A shocking Mare Of Easttown solves some of its mysteries, but at a hefty cost
TV Reviews Mare of Easttown
In Easttown, all battles are hard-fought and rarely won. There are few victories to be found and the few that do exist are of the Pyrrhic variety, hence the ticker-tape parade to honor a high school basketball game played decades earlier. Easttown roses have thorns, but also razor-edged petals, so every bouquet is grocery-chain carnations and baby’s breath. At least that’s how it feels to watch “Illusions,” which swiftly connects important dots after all of episode four’s dawdling, but brings swift, startling ends for multiple characters.
To begin at the beginning means having to say farewell to Betty Carroll, the cantankerous busy-body whose actions continue to reverberate through her community long after her death. It says a lot for Mare Of Easttown that Betty’s death was so affecting, considering how briefly and infrequently she appeared. For all her flaws, Betty was the type of person cohesive communities thrive on, the kind that encourages collectivism by jamming her nose in everyone’s business.
The show’s tone is well-calibrated enough that Betty’s funeral reception gets to yield the season’s biggest laugh. Glen Carroll, as it turns out, regrets a prolonged affair with Mrs. Lahey. (Yes, that Mrs. Lahey, the mother of Betty’s arch-nemesis.) He’ll sleep easier knowing he’s confessed his sins to the council of neighbors. That chunk of pitch-black comedy is about the only levity to be found in “Illusions,” which finds nearly every character increasingly hemmed in by their circumstances.
The first ripple of Betty’s death is the blackout triggered when she fatally crashes into a utility pole. Everything becomes audible during a power outage, and Lori overhears her husband swearing her son to secrecy about some unknown trespass. Meanwhile, Mare stumbles onto a rough cut of Siobhan’s documentary and is forced to see Kevin through a lens that had been blurred by memories of him as a desperate addict. Blackouts are jarring. They make you aware of how vulnerable your existence is to external factors you have no control over. They obscure most things but manage to illuminate others.
Perhaps that’s why so many of Easttown’s women are looking at everyone with new eyes. One minute it’s Mare glancing askance at Billy Ross, who can’t seem to remember how long Erin crashed on his couch when she and her father were on bad terms. Then it’s Brianna, who’s far enough into a plea negotiation that she has more bandwidth to focus on Dylan, who stonewalls when asked why he’d gone missing on the night of Erin’s murder. Lori presses her son to elaborate on the secret his father mentioned and learns her galoot of a husband is still being unfaithful to her.
The blackout seems to serve as an all-around catalyst for Mare, who has gone from attending her mandated therapy sessions as a compliant skeptic to thriving on the work of untangling her feelings about Kevin’s death and its aftermath. She (sort of) solves the mystery of Betty Carroll’s prowler, who unfortunately winds up just being a sundowning wanderer. Even the dinner date with Colin that seemed abstract is now a reality, even though Colin swiftly ruins the evening by demanding Mare show all her cards since he’s been showing all of his. Mare’s so offended, she walks out on him mid-chew. She already kind of has a boyfriend, besides.
The thing is, though, Colin doesn’t really have any cards. Week after week, Colin has further betrayed how far out of his depth he is while Mare policed circles around him and baby-stepped him through theories occasional viewers of The First 48 could put together on their own. At least one of Easttown’s mysteries gets solved pretty quickly, as Colin admits to Mare that he’s barely responsible for solving the case that single-handedly gave him his reputation as a closer. In reality, the process Colin had been describing as good ol’ fashioned police work was actually an incredibly lucky break. An ex-cop in his armchair discovered a faulty alibi and left Colin a treasure map to the culprit upon his death.
Of the many stellar scenes between Kate Winslet and Evan Peters, this is arguably the best of them. Yes, Peters’ affectation of drunkenness was impressive, but there’s far more complexity in a sober conversation between two characters who are almost never willing to be vulnerable at the same time. There’s such beauty to Colin exposing his darkest secret in the interest of convincing Mare that her heavy, complicated life isn’t an excuse not to let him into it. He even swoops in for a kiss that Mare appreciates for its awkward purity, just as she appreciates his dad puns. It might have been wise to assume, after a moment that could only pass for cloyingly sweet in Easttown, that heartbreak was just around the corner.
That heartbreak starts with a break in the Katie Bailey case fueled by tips from girls who do business on Sidedoor. A couple of girls claim to have escaped after being attacked by a bearded Winston smoker who drives a blue cargo van. Based on that lead, Colin and Mare get to do actual good ol’ fashioned police work, driving from door-to-door and following up on the matches from a vehicle search. Their work leads them to the same dilapidated bar where we first met Katie Bailey, and from the moment the detectives arrive, something terrible is clearly about to happen.
Director Craig Zobel and writer Brad Inglesby serve up a master class in tension building with the final 10 minutes of “Illusions,” the most unbearably suspenseful sequence I can remember watching since perhaps Breaking Bad at its peak. All the pieces of an ugly puzzle come together so quickly: the ear-splitting music; the mountain of Winston butts; the stripped walls; the dissonance between the man’s body language and his feigned cooperation. Both Colin and Mare’s sins have led to this moment in which the least experienced of the pair is the only one with a service arm. That inexperience results in Colin’s death, a tragic end for a character just beginning to reveal his layers.
Mare manages to win the game of cat-and-mouse despite being in an unfamiliar environment and under the watch of an elaborate surveillance system. And look, there’s much to be joyful about. Katie Bailey and Missy Sayers have been rescued and will be able to piece their lives back together and return to their families. But Colin won’t be able to do either. Instead, he’s just another ungainly lump in Mare’s sack of sorrows. This goddamn town, I swear.
Stray observations
- I’m so heartbroken to learn of Jess’ apparent alliance with Dylan, which means the most consequential of Erin’s diaries have been burned to ashes. Erin trusted you!
- Deacon Burton’s story is looking less incriminating and more sad. He’s attacked by a mob, his punishment for being a rumored “creeper,” then tells Father Dan he saw Erin the night of her murder but kept it to himself and dumped her bike out of fear. It’s plausible, honestly.
- Regarding the “Guy Pearce did it” theory, his conspicuous absence from this episode feels important, even as I’m not totally convinced of the SVU logic that dictates the biggest yet most underutilized star has to be the killer.
- Based on this episode, I’m fully into the notion that John Ross is Erin’s killer.
- I didn’t catch the kidnapper’s name. I believe I heard “Mr. Potts,” but the actor is listed in the IMDb credits as “Van Driver.”
- Officer Trammell’s still out here pushing through his hemophobia to protect and serve Easttown. Still a weird career choice, but good on you all the same.
- If Dylan does anything with that money other than fix that baby’s ear, I will definitely kick his fictional ass. On sight. The nice thing about threatening fictional characters is that you’re never expected to follow through.
