5 Things We Learned from ‘Titan: The OceanGate Disaster'

Stockton Rush, the late CEO of OceanGate who died along with four others when his Titan submersible imploded in June 2023, admired what he called the 'big swingin' dick' energy of fellow businessmen Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. He was obsessed with the Titanic. He had a habit of firing those who disagreed with his judgment. And he pushed forward with his fatal dive after multiple engineers and other experts warned him that his submersible was doomed to fail.
These are some of the details laid out in Titan: The OceanGate Disaster, the new Netflix documentary premiering June 11. Titan covers some of the same material as the Discovery documentary Implosion: The Titanic Sub Disaster, including extensive footage of the 2024 U.S. Coast Guard hearing investigating the tragedy. But it has an ace in the hole: David Lochridge, OceanGate's director of marine operations and a submersible pilot, who was fired after challenging Rush's safety standards and later disclosed critical information under the Whistleblower Protection Act. Together with Wired investigative journalist Mark Harris, who was also a consulting producer on Titan, Lochridge provides a barrage of damning factual heft in the new doc.
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Here are five things we learned from Titan:
Lochridge was shown the door when he insisted that Titan wasn't ready for its big dive to see the wreckage of the Titanic. So was OceanGate director of engineering Tony Niessen. Titan paints a picture of a CEO who surrounded himself with yes men, many of them inexperienced and unqualified. Bonnie Carl, OceanGate's former finance and human resources director, says in the film that at one point Stockton was ready to make her OceanGate's new lead pilot. Her response in the film: 'Are you nuts? I'm an accountant.'
Lochridge details Rush's stubborn arrogance in the film: 'He had every contact in the submersible industry telling him not to do this. But once you start down the path of doing it entirely by yourself, and you realize you've taken a wrong turn back at the beginning, then you have to admit that you were wrong.' Nobody interviewed in Titan suggests that Rush was capable of admitting that he was wrong.
Niessen is blunt in assessing his experience at OceanGate: 'I worked for somebody who is probably a borderline clinical psychopath. How do you manage a person like that who owns the company?'
Emily Hasmmermeister, an OceanGate engineering assistant who Rush saw as a bright young face of the company, left when she realized Titan's carbon-fiber hull was unstable. 'Stockton was so set on getting to the Titanic that nothing that anybody said made much of a difference,' she says in the film. 'I was not going to bolt anyone inside of that sub. And that was something that a lot of my coworkers at the time agreed on. None of them stayed with the company much longer.'
Rush comes across as someone who was quick with a 'fuck you,' so it makes sense that he came from what might be called fuck-you money. 'Both Stockton and his wife, Wendy, came from generational wealth,' Harris, the Wired reporter, says in the film. Stockton was a Princeton graduate, even if he didn't have great grades. He traced his ancestry back to two signers of the Declaration of Independence, Richard Stockton and Benjamin Rush. In an ironic twist, Wendy Rush was the great-great granddaughter of two people who died on the Titanic: Isidor and Ida Strauss. Isidor was a co-owner of the Macy's department store. 'Stockton was definitely part of the one percent,' Harris says in the film.
If you took a drink every time someone in Titan mentions carbon fiber you'd have a hard time driving home. The material is cheaper than, say, titanium or steel, and it's also less expensive to transport. These factors made it an appealing option for Rush as he built the Titan. The engineers interviewed in the doc also claim it can be highly unstable. A carbon-fiber hull had never been used for as deep a dive as Rush was attempting.
In the film, Rob McCallum, who has led many expeditions to the Titanic wreckage as the co-founder of Eyos Expeditions and worked as a consultant for OceanGate, describes carbon fiber as 'essentially string made from carbon. It's coated with resin to hold it together.' He sums up the Titan structure thusly: 'There was no way of knowing when it was going to fail. But it was a mathematical certainty that it would fail.'
According to the documentary, Rush refused to have the Titan 'classed,' or certified by a third party to meet industry standards. Lochridge claims that shortly after he insisted on a third-party inspection, and then wrote in a 2018 report that Titan wasn't ready for the 3,800-meter dive to the Titanic wreckage, he was fired.
McCallum points out another key Rush workaround: He insisted on classifying his passengers as 'mission specialists.' This categorization was intended to provide legal protection in case something went wrong. 'It was just one of the steps that OceanGate took to make sure that they could work around U.S. legislation,' McCallum says in the film.
Rush called them 'Titaniacs.' They're the people who can't get enough of anything related to the Titanic. A few were willing to fork over more than $100,000 for a seat on the Titan. In the film, Rush claims 'there are three words in the English language that are known throughout the planet: Coca-Cola, God, and Titanic.' James Cameron's 1997 blockbuster Titanic surely has something to do with this; it grossed more than $2 billion worldwide, and prompted any number of moviegoers to proclaim themselves king (or queen) of the world.
But it's not just the movie that brings people back to RMS Titanic, the British ocean liner which famously sank in 1912, killing approximately 1,500 people. The disaster was due largely to the kind of structural failure that would doom the Titan, a point Titan doesn't fail to make.
'Even now, over 100 years after she sank, she just captures people,' McCallum says in the doc. Something about the combination of massive catastrophe and the dividing lines between social classes aboard the liner — First Class, Second Class, and Steerage, with survival rates declining according to economic position — has proved enthralling. Well before Titanic there was The Unsinkable Molly Brown, a 1960 stage musical (and then a 1964 movie starring Debbie Reynolds) based on the life of Titanic survivor-turned-philanthropist Margaret Brown. Rush was hardly the first gung-ho Titanic enthusiast, though he may have been the most catastrophically arrogant.
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New York Post

