Holt McCallany dives into the Buckley drama alongside the rest of the cast, and creator Kevin Williamson.

This article contains major character or plot details.

For a moment, the usually tumultuous seas around the Buckley family seem to have quieted in The Waterfront’s finale. The criminal clan’s eldest daughter, Bree (Melissa Benoist), is rescued from a watery grave by her father Harlan (Holt McCallany) and brothers Cane (Jake Weary) and Shawn (Rafael Silva). Bree’s drug-lord abductor, Grady (Topher Grace), is dead and her son Diller (Brady Hepner) has stowed away his simmering resentment and replaced it with genuine concern for his mother. Even Harlan — who has returned to a life of crime after decades away — and his marriage to Belle (Emmy nominee Maria Bello) seem to be on a road toward real reconciliation.

Then Belle gets a call she never expected. She is summoned to the Buckleys’ own fish house by Emmett Parker (Terry Serpico), a member of another, more powerful nearby crime family. “The Buckleys might be the big family in town, but they’re really a much smaller operation,” The Waterfront creator Kevin Williamson tells Tudum. “The Buckleys are the big fish in the small town. But the Parkers? They’re a school of sharks.”

While Harlan appears to be the head honcho of the Buckleys’ operation throughout The Waterfront, the Parkers have apparently chosen their point of contact — and it’s “pragmatic” Belle. “She’s much more rational. She’s not going to make decisions based on her emotions. She’s too smart and levelheaded for that,” Williamson explains. “They see a true partnership with her in a way that they’ll never have with Harlan.”

But Belle secretly meeting with the Parkers will surely be seen as a betrayal by Harlan, whose father died by their hands years prior. So how did the Buckleys end up in this latest inter-family drama? And who are the Parkers — along with the rest of the major players of Havenport and beyond? Keep reading as Williamson, McCallany, and the rest of The Waterfront’s cast answer all your bubbling questions.

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Who is Owen in The Waterfront?

Harlan reenters Havenport’s criminal underbelly once he learns Cane has agreed to use the Buckleys’ ships to run drugs for the town’s mysterious top dog, “Owen.” As Harlan descends into his old ways, he has one goal: finding Owen and showing him who’s really boss. Toward the end of The Waterfront’s series premiere, it’s revealed that Sheriff Porter (Michael Gaston) is the trigger-happy drug lord. Williamson explains that although Porter and Harlan have been friends since childhood, “the sheriff has always had a chip on his shoulder” about his wealthier pal.

“Harlan grew up in the big house on the beach,” Williamson says. “Porter has gotten to a point in his life where he says, ‘All I’ve done is protect and serve for a measly pension.’ He’s always wanted to live a life like he perceives Harlan has. There’s a lot of jealousy there.”

So, over The Waterfront’s first few episodes, Porter attempts to assert control over Harlan. He tries to take the lead in their criminal “partnership,” and even has his goons attack Cane’s wife Peyton (Danielle Campbell) to make a point. So, naturally, independence-minded Harlan ends up killing Porter in Episode 3.

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Who is Grady in The Waterfront?

As Harlan comes to understand Porter’s operation, he realizes the sheriff is essentially middle management. The real power lies with Grady, an ultrawealthy heroin kingpin from a neighboring town. Williamson wrote the part specifically for Grace, saying, “I knew if I put a gun in Topher’s hand and a smile on his face it would be fun. I like my villains to come with a sense of humor.” Grace tells Tudum he was excited to play a character “diametrically opposed” to the kindly suburban dad he recently portrayed in the sitcom Home Economics. 

“Grady is just such a delicious, interesting bad guy,” Grace says. “He’s a nepo baby and he wants to strike out and do his own thing. He’s got the money and the confidence, but he doesn’t necessarily have the goods.”

Grady’s unbridled arrogance clashes with Harlan’s need for authority. Tensions rise particularly quickly since all Grady wants is “a dad,” Grace admits. Harlan’s refusal to give Grady his approval only fuels the younger man’s fixation with the Buckley patriarch. “There’s a thin line between obsession and obsession,” Grace says.

