Sore Must Be the Storm
Episode 6 of Mare of Easttown picks up right off the back of that shocking climax to last week’s episode. Colin’s death hangs heavy in the air and Mare awakens to find herself in hospital. The family gather around to check up on her. Amidst this misery is a small glimmer of happiness in the form of Katie being returned to her Mother. The abduction storyline now resolved, her reunion with Dawn is a touching respite before the attention turns back to Erin. Specifically, Erin’s bike being found in the lake. This, coupled with Father Dan ousting Deacon’s whereabouts that night, cause him to be the most likely suspect right now. Mare returns home and speaks to Lor, who believes John is having an affair. However, she can’t bring herself to leave him. This is true, as it turns out, but apparently he’s ended things. Mare can’t sit still though and heads up to see Colin’s Mother, gushing about the detective and telling her he was great at his job. However, Mare receives several slaps to the face for her troubles. Zabel’s Mother blames Mare for what happened, forbidding her from coming back to the house again. The next day Mare returns to the station and speaks to the Chief. He confirms outright that the two cases aren’t related, and that Wayne Potts didn’t kill Erin. He was in Altoona visiting his Mother that weekend. With Hauser out, Carter puts his trust in Mare and tells her she’s getting the case (and her badge) back. Mare speaks to Dylan again, trying to figure out if he could be responsible. There’s a definite black mark on his record and Dylan senses that Mare is closing in on him. He asks for a lawyer, which only makes him look more suspicious. Mare can feel herself slipping, and she heads to therapy and admits as much. This time though she opens up about what happened with her son. It’s an emotional, distressing segment, one that sees Mare find him up in the attic hanging from the rafters. As a Father of two, I can’t even imagine the pain and anguish in seeing this. To make matters worse, Mare still lives in the same house but hasn’t been able to go into the attic ever since. Mare heads home but runs into Beth, who waves down her car and asks for help. She’s been trying to contact Freddie for three days now but he hasn’t been answering. Mare eventually breaks in and finds Freddie dead – and a bag with Erin’s clothes. It’s a tough blow, but one that’s followed up by Siobhan returning home drunk. Mare sits down with her daughter, who tells Mare she hates her for being the one to find her brother. Mare holds her daughter and apologizes as she sobs. It’s a tender moment, one that’s unfortunately ended a little prematurely given we cut to the next scene soon after. Personally, I would have liked the show to have held that moment a little longer. Elsewhere, John’s Father sits his son down and admits that he found Bill that night in the laundry room, covered in blood. The next morning, Erin was found – is Bill the culprit? This, coupled with his erratic behaviour, puts him as a very likely suspect. We don’t have to wait long long, as Bill admits as much to John later on. He, in turn, approaches Lor and tells her they need to keep this from Mare. However, Dylan rocks up next to Jess while she’s walking, revealing that she was the one who took the journals and claiming that “the three of us are joined together forever.” Dylan winds up chasing her and grabs Jess while she’s hiding, holding a gun up to her face and claiming she needs to be quiet to make sure she doesn’t have her face blown up “like Erin”. Meanwhile, Carrie falls asleep while Drew is in the bath, waking up to find him face-down in the water. Apparently he was just playing but when Carrie sees him, it’s enough to jolt her into submission and she breathes heavily. Later that day, John and Billy decide to pack up their things and head out fishing. Tellingly, Billy notices a gun tucked away in his brother’s gear. While they’re gone, Mare heads over to Lor’s house and admits she has suspicions. Well, Lor can’t lie anymore and she breaks the truth about Erin to her. Billy was the one who killed her, having panicked after Erin threatened to reveal to everyone that he’s DJ’s Father. While Mare races up to the fishing lake to stop Billy and John, Carter receives a visit from Jess who has a photo of… something. We don’t see what it is though, but it spooks Carter enough to urge his associates to ring Mare immediately.
The Episode Review
What could be on that photo? We’ll have to wait and see of course but after the dramatic episode last week, Mare of Easttown starts to knuckle down and delivers the truth about Erin’s killer. It was Billy, as it turns out, and although the clues leading up to this have been up in the air for a while, seeing everything come together has certainly been satisfying. That actual reasoning behind why Erin has been killed (DJ’s birth Father) has been a solid lead over the weeks and now it becomes clear that Billy is the missing puzzle piece in all this. It seems like John is going to try and kill him to keep this a secret, potentially to save his own family’s name in the process. We’ll have to wait and see of course. Mare however, gets quite the journey this week, finally opening up and revealing what happened to her son. It’s a harrowing ordeal, one that sheds light on exactly why this family have been broken apart in the wake of this. There’s a really touching moment between Siobhan and Mare too, but personally it would have been nice to see this segment extended for another 30-40 seconds or so. This is probably the one blemish on what’s otherwise been a really solid episode. With the truth now out, the final chapter looks set to end this excellent crime drama in dramatic fashion.