222 Comments
Aw, man. Just when I was starting to really like Colin. Should’ve seen it coming.Can’t remember where I saw it (and correct me if I’m wrong), but apparently Guy Pearce was cast last-minute when the original actor, Ben Miles, was unavailable. I adored Miles in Coupling back in the day, but he’s not exactly well-known in the US. So maybe the Law & Order Tenet of Guest Stars doesn’t apply here…?
Oh, and I watched with captions on, and I think they did say the bar guy’s last name was Potts.
Unless like Big Little Lies & The Flight Attendant, HBO is all: “One special season and that’s it,” but really they’re lining up a season two on the sly.
I confirmed it, but frankly knowing it was supposed to be Miles makes more suspicious of the character. (He’s just so good at playing creeps.) Pearce was also quoted as saying there was a narrative “point” to the existence of his character, so do with that what you will.The more I think about it, the more I suspect this show is going to split the difference and have different creepy older dudes be Erin’s baby daddy and killer. The odds of someone in Mare’s inner circle (like Lori or her ex) being involved in an indirect but still devastating way also seem good at this point.
Pretty pissed because I definitely saw this coming due to last week’s spoilery “next week on” clip. They showed Colin pointing out the Winstons, and then the next cut was Mare in the same clothes in the same house with a bloody hand looking completely traumatized. What else could it be? F those HBO editors.
Tip: don’t watch the trailer.
Well now I don’t!
When he was talking about how he stole the victory in his biggest case, he might as well have said “And I’m only two weeks to retirement.”
They definitely called him Mr. Potts. My brain made the auto leap from Potts to Annie Potts to Charlene Frasier to Jean Smart.Sorry, it’s just wired that way, but it made his name stand out to me.
How did you manage to miss that Mare’s mom is the one who had the affair with Mr. Carroll? What did you think she was laughing about in the car?
I know. I just stopped reading right there. That’s just fucking embarrassing. Even if you misheard the name (and at first I wasn’t sure who he was talking about when he said the name), it’s quite obvious from Mare’s and Mare’s mom’s reactions that Mare’s mom was the “other woman.”
I read this review before I saw the episode. Jesus. And when was Mare an arch rival of Betty’s? She got out of bed to go check on what Betty claimed to be a peeping Tom, when all Betty had to do is tell her grand daughter or niece whoever it was, to close the blinds when she’s taking a shower.
Mare’s mom even says that calling it an affair was a stretch, she only slept with him two, maybe three times, and that shows how little it meant to her.
There isn’t even a character named Lahey on the show as far as I can tell (Jean Smart is playing Helen Fahey), and the subsequent reaction by Mare and the conversation made it abundantly clear.
I don’t think Joshua did. He got her name wrong, but he said “ the mother of Betty’s arch-nemesis.” Which is poorly worded—Betty didn’t dislike Mare, but Mare was annoyed with her for pestering her—but a jokey way of saying it without using names. Since Alston says it got the biggest laugh, finding out that it was Helen, and the subsequent scene in the car, is why it did for him.
Her arch-nemesis is the kid who drew the big tits on the shed.
Oh. Then that’s a big lack of paying attention on the reviewer’s part.
I still cannot believe there are professional television reviewers who don’t watch with closed captioning turned on. Things are literally spelled out for the viewer and it makes understanding the story – and even more – so much easier.
Speaking of which, are we ever going to find our why Mare deleted that footage? Not sure why she wouldn’t at least go talk to the kid if not arrest him for vandalism.
My gueess is knowing the old lady, she probably would have wanted to press charges against the kid, and Mare would just not wanted to have to deal with it, both in the fact that it would escalate tensions between the two and would involve a lot of extra and unwanted paperwork and hassle for her. Who knows, maybe it will come back as an issue at some point, or perhaps it was just there to show that she isn’t always rule bound, as we saw as she planted evidence against her sons widow.
She had more important shit to deal with, basically.
Seems like the entire ethos of this town is to let teenagers do whatever they want with no consequences.
I just assumed she didn’t want to deal with it. Maybe even kind of sided with the kid.
“Betty’s arch-nemesis” is the character mentioned previously as “the Lahey boy,” the constant thorn in Betty’s side. His mom’s name is Kathy Lahey. In no way is Mare Betty’s “arch-nemesis.” Joshua totally boned it.
A really funny off-screen joke?
That has almost made the sad tone of the show worth it. I laughed with Mare. Also, all a show has to do is say: We have Jean Smart! And I am watching it.
it took a minute for it to register with me too because I only know about 2-3 of the characters’ first names on this show.
One guess? The reviewer was watching an early screener that used a different character for that reveal… but the scene was edited later for the Jean Smart gag.
I don’t think so.
Also, the black out was over when Lori heard the confession, and when Dylan and Brianna were on the porch. There were lights on in the Ross house, and we wouldn’t have been able to see the two on the porch if there weren’t lights.
I just watched it last night. I can’t believe AVClub hasn’t made a correction or update two days later. I think Joshua was so in love with getting to his esoteric observations about blackouts metaphor that he completely biffed one of the best bits of the series so far. And how did he miss when Mare was leaving and threw the popcorn to Helen she smirked and called her a homewrecker. What the heck does he think was going on there? I get it’s easy to mishear Fahey as Lahey but literally everything that happened in the next 3 minutes clears that up. When everyone in the room turns to look at Helen and Mare starts choking on her Rolling Rock, the conversation in the car about it not really being an ‘affair’, the teasing at home.
Maybe someone snuck some pills into Joshua Alston’s jelly beans and he passed out.
Aw Evan Peters. His character was clearly the namesake of one of the executive producers right?
Craig Zobel is the producer.
Zobel directed every episode, yes
I’ve been wondering about the potential Zobel/Zabel connection. I have to assume the show was largely all written before Craig Zobel came on board as director/executive producer. All the episodes were originally planned to be directed by Gavin O’Connor, but he had to back out of that role due to scheduling conflicts, which is when Craig Zobel came on board. It actually creates something of a parallel between him and the young detective character, both of them being people brought onto projects after they were already rolling, so maybe they changed the name of the Evan Peters character as something of an inside joke.
“Zabel” is very PA sounding. I was expecting him to be Mennonite. (They are a little sloppy with county lines here; Chester County, where Easttown is, has a Mennonite population, and presumably if he is ‘from the county’ he could be from there; but they made him from Upper Darby/Delco).
It actually creates something of a parallel between him and the young detective character, both of them being people brought onto projects after they were already rolling…Are we going to find out that Craig Zobel didn’t actually direct… ::checks IMDb:: Z for Zachariah?!
Was wondering that myself. The first time I saw Craig Zobel’s name in the credits, I had to double check Peters’ character name.
Very solid Silence of the Lambs riff, especially the use of Judas Priest as they enter the house.I imagine the Easttown PD will hastily paper over that Mare wasn’t supposed to be working that case (thus, dubiously, saving Mare’s job).
Mare is going to give all the credit to Colin (because of course she has to … she was only there in a “consulting capacity” due to her suspension) and he’ll be lauded posthumously as a superhero cop for closing TWO high-profile and locally infamous cases.
