‘The Waterfront’ ending explained: does Bree survive?

A lot can go down in the span of 43 minutes — at least, that’s what the jaw-dropping finale of Netflix’s The Waterfront proves. After seven episodes of peeling back all the layers of Buckley family trauma amidst earth-shattering secrets and deadly underground drug deals, the final episode titled “Lost at Sea” (Episode 8) ends the gritty drama with several bangs, keeping just enough loose ends untied to leave viewers stunned and hungry for more. If the thrilling finale left your head spinning with all those twists and turns, we at Decider are here to help. 

First, a brief overview of the show (though we really recommend you watch it before you read on): After leaving the illustrious Buckley fishing empire in the hands of his wife Belle (Maria Bello) and son Cane (Jake Weary), family patriarch Harlan (Holt McCalleny) must get back into the game as the family reenters the drug-smuggling scene to pay off their extensive debt. Recovering alcoholic daughter Bree (Melissa Benoist) struggles to find her place in the family and attempts to reconnect with her son Diller (Brady Hepner) whom she lost custody of. All the while, Cane’s marriage with Peyton (Danielle Campbell) takes a beating as his high school sweetheart Jenna (Humberly Gonzalez) returns to town to care for her father. 

Now that we’re all caught up, let’s dive into the finale. And be warned: that’s not blood in the water, it’s spoilers for the final episode of The Waterfront. Proceed with caution.

What Happened To Bree And Diller?

To recap the ending of Episode 7, Cane, Harlan, and Harlan’s bartender-turned-secret-son Shawn (Raphael L. Silva) narrowly escape drug lord Grady’s (Topher Grace) wrath having blown his entire heroin farm to smithereens. Bree goes looking for Diller who ran away for the second time that episode, and promptly gets kidnapped by Grady’s goons, or as some might call them, The Grady Bunch. The finale opens with Bree waking up on Grady’s swanky-but-terrifying yacht. She looks out the window to find that the boat is adrift in the middle of the ocean. She tries to escape, but can’t — there are men guarding every corner of the yacht. 

Back on land, the Buckleys speculate that Grady did something to Bree. Harlan calls Grady who, in his cheerfully chilling way, tells Harlan to come to him alone, or his little girl gets it. The Buckleys are at a loss: Harlan will be killed if he goes alone, but if he doesn’t, no one may make it out alive. To everyone’s surprise, Shawn suggests that there may be a solution.

Cut back to Bree fashioning a knife out of a broken clothing hanger and moving to stab the guy trying to get in her room. To her shock and horror, it’s Diller, who explains how he snuck onto the boat after watching her get kidnapped. Bree shoves Diller into a closet and tells him not to make a sound. A member of The Grady Bunch then escorts Bree to the deck where Grady is singing a tune and waiting to share a meal with her — fun, right?

Meanwhile, Shawn and Cane are sailing with Harlan, planning to hide in his boat to catch Grady by surprise. The estranged step-brothers finally connect: Cane asks Shawn why he hasn’t left after everything that has happened, and he responds saying that Cane and Harlan belong with each other, and that he, a gay man from rural Texas, has never known what it feels like to belong.

Back on the yacht, Bree complains about her food. As the waiter moves to take it away, she smashes a bottle of vodka over his head and takes his gun. She shoots one of the goons and threatens murder if Grady doesn’t turn the ship around. Grady almost complies, until a guard discovers Diller and brings him up to the deck. Grady threatens to shoot Diller, so Bree drops her gun…before stabbing Grady in the leg with her makeshift knife from earlier. Talk about a Chekhov’s gun — or rather, a Chekhov’s clothing hanger. Furious, Grady deduces that he just needs one Buckley for ransom and shoots Bree in the leg, throwing her overboard to drown. Thankfully, Diller manages to toss his mother a life raft before getting locked back up in the ship.

Do The Buckleys Take Grady Down?

Harlan sails up to Grady’s yacht, appearing to come alone and in peace, calling Grady the smarter man, the better man. Grady is suspicious, rightfully so; after all, this is when Shawn and Cane come out of hiding and infiltrate the yacht, strangling a guard along the way. Grady claims that all that lost heroin is worth one alcoholic daughter. It’s too late for Bree, Grady says — they already tossed her out to sea. Before Harlan can respond, Grady’s goons grab him and hold him down. Grady then brings out Diller and has his guys beat Harlan to a pulp, wanting him to die knowing he’s the one that brought his family to ruin. 

Suddenly, Cane and Shawn swoop in, commanding everyone to drop their weapons. The guns go down long enough to get Diller safely onto the Buckley boat, but they don’t stay down. Soon enough, a full-on shootout explodes between the Grady Bunch and the Buckley clan. Bullets fly, bodies flip overboard, and it ends with Cane and Harlan aiming their guns at Grady. Growing desperate, Grady appeals to Harlan, suggesting that he doesn’t want a son who’s too scared to kill. With perfect irony, Cane cuts off Grady’s smarmy insult with a shot to the head. Harlan delivers another shot, sending Grady to a watery grave. He did say he was aquatic.

