Diksha Sundriyal
In Netflix’s ‘The Waterfront,’ each member of the Buckley family has to play their part in ensuring the family’s survival. While Harlan, Belle, and Cane are aware of the problems and the consequences if they are not resolved, Bree is kept out of the loop for a while for several reasons. Their idea is to keep her from harm while they deal with the things that get more and more complicated with each turn. However, it leads her to do something that puts the family in more danger. Eventually, when she discovers the stakes, she decides to do something horrific to protect the ones she loves. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Bree Chose Her Family Over Marcus
DEA Agent Marcus Sanchez would probably not have come to Havenport and become obsessed with finding dirt on the Buckleys and moving further up the food chain to catch the bigger fish if it weren’t for Bree. Their paths crossed at an AA meeting, and the friendship soon turned into something romantic. At the same time, Bree holds a grudge against her brother, Cane, who testifies against her, leading her to lose custody of her son, Diller. Now that Cane is in charge of the Buckley family business, she correctly suspects that he is doing something illegal, and she wants to make him hurt.
Bree’s desire to get revenge on her brother leads her to invite Marcus to Havenport. Because her father is not running the business anymore, she believes that Cane will be the only one to go down when Marcus finds incriminating evidence against him. What she doesn’t realise is how quickly things have escalated behind the scenes and how her father is now back at the helm of things. When Cane gives her an idea of what is happening with the family, she tries to dissuade Marcus from digging further. However, he is a dog with a bone now, and he refuses to give up, even when his bosses have asked him to come back and go on another job.
Marcus’ search finally delivers a trump card when he finds video evidence of Harlan and Belle at Sheriff Clyde Porter’s garage, where he was found dead. The official explanation is that Clyde died after he was crushed under the car he was working on. But Marcus suspects that Harlan had something to do with it. Instead of going directly to his bosses about it, he confronts Harlan. It turns out that he is more interested in the supplier and asks Harlan to give him the name.
However, the Buckley family patriarch knows better than to rat on someone like Grady, which doesn’t leave many options for him. When Bree finds out about the video, she, too, realises that things have gone too far, especially with her father involved now. While Marcus expresses his love for her, claiming that he didn’t go to his boss because he wanted to give Harlan a chance due to his love for Bree. However, the DEA agent doesn’t realise the extent to which she is ready to go to protect her family.
Bree Didn’t Intend to Kill Marcus
Bree was fine with having her brother thrown in jail, but when it comes to her father, she is much more cautious. She doesn’t want him to go to prison, so she tries to get Marcus off the case. But when it becomes clear that he is not going to give up, she comes up with a plan. With both of their histories as addicts, she knows how easy it is to relapse. She also knows that Marcus has been on the edge for a while, and all it needs is a little push to get him to use again. So, she shows up at his motel room with booze and drugs, leaving no room for him to refuse what is being offered to him. To nudge him on, she takes some drugs before he arrives, which makes him even more vulnerable to using.
The plan works as Marcus injects himself with drugs, but then, things go too far. The idea was to get Marcus to do drugs, to film him using, and then use it to blackmail him. She knew that being sober was integral to his job. If his bosses discovered that he was using, he would be fired. She also knew that if he used drugs, then it could be used against him, and he would never have the credibility to build a case against her family. However, she underestimated how far Marcus would fall into his relapse. She thought that things would stop with some little use, but then, he overdoses and dies, and throws the plan into a completely different direction.
Bree never intended for him to die because, despite everything, she did love him and wanted him to survive. At the same time, she knew that pushing him back into drugs would ruin his life, but she convinced herself that it would be fine as long as he was still alive. But when he dies right in front of her eyes, the reality hits her hard as she is forced to confront the consequences of her actions. The only good thing that comes out of it is that she gets all the evidence Marcus had collected on her family and gives it to Cane, who destroys all of it. Still, the guilt for her lover’s death is imprinted on her mind, and she isn’t likely to shake it off anytime soon.
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