Also, because if she gets credit for this, she’ll be expected to do even greater things than just shooting a basketball, as she opened up to Colin before the killing scene. And, she doesn’t really want that responsibility.
It helps the dude was killed with Colin’s gun
Haven’t they done most of the papering over already? The Chief’s public story is that Mare was never suspended, she was just taking a leave of absence to deal with stress. All they really have to say is that Mare felt ready to return to work.
Right? Just switch out a couple words from this sentence and you’ve got Lambs:“All the pieces of an ugly puzzle come together so quickly: the ear-splitting music; the moth landing on the stove; the stripped walls; the dissonance between the man’s body language and his feigned cooperation.”
The scenes from next week show the chief reinstating her and putting her back on Erin’s case, so …
At least Turtle of Easttown had a happy ending.
I was waiting for some dark humor with Mare hearing a CRUNCH underfoot as she searched the house during the blackout.
That was seriously great. I’d been enjoying this show more for the dark humor than the thriller aspects, but damn did those deliver tonight. Literally sat up in my seat for those last 10 minutes. (Also, how could they???)Man, those teachers at the school sure took a while before stepping in, seems like they could’ve stopped that whole incident about 6 best earlier. Guess they just wanted to see how it played out too!
Big night for people getting hit in the head with trays or tray-like objects!
They probably figured he deserved a few whacks.
Oh for sure, but I was think more along the lines that they’d let the incident with Moira play out too long. But of course they had to ignore that for the rest of it to happen at all.
I still think there’s more to the kid Ryan, they’ve been keeping him in the corner too much for just being sad about his cheating dad.
Possible. If it is anything like “Sharp Objects” it was the kid that you never suspected until she was showing the floor of the doll house covered in teeth. Maybe he saw that his dad had the affair with Erin and he knocked her off. Obviously he has a “protect the family” mentality to him.
I think it was Ryan Ross that killed Erin also, and his dad helped him cover it up, which is why he acts guilty and explains the secret. Ryan might have been trying to kill himself in the park with the gun that night (remember earlier that night he was trying to finish his homework on a Friday as if there would be no other chance that weekend). Or maybe he saw the video of Erin being beat up on social media that night and met up with her with a gun to protect her (he’s clearly prone to violence when protecting his female family members). The gun shot wound is wonky, with an upward trajectory, meaning the shooter was below Erin when the shot was fired, or she was struggling with the shooter.I am also worried, somewhat, that Ryan is the baby’s father. He and Erin are second cousins, separated only by a few years. The baby was conceived about 2 years ago, when Erin was probably 15 and Ryan probably 11 or 12. He was struggling with is parents marriage trouble, she had just lost her mother . . . things like this do happen, and it would explain why Erin would completely rule out the DJ’s father a source of help, and why Ryan looked so upset when his parents talked about adopting the baby.
God dammit. That’s a good theory I wish I hadn’t read.
an 11 year old dad? this would be a wild twist!
Oof, I was thinking John as the killer but this makes the most sense. Good take, although I still think John is probably the babydaddy and Ryan killed Erin in some sort of accident or heat of the moment thing.
How would Ryan move her body 13 miles back to the creek? His father didn’t help him, he was with Frank at the bar and then brought him home. And Ryan doesn’t drive.
This was an excellent episode all around. I agree Breaking Bad has some top notch ones too as well as Better Call Saul the last few episodes of last season. There are a few more nail biting ones out there though, as well acted/directed and paced as the others. Off the top of my head, how about Fargo Season 2, Episode 9: The Castle directed by Adam Arkin?—That tension filled shootout and multi-storylines. A few Deadwood, Justified and Soprano episodes, and True Detective Season 1, Episode 8:Form and Void when he was going through that creepy labyrinth. If I was on my game (late in the day, sorry) I could come up with a few more.
I had to get up at that moment and scream. Also, what an excellent music choice for the ending credits.
I have a feeling that in the last 30 seconds of the finale, after Mare finally seems happy for once, she is unexpectedly shot and killed, and then we see Colin’s mom standing there holding a gun.
When Colin called in to run the partial tags, he said ‘George Henry David’. Shouldn’t it have been ‘Golf Hotel Delta’? I thought American police used the NATO phonetic alphabet.
Nope.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APCO_radiotelephony_spelling_alphabet
That’s military.
They better spend the last two episodes focused on Siobhan’s band or else that lengthy article about it here would have been for naught.
[AIR GUITARS]
So I guess Zabel really is dead? I saw the hit at the side of the head, like it could have been a flesh wound, and during Mare’s frantic escape from the killer, I thought Zabel would be the one to shoot him. Guess not. But how tragic for his mother, and for Mare. This would send her over the edge, since she already feels great guilt for her son’s suicide.
Almost everything with Jean Smart on this show has been hilarious. Hail Jean Smart!I’m glad the kidnapper wasn’t a character we had already met. More realistic. But of course Erin’s murderer, by the rules of the mystery genre, must be. The show could do an Undoing and have it be (spoiler).
Typo there. You wrote (spoiler) when you meant “a colossal waste of time.”
Correction everything with Jean Smart is hilarious. Check out Hacks. She’s amazing.
I am loving her renaissance lately. (As must HBO, since she’s now been in three high profile shows for them in the last few years.)
Alex Murphy got it worse in Robocop. I assume he’ll come back as a cyborg.
Films and shows have had people get shot in that exact same spot (right below the eye) and have them live, explaining it somehow avoided the brain or something. I doubt this show does that, but it could.
Huh, my first thought of Jean Smart isn’t “hilarious” – I saw her recently in Fargo, Watchmen, and Legion, which can be funny shows, but her characters in all three are pretty serious. She’s the funniest I can remember in *this* happy-go-lucky show.
What? She was a laugh a minute in Watchmen! (I’m not being facetious here. Watchmen is a serious show but Jean Smart was definitely part of the comic relief.)
Evan did an interview and said they only gave him five scripts so he knew he didn’t make it thru the end of the season.
Based on this episode, I’m fully into the notion that John Ross is Erin’s killer.In addition to the original clue of Julianne Nicholson’s casting, there’s really no reason for the Ross family to be getting this much screen time focused on family dynamics that (at this point) still have no obvious connection to any of the other plots/subplots. That said, the execution of the showrunners’ obvious desire to present a character study of Mare and Easttown has felt clumsy/off-balance enough that I wouldn’t be completely shocked if the John/Lori drama was just a questionable writing decision. According to IMDb, both Ross cousins appear in all seven episodes (I missed the other Ross in this one), so squirrely-faced Ryan is still in the running.
