted by Grady’s gun-toting men, who force them into the back of a car and bring them to Grady’s opium farm. Grady has correctly sussed out the whole Parker situation and threatens to shoot Shawn if Harlan doesn’t tell him the truth about the deal. “Let him go and I’ll do whatever you want,” Harlan assures.

Clocking that Harlan and Shawn are missing, Cane has the Buckley lackeys out looking for his dad. They find his abandoned truck on the road with gun casings nearby. Realizing that Grady has them, Cane, Reggie (Brian Ashton Smith) and Tim (Lucas Hyde) suit up and take off for the farm.

They spot Harlan and Shawn being held at gunpoint outside, but Cane has a plan: he blows up the opium shed. While Grady and his me are distracted by the explosion, Cane and his men attack. Tim is killed in the fight and Reggie gets injured but they manage to escape, with Harlan thanking his son for saving them.

Body horror

Before he was off playing Rambo to save his father and half-brother, Cane had arrived at the fish house office to a less-than-happy surprise left for the Buckleys: two of the Parker men, the ones who were supposed to kill Grady the night earlier, dead and left on chairs with signs tauntingly saying “Nice Try!” fixed to their chests.

Cane calls Belle for reinforcements, and she is understandably panicking that the body count keeps rising. Belle tells all of the guys working in the fishery that there’s a gas leak and operations have to shut down for the day. With everyone gone and Cane off to find his dad, she gets to work wrapping the bodies in plastic — until Bree pops in and is shocked by the bloody scene.

After a good amount of freaking out, the Buckley daughter decides to help her mother, and the two manage to bury the men in ice. Belle acknowledges how upsetting this must be for Bree, who opens up about the trauma she’s been haunted by since childhood. “You have no idea what it’s been like,” she cries. "The only person that was left with the truth is me.”

She confesses that she killed Marcus, and thinks that Rodney taking her son away is a deserved punishment. Belle apologizes for failing to protect her daughter: “That’s on me, not you.”

Speaking of Rodney, he calls Bree again to tell her that Diller still hasn’t returned home, even though he left her hours ago. While looking for him on the docks, she’s attacked and taken by two men. Told you, cliffhanger.

All episodes of The Waterfront are streaming exclusively on Netflix.