Speaking of Lori, she’s the only one who doesn’t appear to be facing legal ramifications at the end of the story, even though she, too, knew what her son did. It would making having to arrest him and the discovery so emotionally devastating. The themes of the show play in the Ross clan because of how close Mare is to them. We had to make the case as difficult as possible, and also the parallels of Mare and Lori: Mare losing a son and Lori losing a son, and Mare being the one that takes away Lori’s son. So, “What if it’s Mare’s closest friend in life?” make it as hard on her as possible. How are you going to get Mare, who’s a very stubborn, tough person, to come around and confront the loss of her son? That has to be quite a difficult journey and so it’s like, “How do we make things as hard as possible? How was that ending of her ascending into the attic as hard-earned as possible? How does the mystery achieve that?” It’s a procedural and yet it has to be crushing as well. What was interesting to me is was, “What is the most potent ending in the story if we’re looking at Mare as a character?” Here was a woman that stubbornly is just refusing to confront the loss of her son. I don’t think it was necessarily what I want to say about kids and guns.

How did making Ryan the killer affect the social message you wanted the show to say? And he was able to play with the emotions of having to hide a secret but still be troubled in moments. We saw a lot of kids and we went through a lot of tapes, and when we found Cameron, we just went, “Oh my God, I totally believe he’s Julianne’s kid.” He was great in the audition, but I was also taken by the resemblance and I could believe they were related. From the beginning I think the challenge was, as you said, casting someone that could pull it off. Here, Ingelsby talks with Variety about the decision to make Ryan the murderer, the parallels between Mare and Lori’s stories and the sense of hope he wanted to evoke in the final moments of the series when Mare prepares to go up to the attic.Īt what point did you decide Ryan was the killer, and did you have any back-up plans in case you couldn’t find a young actor who could pull off what you needed from him? As important as resolving the whodunnit was to series creator and showrunner Brad Ingelsby, so too was getting Mare to a place of healing by the time the credits rolled. At the center of the story was Mare herself, struggling to properly face, let alone grieve, her own son’s death. The murder mystery was really just one piece of “Mare of Easttown,” though. He ended up in a juvenile facility with his father and uncle also on the hook for their part in covering up the crime, leaving his mother Lori ( Julianne Nicholson) alone to raise John and Erin’s son. He may have just wanted his family to stay intact, but his actions dissolved that unit.

In the end, it was his teenage son Ryan (Cameron Mann) who stole a gun, took it to the woods and confronted Erin about her relationship with his father. John’s arrest for murder soon turned into a different charge, though, as it turned out he did not actually pull the trigger. At this point, John threatened to kill himself, but eventually Mare reached the men and was able to apprehend him. Just as John was considering killing his brother, Mare ( Kate Winslet) came upon them in their fishing spot and pulled her own gun.

But Erin’s friend Jess (Ruby Cruz) exposed a deeper truth to the police when she brought them a photo of John and Erin, who had engaged in a sexual relationship (despite the fact that she was a minor - and his cousin), which resulted in the birth of a son. The finale episode, entitled “Sacrament,” revealed that yes, there was much more to this story, including a much more expansive web of criminality than a first glance at the single mother’s murder appeared.īilly seemed willing to go down for what he thought was his brother John’s (Joe Tippett) crime. SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched “Sacrament,” the series finale of “ Mare of Easttown.”Īfter watching the penultimate episode of HBO’s “Mare of Easttown,” during which Billy Ross (Robbie Tann) confessed to killing Erin McMenamin (Cailee Spaeny), many audience members came away with even more questions, including that’s a fake-out, right?

Mare of easttown season 1 episode 7