I assume they have some connection, but could be a big throwaway. I don’t love that if they are the key to the murder then they are so closely tied to Mare. As someone from a similar place, ya lots of us know each other, but detectives aren’t literally tripping over suspects while hanging out with friends etc. I sort of wish they threw more hearsay at Mare, mostly in instances like this in small towns everyone has something to say about it and it’s impossible to sort through the truth. Here it seems Mare really has to force people to talk. Still enjoying the show tho, just don’t find it as ‘accurate’ to small community living as people are saying tho.
As I said last time this comment was made, towns in Delco are insular but at the same time surrounded by hundreds of other similar towns smooshed in together, plus only 20 minutes or so from Philly, plus so close to other places like Wilmington that it’s unclear if Erin was found literally in another state and the soccer stadium Mare and Colin are standing near and the Harrah’s referenced are in Chester, which is actually pretty far from where Easttown is supposed to be but still only maybe a 30 minute drive (geography not having to be precise for a tv show). That said, each town sticks mostly to itself, so you are likely to see the same people at the same italian restaurant or gas station every day.
which is fair, honestly yes, I see the same people at the same restaurants again and again in my own town. I just don’t like having each suspect so closely connected to Mare so far, but I guess that’s why they separated the kidnapper from Erin’s killer.
Given how they have the families set up and how often the three brothers seem to see each other, I am surprised that Mare’s relationship with Erin was so distant. I know it would have taken a hit because of the divorce, but Erin was essentially a family member. Trust me, anybody who you are married to, you know their nieces, and in a small town with a big extended family there are big family get togethers somewhat regularly. I’m still a little puzzled why this version of Delco is 100% Irish 0% Italian, but shrug.
Yeah, but Mare herself isn’t married into the Ross family. Her best friend is. I have met a few of my best friend’s nieces/nephews but beyond being able to recall their name, I don’t know much about them.
You’re right, I’m getting the bloodlines mixed up
It’s odd to pick Easttown as a placename to begin with, since it’s in Chester County and the demographics are off. People outside the region won’t know, of course, but I keep thinking, “None of these people would try to run me down in a white BMW with an Agnes Irwin decal.”
It is. I have been going over this again and again in my mind, how much is it or isn’t it, but I can confirm: the Easttown PD says on it that it is in Delco, so it is officially a different town than the existing Easttown. One that exists both right where Easttown is now but is also closer to 95 and is also kind of in Delaware all at the same time. Also I’d see a beamer in Swarthmore but in Mare’s nabe?
Easttown roams the southeastern Pennsylvania countryside like a murderous blancmange.
Siobhan’s new girlfriend Amy (or was it Anne?) was driving a BMW. And the party for Richard was at a swanky house. I think in cities like this, especially University areas this is common to have these neighborhoods and then by the University or in the spacious exburbs where there’s rooms for country clubs and stuff you get the higher end or as my Dad used to call it Ritzy Shitzy neighborhoods.I laughed when Richard said he moved from Syracuse, because that’s where I grew up and thought, well this looks mostly like it, so you should get along fine. Like, the family that lived up the street from me owned a really locally famous restaurant so the scene at DelRosso’s felt familiar, as did everyone knowing everyone or being related or married. Not all the neighborhoods are like that, but there sure were pockets, at least there still were the last time I went back to visit ten years ago.
Oh shit, yeah there are tons of swanky enclaves, tons of teslas and beemers that are right nextdoor and nearly drive through the working class Easttown areas. To name a few that are right there: Swarthmore and Bryn Mawr. I don’t know if they said which one Richard is at, but I was guessing a Swarthmore stand-in. There are also nice or even really nice little ones in the middle of less nice strip mall wawa ones, like I went to Media once and it was pretty nice.
They’ve mentioned Bryn Mawr a few times, but the one Richard is at sounded like a made up ivy type name, so it probably is Fauxmore.
Yeah, Swarthmore is way more suburban than UPenn
I mean, isn’t that kind of the point? Mare knows lots of people, but we aren’t getting standalone scenes focusing on everyone’s family dynamics—just hers and the Rosses’. Unlike real life, there’s supposed to be some sort of internal logic to the show’s focus: that’s what makes it narrative.
Given the shirt reveal in the trailer for the next (last) two episodes, I’m definitely on board with a Ross solution. Probably Ryan, possibly Lori, doubtful that it’s John but it’s not outside the realm of possibility.
I think it’s going to be a red-herring where the DNA matches the beer bottle the cousin was using, but it’s a relation and not him, aka John Ross. Isn’t John Ross the one who brought up the fact that Erin stayed with the cousin? Maybe trying to call attention to him?
It was Lori brought up Erin staying with the cousin, but having thought about who’s plausible I’m still sure you’re right. I’m also betting what John and Lori’s kid is hiding isn’t to do with his dad having an affair (or at least not ‘with the same woman’).- The priest and Frank I consider pretty much played out as options- Cousin Billy is being dangled too much in front of us already, and is simply in on it to some degree- I don’t buy it being Guy Pearce’s character, he just reads as self-absorbed but sincerely trying to make peace with where is he is in middle age, hence trying to push Mare to do the right thing on custody – and I just think it would be a corny choice to have it be someone who’s gotten intimate with Mare but has zero connection to anything else. I still think there might be something around his trying to use the case/town for second novel material. – Dylan I’m betting is a total misdirect: he’s making some half-brained effort to destroy all record of the kid’s actual father so he can keep the kid in his family (which is why he won’t even read the diaries himself), and the money he took is genuinely for the ear op. He probably doesn’t have to worry as I feel like the Rosses aren’t going to be in a great position to take the kid in.
Is this a Bojack Horseman spin off?
Character Actress Margo Martindale would kill it on this show.
Beloved Character Actress Margo Martindale was made for playing a disgruntled DelCo townie.
Only if they reveal that she’s a Russian agent.THE AMERICANS FOREVAAAAHHHHH!!!!!
THIS has been Claudia’s new deep cover assignment the whole time! Take that, Gorbechav!
Never trust someone with a freakishly low hairline. Dylan is clearly the culprit.
Yeah, my niece’s husband has a two-head and I’m just waiting for him to do something awful.
Haha! Oh no! It’s not a sure-fire sign of evil lurking within. Maybe his wig’s just pulled too far forward.
He’s a Banker (with a big “B”) who basically vetted then married my niece because she had the perfect accoutrements: pretty face, huge tits, soft-spoken/easily intimidated, willing to give him plenty of kids and, of course, she came with a sizeable ‘dowry’ (yeah, it’s still a thing). She sold herself. Her parents eagerly co-signed. Now everyone in the family (except me) relies on this guy for loans, investment advice, etc. In ten years he will either be running for governor or she’ll kill him after his mistress gets pregnant.Also, he’s one of those tall, egocentric men who stand with his pelvis thrust forward when he talks to you. He’s gross and his fatal flaw will be his belief that he has it ALL figured out
Whenever I watch this show, some how I keep thinking “When is HBO going to have a series where Angourie Rice plays Amy Adams daughter?”. Like a “Sharp Objects 2″. At the outset, I said it might be Billy Ross for a look he gave back at the beginning of the series. Tonight he gets all shifty when it comes out that Erin lived with him for a few weeks. Wonder if Mare got one of the beer bottles tested for DNA to see if he was the dad.
