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THE WATERFRONT (2025-) S01E08 - ‘Lost at Sea’

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RAFAEL SILVA via Instagram - July 17, 2025

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Shawn West + 🥺 → for @avacoleman

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RAFAEL SILVA via Instagram - July 1, 2025

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Gay, Small Town Texas

1.2k, T, now on Ao3 - The Waterfront

Hello everyone! I've written a fic for Rafael Silva's character in The Waterfront - Shawn West! This is the first time I've written a non-Tarlos fic, and only the second fic for The Waterfront so it's not really showing up on Ao3 yet. I'd love it if any Waterfront/Rafa fans checked it out 💙 It's strange how vulnerable this feels! (But for the record, I'm not leaving the Lone Star fandom. I just like this guy too).

Bleeding in the car of his long-lost father’s wife, who has taken a shine to him, Shawn West reflects on what got him to this moment – and how things are not what they seem within the Buckley family.

Everything seemed cosmic to him in that moment, the sea swelling and crashing out when Adam grabbed his face and kissed him. They were on the Ferris wheel, and the Ferris wheel kept turning even as the world stopped.

But when they came down to Earth, and were all out of tokens to go around again, they found themselves surrounded by a familiar group of eight, who still smelled of locker room and too much Calvin Klein Obsession body spray.

“If you can’t run, you have to fight,” his mother Bebe told him when he was thirteen and bloody-faced. Gently, she’d pressed a cold washcloth to his split lip while he sat on the edge of the bathtub, shivering from the shock of being punched. “But if you can run, always run. Run, run, run.”

Read on Ao3

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RAFAEL SILVA in Wilmington | Fall 2024

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RAFAEL SILVA via Instagram - June 23, 2025

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You look like her… She was good with people. So beautiful.

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shaken or stirred? 😈 netflix

RAFAEL SILVA via Instagram - June 21, 2025

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RAFAEL SILVA via Instagram - June 21, 2025

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rafael silva haters always doing too much

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Jesus Christ, Bree.

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Rafael L. Silva 'Connects Deeply' With a Character Uncovering Who He Is In 'The Waterfront'

In "The Waterfront," the "9-1-1: Lone Star" actor plays Shawn, who arrives from Texas with a mysterious past — and learns more than he might have bargained for.

By Maddie Ellis | June 20, 2025

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Rafael L. Silva got the call that he booked "The Waterfront" on a Friday. On Tuesday, he was already filming.

"What I was understanding from the role itself — and it was my first time experiencing this in my young career — was that, oh, they want me to really just be me," he tells TODAY.com.

"The Waterfront" follows the affluent Buckley family in a fictional North Carolina coastal town as they struggle to keep their fishery business afloat and turn to drug smuggling to make ends meet.

Silva's character, Shawn, is introduced as the new bartender at the family's restaurant. He shares that he's from Galveston, Texas, and in town because he "wanted a change." But his skills — or lack thereof — behind the bar draw suspicion from Buckley matriarch Belle (Maria Bello).

It's revealed in Episode 2 that Shawn was born from an affair between his late mother, Bebe, and head of the Buckley family, Harlan Buckley (Holt McCallany). Rather than a former bartender, Shawn is actually a law student at the University of Texas at Austin. (Silva, known for starring in the Austin-set "9-1-1: Lone Star," which ended in February 2025, calls this a "happy coincidence," adding, "Maybe Shawn and Carlos crossed paths, we don't know.")

Shawn learned the name of his father as his mother died. So, he decided to temporarily leave his life as he knew it, including his boyfriend, to meet his family.

"Shawn goes the literal distance to learn who his father is, and learning the possibility that he has a father," Silva, 31, says. "I, Rafael, moved to this country with my mom and my brother to be reunited with my own father. I was 13, and we also went the literal distance for that to happen."

Shawn likely never imagined folding into the fiercely loyal Buckley family. By the end, he’s a key member of the group, stepping up to defend Belle when a threat arrives, and coming up with a plan to save his half-sister Bree Buckley (Melissa Benoist) after she’s kidnapped.

"The places where Shawn and I may share in our own existence is this blessed ignorance of not knowing what's ahead," he adds, "but knowing that you have to let go of everything that you have in order to find out what you're capable of having or receiving in the future.

"That's something that I truly connect deeply, because as an immigrant in this country, and especially with the state of the country right now, we didn't come with any one agenda," the Brazilian actor says. "I've never dreamed of being an actor. I never dreamed of living the life that I'm living now."

Shawn's goal of finding where he belongs slowly unfolds over the course of the show, against the backdrop of Harlan, Belle, Bree and Cane's (Jake Weary) scheming to keep their business operating and their drug smuggling under the radar.

