Diksha Sundriyal
In Netflix’s ‘The Waterfront,’ a family’s quest for survival leads them down a dark and dangerous road that they might not be able to come back from. The eight-episode season takes the Buckleys of Havenport, North Carolina, through many trials and tribulations while they try to survive a financial downfall that could put them on the ground for good. While the fight is to make sure the family survives, they also deal with problems amongst themselves that eventually lead to a point where their future together becomes rather uncertain. SPOILERS AHEAD.
The Waterfront Plot Synopsis
There was a time when Harlan Buckley led his family, running the family business successfully. But then, he had two heart attacks, and his declining health threw him into a spiral of alcohol and women, leaving it on his wife, Belle, and their son, Cane, to run the business. Now, the family is on the brink of financial ruin. They need to pay off their debts to prevent the bank from taking away all of their assets. For this, they turn towards the business of running drugs.
Because Harlan’s father died running drugs for a powerful family, he had vowed never to return to it. But when his family lands in a mess, he is forced to take charge and get his hands dirty. The problem begins with a dirty sheriff, who seems to hold a lifelong grudge against Harlan, and leads the Buckleys to Grady, a local man who has made his money by supplying drugs. The problem is that he is somewhat unhinged, and soon, it becomes clear to Harlan that doing business with him is not sustainable. This leads his family to explore other options, but they are in a hell or high water kind of situation now, and the only way out is through.
Will Belle Take Over the Buckley Family Business? Will Wes Benson Die?
When Grady becomes a problem for the Buckleys, another alternative emerges in the form of the Parkers. However, they are much more dangerous than Grady, which makes Harlan hesitant to cut any deals with them. But when his current partner displays how far he can go in terms of hurting his family, the Buckley family patriarch is forced to accept his son’s advice and goes back in business with the Parkers, even though they were the ones who killed his father all those years ago. Harlan’s reservations about the Parkers are proven right when they reach out to Belle to turn her against her husband.
Emmett Parker reveals that he knows about the Buckleys’ current financial situation, where they are set to lose everything they own if they don’t pay their debts within 45 days. It was to get this money that Cane pushed his father to work with the Parkers. However, that is not the only problem. There is also the land deal which Belle had initiated without Harlan’s knowledge, which led her to bed Wes Benson, who was supposed to be nothing more than a business partner. While Belle doesn’t continue her romantic endeavours with Wes and tries to cancel the deal, it turns out that his heart is set, and because he knows about the bank’s debt, he is ready to make the move to get the land for himself. This is where the Parkers step in.
They promise Belle to solve this problem for her, but only if she is ready to wrestle control of the family and the business from Harlan. Their intention with this move is to create a rift in the family, eventually benefiting them. More importantly, because they killed Harlan’s father, they cannot trust him not to make a move against them at some point. Because he has worked with them before, he knows more about them, which he can use against them, which is why they don’t want him at the helm. With him gone, the family would be much more vulnerable and easier to manipulate. At least, that’s what they try with Belle, and for a moment, it seems that she is going to fall for their trap.
In the end, she meets with Emmett, where she finds a tied-up Wes, who is beaten to a pulp. He is not to be killed, as he is to solve Belle’s land problem. However, the more important question is whether showing up to the meeting has confirmed that Belle will be allying with the Parkers to take over control from Harlan. While it looks so, we could give her the benefit of the doubt, considering that she has made questionable choices for the family’s survival before. It could be that she is using the Parkers to solve her current problem and doesn’t really plan to betray Harlan. However, her short-sightedness has made things worse before, and she could, unwittingly, be doing the same thing this time as well.
Is Grady Dead?
While the Buckleys were never supposed to go into the business of drugs, when they actually do land there, Harlan believes that it’s better to have control in their hands. So, instead of dealing with middlemen, like Sheriff Clyde, he goes directly to the source. He meets the supplier, Grady, who is a little weird but not someone Harlan cannot handle, or at least, that’s what he thinks in the beginning. With time, Grady shows how truly off the rails he can go when he does not get things his own way, which leads the Buckleys to become bedfellows with the Parkers, through whom they try to have Grady killed.
Despite the Parkers’ best efforts, Grady survives, but at the same time, he knows that the attempt on his life has been made by the Buckleys. What’s worse is that his millions of dollars worth of stuff is blown up, and this angers him even more. Now, Grady is single-minded about getting his revenge on Harlan, so he kidnaps Bree and takes her away to the middle of the ocean in his boat. He calls Harlan there, but doesn’t know that Cane and Shawn are going to be with him, hiding in the boat, to come out at the most opportune of times.