What happened to Harlan’s dad? And how was the Parker family involved?

Harlan’s new collaboration with “Owen” — and eventually Grady — marks the end of his decades-long retirement from organized crime. He left the drug game immediately following the death of his father. As Grady explains in Episode 4, Harlan’s dad was a major player in the Cali Cartel and was tortured to death. Throughout Season 1, we learn the Parker crime family was behind the execution, and that a young Bree witnessed the entire gruesome scene.

Williamson explains that Harlan’s father’s death forced him to “walk the straight and narrow” in the years since. “The Buckleys fell into this life of crime. Then, when the consequences came, it all became too much,” he says. “They checked out, and they turned back to good.”

McCallany agrees, saying Harlan desperately wanted to take revenge against the Parkers. “But he understood that by doing so, he would put his entire family in jeopardy,” the actor explains. “He knew what the Parkers were capable of. If he went to war, the collateral damage could include his wife, his daughter, and his son. That was just too high a price to pay.”

So, it is extremely humbling for Harlan that he must ask the Parkers for help in Episode 7. By this point, Grady has become unmanageable. He’s kidnapped Bree’s teen son Diller (Brady Hepner) and shot him, among many other unstable offenses.

“Harlan doesn’t see another way out. Grady has turned into a live wire and a madman. Harlan knows he’s not going to stop,” Williamson says. “He can imagine the people he cares about dying. When he turns back to the Parkers, it’s a tough pill to swallow.”

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What happened to Bree as a child? And why did she lose custody of Diller?

The brutal murder of Harlan’s father didn’t only push Harlan toward a legal lifestyle, the trauma of witnessing her grandfather’s murder also caused irrevocable harm to Bree. As she got older — and was forced by her parents to deny the truth of what she saw — Bree turned to drugs and alcohol to numb her pain. Eventually, she accidentally burned her house down when she was drunk. Still, Bree managed to save Diller from the blaze. Soon after, she was declared an unfit mother and lost custody of her son. At the start of The Waterfront, Bree blames Cane for the ruling, since he testified against her.

“It’s always challenging when a character doesn’t make decisions that you necessarily agree with — and Bree makes some really terrible choices,” Benoist admits. Yet, the actor says, her character is also processing a “horrific and traumatic” past.

“What she had to bear witness to? And then to have to keep it secret from everyone? It’s just unconscionable for a young girl to have to do that,” Benoist continues. “When I found that out, everything clicked into place and made sense.”

Despite her demons, Bree is working towards redemption throughout the season. “She really wants to fix what she has destroyed,” Benoist says.

To read even more about Bree, click here.

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What is going on with Belle’s real estate deal?

Bree isn’t the only one hiding secrets from her family. When The Waterfront begins, Belle is in the midst of a secret real estate deal with local businessman Wes (Dave Annable). Harlan’s father initially bought the beachfront land for his wife (and Harlan’s mother), who wanted to keep the coastline permanently untouched.

“That land is sacred to Harlan because it was sacred to his father. It’s the place where he sprinkled his parents’ ashes when they died,” McCallany explains. “To Harlan, as long as it’s there, it’s like a piece of his father is still there, too. It would almost be sacrilegious to put a hotel or a parking structure there.”

Yet, Belle thinks selling the land is the only way to protect the Buckley family business, Williamson says. “She’s trying to save Harlan from himself. And she’s done waiting,” the writer says. “She’s like, ‘This deal will create an independence we have never known. It will help not just us survive, but the town as well.’ She sees the bigger picture. She’s determined to make him see it too.”

However, once Belle and Wes sleep together, the real estate deal falls apart. Or, at least that’s what Belle thinks. In Episode 6, we find out that Wes used the financial documents he initially received from Belle to manipulate the situation for his own gain. Because of Wes, the Buckley properties are heading toward foreclosure in 45 days.

