NEED TO KNOW
- Netflix’s The Waterfront, which premiered on June 19, follows the Buckley household as they flip to drug smuggling to maintain their empire afloat
- The ending sees a face-off between the Buckleys and drug kingpin Grady (Topher Grace)
- In the course of the season finale, the household’s lives are put in jeopardy
On The Waterfront, hazard is round each dock.
The Netflix sequence — which premiered on June 19 — follows the Buckley household, who dwell within the small coastal North Carolina city of Havenport. Because the house owners of a fishing firm and a restaurant, they’re one of many city’s richest and strongest households. However unbeknownst to the locals, the Buckleys are in critical debt.
To avoid wasting the household, son Cane (Jake Weary) decides to begin utilizing the household’s fishing boat to smuggle medicine. Initially, Cane thinks he’ll simply do just a few jobs to earn sufficient cash to place the Buckleys within the black — however one night time, two of the lads on his ship go lacking. That occasion drives the Buckleys down a darkish path that finally pits them in the course of two warring drug kingpins, the Parker household and a infamous smuggler named Grady (Topher Grace).
On the finish of the season, the Buckleys and the Parkers group as much as destroy Grady’s empire, blowing up his warehouse and killing lots of his runners. Grady is livid — which units viewers up for the present’s large finale.
However what occurs within the present’s closing episode? This is every part to know concerning the ending of The Waterfront, together with if it’s going to return for a season 2.
Warning: Spoilers forward for The Waterfront!
How does The Waterfront finish?
After his drug enterprise is destroyed, Grady kidnaps the Buckleys’ daughter Bree (Melissa Benoist), in addition to her son Diller (Brady Hepner). He takes them out on his yacht earlier than calling patriarch Harlan (Holt McCallany), hoping to lure them out to the ocean to homicide them.
Earlier than her household arrives, Bree tries to shoot Grady, however as soon as Grady’s henchman captures Diller, she’s pressured to choose: drop the gun or watch her son die. She throws her weapon away, giving Grady the possibility to shoot her within the thigh after which throw her overboard. Fortunately, Diller breaks free simply lengthy sufficient to toss her a deployable raft, which Bree manages to climb onto.
When Harlan and Cane lastly arrive, Harlan makes himself recognized whereas Cane sneakily enters by way of the opposite facet of the yacht. Harlan is confronted by an more and more unstable Grady, who feels betrayed by the household.
“I need you to die realizing you’re the one responsible,” he yells. “You’re the one which led your loved ones down this path. This isn’t me, that is you!”
Cane then sneaks up from behind and kills Grady’s males, liberating his father. The 2 Buckleys nook Grady on the bow of the yacht. Cane shoots him twice straight by way of the face, inflicting Grady to fall overboard.
What occurs after Cane shoots Grady in The Waterfront finale?
After killing Grady, the Buckleys discover Bree and produce her again to shore, the place she recovers within the hospital.
Miraculously, regardless of being surrounded by bloodshed and warring drug lords, not one of the Buckleys die. The ultimate moments of the episode present the household gathered within the hospital caring for Bree, who appears to be making good progress in her restoration.
Will there be a season 2 The Waterfront?
There is no official phrase but on if The Waterfront will get a second season. Nevertheless, creator Kevin Williamson — who’s additionally written hits like I Know What You Did Final Summer season and Dawson’s Creek — mentioned engaged on the sequence has revitalized his profession.
“I do assume I’m in just a little little bit of a second or third or fourth wind,” Williamson advised TV Insider in June 2025. “I really feel like I’ve had 5 careers. I truthfully felt like I used to be able to retire, and it turned out I wasn’t.”
The place does The Waterfront go from right here?
If there have been to be a season 2, there are a selection of instructions that Williamson might go in.
Regardless of the variety of deaths all through the season, there isn’t any point out of regulation enforcement or felony punishment within the finale in any respect. So it’s doable that The Waterfront ending has really positioned the household within the eye of the storm, with the Buckleys now pressured to dwell with the truth of their actions.
Moreover, the ending implies the household continues to be in a partnership with the Parkers, which means they have not gotten out of their dire monetary scenario simply but.