The Waterfront Recap ‘Taking Control’:’ When a friend wants to buy you a beer, you let him’

The Waterfront Season 1 Episode 2 Recap and Review

All eight episodes of The Waterfront are currently airing on Netflix. Please watch them before reading these spoiler-filled recaps.

It was the little things that wound the most. When Harlan Buckley confronted Sheriff Clyde Porter for nearly getting him and Cane killed, Porter brought Harlan back to their shared past. Harlan’s father was brutally murdered when Harlan was about 29 or 30, and Porter was just a Deputy. About a week later, Porter saw Harlan at a bar, and tried to buy him a beer. Harlan insisted on paying. For Harlan, it was a simple matter of knowing that realistically, Porter as a young cop did not have much money. For Porter, it was a moment of equality, of shared humanity, that Harlan rejected. Even when he was at his lowest point, Harlan still insisted on being a Buckley and paying because he could. Porter was not allowed to perform a simple gesture of friendship, of comradeship, because Harlan did not view him as an equal. Most people at Havenport were comfortable with the Buckleys occupying a higher social strata. Porter resented it.

‘Taking Control’ was grounded in memory and shared history that made The Waterfront’s second episode a stronger entry. For Porter, the Buckleys’ current financial predicament was an opportunity for him to enjoy having the upper hand, for once. Though the DEA was still in town, he insisted on Harlan and Cane doing a drug run themselves. Prior to this, Cane was only providing the boats; now, he and his father had to get their hands dirty, even as they later realised that Porter was back to his Owen cocoon and sent his man Stevie to deliver the cargo to the Buckleys’ boat.

For Harlan, this was a step back through time, to a life that he worked hard to get away from. He tried to give Cane some pointers to survive, including keeping his mouth shut, but when the men they were transferring the cargo to found out that they were 10 kilos short, it was Cane who tried to talk their way out of a potentially deadly situation. He thought the men would call Porter aka Owen, but it was to a man named Grady they turned to. Just like that, they had the name of the man in charge, the mysterious supplier.

Harlan, after punching Porter to his garage floor, told him they would do no further runs until he met Grady. Porter, of course, knew this was a play by Harlan to cut him off as a middle man. The reaction to this demand was swift. After returning home from a dinner, Cane’s wife Peyton was accosted by two men outside their house. They forced her to the ground and poured gasoline on her, and lit a match. The violence that claimed the lives of Curtis and Troy, that opened this series, had now reached a member of the Buckley family. 

Peyton had been having a bad night. She organised a dinner with her husband, her husband’s high school girlfriend Jenna, and Jenna’s husband Scott. Cane and Jenna were both nervous, so prior to the dinner, they took shots and had a gummy. 

The dinner was just a little less than a disaster. Cane tried to make light of it with his wife, but Peyton was not having it. Peyton told Cane he was changing, that he was becoming his father. She left him on the parking lot with no doubt that she would walk away if he did not cease his Harlanisation. With Peyton having a bigger role, the story of Cane and Jenna was better integrated into the larger narrative. 

Belle, too, was doing her part to try and financially rescue the family by partnering with a developer to significantly monetise a massive Buckley beachfront property. Belle led Wes Larsen to believe that Harlan was fully on board with the plan, only, this was a complete lie. Harlan had a massive sentimental attachment to the property. It was a gift from his father to his mother, and it was his mother’s wish that it remained untouched. 

Belle and Wes bonded over their past. They both did not come from money, and they were determined not to return to a place of want. Later, Wes frankly asked Belle to return to his hotel with him. Belle turned him down, but she did indulge her curiosity and kissed him. When she returned to the restaurant and found new bartender Shawn alone and talking to someone on the phone, her suspicions of him bubbled over. She confronted him about his fake references and asked him if he were a DEA informant. He wasn’t. Shawn dropped the name Bebe West, which Belle immediately recognised. Shawn said that before Bebe passed, she told him his father was Harlan Buckley. So, yeah, no judgment from me on Belle kissing Wes, not when we were first introduced to Harlan whilst he was with his mistress Rhonda, and now we have his son by another woman.

The real DEA informant was Bree, who met her lover Agent Marcus Sanchez at a motel. It turned out that she was the one who brought the DEA in town; she saw Cane with Troy, Curtis, and Hoyt, and they were talking about a drug run. What made her hate her brother so much that she sicced the DEA on him, we do not yet know. But Bree was convinced her parents had nothing to do with the drug running operation; she thought it started when Cane took over the business.

Agent Marcus was not feeling optimistic. This was his first case out of rehab, he was on probation, and they had not been able to find drugs. Some of the agents were already leaving town. Determined to nail her brother, Bree went into the office and copied files off the computer. She gave the USB to Agent Marcus and claimed it would crucify Cane. 

‘Taking Control’ was a smoother flowing, better connected episode, and not just because it dove a little deeper into the Buckleys’ past. It opened a lot of fascinating questions I look forward to getting answers to in the next episodes.

Rating: B+ 

Strays

🛥️The coastguard found the bodies of Curtis and Troy. The coroner ruled their deaths an accident.

🛥️Shawn came across Cane watching all the police activity and asked all sorts of questions, to Cane’s annoyance. Shawn was not buying the accidental drowning story.

🛥️Belle told Harlan they were four months behind on both mortgages and two months behind on a loan. The bank gave them a three-month extension, but they needed to come up with two million dollars in less than three months to bring them up to date.

🛥️Harlan wanted to meet the supplier so they could establish their own supply line and negotiate a higher fee. Belle reminded him this was a temporary situation, they would not make a business out of it.

🛥️Cane and Belle agreed that Harlan looked like he was enjoying being involved in their not really new crime enterprise. Belle: ‘Crime always did agree with him.’

🛥️Harlan wanted to give Bree more responsibility, but Belle insisted she wanted a full year of sobriety first.

🛥️Belle to Harlan: ‘You’re so good at sorry. It’s the staying sorry you struggle with.’

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Episode Title: Taking Control

Episode Writer: Kevin Williamson

Episode Director: Marcos Siega

Original Air Date: June 19, 2025

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