Meanwhile, Bree tries to fight back, but her son, Diller, got on the boat, and with him in his clutches, Grady doesn’t need Bree, whom he shoots and throws in the water. Fortunately for her, Diller throws a life raft. Meanwhile, Harlan arrives on the boat and tries to trade his life for his daughter’s. But then, he discovers that his grandson is being held captive while his daughter has been thrown off the boat. With Cane and Shawn on board, Harlan manages to get the upper hand pretty easily. Because Grady doesn’t have the manpower he needs to overpower the Buckleys, he finds himself defenseless at the end. He tries to talk his way out of this situation, but Cane shoots him twice, leading him to fall into the water.
The fact that the shots looked fatal and that he is bleeding out in the middle of the ocean, with no life raft as support and no one coming to save him, there is no doubt that Grady is in fact dead and will not be walking out of this ordeal to create any more trouble for the Buckleys. However, this doesn’t mean that his death will come with no consequences. We know that he belonged to a wealthy family and was trying to run an independent business of his own. So far, we know next to nothing about his family or their background, which means that once the news of his death reaches them, they will arrive in Havenport, and that would spell even more trouble for the Buckleys.
Does Bree Die?
While all of the Buckleys cannot seem to catch a break, there is one in particular for whom life has been exceptionally hard every step of the way. Poor Bree has to go through heartbreaks and do unimaginable things to ensure her family’s safety, even though she has been put on the sidelines and doesn’t really know the extent of the problems they are facing. Eventually, Grady uses her as a bargaining chip to get Harlan, but when she fights back and Diller is found in the boat, Grady decides to do away with her.
Bree is shot in the leg and thrown into the ocean. She would have drowned, but the moment she falls, her son throws a life raft for her, and this quick thinking saves the day. While her father and brothers fight and eventually kill Grady, Bree is entirely unaware of these developments as she floats in the water. She tries to slow her bleeding using her belt, which she ties around her thighs, but she loses a considerable amount of blood. This also leads her to go back to the moment she witnessed her grandfather’s murder, a trauma that most likely paved the way for her substance abuse and other problems, as it remained unresolved.
For a minute, it seems that Bree might not survive, but luckily, there is a flare gun on the raft, which she uses to draw attention towards herself. Soon after, she is found by her father and brothers and is rushed to the hospital. It seems that her little trick did its job, so even when she lost a lot of blood, it wasn’t enough to kill her. After a long wait, the surgery goes well, and what’s even more impressive is that Bree refuses to be put on drugs to numb her pain as she plans to be sober, through and through now.
In better news, her son tells her he will not be leaving Havenport, as his father plans to. He wishes to stay with his mother and be a Buckley, even though his father doesn’t want him to have anything to do with his maternal side. This shows that her son loves her and has faith that she will get better. This is the motivation, and above all, the win she needed to get going in a life that seemed to become worse and worse with each day. In some ways, things end on a much better note for Bree than when they started.
Does Peyton Forgive Cane? Are They Back Together?
As if the problems of his family were not enough, Cane complicates things for his marriage as well. He is married to Peyton, with whom he has a daughter. However, everyone knows that this is not the life he wanted for himself. In school, he was in love with Jenna, who is now married to someone else. When she returns to town, their reunion leads to the reigniting of a spark between them. Even though Peyton tries to keep her husband to herself, his heart seems to be set on Jenna. When his wife leaves for her parents’, Cane sleeps with Jenna. What he doesn’t realise is that Peyton had been keeping tabs on him through a tracking app on his phone, which means she knows all about his whereabouts.
This betrayal cuts Peyton deep as it confirms her doubts about her husband being in love with someone else. At first, her instinct is to make Jenna pay for this betrayal, but then, when she discovers that her father has passed away, she decides to show kindness and helps Jenna plan the funeral. Moved by her actions, Jenna decides to distance herself from Cane for good, and with her out of the picture, Cane goes back home. With all the upheavals that he had been going through, it seems that he needed a distraction, which is why he turned towards Jenna, not because he was still in love with her.
In the end, when the dust has settled on the whole Grady affair and Cane finally has the time to breathe, he tries to patch things up with Peyton. Luckily for him, she is ready to give him another chance. Not just that, she is ready to be brought into the fold about all the drama, and is even ready to take charge. From her words, it is clear that she doesn’t plan to be on the sidelines anymore. In fact, she seems more adept at tackling challenges and the things that make her husband stop in his tracks. So, not only is she going to stick with him, but she is also going to make sure that he survives whatever storm is on the horizon for him. In a way, her taking charge is good for Cane, as she isn’t just someone who can support him, but also ensure that he survives.
Read More: Where is The Waterfront Filmed?