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Who is Shawn really in The Waterfront?

In The Waterfront series premiere, Belle is suspicious of the Buckleys’ newest bartender, Shawn. Some of the details he shares are accurate: He is from Texas, and he doesn’t have a girlfriend. However, Shawn is hiding his most important truth: He’s Harlan’s son, and the product of an affair decades prior. Shawn’s mother was Bebe, a waitress in the Buckleys’ restaurant. Bebe kept Shawn’s paternity a secret until just before she died.

So, Shawn came to Havenport to meet his father. Over the course of the season, he comes to understand what it means to be a part of a big family. He grows close to Belle and eventually has a heart-to-heart with Harlan, who takes him under his wing.

“Belle confirms that my mom’s presence was there in this very place. That’s another way to say, ‘You are not lying, I see how much trouble you’ve gone to just get here. I see you,’ ” Silva says. “But Shawn doesn’t know what it means to have a father calling him ‘son.’ ”

By the finale, Shawn leans into his Buckley roots. He goes on the family mission to save Bree, who was abducted by Grady, to a heavily guarded boat in the middle of the ocean. Shawn hesitates when it comes to accepting a gun from Cane, but ultimately brandishes the weapon. “He takes the gun because this is all something bigger than him now,” Silva says. “It’s about his family. It’s about the legacy that he didn’t know he had. All of a sudden, he doesn’t just have a father, he has two siblings.’”

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Is Grady dead?

“He’s dead,” Williamson says. “Sadly, this isn’t The Vampire Diaries. People can’t come back.”

As the finale crescendos, Harlan, Cane, and Shawn infiltrate the boat to save Bree (and Diller, who stowed away on the vessel, unbeknownst to his family). In a tense standoff, Cane and Harlan both realize the only way to stop Grady is to kill him. Cane is the one who pulls the trigger, much to Grady’s shock. Would the drug kingpin be upset that Harlan isn’t the one who killed him? “Oh yeah, for sure,” Grace says. “Grady is the bad guy. But he actually wanted the partnership to work out between him and Harlan.”

While Grady will never be Harlan’s son, McCallany says his character is “deeply proud” of his actual flesh of blood for stepping up. “That’s the moment that Harlan thinks Cane became a man. All of his life, Harlan has been hoping for a relationship with his son that resembles the relationship that he had with his father,” he says. “Finally, Cane behaves the way that Harlan would’ve behaved. And Cane shows his dad that there is a lot more of Harlan in him than he thought there was. And that’s a good thing.”

Cane, however, might not agree. Grady’s murder is the first time Cane has taken a life at point-blank range. “I don’t think it brings closure to Cane,” Weary, who plays Cane, says. “There’s still so much more to unpack. If anything, Grady’s death just complicates things more for Cane, morally.”

Are Cane and Jenna really over?

When we first meet Cane and his wife Peyton, they’re clearly in the midst of a marital funk. “Cane has dug himself into a hole. That’s made him a little bit distant from Peyton and their daughter,” Weary explains. So, he feels a sudden burst of fresh air when he runs into his high school sweetheart Jenna (Humberly Gonzalez), a journalist who has returned from the big city to care for her ailing father. “Jenna is an escape for him. She’s a way for him to be avoidant,” Weary continues.

Peyton notices her husband’s wandering eye and becomes closer friends with Jenna, thinking that this tactic will cut off any possible romantic developments. “Peyton doesn’t feel threatened,” Campbell, who plays Peyton, says. “But she’s also just going to make sure she’s not threatened. Peyton is going to cover her bases.”

Despite Peyton’s best efforts, Jenna and Cane’s flirty friendship escalates to a consummated affair in Episode 6. Gonzalez, who portrays Jenna, asks viewers to maintain empathy for her character, whom she calls a good person in a “tricky” situation. “She scared me at first because I didn’t want people to hate her for her choices,” the actor says. “But she’s so relatable because it’s so human to find yourself in such a vulnerable place. Her marriage is in shambles. There are a lot of old emotional wounds resurfacing. She’s trying to put a Band-Aid on a bleeding wound, and unfortunately, Cane is a really nice Band-Aid.”

