The Ultimate Widow’s Bay Halloween Playlist: Patricia’s Sunset Cocktails, Easter Eggs & Emmy-Winning Music

Why Patricia’s Playlist Is So Perfect for Her Character

I wish I had the job of creating this playlist. Music supervisor Toko Nagata revealed that the creative team spent considerable time figuring out what Patricia would listen to. When discussing Episode 8 and Enya’s “Caribbean Blue,” Nagata explained that throughout the season the question kept coming up: What does Patricia actually listen to?

For the Sunset Cocktails party, Patricia is trying to project an image. Her old school friends are coming, she wants to look cool, and she desperately wants the party to be perfect. Nagata joked that Patricia essentially seemed to have written down every song she had ever heard. Suddenly, 811 tracks makes complete sense. It also explains why the playlist jumps wildly through decades, genres and levels of coolness. Patricia is not calmly curating background music. Patricia is preparing. There is a difference.

“Rhythm of the Night” Was Very Deliberately Chosen

One of the defining musical moments in “Beach Reads” is Corona’s “The Rhythm of the Night.” Nagata revealed that the production tried numerous songs for the party sequence. The script described the party as being essentially turned up to an absurd level, and the team wanted something that captured Patricia completely in her element. Eventually, Katie Dippold decided “Rhythm of the Night” was the song. The result is one of the funniest, happiest and increasingly most unsettling sequences in the entire series. And yes, the song appears on Patricia’s real Apple Music playlist too. 

The Enya Easter Egg Tells Us Something Completely Different About Patricia

At Sunset Cocktails, Patricia’s music represents the version of herself she wants other people to see. But in Episode 8, when Patricia is alone cleaning out her closet, she listens to “Caribbean Blue” by Enya. According to Nagata, that difference was intentional. Party Patricia wants the coolest, biggest, most crowd-pleasing playlist imaginable.

Private Patricia listens to Enya. Nagata has even called the Enya sequence her favorite needle drop of the season.

For anyone trying to understand Patricia rather than simply dress like her, that may be one of the sweetest little character clues in the entire series.

“Brandy” Is Not Random Either

Another musical choice with a deeper connection to the story is Looking Glass’s “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl)”, heard in Episode 6, “Our History.” Unlike many of the songs considered during production, “Brandy” was reportedly written into the script, and Nagata specifically noted that its lyrics were relevant to what was happening with Wyck.

That makes it worth another listen for fans. A song about a woman connected to a sailor who belongs to the sea is already an interesting choice for Widow’s Bay, a show overflowing with sailors, maritime folklore, disappearances, curses and people who probably should stop going anywhere near the water. Coincidence? Maybe. But on this island, we have learned not to dismiss anything too quickly.

The Hidden Playlist Easter Eggs Fans Started Finding

This is where things get especially fun. Some playlist details have been discussed by the show’s music team. Others are fan discoveries, so they should be treated as Easter-egg theories rather than confirmed clues from Katie Dippold or Apple. Fans who began digging through all 811 songs noticed some extremely Patricia-like oddities. There are repeated tracks and titles throughout the enormous playlist. Fans reported that Daft Punk’s “Around the World” appears three times and Darude’s “Sandstorm” appears twice. Others noticed multiple songs named “Patricia,” along with repeated references to Rosemary and even Beach Reads. Is every repetition an intentional clue?

Probably not. But an island where people cannot seem to escape its geography being accompanied by “Around the World” three separate times is exactly the sort of accidental-or-maybe-not joke Widow’s Bay fans are going to notice.

The Creepiest Possible Easter Egg: “Sometimes” by James

One of the more intriguing fan discoveries involves “Sometimes” by James. Fans noticed that the song’s imagery includes extreme weather, water and ominous events around a bay, themes that feel almost unnervingly appropriate to the supernatural mythology of Widow’s Bay. One analysis of the playlist singled the song out because of how closely its imagery appears to echo events and dangers surrounding the island. There has been no confirmation from the creators that the song was deliberately planted as foreshadowing, so I would classify this as a superfan theory rather than canon. But it is exactly the kind of theory that makes listening through Patricia’s ridiculous 60-hour playlist so much fun.

Even the Repetition Feels Like Patricia

Other fan discoveries include repeated versions or appearances of songs such as “Groovejet,” along with unexpectedly deep dance cuts, a long version of Orbital’s “Chime,” “Everybody’s Free” by Rozalla, “Pump Up the Jam,” the Space Jam theme and plenty of Kylie Minogue. Which raises an important question: Did someone carefully construct an elaborate musical code? Or did Patricia simply hear a song once in 1998 and decide it needed to remain in active rotation forever? Both explanations feel plausible.

One Song From Sunset Cocktails Is Surprisingly Missing

Here is another detail serious fans may appreciate. Montell Jordan’s “This Is How We Do It” plays during the onscreen Sunset Cocktails sequence as Patricia begins dancing. But despite the staggering size of the Apple Music playlist, the song was reported to be missing from Patricia’s 811-song collection. Eight hundred and eleven songs, and somehow Patricia forgot one she actually used. Honestly, that may be the most Patricia detail of all.

25 Songs to Start Your Own Patricia Halloween Playlist

1. “The Rhythm of the Night” – Corona
2. “Let’s Dance” – David Bowie
3. “Dancing Queen” – ABBA
4. “September” – Earth, Wind & Fire
5. “Forget Me Nots” – Patrice Rushen
6. “Don’t Stop Me Now” – Queen
7. “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” – Whitney Houston
8. “…Baby One More Time” – Britney Spears
9. “Wannabe” – Spice Girls
10. “Mr. Brightside” – The Killers
11. “Hips Don’t Lie” – Shakira feat. Wyclef Jean
12. “Yeah!” – Usher feat. Lil Jon & Ludacris
13. “The Loco-Motion” – Kylie Minogue
14. “Go Your Own Way” – Fleetwood Mac
15. “Never Gonna Give You Up” – Rick Astley
16. “Around the World” – Daft Punk
17. “Sandstorm” – Darude
18. “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea” – Neutral Milk Hotel
19. “Sound of the Underground” – Girls Aloud
20. “Pump Up the Jam” – Technotronic
21. “Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love)” – Spiller
22. “Chime” – Orbital
23. “Everybody’s Free (To Feel Good)” – Rozalla
24. “Space Jam” – Quad City DJ’s
25. “Sometimes” – James