What a freakin’ mess that has been made in Easttown.
Mare of Easttown concluded on Sunday by explaining who actually killed Erin McMenamin (Cailee Spaeny) and how, and then explaining it all over again. It was not, as everyone thought at the end of the last episode, Erin’s cousin Billy Ross (Robbie Tann). It was also not, as everyone thought at the beginning of this episode, Erin’s cousin John Ross (Joe Tippett), though he was the real father of Erin’s baby. It was actually the young Ryan Ross (Cameron Mann), John’s son, who shot Erin on accident while trying to prevent his family from breaking up again. He was just trying to scare her off with a gun, and it went off when she tried to get it away from him.
What an absolute bummer.
For the first half of the finale, Mare (Kate Winslet) was fairly sure that John was the culprit. He was shown in bed with Erin in a photo she had kept in her journal (the mysterious photo from the end of the last episode), and then when confronted about it, he was strangely calm and upfront. He confessed to the relationship and to killing her, and asked his poor wife Lori (Julianne Nicholson) to take care of the baby for him, which felt like a truly insane request from the man who had just murdered the teen he impregnated.