My mom has a great recipe for Angourie rice.
That’s what my wife said! I saw it as more of a red flag that he bailed so quickly after opening a beer and not even taking a sip.
I assumed Mare definitely snagged the bottle for testing. She looked at it way too closely.That said, I would imagine it would be very easy for Mare to find something else of Billy’s to test. Or maybe she gets something of John Ross’s (assuming if there’s enough of a familiar DNA then she could get a warrant for Billy) and then finds out John Ross’s DNA matches perfectly?Though, all that said – they would have tested Erin’s dad’s DNA as a matter of course – so any touch DNA they might have gotten off of Erin would have shown if it was in the Ross family, surely?
Also, is it possible to see in the baby’s DNA if his parents were biologically related? NEVER MIND – I see this was asked and answered below!
Yeah – they ran a DNA test to match against Mare’s ex and Dylan. It would have shown that the baby’s Y chromosome had too much similarity with the X chromosome if the baby had been Kenny’s or John/Billy Ross’s. (Unless Erin was not Kenny’s biological child!)
Oooooh tweeest!
Also, is it possible to see in the baby’s DNA if his parents were biologically related?
Also, is it possible to see in the baby’s DNA if his parents were biologically related?
If Dylan does anything with that money other than fix that baby’s ear, I will definitely kick his fictional ass. On sight. you’d better get your fictional ass-kicking shoes on because he definitely brought brews and weed with that money. Week 5 in a row of the kids in this town acting like the absolute worst fucking assholes of all time. It would be funny if Mare were this way as a child and the bullshit she takes now on a consistent basis is her way of flagellating herself as payback, and/or the other adults were asshole kids and being stuck in this town for life is karmic payback.
I’m thinking its the Ross son(can’t remember his name) and the day helped cover it up. The dad was having an affair with Erin because he’s the worst, and the kid snapped and killed Erin, to ‘protect his family/his mom’. hence why the dad says this is all his fault.
Nah. He went back to sleeping with the same woman he had an affair with previously. That was the gist of the convo between him and his mom after she picked him up from school.
She asked if it was the same woman but I don’t think her son ever confirmed that?
It appeared he nodded “Yes” to me. But I could be wrong.
This is show is an endless series of red herrings.
I want the killer to be three red herrings in a trench coat.
LOL I could kick myself for not anticipating that after that kinda nice kiss between Zabel and Mare, that Zabel would be dead meat afterwards. I wonder if she’ll try to commiserate with Zabel’s mom. (that was a joke)that might have been the most tense 10 minutes of TV I’ve seen all year. My heart was literally pounding in my chest. Loved all the callbacks to Silence of the Lambs; you can really never go wrong referencing that movie even obliquely.
I watched late so I knew something big would happen, I actually expected to Mare to get killed and then the town dealing with the loss of such a divisive community member. Really upped the shock level on my part woops.
I knew there were 2 more episodes after this one so I assumed she was safe but that would have been an interesting twist.
This week’s sponcon: How Mare of Easttown authentically captures DelCo’s love affair with Winston Brand cigarettes and why it is the preferred cigarette of America’s Sweetheart, Exciting New Rising Breakout Star and Lead Singer of Androgynous Angourie Rice.
Joshua, the Widower Carroll had an affair with Mare’s mother, not the mother of the teenaged vandal. Did you black out during the immediately following scene of Mare laughing hysterically while Helen protested she couldn’t even remember how many times she slept with him? Good lord.I knew Colin was being overly vague and humble about the case he allegedly solved.
Agree about Colin and that case he solved — he was evasive when Mare first asked him how he did it. (I worried that he might’ve pinned it on the wrong suspect or something like that, but glad that’s not the case.) I knew something was off, though.
“[E]ven though Colin swiftly ruins the evening by demanding Mare show all her cards since he’s been showing all of his. Mare’s so offended, she walks out on him mid-chew.”Wow, did you view that scene differently from how I did.
How did you view it? I didn’t think poor Colin ruined the evening, but i don’t think Mare necessarily did either. She just seemed clearly not interested in a romantic relationship, but Colin wasn’t getting it. I felt sorry for him, more than anything.
I viewed it as Mare doing exactly what Colin’s mother accused her of – agreeing to go out on a “date” with him just so she could be near the case and pump him for information. She was clearly not interested in a romantic relationship after she agreed to go out with him. When Colin brought up what his mother said, Mare didn’t respond and then just took off. Colin was clueless, but Mare was an asshole.
“Colin was clueless, but Mare was an asshole.” That short sentence sums up a huge proportion of this series so far. Not all of it, of course, but really quite a lot.
He definitely kept pushing when he already knew she wasn’t into it, but she was also using him to stay close to the case. It was just a bad date.
I don’t think he was out of line. She agreed to go on a date with him, he was clear that his interests were romantic, and he had every right to consider her behavior rude and dishonest. She even dismissed their earlier conversation about his stutter, which was just mean.Their following conversation was just lovely, though. She leveled with him and he didn’t resent her for it (although he also was clearly still carrying a torch for her, which was his most problematic behavior). I knew then he was dead meat but still shouted at the tv when they, er, pulled the trigger.
Man, are you mistaken with Mare’s Mom. Her name is Fahey, not Lahey and Betty Carroll’s tormentor was not Mare’s Mom’s son because we would have seen him in that role by now. He was another neighbor’s kid, but not Mare’s mom.I know the names are close, but you should have checked this before posting.
Thinking Billy Ross is baby daddy but not the killer. If he’s neither, what a blatant, last-minute red herring.Craziest possible killer would be Moira Ross. John and Ryan’s big “secret” could be much bigger than the affair.
Would the paternity testing they did on Erin’s baby show whether the father was a relative of Erin’s? I don’t really know enough about DNA testing to say one way or the other, maybe they would need an independent sample of the father’s DNA, or maybe Billy isn’t closely enough related to Erin to show up in the DNA test results.I do wonder if they’ve done any further DNA testing beyond Dylan and Mare’s ex-husband. Seems the biggest lead they have in the Erin case is the missing father, so it would seem prudent to ask as many men in Erin’s life as possible to submit voluntary DNA tests to narrow down the identify of that person.
A DNA test should at least reveal that the father was a close relative, and an uncle would qualify in that regard. Maybe if the testing lab was following very strict guidelines to only state whether or not one of the two possible fathers were the actual father and nothing else.
But isn’t Billy just Erin’s dad’s cousin, not her uncle? I think that makes Billy and Erin first cousins once removed or something like that. I’m not sure if that’s a close enough relation that it would show up in DNA results.
You’re right. Billy is Erin’s first cousin once removed, and would share about 3% of her DNA. I’m not sure this would be noticed by this lab, or considered unusual in such a small town where many people are likely to share a similar level of DNA.