"If we go to the core of who I think this character is ... I think there's just this very quiet but thunderous need to not feel alone in life," Silva says.

Silva says creator Kevin Williamson, also responsible for "Dawson's Creek" and "The Vampire Diaries," essentially "builds the foundation of a house." And Silva was able to add in details of the character from there, imagining key traits and a rich backstory. His key question was: Why is Shawn in Havenport, and why now?

"I did take my own creative place in justifying Shawn's relationship with his mother, and justifying, like, how come this m---------- can kick some ass, you know?" he says.

Silva says Shawn came to Havenport because his mother's death marked losing "the most important person." Now, he essentially has nothing to lose.

"Yes, the romantic partner is important, but (with) family, when it comes to blood, it's irreplaceable," he says. "Blood is irreplaceable when it comes to connection. And I think Shawn is after that."

But Shawn’s gradually introduced to the reality of the family’s dealings, which Silva says likely runs counter to his "strong moral compass" and respect for the rules as a future lawyer. And by the end, Shawn may have signed up for more than he bargained for. In the explosive finale, Shawn and Cane hatch a plan to rescue Bree, sneaking onto drug supplier Grady's (Topher Grace) boat before a bloody shootout leaves Grady dead.

"I think Shawn is brokenhearted a little bit by the reality that he's come across who this family, who his family, is," Silva says.

Silva imagines that his character hoped for a world in which the family he met in Havenport was "normal" — or at least, not at the helm of a criminal enterprise.

"He's that compass in the family that is just like, constantly being bombarded with things that makes him want to crawl out of his own skin," Silva says. "I also have questions for Kevin. Who is this guy in the face of all of this? Who has he become? Because at the end of the day, he's still Harlan's son."

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RAFAEL L. SILVA as SHAWN WEST in WATERFRONT (2025-)

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Rafael Silva as Shawn West in The Waterfront (2025)

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Thoughts on Shawn West/The Waterfront (under the cut for spoilers and because it got long - whoops)

I went into this show with, I would say, pretty reasonable expectations: it's not the kind of show that I necessarily rush to watch (have seen very few of the shows that it's been compared to), but I was excited to see Rafa's next project. I've also watched very few Kevin Williamson projects, as horror films don't appeal to me and I totally missed the boat on Dawson's Creek (and now feel too old to be able to appreciate it). Only recently have I watched The Vampire Diaries, which I know he only worked on during its first few seasons, and while those first seasons had strong moments, the show is rough and it remains unfinished. So, basically, I went into this show not expecting much from it but hoping to have a good time.

And honestly, I did have a good time! For what the show is (and not what people want it to be or even what people claim it's trying to be), it's enjoyably ridiculous. I saw a review that described it as a "summer beach read" kind of show and it is very much that: easy, fast, "plot twists" that might be obvious if you're used to TV tropes but are still delivered with dedication that they work well enough, solid acting, not-so-solid acting, and messy AF characters with fun dynamics. Like, I don't think this show is winning any awards anytime soon, but since when does every TV show need to do that? Let it be the empty, messy, dramatic, popcorn TV that it wants to be.

SHAWN WEST [RAFAEL SILVA] Since I did go into it for Rafael Silva, I'll start with him. He's the top-billed actor on the show outside of the 4 Buckley family members and I do think his role and how it works into the plot is fitting for that placement, especially in the later episodes. Shawn West is very much a character that is written to slowly bloom into being, especially since he starts the show as an intentional mystery. At first it feels like the early episodes don't give him a ton to do outside of just existing on the fringes of the Buckley family and observing their behaviors, but even that is explained 2-3 episodes in, since that is literally what he is there to do: observe their behaviors.

By episode 4, both Harlan and Belle know who Shawn really is, and that's when things start to pick up a bit. I thought it was really endearing how both Harlan and Belle open their arms to Shawn, they both have a gentleness with him that they definitely don't have with their own 2 children. I was surprised that Shawn's main scene partner ended up being Belle for a lot of the middle show, but I loved the little relationship that formed between them. Should there be a season 2, I'd love to see how that relationship evolves as Belle's new position is set in motion; I could see Shawn finding himself between Harlan and Belle and forced to choose a side, which could lead to some interesting stories and choices for his character.

I also loved Harlan and Shawn's moments together. Harlan and Cane have a very fraught relationship, no doubt due to Cane's recent mistakes but also just the pressure of Cane being the oldest son and therefore heir to the family legacy. But that's what makes Harlan and Shawn's moments so dynamic: how caring and gentle Harlan can be towards his son when there are none of those legacy pressures. He clearly has paternal instincts that maybe he's never applied to his relationship with Cane. Of course there's a lot of Harlan and Cane's past that is still unknown, whereas we get to see Harlan and Shawn from the very beginning.