42 minutes ago

• New York Post

Kerry Kennedy allegedly getting $1M+ to save family's reputation — as cousin Caroline is ‘virtually blacklisted' over son's odd behavior

For decades, the Kennedys — America's so-called royal family — were known for politics, scandals and tragedies. Today, they're earning a schoolyard reputation for infighting, with mean-spirited attacks on siblings and cousins, bizarre social media rants and revelations of historically bitchy personal feuds. Hoping to quell the embarrassing, reality show-worthy drama and bring the family together before it implodes, Kerry Kennedy has signed what sources describe as a seven-figure deal for a book paying tribute to her mother, family matriarch Ethel Skakel Kennedy who passed last October at 96. 10 Kerry Kennedy is writing a new book about family matriach Ethel Kennedy. Evan Agostini/Invision/AP This is somewhat ironic given that penned by Kerry, the seventh of Ethel's and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy's brood of 11, is one of the most vocal leaders in the family's current display of bad blood. 'Kerry's well-varnished book will be little more than a last-ditch attempt to salvage the increasingly tarnished Kennedy name,' one insider told The Post. Kerry Kennedy declined to comment. Entitled 'Ethel: Faith, Hope, Family, and an Extraordinary Life' and penned with a ghostwriter, the book is planned for fall 2026. Whether it can bring the family together, or truly spiff up their tarnished legacy, remains to be seen. 'Like the Titanic, the Kennedy brand is a sinking ship,' the insider said. 10 Caroline Kennedy-Schlossberg is said to be ostracized by her famous cousins' over her son's odd behavior on social media. FilmMagic 10 Caroline has called cousin RFK Jr. a 'predator' while her son Jack (right) has called him a 'liar' and a 'guru shaman.' Democratic National Convention via CNP / MEGA But, for all their talk about public service, the family's battles are no surprise. In fact, sources said, RFK's staunchly Democratic widow, Ethel, who died of a stroke, would have 'savored and enjoyed the very public attacks and controversy' involving some of her children — including the verbal assaults on Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. — when he briefly ran for president last year and later became Donald Trump's Secretary of Health and Human Services. At least some of the 'attacks and snubs against Bobby Jr. were actually at the behest of Ethel,' alleged the insider. 'She also was behind the photo [taken March 2024, just before RFK Jr. announced his presidential run] of three generations of her family with a smiling Joe Biden in their midst — all as a subtle [message] to Bobby. He was her least favorite son.' 10 Jack Schlossberg, the only grandson of former US President John F. Kennedy, has mocked cousin RFK Jr.'s vocal disorder and made strange jokes about Second Lady Usha Vance. Ron Sachs – CNP for NY Post It was alleged favorite daughter Kerry who, on her mother's instructions, posted the photo on X, declaring of Biden, 'You make the world better.' In addition to six of RFK Jr.'s living siblings — former Maryland Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy, former US Rep. Joe Kennedy II, human rights activist Kerry Kennedy, filmmaker Rory Kennedy, lawyer Max Kennedy and businessman Christopher Kennedy — rebuking his presidential campaign by calling it 'dangerous' and publicly endorsing Joe Biden, his cousin Caroline also made her feelings known. Early this year, Caroline, now 67, and. the former US Ambassador to Japan and then Australia, wasn't very diplomatic when it came to her first cousin, calling him a 'predator' and hypocrite and unqualified to run HHS. She also claimed: 'Bobby expropriated my father's image and distorted President Kennedy's legacy to advance his own failed presidential campaign and groveled to Donald Trump for a job.' 10 John. F Kennedy and wife Jackie Kennedy Onassis. Getty Images Nonetheless, according to insiders, Caroline has been 'virtually blacklisted' by some of her cousins over the bizarre social media postings of her son, Jack Schlossberg. The 31-year-old has posted videos of himself making fun of RFK Jr.'s spasmodic dysphonia, a neurological disorder that affects his speech and which other members of the family may also have. Schlossberg has also called the health secretary a 'liar' and a 'guru shaman figure who runs a cult' and taunted Vice-President J. D. Vance and his wife, Usha, joking about having a baby with her and writing, 'True or false: Usha Vance is way hotter than Jackie O' — his maternal grandmother. 10 Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1968 at a hotel in Los Angeles. Getty Images His various remarks prompted RFK Jr.'s daughter, Kathleen 'Kick' Kennedy to previously tell The Post: 'I hope he gets the help he needs.' Sources say Schlossberg's behavior has led to Caroline — whose parents and brother are deceased — being completely isolated from the Kennedy tribe, which 'is hurtful to her.' The Post has reached out to Caroline for comment. 'Jack's more Schlossberg than Kennedy in attitude,' a close source said, referring to Schlossberg's father, the very private and eccentric artist and designer Edwin Schlossberg, 73, who comes from a prominent Jewish New York family. 10 RFK Jr. shocked and upset many members of his own staunchly Democrat family when he first supported Republican Donald Trump's election then joined his government at secretary of Health and Human Services. REUTERS Snarky Spy magazine once called Edwin 'a well-to-do hippie-yuppie who's self-consciously interesting… Camelot's egghead-in-residence.' Although little known publicly, the current feuds within the Kennedy family have a long history going back to Ethel and her late sister-in-law, John F. Kennedy's widow, Jackie Kennedy Onassis, whom Ethel ruthlessly attacked. 'She thinks she's a queen. When Jackie once mentioned she dreamed of being a ballet dancer, Ethel stared at Jackie's slender size-11 feet, muttering to her face, 'With those clodhoppers of yours? You'd be better off going into soccer,' ' a source commented for my book 'The Other Mrs. Kennedy: An Intimate and Revealing Look at the Hidden Life of Ethel Skakel Kennedy.' 10 RFK Jr.'s daughter Kick Kennedy waded into the fray to call out cousin Jack Schlossberg. Getty Images for RFK Human Right Meanwhile, Jackie, sources added, considered Ethel 'crude and boorish,' and referred to her as a 'baby-making machine — wind her up and she becomes pregnant.' Jackie's revenge against the insults was to distance her own children, John Jr. and Caroline, from Ethel's children. When Ethel extended an invitation to her niece and nephew to stay for a couple of weeks at her family's home Hickory Hill in McLean, Virginia, Jackie declared, 'No way!'' And through the generations the feuding continues. JFK Jr. also got his digs in when he was founding editor of the political magazine George in the mid-1990s. 10 The Kennedy family compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. AP In a signed editorial, he pilloried his Kennedy cousins — Ethel's sons Michael (who died as the result of a skiing accident in 1997) and Joe — as 'poster boys for bad behavior' regarding their marital scandals. While Kerry Kennedy's planned book is said to paint her mother as a virtual saint, and the Kennedys as a close and loving family, an insider told The Post that 'dysfunction rather than perfection' was a way of life for the late matriarch. As Ethel's fourth-born, David Anthony Kennedy, who died of a heroin overdose in 1984 at 36, once revealed, 'Those stories about what a big, happy family we had at Hickory Hill were all bulls—t. Life at home was mayhem, a mess. 'My mother was always having screaming rages. The house looked like a shithole. She didn't know how to deal with so many kids.' 10 RFK Jr. originally ran for president himself in 2024, before dropping out and endorsing Trump. Paul Martinka A child-care sitter retained by Ethel once even admitted that the middle children — Courtney, David and RFK Jr. – 'were virtually left to fend for themselves, with little or no supervision.' The sitter also called Ethel a 'distant, detached, and standoffish mother. When popular Look magazine decided to do a cover story on Ethel, then pregnant, as the possible next future first lady when RFK began his ill-fated 1968 presidential run, the bi-weekly's crack photographer-reporter team, Stanley Tretick and Laura Bergquist, were assigned. The magazine ran an upbeat story, but Tretick and Bergquist were privately shocked by what they witnessed. Tretick later revealed: 'I never thought she was a great mother… The kids all went their separate ways. It was like bedlam, everyone running around crazy… one night Ethel was going to fix food for us, but she said 'I don't know how to fix s—t!' She couldn't handle anything in the kitchen. Bobby looked at her and said, 'Mother of the year.' 'Our view of Ethel was, 'God, it's going to be bedlam, just nuts, if she goes to the White House, because that place will become a real zoo.''