Oh, he’s her cousin? I totally though he and the other guy were brothers of her father. The relationships on this show get very confusing. Cousins would be trickier, especially if they are not first cousins.
Yeah, Mare covers the relationships when she reaches out to Billy about going with her to notify the dad (also I assume why they have different names—McMenamin vs. Ross). Incidentally I feel like the omnipresence of extended family relationships/cousins around everywhere is one of the things that feels really, really accurate to me in terms of setting.
Ah, gotcha. So potentially even the two guys they ruled out are cousins at some level, lol. The DNA testers probably just shrug at this point.
Good question. I’m not familiar enough with DNA testing either.
I strongly suggest to the reviewer to watch Forbrydelsen’s first season.
Cause I am sure Mare’s creators have. Along with Silence of the Lambs of course. And a few more shows they have borrowed elements from. I guess new viewers were shocked, well I wasn’t really.
.
Forbrydelsen is a masterpiece. The killer’s revelation after 20 episodes is one of the most intense moments of TV history.
What I loved in that Danish show was the lack of over-drama in the lives of the heroes. They were just humans with their ups and downs and their personal issues or daemons. They didn’t need all this past drama in order to look so sad (and Kate plays so well sad).
Why the character of Mare needed so much family drama? a father who shot himself, a son with a mental illness who also killed himself, a ex-hubby living next to her. I mean common, built a frakking character without a ton of personal past misfortunes around him/her. It is lazy writing.
Still watching only for Kate and Julianne.
And I hate Dylan’s hairstyle. As the 99.99% of every teenager would and never had!
Ok. I’ll bite. You’re comparing the format of a network broadcast tv show with 20 episodes to a cable show with 7. Those require fundamentally different methods of storytelling.
Btw, Frobrydelsen first season was divided in 2 sub-seasons of 10 episodes. And there were 20 episodes for the same crime. It wasnt NCIS.
I am comparing them cause I see Mare using so many elements from this Danish show. The Number of episodes should concern Mare’s creators, since they are trying to put so many things in only 7 episodes.
I also compare how the 2 shows treat their female lead. Sara Lund is emotionally distant almost self-isolated and obsessed detective and that not because half of her family had killed themselves, but because she is simply this way.
Here they have a super talented actress like Kate Winslet and they filled her character’s life with family traumas in order to shape her character, because they do not trust their audience, they don’t think the audience would care for just a “weird” character. This is supposed to be some prestige drama with a prestige cast but it has very cliche writing.
I don’t think you know much about TV writing. Also, your primary criticism seems to be that this show is not another show that you liked more.Coool.
my criticism was (and sorry if it wasnt clear, english is not my first lang) that Mare copied (among other shows) many things from another show but not in a successful way.
Even in your own analysis of the two shows you outline *major* differences. But Mare “copied”? You’re not even consistent with your own critique! Most of what you’re talking about are just genre tropes. It’s not “copying” for two murder mysteries to contain a red herring. You might as well accuse Luther of copying Law & Order or Broadchurch of copying Hill Street Blues. Get real.
oh they copied alright, but they failed to execute. Get polite.
There’s nothing impolite in telling you that your argument is inconsistent. You haven’t made any case for copying, you’ve only insisted that it happened. A depressed female lead with a suicide in the family? Okay, that’s a *few* series. Did they *all* copy Frobrydelsen? And how did Mare “fail to execute”? Again, this isn’t me being rude. You can’t make a harsh criticism of something and not back it up.
“get real” is not a polite comment.
It is not just Fobrydelsen, True Detective, Silence of the lambs, Happy Valley and most of all Broadchurch. And I am pretty much sure I could think of more shows if I tried a little harder.
This is a show made to showcase Winslet’s amazing acting skills. Everything is built up to have Kate showing off 50 shades of sad.
I actually enjoyed that. But the writing was bad, bad copycatting.
I can also list detective TV shows. How fun!Again: You haven’t actually made any *real* argument for the copying and IN FACT have outlined some significant differences between the characterizations of the protagonists. Your accusation is thus far unsupported. Others have actually pointed out similarities in the *text* of the show, not just saying “Well X is Y, full stop.” And I would agree that Mare does utilize *tropes* of true crime/detective fiction. As have the shows that came before. And that shall come after. That’s kinda what tropes are.
just wondering if the Danish series you cite is the same “The Killing”, which was adapted for US starring Mirelle Enos & Joel Kinnaman?
Yes, although the American “version” was a failure.
*rolls eyes
“It says a lot for Mare Of Easttown that Betty’s death was so affecting, considering how briefly and infrequently she appeared. For all her flaws, Betty was the type of person cohesive communities thrive on, the kind that encourages collectivism by jamming her nose in everyone’s business.”I didn’t see any of this in this episode or previous episodes. It was also telling who wasn’t at her funeral.
Lori presses her son to elaborate on the secret his father mentioned and learns her galoot of a husband is still being unfaithful to her. This show has been pretty brutal (not a negative, just an observation) in terms of the subject, matter that my wife and I literally were like “oh thank god” when we found out it was “just” an affair and not something far more insidious…Just some good ‘ol fashioned infidelity
Although I loved most of this episode, I didn’t appreciate the bait and switch when it came to John Ross and his son. It’s pretty shitty to introduce the potential storyline of a young child being sexually abused by their parent unless it actually adds something to the story, and in this case (so far at least), all it showed was that John Ross runs around on his wife. There are a million other ways that could have been shown (even with some sort of bait and switch plot!) that didn’t involve invoking child abuse. It was . . . not easy to watch.Poor dead Zabel. He finally gets a chance to do some real police work and gets shot for his efforts. But I’m glad that Katie Bailey and the other woman have been rescued – and now we have another victim to track down. Could the baby possibly be DJ? If Erin wasn’t staying with Billy Ross as everyone said (she would have said something though, right?)?Speaking of Erin, boy, everyone in her life fucking sucked. Jess, not to channel Tyra, but I was rooting for you! We were all rooting for you! I couldn’t tell what the page that Jess hid said – did anyone get a good shot?Kate Winslet’s hysterical laugh at her mom getting called out at a funeral was the highlight of the episode, for sure. I loved it.
It’s pretty shitty to introduce the potential storyline of a young child being sexually abused by their parent unless it actually adds something to the story, and in this case (so far at least), all it showed was that John Ross runs around on his wife. They didn’t “introduce” it. I think this show is just so damn dark that of course child sexual abuse would be teh secret between fater and son.Instead, just good ‘ol fashioned cheating. And thank god for that.
I don’t know. I think in almost any show (okay, maybe not Schitt’s Creek or something), any scene in which a parent is whispering “this has to be our secret and don’t tell anyone else” to their child in their bedroom is going to look like CSA.
Eh, I guess. I think that just holds true (or More true) when the overall subject matter/tone of the show overall is so dark. Otherwise the Schitt’s Creek analogy wouldn’t hold up. If the overall tone of a show is not so darksided, your mind would not automatically go to some of the most heinous thoughts or possibilities of a “secret” between father and son. In a lighter show, that secret is a surprise party for Mom. lolAs I said in a different thread, my wife and I were literally relieved that it wasn’t sexual abuse related. It was a relief it was “just” infidelity, between consenting adults.
I may be more likely to jump to my conclusions map, but you’re right; I probably wouldn’t expect it in a more light-hearted show.But I guess my point is – did the showrunners intend to make that the message? I think they most likely did. And if they did, that’s pretty shitty of them (especially to not even throw a warning in the beginning of the episode).
Starred for the “jump to my conclusions map” comment lol.But again, they didn’t introduce it, your brain did. Most likely due to the dark subject matter of the show. That’s not a criticism of You. I get it. My mind went there too, as did my wife’s. Idk what kind of warning would be needed for a show that ended the previous episode with a “Black Snake Moan/Kiss the Girls” vibe of imprisoned teen girls/sex slaves.
I mean, Schitt’s Creek this show is not. lol
I mean, Schitt’s Creek this show is not.Though if it turns out Roland’s behind Erin’s death, I would not be surprised.I don’t know that my brain did introduce it, though. There are two options, right? Either the writers room just wanted to add a bit of mystery and didn’t think about the implications were of a parent whispering to their child that “it has to be our secret, just between us” while they were sitting on the child’s bed – in which case I have to wonder about what kind of bubble they’ve been living in all their lives – or they did intend that to be the interpretation, in which case it’s fucking shitty of them to treat child molestation like a red herring.
Honestly I didn’t even think of the abuse angle, am I the only one? It was clear they were sharing a secret but I didn’t read that as potential abuse at all.
Seriously? The father sitting with his arm around his son in the dark on a bed, whispering something along the lines of “this will be our little secret”? I’m surprised it didn’t cross your mind at all.
I didn’t get sexual abuse vibes from that scene at all, but perhaps that’s because I feel certain that Ryan is the killer and his dad helped him cover it up, which makes the conversation make sense. I don’t believe that it was infidelity they were talking about. Lori jumped to that conclusion, and Ryan let her because he doesn’t want to tell his mom what really happened.
How is a ten year old going to be out at a creek at midnight and killing someone far bigger than him? I just don’t see that working.
Whaaaaa,,,,,Whaaaaa…..It gave me bad feelings. Me no like.
prediction: i don’t think it’s “bait” that they introduced the fake-out with the Ross family. i think this is going to be like Top of the Lake (S1) and we’re going to find out that like, all of the men in the town are in on the abuse of those girls locked away at the bar. notice that we didn’t get a reveal about WHO he was cheating with… just “same girl?” — who’s to say that Potts dude wasn’t running some kind of horrifying ring from that bar. (i thought it seemed a bit like foreshadowing when he said that he, “inherited the bar from his uncle, who tried to leave it to his son,” but the son didn’t want anything to do with it.)
Ugh, ewwwww, you’re right; that’s a very plausible theory.
i really hope i’m wrong, but at this point i honestly don’t see any way i’m not. (…like, there’s definitely a reason why sooo many of the male characters on this show are so anxious and sketchy. it’s not a bait and switch, it’s more like “it takes a village.”) 😐
The Vulture recap at least gets the names right.https://www.vulture.com/article/mare-of-easttown-episode-5-recap-illusions.html
Damn, and Evan Peters was having quite a year, wasn’t he? RIP Colin.I thought it was brilliant the way they had Mare stare at the rolling rock bottle as Billy was leaving in a rush. She was clearly considering snapping it up for DNA.I also cringed through the 3-5 minutes where we all worry John Ross is a molester, THEN for those few seconds where we think not only is he one, but that Lori knew it and let it go… thank God he was only a cheater (but no, really!).
I read that scene as her thinking that he must have had a reason for only taking one sip and then leaving.
I also cringed through the 3-5 minutes where we all worry John Ross is a molester, THEN for those few seconds where we think not only is he one, but that Lori knew it and let it go… thank God he was only a cheater (but no, really!). This 100%! My wife and I both were like “Oh, thank god, it’s just infidelity.” And we were both 100% serious. We both were definitely thinking something far more dark/sinister.So yes, thanks god, just cheating!
Feels funny to say / think, huh?
We both joked about it for the next few minutes that cheating in a show this dark was just “meh” levels of disturbing. It barely even registers!
What made it even darker for me was that I thought she knew he was molesting again and she didn’t seem like she wanted to do anything about it.
Since everyone is involved with everyone on this show (except the actual kidnapper) I’m now obsessed with who John is having the affair with? Brianna’s Mom/Tony’s Wife? Bethey? Dawn? Jess’s Mom? Lahey’s Mom? Helen? My pick is too perfect Faye.
Seconded! A sneaky misdirect as we are ready to think the worst of pretty much anyone!
Exactly. And by “worst”, like, the actual, factual worst.Like I said below in a diff comment, wife and I both joked about it for the next few minutes that cheating in a show this dark was just “meh” levels of disturbing. It barely even registers!
I’m only lukewarm on this episode but the writing for those three scenes was exemplary.
Oh god no, Dad is making the kid keep quiet. “ . . . again?” OH GOD NO, MOM KNOWS AND HAS DONE NOTHING. Oh wait, maybe it’s just an affair.
So few words to convey so, so much.
I’m only lukewarm on this episode but the writing for those three scenes was exemplary.
Oh god no, Dad is making the kid keep quiet. “ . . . again?” OH GOD NO, MOM KNOWS AND HAS DONE NOTHING. Oh wait, maybe it’s just an affair.
So few words to convey so, so much.
I’m only lukewarm on this episode but the writing for those three scenes was exemplary.
Oh god no, Dad is making the kid keep quiet. “ . . . again?” OH GOD NO, MOM KNOWS AND HAS DONE NOTHING. Oh wait, maybe it’s just an affair.
So few words to convey so, so much.
I’m only lukewarm on this episode but the writing for those three scenes was exemplary.
Oh god no, Dad is making the kid keep quiet. “ . . . again?” OH GOD NO, MOM KNOWS AND HAS DONE NOTHING. Oh wait, maybe it’s just an affair.
So few words to convey so, so much.
It’s not clear to me, yet, how you’re feeling re. this episode. How would you gauge your temp?
I’d say she gave it 4 outta 4.
Watch out for the double fake out though
When it was revealed that the kidnapper has poker games on friday nights, I was sure how they’d reveal who it was. I figured it would be a know character who at one point would casually say, “you know I have poker on friday nights.” That would have been rad.
There goes my theory that Evan Peters did everything. In fairness, he’s Evan Peters, and the characters he tends to play have never let death stop him before.
I liked the regional detail of the (maybe doomed) wedding reception happening at an Inn. Everything formal/fancy in eastern PA seems to happen in some sort of inn.
