And since that was when John said their sexual contact began, that turned out to be the case. That made Mare think that the reunion was more significant to Erin than just a family reunion. In the end, it appears that the only significance of the sweatshirt and the jersey of Erin's that Mare found among Freddie's things (it turns out he got them legitimately, from Erin's father Kenny) was that the sweatshirt - from the family reunion - bore the same date as Erin's necklace. What was the relevance of Erin's clothes that Freddie had? The supposed reason for all this is that they wanted DJ's parentage to remain a secret so Dylan's parents could raise him, but it was a little. Not only that, but after they learned Jess had talked to the police, they chased her down and stuck a gun in her face to keep her from talking. Dylan and a buddy of his found Erin's journals and burned them. The one thing that seems a little discordant now that we know the truth is how aggressive and threatening Dylan, Erin's ex who had believed himself to be her baby's father, became with Erin's friend Jess. What might be most surprising is learning that some people, like Deacon Mark and Billy, were much less creepy than it seemed like they might be, and others - like John - were more so. And John just wanted to protect his son from what he considered a consequence of his own mistakes. Deacon Mark was terrified he'd be accused if Erin's bike was found in his car. And those fake-outs seem to have explanations consistent with the truth and not totally inconsistent with logic. Seeing Deacon Mark throw Erin's bike into the river was awfully suspicious! Finding out that Billy was seen covered with blood was awfully suspicious! John, uh, confessing that he did it was awfully suspicious! But from the beginning, Mare has pointed to an unsettling energy of secrecy and fear between Ryan and his father, and sure enough, that energy - a less blatant clue than some - was central to the resolution of the mystery. This one seems pretty fair to me.Ĭertainly, there were a lot of fake-outs.

When we talk about a fair ending, what we mean is whether the ending holds up in retrospect and is consistent with what we'd already seen. He was on board with jail, but not with death.

Billy seemed to be okay with this plan until he realized John was afraid he might not stick to it and was prepared to make him the fall guy and then shoot him to make sure he didn't reveal the truth. As the brothers later discussed, the thinking was that John had a family and Billy had no one, so if somebody was to take the fall, it should be Billy and not John. When you saw Billy telling John he killed Erin, what you actually were seeing was Billy committing to the lie they had agreed on to protect Ryan. So Billy said it was him, but it wasn't and he knew it wasn't?Ĭorrect. When they learned what had happened, John and his brother Billy (Robbie Tann) covered it up, from moving Erin's body in hopes of framing one of the kids from the party all the way to Billy agreeing to take the fall and John being (nearly) prepared to kill him to make sure he didn't back out. He claimed that he had only meant to scare her. Carroll (who figured into the mystery after all!), went to the park, and killed Erin. When he learned that Erin was asking John for help and threatening to tell the truth, Ryan posed as his father via text, arranged to meet with her, stole a gun from Mr.

And largely because John had already had one affair that nearly led his parents to divorce, Ryan feared that this fact would break up his family. Ryan had discovered that his father, John (Joe Tippett), was also the father of Erin's baby. Indeed, the central mystery of the series - who killed Erin McMenamin? - had an answer that matched a theory that had been laid out with impressive accuracy in some circles, even if some of them had then (understandably) dismissed it.įor in the end - and really, truly, this is your chance to tag out before we begin discussing the ending - the answer was that young Ryan Ross (Cameron Mann), the son of Mare's (Kate Winslet) best friend Lori (Julianne Nicholson), killed Erin. Let's get right to it and talk about some questions that were answered in the Mare finale.

Mare of easttown episode 7 summary