Still, in the finale, Jenna pushes Cane away. Her father has just died, and Cane’s wife was the only person who was there for Jenna in her time of need. “This girl needs some therapy and maybe some time alone potentially,” Gonzalez says.

Weary suggests Cane might need to do some soul-searching of his own. “He’s letting go of that idealized version of himself and his past,” the actor says. “He’s trying to be more present, and there for his family.”

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Does that mean Cane and Peyton are actually “fine?”

After breaking up with Jenna, Cane returns home to a freshly recommitted Peyton. She promises that their marriage is “fine” and she’s going to “see to” the success of their union. “They ultimately have this relationship that is fundamentally driven by sex and determination,” Weary says. “When you have a family and a child, it’s not always easy. Sometimes you have to find your partner again. Unfortunately, it took some people dying and Peyton almost being set on fire for them to realize they can rely on each other.”

This evolution is a big step for Cane and Peyton, who have known each other for years. The actor believes the couple have been in each other’s orbit since high school, but only connected after college. “In my mind, Peyton has been outside their small fishing world,” Campbell says. “She has seen parts of the world, but didn’t succeed in it. So she gets to be kind of the queen of their little town.” While the pair aren’t high school sweethearts, both Campbell and Weary agree their characters share something even more “adult.” “Cane does love Peyton, and he loves his family,” Weary says.  e

With that in mind, Peyton isn’t ready to lose control of the life she created just yet. After all, she has only just learned about the Buckleys’ criminal activity. “Cane is in the doghouse,” Campbell admits. “But Peyton had a choice. She could leave, or she could stay and explore what this world looks like. Now she’s staked her claim.”

Although Peyton swore she would never become Belle, “she’s wrong about that,” Williamson says. Peyton has essentially made the same choice as her mother-in-law, who remained with Harlan throughout all of his illegal enterprises. “Peyton knows what she wants, and she’s on a journey of self-discovery herself,” the writer says. .

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What does the final scene of The Waterfront mean?

Belle and Harlan’s relationship seems to be on the upswing at the close of the finale. Then, Belle leaves for a clandestine meeting with Emmett Parker at the fish house. By this point, the Buckleys and Parkers are settled into a tenuous alliance. As Belle rounds a corner, she realizes the Parkers have abducted Wes and are beating him to a pulp. Emmett explains that they’re not going to kill Wes — he’s no good to them dead. Instead, the Parkers require Wes’ complete loyalty now that he’s got a hand in the land deal.

Emmett even has Wes call Belle his “boss,” suggesting she is the Parkers’ preferred Buckley family leader.

Williamson hopes viewers feel “excited” as they watch the final seconds of The Waterfront Season 1. “This season was about Harlan and Cane — how they reconciled their differences and how they’re going to move forward,” the series creator explains. “Now Belle is a little more front and center. She’s not living in the shadows.”

While this development is good for Belle, Harlan might not be so happy to learn his wife is collaborating with the enemy in secret. McCallany, at least, thinks his character would be willing to talk through Belle’s latest betrayal. “Sometimes people make the wrong decisions for the right reasons,” he says. “If someone hurts Harlan, he has to ask, ‘Was it their intention to hurt me? Or was it their intention to protect me?’ Even though he wouldn’t like what Belle did, she did it out of love for him and their family.”

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Is Shawn actually a good bartender yet?

“I’m going to say, he’s an okay bartender,” Silva says with a laugh. “He’s not a good bartender. He’s not a great bartender. But he’s getting by.”

Relive Shawn’s entire journey — along with the rest of the Buckley family’s — by diving into The Waterfront Season 1 on Netflix.

Additional reporting by Chancellor Agard.

[“Smoke on the Water” playing]

2:07

The trailer for The Waterfront