Widow's Bay

16 September, in the year of our Lord 1702.

The wind has favored us on my journey.

The crew informs me we are soon to make port.

I hear he is a great man.

Please, Lord, let him be kind and handsome.

And make room in my heart for his children.

I thought my time for marriage had passed,

but you had other plans.

Today I begin a new life.

I am to wed a leader,

an explorer,

the founder of this island hamlet.

I, Sarah Westcott, shall this day become Mrs. Richard Warren.

Just missed the fog.

Stroke of luck, I suppose.

No getting in or out once it arrives.

Straight to the church then?

What is he like?

Well, he's the reason we're all here.

Everyone on this island owes a great debt to that man.

Fore he arrived, it was a place with nothing but barren dirt.

But today, blossoms on the trees, food for every hungry mouth, mild winters.

He controls the weather, does he?

What's that?

He controls the weather, does he?

No.

But a cold breeze cuts half as quick

when you've got a warm home and a strong coat.

Who said that?

Richard Warren.

Have you no kin come with you?

No.

I had resigned myself to the lot of a spinster.

Perhaps the greater celebration may be me no longer a charge on my father's purse.

It's a rare blessing to marry at such an age.

Lucky the island proved too small to furnish him a wife.

He had no choice but to look to the mainland.

A man of stature doth require a goodly wife to order his household.

Is he a man of-of good repute then?

Sarah, my child,

I am Pastor Collins, shepherd of the flock here on this island.

- Pleased to meet you, Pastor. - And I, you.

How was your journey?

Well, I… I arrived in good order, for which I give thanks.

It must seem to you a strange land, and you a stranger in it,

but know that you have friends here

and the light of God to lift you up whenever you feel alone.

Thank you, Pastor.

If you are ever in need, do not think twice to come to me at any hour.

I will do what I can, by God's grace.

I will, Pastor.

Good.

Richard has requested to be part of the wedding vows.

Something he's written himself.

They are unique.

Unique?

Love is as strong as death.

Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it.

Richard, do you take this woman to be your lawful wife?

I do.

Sarah, do you take this man as your lawful husband?

- I do. - For you, as his helpmeet,

will be bound to him.

You will agree to serve him as the Reeve Prime of the colony,

the handmaiden to the Lord Island Protector.

I do. I do.

Thomas,

John,

Cromwell,

Holyoke,

Frances.

Wagon wheel took her finger.

Children, your new mother.

'Tis a blessing to meet you all.

Has she a name?

Mary.

Good name.

But I think she's missing something.

This brooch came from my mother.

Is there one for each of us?

Perhaps the morrow shall yield further tokens.

At such an hour?

Ensure no harm comes to them.

Have you an errand that requires my company?

No, I have work that needs doing.

On our wedding night?

The burdens of leadership ride my shoulders by day and by dark.

See them all laid down to their rest.

I set down these lines for the first time as a married woman,

though I confess when my mother spoke of what to expect on my wedding night,

she missed the mark.

First, there are five children here.

Second, my husband departed suddenly with neither a caress nor a kind word.

But Christ asks us not to despair,

and I look with hope to grow into the duties of a wife.

Richard?

Richard, are you home?

Richard?

Richard?

Leave me be.

You're a watcher.

I'm sorry?

You like to watch other people,

see into their business.

Forgive me, what befell them?

There's a plague upon us.

A violent madness comes over the infected.

Can they not be healed?

Well, that's my husband.

Town physician.

He does what he can for them,

gives them something to calm their nerves,

but heal them? No.

But don't worry.

Richard Warren always says the bad times will end.

God be with you.

And with you.

There's three more infected this week since the fog.

That makes 20 now in total.

I have warned them to stay out of the foul air.

Otis Stevens tends to the sick every day.

But he's not infected.

Well, not yet.

They say they suffer from some kind of mania.

Should we be worried?

No.

Cornelius Evans was the first to fall ill.

At first, had no symptoms beyond a headache.

His wife gave him brandy. He slept soundly, but…

he woke always with the same headache. Here.

Five days like this.

And his eyes were yellow with spoiled moons.

He changed.

He was angry, confused.

Otis saw him that very night.

He told him to take a warm bath,

and he thought to come back with a draught in the morning.

But by dawn, when Otis came back,

he saw a knot of hair in the doorway.

Went inside and he found Cornelius on the ground.

With his fingers inside his wife's skull.

The infections are growing faster.

It will soon overwhelm us.

We must do something.

- You must do something. - Sarah,

would you take yourself to bed?

But I haven't finished cleaning.

They say that you're in communion with this island,

that you whisper to it.

You tame it. You turn it to your will.

That you are the only reason we survived

- the first years. - Hold your tongue.

They say that you kiss that necklace like it was a cross,

but it's no cross, sir.

What is it you hide in there?

They say it is a covenant!

Child, what ails thee?

I feel I have greatly mistaken my course in coming here.

Though my days before were sorrowful, I fared well enough.

Perhaps the life of a… of a childless woman without a husband,

it is… it is… It is one I could… I could come to bear…

- Enj… Enjoy! Enjoy the role... - Good woman, you are not making sense.

Well, I am filled with terror, Pastor!

I saw him.

I saw him murder Ezra Lowery.

Is there a body?

No,