The Waterfront Recap ‘Playing with Fire’: There can only be one

The Waterfront Season 1 Episode 3 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 never going to work, that forced partnership between Harlan and Porter. Harlan was too used to calling the shots. Porter chafed at the thought of seeing a Buckley in control again, not when he was so thoroughly enjoying seeing the family struggle. When Harlan went to Porter’s house, in his car he had a gun and a drink. He left the gun in the car and took the drink, because despite Porter sending men to nearly set Peyton on fire, despite Porter himself going to the restaurant to threaten Belle that members of their family will start to disappear, Harlan still had the confidence of a man who had spent most of his life befriending everyone in town. It was both a skill and a decades long practice, that man who would buy everyone drinks, who was everyone’s friend. Besides, Belle herself asked him to turn Porter into a friend. Husband and wife had severely underestimated the depth of Porter’s grievance as a man who grew up forced to look up to the Buckleys.

On the surface of it, Harlan’s proposal seemed reasonable. Porter was the law, he needed to stay clean so he could protect the operation. What Harlan wanted was to meet Grady and handle the drug running side of things. Porter would still get his cut. 

Porter chafed at the thought of the Buckley surfacing in Harlan and wanting control again, and pulled a gun on him. Would Porter truly have shot Harlan? I believe so. Outside of Porter himself telling Harlan that without him, he would only have to deal with Cane, there was also this deep hatred that Porter felt for Harlan, which the show had successfully laid out through the past couple of episodes. 

They wrestled, and though Porter eventually got his gun back, Harlan managed to grab a screwdriver and bury it into his skull. Then, his heart started to act up, and he ended up on the garage floor next to Porter.

Cane was struggling with the sudden uptick of violence. Peyton knew something was going on with him and his father, and was furious at him for keeping secrets. Since her attack, she had started carrying a gun. Concerned for her safety, and unable to come with her because she was too angry to even be in a car with him, Cane asked Tim to follow her. 

Reggie successfully located the two men who accosted Peyton. They readily confessed that it was Porter who sent them to scare Peyton. Harlan gave Cane a tire iron to hit the men who attacked his wife, because, Harlan said, it would send a message not to come after the family, and it would make Cane feel better, but Cane refused. It was Harlan and Reggie who ended up delivering the beatdown, whilst Cane walked away.

Where Cane ended up walking to was the hardware store owned by Jenna’s father. Cane was vague about his troubles, but Jenna was pretty clear that things were not fine between her and her husband Scott. They both said they needed a friend, but Cane telling Jenna she was his one ‘sweet distraction’ was already about a mile past the friend zone. Revisiting a past you never quite got over with whilst the present is being very messy is understandable, I’m just not into this particular thread with these particular characters. When alone together, as with the first episode, Cane and Jenna again looked like they were in a different show. 

Whilst her family struggled, Bree kept her eye on taking her brother down. The manifest Bree copied made Marcus think Cane was using two boats to run the smuggling operation, the Morning Breeze and the Miss Glory. He asked Bree if she could get him into the Morning Breeze. If he could confirm that the Automatic Identification System was manually disabled, which was illegal, it might be enough to convince his captain to issue a shadow surveillance to follow the boat on its next run. He needed to catch Cane or his men (Tim and Reggie) in the act with drugs in their hands.

Bree snuck Marcus into the boat, where he confirmed that the AIS was indeed disconnected. He also copied GPS data off the radar and took samples to determine the presence of drugs. As they were about to leave, Reggie came on the boat. Bree was able to lead him off so Marcus could escape. 

It was not enough. The samples yielded no drugs, and Marcus’s captain would not authorise an expensive shadow operation based on the disconnected AIS. His captain wanted him out of Havenport by tomorrow. With Marcus stressed and struggling with his addiction, Bree stayed in the motel and distracted him. 

Belle had her own troubles, outside of Porter showing up at the restaurant to threaten her. Though she did not know that Harlan and Shawn’s mother Bebe had an affair, she kept her calm and was at least outwardly kind to Shawn. She gave him a couple of photos of his mother when she was young and working for the Buckleys. She also asked that he not tell Harlan yet. 

Was this revelation that her husband had a child by another woman why Belle finally gave in to Wes’s persistent attempts to get her into his hotel room? They had sex, and Wes promised her it would not affect their business. 

Much of the tension on this episode came from Porter, so it would be interesting to see how the show would go on without his presence. His power as the Sheriff and his decades long grievance against Harlan gave their interactions emotional weight. Something would have to fill that gap, and I look forward to seeing what would. 

Rating: B 

Strays

🛥️The two men poured gas on Peyton and her pavement, but one of them stopped the fire before it reached her. Message sent. The Sheriff did not even bother to come to the scene; his Deputy, Drew, handled it. When Harlan stormed into Porter’s office, Porter did not bother denying ordering the attack on Peyton.

🛥️Shawn went to law school and had a boyfriend of two years.

🛥️After hanging out with his high school girlfriend, Cane went home and made up with his wife.

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Episode Title: Playing With Fire

Episode Writer: Michael Narducci

Episode Director: Liz Friedlander

Original Air Date: June 19, 2025

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