1x07 Sacrament

Mare of Easttown turned out to be all about mothers and sons, a powerful character study about grief, family and resilience of women, and not so much about the killings. The finale was entertaining, certainly very emotional. There are some missing pieces but overall, it was well done.

• The whole murder weapon storyline was disappointing. I'm definitely no gun expert but why would an ex cop keep a loaded gun in a shed in his backyard? And if Mr. Carroll is so forgetful, how would he remember how many bullets were in there? He knew 2 bullets were gone, did nothing, and continue to keep the gun in the shed?

• How does Ryan was able to leave the party to get his bike, stop by to get the gun, and ride his bike to Brandyville park, which is 13 miles out of town, and still beat Erin in an hour and ten minutes?

• I can't settle with how Deacon Mark left Erin in a park, alone, in the middle of the night, without her bike. His last scene in the church was framed as somehow uplifting moment, which felt wrong. Everyone thinks he's a pervert but the minute it turns out he didn't kill Erin, this proves he's innocent of all previous accusations. Super heavy to just dismiss, given the history of the Catholic church.

• If John bought the locket for Erin and why did he put Billy's name on the receipt? If he wanted anonymity, why not put a totally different and random name?

• Why would Lori get custody of DJ after lying to the police? And the family raising DJ is just weird - they killed his mother, tried to cover it up, and on the top of that, he is a child of incest. I feel like DJ should have been adopted by another family so he could have a normal childhood. This brings me to the next problem - at what point did Lori find out John was having sex with Erin and not Sandra? John started preying on Erin when she was just 14-years old, and they were related. A few words from Lori about how freaking messed up it was would have been nice. It seems like everyone had at least one good thing going for them, no matter how depressing their lives are, except for Lori. I have to praise Julianne Nicholson for the harrowing performance in this episode. The scene of Ryan running and clinging to his mom was very heartbreaking. John may not have pulled the trigger, but he may as well have.

• I'm glad we saw Katie Bailey and her family for a few seconds, but what about the other girl? They introduced such a dark theme - kidnapping and raping two girls, wrapped it up in 15 minutes, choosing a random character with no association to the town as the kidnapper, and then kind of forgot about this storyline. It just felt unfinished.

• The last shot was pure poetry.

All in all, the finale was good, but not as great as the other episodes. Maybe that's problem with all mystery shows though - they build up the mystery so carefully and then finish not nearly as strong as one was hoping for.

Dylan JOHN... yet nobody suspected anything ever...
DAMN... Lori's life is messed up. But you know what, I kinda understand her point when she asked Mare if it was necessary? I get any detective would want to see the end of it, and as humans we are naturally curious, so yes that makes sense, but was it necessary for Mare to act on it? Cause I think we can all agree that no matter who pulled the trigger, John is the reason Erin's dead, so I don't know, I mean of course I don't want Ryan to get away with it but at the same time is would he do it again? If the answer is yes of course, then lets lock him up, but I'm conflicted -when I watched Defending Jacob I could tell that boy was troubled somehow, and with Ryan yes there's a conflict but I don't think it comes from within- At least Mare could've gone to talk to Lori first, or not even talk just tell her "I'm taking him" but it's like Mare wanted the satisfaction of having the "gotcha" moment and I'm not saying Mare was wrong or defending Lori or Ryan, it's just there wasn't an easy resolution.
Also it wasn't clear when did Lori found out John was cheating on her with Erin and that he was DJ's dad, I think she found all of that that morning when John took Billy fishing?
And I wish Dylan's parents could've adopted DJ cause there's no way Lori can love him. Also Dylan is trash.
So besides all that, this show has one of the best characters development I've ever watched, usually when I watch murder mysteries I don't care much about the detective's life, all I want is for them to focus on solving the murder, but this time that was secondary. Everyone in this town leaves such an impression on you. And this is such a captivating tale on tragedy and pain.
Now, my only issue with the show was Zabel, yes I know it sounds insane, and make no mistake, I really liked him and enjoyed his character and loved seeing Evan in such a different mature role BUT sadly he had no impact on the story, Mare moved on from his death, no one in the town cared, he didn't solve the case, so it was all for nothing, he was just there to be another tragedy for Mare, but there was so many that she didn't have time to care about him, if you think about it his existence didn't affect the show or outcome in anyway. So I would've prefer the detective to be a local to Easttown, to not be romantically involved with Mare (it was one sided but still), or not to die and just leave and be one more passing visitor to Easttown while the community stays there with their tragedy.