Shawn's final moment in the season is hearing Harlan refer to him as "son" and what a profound moment that is for him. Clearly it was the first time his father referred to him as family, something that Shawn obviously wanted (previously he had wondered if he would ever really be a Buckley), but it's clear that he's thinking about all he had to go through to earn being called "son" by Harlan, and it seemed by his expression that he may be feeling a little uncertain and unsettled about it.

For pretty much all of season 1, it's noted that Shawn is just visiting Havenport for a little while, to meet Harlan, and that he has a life waiting for him back in Texas: both a long-term boyfriend and a career as a lawyer. That leaves his direction for season 2 a bit up in the air, but I'd like to see him stay and officially become a part of the family.

Also I'm biased but I thought Rafa did a great job with what he had to work with through this season. He got to deliver some great emotional beats (his scene with Maria Bello in 1x03 to start). Rafa does a great job of listening and reacting very authentically, which I thought was most evident in his scene with Harlan in 1x04; it's such a huge moment for Shawn, this first time he's talking to his dad and they both know it, and Rafa played those mixed, heavy emotions so well. And then it was really fun to see him become a more active character in episodes 6-8. He's such a standout, as usual. Since it was revealed* that the character was redeveloped to, in a lot of ways, become aligned with Rafa, I'm curious what the original Shawn looked like before the rewrite. (*For those who don't know, Rafa submitted a tape and then months passed and he kind of forgot about it; in that time, the show went through rewrites. Ultimately, Shawn became more aligned with Rafa, he was suddenly cast and then began filming in North Carolina only a few weeks later, so it all moved very fast in the end. Not unlike how his casting for Carlos happened, I might add.)

I think it speaks so highly of Rafa as an actor that they saw his audition tape and liked him so much that kept him in mind as they reworked the character. I imagine in some ways that his Texas origin and his jiu jitsu/taekwondo background came from Rafa's career and personal narratives, but that's just me speculating. It's definitely at the very least a funny coincidence that Shawn is Texas born-and-bred.

Season 2 hopes: he stays in Havenport, gets a romance (with current boyfriend who moves too or someone new), bonds more with Bree and Cane (or probably finds himself up against Bree and Cane, that's more likely), navigates his place in the inevitable Harlan vs. Belle civil war, and tests his limit for just how far he'll go for his family, how deeply he'll let himself fall into their darkness since he is currently presented as the "good" Buckley. In some ways he acted as Belle's right-hand man through this season, so is that something that continues as she walks her new path?

OTHER SEASON 1 THOUGHTS

I thought Bree had the strongest arc of the season and Melissa Benoist was the clear MVP of the cast. All of her scenes resonated so strongly and Melissa delivered every bit of them so well. I think she really centered the series emotionally.

Belle is another character (like Shawn) who felt like she was simmering/blooming throughout the season before landing in her new place at the end of the finale. A lot of interesting seeds planted, but I think she'll come more into her own in a potential season 2. I enjoyed all of her scenes with Shawn and the evolution of her relationship with Bree, and would love to see more from those.

As much as I've enjoyed following Humberly, I really did not care for the Jenna storyline/arc at all, and really wish it would've been cut during the rewrites. Ultimately it felt like an immature love triangle in a show that very much didn't need one. It probably also doesn't help that Cane was my least-favorite Buckley, so I really wasn't interested in his relationship drama. If a season 2 does happen, I will unfortunately hope not to see the return of Jenna.

There wasn't a lot of Peyton throughout the season, but where we leave her in the finale has me very interested in her future potential. I keep thinking of season 2 being defined by the Buckley women coming into their own and taking control from Harlan and Cane, and I definitely want to see Peyton be a part of that.

Gerardo Celasco is very hot and if we were only allowed to have one male character in a legit sex scene/naked, I'm not at all mad that it was him. I thought the arc for Marcus was brutal but really well done. However, more sex in season 2, specifically for Shawn West.

I thought the writing was about 70/30, so honestly not too bad there. What was good was good, what was bad was ridiculous, but I've definitely seen worse. It was a fun ride at the very least!

I thought the directing was pretty weak and I was very mad that there were so many close-ups used. It felt like no set/location was clearly established because we were all right in the characters faces instead of seeing them in their environments. Also North Carolina looks beautiful but the show didn't give us enough of it. More establishing shots, more dynamic framing choices, more visual storytelling in season 2.

That's all. It was mostly about Shawn but who's surprised? I am who I am.

Overall: 8/10 for a good, easy, "summer beach read" series.

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RAFAEL SILVA via Instagram - June 18, 2025