Newsweek

2 hours ago

• Newsweek

Prince Harry and Meghan's Biggest U.S. Scandals

Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Meghan Markle and Prince Harry were frequent targets of the British press as working royals, but it was only after several years in the United States that they began to face controversy across the pond as well. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have experienced successes since moving to California, but have also faced their fair share of crises. Meghan's mock curtsy, Harry's frostbite, and allegations of staff mistreatment have been just some of the moments fans of the couple might prefer to forget. Meghan's Curtsy to Queen Elizabeth II The duchess used the couple's December 2022 Netflix show, Harry & Meghan, to describe her first-ever curtsy to Queen Elizabeth, but it provoked a backlash for allegedly disrespecting British culture. Meghan re-created the curtsy she said she performed, bowing at the waist and spreading her arms wide in either direction. "I mean, Americans would understand this," she said. "We have Medieval Times Dinner & was like that." She had previously described the meeting to Oprah Winfrey in 2021 without mentioning any issues with her curtsy, and Harry went on to say it was "flawless" in his memoir, Spare. Many came away feeling the mock curtsy had disrespected a long-standing British tradition, and the fact that the queen had died three months earlier no doubt did not help. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle attend the Invictus Games in Vancouver, Canada, on February 9, 2025. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle attend the Invictus Games in Vancouver, Canada, on February 9, 2025. Samir Hussein/WireImage Prince Harry Mocked Over Frostbite Harry's book, Spare, was released a month later and led to ridicule after he described in detail applying his mother's favorite Elizabeth Arden lip cream to his frost-bitten private parts. "My penis was oscillating between extremely sensitive and borderline traumatized," he wrote. "The last place I wanted to be was Frostnipistan. "I'd been trying some home remedies, including one recommended by a friend. She'd urged me to apply Elizabeth Arden cream. My mum used that on her lips. 'You want me to put that on my todger?' "'It works, Harry. Trust me.' I found a tube, and the minute I opened it, the smell transported me through time. I felt as if my mother was right there in the room. "Then I took a smidge and applied there. 'Weird' doesn't really do the feeling justice." Suffice it to say, the passage attracted the attention of quite a few late-night U.S. comedy shows. 'F****** Grifters' and the Collapse of Spotify Just months later, the Sussexes' Spotify deal collapsed, and just as their team was reassuring journalists the two had parted ways by mutual consent, up popped an executive at the streaming giant to derail the PR strategy. Bill Simmons used his own podcast to fire a parting shot at the couple: "I wish I had been involved in the Meghan and Harry leave Spotify negotiation. 'The F****** Grifters,' that's the podcast we should have launched with them. "I gotta get drunk one night and tell the story of the Zoom I had with Harry, trying to help him with a podcast idea. It's one of my best stories." Meghan a 'Dictator in High Heels' Meghan had long been fending off allegations that she bullied staff at Kensington Palace as a working royal. The scandal migrated to America in September 2024 with an article from The Hollywood Reporter headlined: "Why Hollywood Keeps Quitting on Harry and Meghan." The article quoted a source who said the couple's U.S. staff were terrified of Meghan and that the royal belittled people. Another source said Meghan marched around "like a dictator in high heels," and has reduced grown men to tears. Meghan's team launched a PR counterattack in the pages of Us Weekly, where several past and present staffers praised her. She has consistently denied the allegations of bullying. Prince Harry's ESPY Award In 2024, Prince Harry was awarded the ESPY's Pat Tillman Award for Service, sparking a major backlash from sports fans. At its peak, Mary Tillman, Pat's mother, told The Mail on Sunday: "I am shocked as to why they would select such a controversial and divisive individual to receive the award. There are recipients that are far more fitting." 'South Park' and the 'Worldwide Privacy Tour' Harry's memoir sparked a collapse in the couple's U.S. approval rating, and in the same way that a picture can tell a thousand words, an episode of South Park ridiculing the duke and duchess appeared to tell the story of a shift in American perceptions. The episode, titled "The Worldwide Privacy Tour," depicted the "Prince and Princess of Canada" campaigning for their privacy in the aftermath of the death of the "Queen of Canada." In one scene, the couple appears on a fictional Canadian morning show, holding "We Want Privacy" placards. The anchor asks the prince: "Let me start with you, sir. You lived a life with the royal family, you had everything handed to you but you say your life has been hard and now you've written all about it in your new book: Waaagh." The princess said: "I was totally like, 'You should write a book 'cause your family's, like, stupid and then so are, like, journalists." The interviewer says, "So you hate journalists? And now you wrote a book that reports on the lives of the royal family? So, you're a journalist." Jack Royston is chief royal correspondent for Newsweek, based in London. You can find him on Twitter at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page. Do you have a question about King Charles III, William and Kate, Meghan and Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@ We'd love to hear from you.

Cosmopolitan

4 hours ago

• Cosmopolitan

Breaking down the action-packed ending of ‘The Waterfront' season one

Within the span of seven episodes, Netflix's latest drama series The Waterfront has unraveled the perfect façade of the wealthy Buckley family, showing the dark and ugly things they've been hiding from Havenport society, from their employees, and from each other. The eighth and final episode of The Waterfront season one is a satisfying culmination of events, tying a lot of loose ends together neatly – more-or-less. Though, of course, because drugs, guns, fishing boats, family drama, and a sociopathic narcissistic bad guy are involved, it's definitely a messy, intense, and bloody battle to the finish. Besides all the action, audiences also get to see some heartwarming moments, redemption arcs, and a tease of what might be another season to come—with a whole new captain possibly taking charge of the Buckley family ship. A lot certainly happens within the span of the finale's 43-minute run, but we've got you covered. Here's the ultimate breakdown of the last episode of The Waterfront. In the seventh episode, the Buckleys deal with the repercussions of their attempt to take out Grady (Topher Grace). Grady had been a little too close to their family for comfort, and Harlan (Holt McCallany) has been trying to cut him loose only to be met with brute force, torture, and threats to his family's lives. So as part of the business deal Cane (Jake Weary) and Harlan (Holt McCallany) made with the Parkers—who run a big drug-smuggling operation, and with whom they used to be involved with—the Parkers's men would kill the drug supplier for the Buckleys. Unfortunately, that plan didn't work out. And as revenge for this attempt at his life, Grady's men abduct Bree (Melissa Benoist). Bree wakes up on Grady's yacht, figures out what's going on, but is surprised to see her teen son Diller aboard with her. Diller tells her that he saw the men take her and snuck onto the boat to try and save her. While she appreciates the gesture, Bree tells Diller to hide, protect himself, and make sure no one else knows he's there. This plan ultimately fails, and when Bree takes a stab at Grady, he shoots her in the leg—figuring he only needs to hold one Buckley as hostage. As Bree's leg bleeds out, she gets thrown overboard. But Diller manages to throw a raft over to his mom before she drifts away. As soon as Harlan learns about his daughter Bree's kidnapping, he gears up for battle. Grady wanted to take Harlan in exchange for Bree, but that would make it too easy to kill them both off. So Cane, and his half-brother Shawn (Rafael L. Silva), decide they're coming with. They hide in a secret compartment of their boat, and ambush Grady and his men just in time to stop them from killing Harlan. They retrieve Diller, but soon discover that Bree has been thrown overboard and is floating away somewhere out in the ocean. A gunfight and chase on the yacht ensues. It ultimately ends with Grady, cornered by Harlan and Cane at the bow of his own boat. He tries to talk his way out, speaking to Harlan about how Cane isn't worthy to be his son because he's a coward and isn't willing to do what it takes to get the job done. Grady goads Cane, saying that he doesn't even have it in him to shoot him then and there. And in a split-second, before Grady could even finish his whole rant—much to Harlan's surprise (as well as the audience's, I'm sure)—Cane shoots him in the head multiple times and his dead body drops in the water. Though shaken by these events, the Buckleys move quickly to rescue Bree. All alone, on a raft while bleeding to death, Bree has a flashback and is finally able to forgiver her nine-year-old self for not having been able to help her grandpa when he was tortured and killed in his own home. In real time, she then finds the strength to use a flare gun to send a signal for rescue. This is when her family finally finds her and rushes her back to shore to get the care she needs at a hospital. Diller is happy to find out that his mom's surgery goes well and tells her while she's in recovery that he doesn't want to move out of