Does Bree Survive?

During all the action on the yacht, Bree tries to save herself by climbing into the life raft and using her belt as a tourniquet for her leg. With a pool of watery blood around her, Bree passes out. She dreams that she is back in the closet where she watched her grandfather get beaten to death as a child. She sees her childhood self curled up in the closet with her, trembling and afraid. Bree comforts her past self, telling herself what she needed to hear all along: she was just a child, and nothing that happened that night was her fault. This dream marks a crucial turning point in Bree’s character arc, as this is the first time that she is truly able to come to terms with her trauma. This eye-opening moment is underscored by Bree, well, opening her eyes and shooting a flare into the sky while imagining embracing her younger self. She passes out again, only to be woken up by Harlan and co. coming to save her, making for a very satisfying ending to this heart-wrenching subplot.

Where Is Belle In All This?

While the men engage in their maritime massacre, Belle has to stay on land and make sure Emmett Parker (Terry Serpico), a member of a powerful crime family whom the Buckleys wish to get back into business with, picks up his dead bodygaurds which Grady dropped off at the Buckley house as a warning in the previous episode. Belle and Emmett have a brief, friendly exchange in which Emmett shows his cards: he knows that the Buckleys are in debt and that Belle tried (and failed) to build out their property. He assures Belle that he is on her side, and that with his help, she could finally be the one in charge. This promise comes to a head when…well, we’ll get to it.

What’s Up With Peyton And Jenna?

What’s more threatening to a marriage: having an affair with a past flame, or being involved in an underground drug cartel? Peyton doesn’t get to choose — at the beginning of the episode, Cane confesses that he has done both. The affair strikes a particular nerve with Peyton, and after her husband leaves to go shoot some guys on a yacht, she decides to confront the other woman once and for all. She never gets to do this, however. She ambushes Jenna only to find her crying and distraught with grief over her father’s passing. Ever the epitome of Southern class, Peyton takes the high road by comforting Jenna and helping her make the funeral arrangements.

The Waterfront on Netflix Ending Explained

Everything wraps up after Bree is shipped off to the hospital. After surgery, the doctors determine that even with all the blood loss, Bree is going to be okay. Diller visits her in the hospital room — she’s in pain because she will only allow herself to take two Tylonal to stay sober for good. Diller tells her that he doesn’t want to move away with his father, and that he is going to stay with her. The two hug, finally having reconciled for all the pain of the past.

Cane and Harlan have a short, but deeply meaningful heart-to-heart: after telling Cane to make peace with what he’s done, Harlan says that the reason he wanted Cane to stay in the business was that Harlan had always run the fishery with his father before he was killed. He shows a surprising and heartwarming amount of vulnerability — even with their messy relationship, Harlan needs Cane to stay because he doesn’t want to be alone.

Cane later leaves the hospital and pays a visit to a mourning Jenna. Jenna mentions that Peyton helped her and says what all viewers are probably thinking at this point: what she and Cane have isn’t real. They just used each other as distractions from their miserable lives. Jenna isn’t the solution to Cane’s problems, and she can’t fix him. Cane tries to object, but Jenna won’t hear it; she tells him to go away, and never come back.

With nowhere else to run, Cane returns home to his wife. He tells Peyton that everything is over — the drug smuggling, the fling with Jenna, all of it. He says that he wants them to be good, that he wants to be good for her. She responds by giving him a searing kiss and telling him that they will be just fine — she’ll “see to it” that they are. There is an ounce of mysterious threat to her words here, which could indicate more marital trouble for Cane in a possible Season 2.

Back at the hospital, Belle and Harlan share a rare loving moment. They both express how things can’t continue going on as they are between them. Though they can’t love each other every minute, they both agree that in this exact moment, they don’t hate each other. How sweet! It’s too bad Belle is harboring yet another secret, and is going behind Harlan’s back once again to do business with the Parkers. 

After receiving a phone call from Emmett telling her to speak with him after dark to discuss the land deal, Belle meets him in the fish house. There seem to be more screams of agony in the background than usual during this final scene, and soon both Belle and the viewers find out why: Wes (Dave Annable), the sexy real estate agent that Belle previously worked/had an affair with, is being held hostage and beaten bloody by Emmett’s men. In the last haunting few minutes of the episode, Emmett asks Wes what he has to say to his “new boss.” Wes pitifully assures Belle that he’ll do anything she says. After seven episodes of Belle having to play second fiddle to her cheating, boozing husband and having to do damage control for his reckless behavior, this moment puts Belle in charge for the first time. We then cut to the last shot of the series so far: a close-up on Belle wearing an expression of both fear and newfound power. 

The Waterfront leaves viewers on a perfect cliffhanger which gives us a lot to think about: Will Belle go through with the land deal? How will Belle’s secret and new sense of authority affect her realationship with Harlan? Will there relationship and fishing empire survive? We’ll just have to hope for a Season 2 to answer all our burning questions.

The Waterfront is now available on Netflix.