The HBO mini-series Mare of Easttown offers a twisty murder mystery that leaves some unanswered questions after the finale. The final episode provides a resolution to most of the series' ongoing storylines. Erin McMenamen's killer is revealed and then re-revealed; Mare begins to heal from her son's death; Siobhan goes off to college, and baby DJ finally gets his ear surgery. But there are some loose ends at the end of Mare of Easttown, mostly relating to past suspects who ended up being innocent, as well as what will happen next to some characters.
The Mare of Easttown finale begins with Mare pursuing Billy Ross, who she believes is the killer. However, Erin's friend Jess has given Chief Carter a photo revealing that John Ross, not Billy, is DJ's father and the likely murderer. John plans to kill Billy on their fishing trip and pin the blame on him, but Mare intervenes and arrests him. John pleads guilty, saying that he shot Erin in a panic after trying to wrestle the gun away from her, while she was threatening to shoot herself. He is sentenced, and the murder is seemingly solved.
However, episode seven of Mare of Easttown later reveals that John, while responsible for molesting Erin, was not the one who fired the shots that killed her. Instead, John's son Ryan killed Erin in an attempt to keep her away from his father. The arrest of Ryan causes a permanent rift between Mare and her friend Lori, his mother. After the revelation that Ryan was the killer, Mare of Easttown ends with the titular protagonist going up into the attic, previously established as the place where her son hung himself and a place she hasn't been able to visit since. This final image shows that Mare is beginning to heal from the trauma caused by her son's death.
By the end of the series, Mare of Easttown has provided a resolution to most of its mysteries, revealing the identities of Erin's killer, Katie Bailey's kidnapper, and DJ's father. But there are still a few lingering questions that didn't receive a satisfying answer. These questions could be clarified in a potential sequel series, but their ambiguity can also be understood as a thematic choice, one that reflects the impossibility of ever having all the answers.
What Was Frank's Connection to Erin?
A surprise early suspect in Mare of Easttown is Mare's ex-husband Frank. Jess tells Lori that she suspects Frank to be DJ's father, based on the murdered girl's admission that Dylan wasn't DJ's real father and Jess seeing Frank bringing diapers and other baby-care products to Erin's house. Mare forces Frank to take a paternity test. The allegation upsets Frank and disrupts his engagement with Faye. However, the test ultimately shows that Frank is not DJ's father.
Even if Frank isn't the baby's father, this still leaves the question of what his relationship is to Erin, and why they were in contact after she was no longer his student. Frank also lied to Mare about their relationship when he was first asked, which makes him more suspicious. It's perfectly possible that Frank was, as he says, just helping out a former student in need. But there's nothing in Mare of Easttown that definitively proves his relationship with Erin was purely innocent.
Was Deacon Mark Really A Predator?
Mark Burton, the deacon at St. Micheal's Church, first falls under suspicion after phone records reveal that he was the last person Erin called, late at night and just hours before she was murdered. Mark claims that Erin was calling him for advice because of their prior relationship from the church's youth group. However, under questioning, he admits that he doesn't take such calls from anyone else in the group. Mark was a major Mare of Easttown suspect because of this call and because of the revelation that he had been re-assigned to St. Micheal's after allegations of an inappropriate relationship with a teenage girl at his previous parish.
These accusations make Deacon Mark a pariah in Easttown. At one point he is attacked by a group of locals blaming him for Erin's murder. He protests that his relationship with the teenage girl in his old parish was more complicated and less harmful than the allegations suggested, but never provides details. In the final episode of Mare of Easttown, Mark takes to the pulpit again, urging his audience to be open-minded and embrace forgiveness. Deacon Mark's storyline echoes the real-life abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, portrayed in Spotlight and other media.
Deacon Mark may not have been Erin's killer, but the late-night call suggests that, like Frank, he had an unusually close relationship with the teenage girl. Mare of Easttown never reveals the details of Deacon Mark's connection with Erin, or of the case that saw him accused of misconduct. Ultimately, the series is ambiguous on whether Mark is a wrongly accused man subject to mob judgment, a predator in waiting, or something in between. Mark's final sermon in the series suggests that this may be thematically intentional, reflecting how we can never know everything about someone when deciding how to treat them.
What Will Happen To John and Ryan Ross?
One of the major plotlines that run through Mare of Easttown's original story is Mare's relationship with the Ross family and how it decays as their murderous secrets come to light. By the end of the series, both John Ross and his young son Ryan have been arrested, accused of the murder of Erin McMenamin. The series doesn't provide a detailed depiction of their legal cases or what will happen to them. Based on the events of the show, however, both are in a lot of trouble.
John initially pleads guilty to Erin's murder, looking to shield his son. With Mare's arrest of Ryan, that conviction could be vacated. However, this reversal would add perjury to the list of crimes John actually committed, including statutory rape, the attempted murder of Billy, and being an accomplice after the fact to Ryan. Ryan is likely to be convicted of at least second-degree murder. Like the real-life case of Making a Murderer's Brendan Dassey, Ryan's low socio-economic status and social difficulties could lead to a harsher sentence. is young age could lead to a lighter sentence and time spent in juvenile detention instead of adult prison, but for such serious crimes, US courts often try children as adults.
Along with the legal struggles of criminal conviction is the threat of social and familial isolation. Lori tearfully tells Mare that she's taken away her family, and she isn't wrong. In a close-knit community like the series' depiction of Easttown, the kind of violent crimes that Ryan and John are responsible for could lead to ostracization. If Mare of Easttown is in part the story of Mare's struggle to get over the turbulent and prematurely ended life of her son, Lori could be in for a similar emotional toll after the story's conclusion.
Will Drew Inherit His Father's Problems?
Mare of Easttown is about Mare's personal struggles as much as it is the murder investigation, and her grandson Drew is a major part of those struggles. Mare spends the series fighting over custody for Drew with his mother Carrie, even going so far as to plant drugs in Carrie's car. In the final episode, Mare and Carrie finally talk out their differences, ultimately agreeing that Drew will stay with Mare with Carrie a greater presence in his life. However, young Drew may still have a turbulent future.
Earlier in Mare of Easttown, Mare goes to a doctor to discuss Drew's "tics", strange motions and behaviors that are reminiscent of the ones that his father Kevin suffered from. Mare describes her difficulty finding a diagnosis for Kevin that fits. As he got older, Kevin became angry and violent towards his mother, suffered from drug addiction, and ultimately committed suicide. Mare fears that she may go through such a struggle again with Drew, and ultimately receives no assurance that this won't be the case.
Thematically, Mare's willingness to accept that Drew may ultimately have the same issues as Kevin marks the resolution of her character arc. Even after being exposed to the awful secrets that so many people around her were hiding, Mare makes the choice to have an emotional investment that she knows could hurt her again. As with Deacon Mark's past, Drew's uncertain future serves as a reminder that acceptance and love require a kind of vulnerability. The final shot of the series, with Mare going up into the attic, shows that she is willing to be vulnerable again.