Havenport with his dad. He wants to stay in Havenport to be with her. Meanwhile, on land, another one of the Buckley women is trying to handle her own problems. Upon learning of her husband Cane's infidelity, Peyton (Danielle Campbell) marches off to Jenna's (Humberly González) house to confront her. However, things don't pan out the way that Peyton imagined as she's met with a Jenna who's just returned from the hospital with the news that her ill dad had just passed away. Instead of giving Jenna an earful, Peyton ends up helping her with everything—from funeral arrangements to calling Jenna's family for support. And though Jenna tries to apologize and talk about everything with Cane, Peyton stops her and says that's a conversation they can have another time, if needed. When Cane gets back from all the action out at sea, he goes to Jenna's house. He tells her that he's heard the news about her father's death, so he wanted to come over to check-in on her and provide some comfort. But instead of welcoming him into the house, Jenna tells him about Peyton's visit and how incredibly kind she was to her despite the fact that she's been sleeping with her husband. This is when Jenna says that Cane was probably just a distraction from the terrible things happening in her life—from her dad's illness, from her impending divorce—and that she's probably the same to him. She tells him never to return to her house again. Cane is greeted at home by Peyton, who has a glass of scotch ready for him. They have an honest conversation about where they want their relationship to go from here, and Cane says that he wants to do better by his family, his wife, and himself. Peyton then says that she'll make sure that everything between them is alright, insinuating that no one and nothing can get in her way when it comes to securing their future. Though they appear to be the town's power couple, it's become clear that Harlan and Belle (Maria Bello) have marital problems of their own. They've been lying to and cheating on each other, but they've stuck through it all to appear as a united front. The events that have transpired with Grady, and dealing with all these threats to their family, have made their bond stronger. But while they seem to kiss and make up, it's clear that Belle is still hiding something from her husband. One of the big revelations during this season is Shawn's identity as Harlan's son with their now-deceased friend Bebe West. He came to Havenport wanting to learn more about his father, the Buckley family, and see if he could finally find the place where he belongs. It turns out that he has, and that he's staying with his newfound fam for the foreseeable future—which makes total sense given the rollercoaster he's been through with them. We have to remember that the reason why the Buckleys got into this whole mess in the first place was because of financial trouble. They were $2 million in debt to the bank, and moving drugs was a way to earn money to pay that back as well as ensure the future of the family fishery and restaurants. Belle initially had a plan—behind Harlan's back—to work with a local businessman named Wes Larsen (Dave Annable) to develop some parcels of land they owned by the beachfront. But things went sideways after she ended up sleeping with him and things got complicated. So when Belle tried to get the deal back, Wes refused. However, while sorting out all the Grady stuff, Emmett Parker (Terry Serpico) offers her a deal to help them out—but only if she's in the driver's seat, and not her husband. At the end of the episode, Belle meets with Emmett in the dead of night, and it seems as though she's accepted his offer. And to kick things off, Emmett decides to bring Belle a gift: a bloody Wes, tied to a chair. Emmett then introduces Belle as Wes's new boss, to which the poor tortured man has no choice but to agree with. This ending teases up a second season in which Belle double-crosses her own husband in order to take charge, and possibly save their business from ruin. Although, naturally, working with a crime family such as the Parkers is sure to have its own potentially-deadly consequences.