The minute they start exploring what could be an interesting relationship between Colin and Mare, boom, he’s dead. I’m chalking this up to it being a miniseries so they have no need to actually see characters develop, but choosing to end that romantic possibility instead of the boring one with Guy Pearce is a coward move IMO. As if the writer either didn’t believe in younger man/older woman relationships or just didn’t know how to write one, so lets just kill the guy off.
They just wanted to shock the viewers.
I’m not saying TV writers never stoop to this but I think you’re reaching out of cynicism.
Soooo not doing the cliche bullshit is boring?
No, it’s a reasonable adult move. Pearce being “boring” is *good*. Mare needs a partner who isn’t in her field to get competitive, who is older and wiser, who has intellectual pursuits outside of her insular bubble.What character development do you think was done a disservice here?
Interesting to immediately throw away a red herring: the kidnapper was “bearded”, which at least three possible culprits are, but Mr. Potts only had a little stubble. The entire chase scene was fantastic and tense, but man, I’ll miss Evan Peters.
I knew he was dead the minute they entered the house. I don’t know why. Maybe because at that moment I remembered his mother telling him to be careful, and his response to her. Maybe it was that Mare and Zabel’s previous scene together felt like a relief and it seemed like she was starting to let go of her anger a little bit when she was with him. Kate Winslet is so good in that scene. I felt like you could actually see some tension leave Mare’s face as they started being honest with each other about their past and their mistakes. So then, of course, I remembered that this was not just a character drama but a crime drama and not much crime solving had been done at this point in the episode. So, of course, something had to happen. And then, there we were. Dammit.
they kill my boy toy
Guy Pearce stepped in when the original actor left. Make of that what you will SUV fans.
Ok I know for sure Zabel is dead, but like why was his body so close to the door at the end when he was shot after he and Mare walked deeper into the house? They passed the kitchen area and were inside a den or living room. Then, when Mare is running by his body and grabs his gun, it’s right at the door. Am I spatially off?
I’m sure you’ve got the answer by now but I’ll give it a try. Poor Zabel’s body is laying between the living room, the second room they step in, and the kitchen, the first room they step in. He is standing in front of the door between the two rooms so his body going backwards, he ends up between the living room and the kitchen. I don’t know if I’m being clear but it looks spatially correct.
Violence is never the answer but, but if you bully a kid with Down’s Syndrome, you deserve to get a TBI.
Yeah I was actually pretty pumped when I saw him approaching with the tray.
A couple of girls claim to have escaped after being attacked by a bearded Winston smoker who drives a blue cargo van.One girl, actually. The one who met with Mare and Colin at the diner.
I’m confused as to why Jess would lie to Mare about Erin’s journals in the first place. It’s not like Mare knew of their existence and was already looking so needed misdirection. Once she knew they existed, Mare could’ve kept looking, or even, yes, gotten a search warrant to check all over the girl’s room. It doesn’t make sense that Dylan and gang would create the ruse – to what end? It feels more like the writers room service to the viewer – look, Jess and Dylan are not to be trusted! They are messing with Mare! They are destroying evidence! Look how suspicious they are acting…
My bet: Dylan’s persuaded her that the kid DJ is better off staying with his family, and they’re destroying the diaries so that they can’t trace him to another father (without a lucky DNA hit) and he doesn’t have to know who the real father is himself. The cash is genuinely still going to the ear operation.
I like this!
Mare did know about the journals, she saw it in the video she was watching which is why she went back to ask Jess where they were. She couldn’t get a warrant because she’s ‘on leave’ she could have told Zabel and he could have got a warrant. I don’t understand why Mare didn’t search the room more since no one knew she was there and it’s not like she needed to hurry out. Also she previously showed she knows how sneaky teen girls are, so I was really confused when she just took the few letters and the necklace and left. Side question, is the date on the necklace DJ’s birthday? It was 2017 and obviously this show takes place before 2020 so it seems like that might track.
I was thinking maybe the date Kevin killed himself, and Mare is DJ’s grandma too, but I’m sure I’m maybe missing something that would make that impossible.
It’s good enough, but the killer reveal is almost certainly going to piss me off.
re: Guy Peace done it theory – wasn’t he cast at the last minute? Someone else had the role and dropped out so they called him in on it because him and Kate Winslet are buddies. That makes me think the SVU logic might not apply here.
Which is tremendous for writers of a mystery show, considering what everyone has been conditioned to expect. You get a free (and completely fair) red herring suspect, who everyone will keep on the suspect list without having to insert any shady behavior as a misdirection.
Based on this episode, I’m fully into the notion that John Ross is Erin’s killer.I thought it was John, but his being kicked out starts me thinking it’s Billy. Also, previews show Billy with a pretty nice handgun.
god i love this show…if it’s not Guy Pearce, he must be the most expensive red herring in TV history! Inglesby probably came up on SVU marathons just like the rest of us…some mad genius shit.
Deacon Burton’s story is looking less incriminating and more sad. He’s attacked by a mob, his punishment for being a rumored “creeper,” then tells Father Dan he saw Erin the night of her murder but kept it to himself and dumped her bike out of fear. It’s plausible, honestly.Really? The reveal that Erin insisted on being taken to that park where she was (we think) killed, and it’s just an “stray observation”?Also, I nailed it when I guessed last week that the Deacon went to pick her up, and her bike was somehow left in his car, so he had to dump it.New guess is that John AND Billy were paying Erin for sex, for a long time., such that one of them is the father/killer. Where did all that money come from? Was Erin’s friend lying (as everyone in the show does when they speak) about Erin not having contacted anyone in Sidedoor for sex? And that friend took SOMETHING out of one of the diaries before it was burned. What was it?
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I’m just wondering why the entire town doesn’t commit suicide. Literally no one has even an average, boring, but at least no big misery issues-life, let alone a happy one.
0 chance Guy Pearce’s professor is the killer. He texted Erin and told her to go to the park that night? How? It has to be someone she knows. Also he’s like objectively the sweetest male character I’ve seen on television in a while and I’ll eat my boxers if he somehow turns out to be the murderer as a twist
Jess clearly pocketed the most important section of one of the diaries.
this show is poorly made and bad. for instance Mare was in bed with her grandson doing something than suddenly she is driving around and stumbles upon the senile old man. why did she get out of bed late at night and leave the house? other than, of course, have her encounter the supposed peeper. The old lady dies off screen at the beginning of the episode and within the same episode the wake is held. did several days pass during this episode? Mare is not a cop and was committing crimes just by investigating and posing as one. Plus she broke into the house of the old man and assaulted him. she should have been arrested on the spot. But i guess her chief is more bark than bite.
This was so Silence of the Lambs I kept expecting a moth to casually fly into the shot and land on Kate Winslet’s head.
The first 10 minutes or so bored me to tears. I dont care about Betty Carroll or her husband’s affair. And who confesses something so personal at a funeral? Just for another cheap laugh