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Spoilers for all ofMare of Easttown, including the finale, lie ahead.
Everything about it screamed, Im a murder mystery!
Its what makes the finale so much more satisfying than the simple Oh, it washim?!
Illegal acts and complicated family feelings: Name a more iconic duo!
ButMare of Easttowns murder-and-moms storytelling goes deeper than the typical crime plus sad families thematics.
Its structural, a way of looping together two different storytelling drives that naturally pull against each other.
Family (or chosen-family) dramas thinkGreys AnatomyorShameless are all about time and generations.
Family dramas are all about sins-of-the-father-jot down shit.
There is no easy answer, no fast way to see the action and erase the consequences.
This is why theyre so full of red herrings and proliferating theories.
Its a story shape that longs for its own ending.
Was Erin murdered by her lover?
Was that lover John or Billy?
Who was the father of her son, DJ?
What was in the photo that so alarmed Mares supervisor?
Will the conclusion of this mystery surprise me, or will it be predictable?
We think we know … Who is DJs father?
Who will care for him?
How are an older generations mistakes being visited upon and reverberating through the younger ones?
How can they protect the sons from the fathers transgressions?
The tidiness (with a dash of smugness that the surprise has worked) nearly undermines the tragedy.
Its as happy an ending asMare of Easttowncould muster.
