The fact that Ingelsby and series director Craig Zobel insisted on ensnaring the audience in uncertainty up to and throughout the finale, even after the guiltiest looking parties confessed, is a credit to their adroit construction and manipulation of dramatic tension.īut they also worked up the audience to expect nothing less. (By the 'Law & Order' rule of 'the most famous person in the story who isn't a series regular probably did it' making Richard look good for the crime early on.)īut the circle eventually tightened to those closest to the victim. Even Guy Pearce's literature professor and new guy in town Richard Ryan, Mare's most persistent suitor, had a huge question mark hovering over his head. Suspicion bounced around from Erin's cruel teenage ex-boyfriend Dylan (Jack Mulhern) to any number of men in her orbit. Her ex-husband Frank (David Denman) made the mistake of being a good Samaritan, which wouldn't have caused any trouble if Erin hadn't turned up dead and the paternity of the son she left behind never came into question. Mare's daughter Siobhan (Angourie Rice) was among the last people to see her alive. But aside from those two the list of suspects stretched long enough to cordon off a soccer field. Except, well, for Mare or her mother Helen ( Jean Smart). Such a tightly knitted community means that anyone in that slumping burg could have a motive for murdering teen mother Erin McMenamin (Cailee Spaeny). Series creator Brad Ingelsby writes the overfamiliarity of Easttown as a blessing and a curse for detective sergeant Mare Sheehan ( Kate Winslet), since everybody in the place knows her well enough to trust her while also resenting her. You probably didn't mean it literally, right? And, yet. If you described Easttown as an incestuous place at the start of ' Mare of Easttown,' you may have mixed emotions about how right you were all along. If you haven't watched the show yet, what are you waiting for? Stop reading now and don't come back until you've binged it.

Spoiler warning: The following story discusses the finale of 'Mare of Easttown' in detail.

Mare of easttown finale