If John had been the killer, as appeared to be the case roughly 2.5 seconds into this episode, then we’d have a very unsatisfying twist - it wasn’t the one sketchy brother, it was the other one! - an hour of airtime to fill and a show that is basically all about creepy older men and damage they inflict (though that’s still there). Like you, Mare, I was ultimately impressed by how well Brad Ingelsby and Craig Zobel stuck the landing and pulled off a surprise (or semi-surprise) that didn’t just feel like a cheap gimmick - one that arguably elevated the series by providing closure, tying together many of the themes that have been percolating under the surface for the past six weeks, and, most important of all, gave Julianne Nicholson and Kate Winslet a chance to really chew the scenery together. I, on the other hand, was wrong about John and especially wrong about Richard, and I owe him and the struggling novelists turned creative writing professors of the world an apology: You are not psychopaths. You called it all along: It was Ryan, Lori’s son and also, it turns out, the ferrety-looking intruder Mare was called to investigate at the Carrolls’ house way back in the very first scene of the series. Meredith Blake: You can say, “I told you so,” because you did, in fact, tell me so! Maybe you should take your resume down to the Easttown PD. Whether you’re a newcomer or a committed fan, our week-by-week guide to HBO’s crime drama will help you understand all things “Mare.” ![]() ![]() Television Catching up on ‘Mare of Easttown’? Our guide to the TV show everyone’s talking about obviously this is not the answer” - I felt like the episode recovered its pacing and gave us both narrative surprise and emotional closure. Although I wasn’t thrilled with the obvious twist tipoff of Mare wrapping up the fishing-trip showdown so quickly - you and I both wondered, “Um, we’re only five minutes in so. ![]() (It also demands that Guy Pearce get a newly created Emmy for “Most Effective Red Herring in a Limited Series or TV Movie.” Seriously? He was just there to date/sleep with Mare for a spell?) The show was about family, about the bonds between parents and children, both how strong and how warped they can become. The revelation that Ryan Ross (Cameron Mann) had killed Erin was a plot twist that made actual sense, both logistically and thematically. (Please notice how I have given readers plenty of time to bail so they don’t scream, “Spoiler!”) If I’m honest, there were many times when I just wished Frances McDormand’s Marge Gunderson would pop up to say, “I’m not sure I agree with you a hundred percent on your police work there, Mare,” but then Marge is an impossibly high standard.Īnd Mare got there in the end. Over and over, Mare discovered that there were loads of things she did not know about the people she had grown up with and the town she had never left, and over and over she had to be reminded that she was not “Mare of Easttown,” she was Det. Alongside her, we surveyed the endless list of possible suspects in Erin’s murder - her ex-boyfriend, his current girlfriend, Erin’s father, Mare’s ex-husband, the over-involved priest and, as we made our way through the penultimate episode, Billy Ross (Robbie Tann) or John Ross (Joe Tippett), off on the most menacing fishing expedition since Neri took Fredo out on Lake Tahoe. ![]() Mare ( Kate Winslet) is initially presented as the classic ground-down cop, if not world-weary then Easttown-weary: She believes she knows what’s going on with Betty Carroll and her worries about a teenage creeper with Dawn’s (Enid Graham) missing daughter, who Mare is convinced is dead with Zabel’s abilities and feelings toward her with her own mental health in the wake of her son’s suicide. So many series become so intent on pulling off a shocking reveal that the final episode can feel more like a narrative magic trick than an actual resolution to the events that preceded it.Īmazingly, this was not the case in “Mare of Easttown.” All along, the show has played with the dangers of assuming that familiarity equals understanding. The revelation would take a lot of ’splaining and likely force viewers to choose between the surprise and the show. It would not be who we were led to believe it was (a pretty neat trick because so many characters had been presented as likely suspects over the course of the show). I went into this finale with three expectations: The murder of Erin McMenamin would be solved. Mary McNamara: I’m not going to say I told you so, but I did tell you so, and I have the Slack messages to prove it.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |