As the second episode of Mare of Easttown begins, Mare Sheehan (Kate Winslet) meets with Officer Trammel (Justin Hurtt-Dunkley) at the newest crime scene. The chief tells her that the crime scene is not pretty. She climbs down and learns that the victim is Kenny McMenamin’s daughter. A jogger came across Erin’s body this morning and Holbert was the first to arrive at the scene. A preliminary search didn’t turn up anything of interest. They agree that the killer would need to be face to face with Erin to cause the type of damage she sustained. The Chief lets her know he called the County Supervisor and they’re sending one of their detectives down to help.

She learns that she is going to be working with Colin Zabel who solved the cold case in Upper Darby last year. She calls in the discovery and orders everyone to perform a grid search of the area. Lori (Julianne Nicholson) talks to Moira (Kassie Mundhenk) about the homecoming dance. Lori gets a call from Mare who asks if John is up yet but he isn’t. Mare asks her to wake him up because Erin was killed last night. She tells Lori about Erin’s body being found at Creedham Creek this morning. She is going to tell Kenny and wants John and Billy to meet her there. Lori immediately tries to wake up John (Joe Tippett) to tell him about Erin’s death. John and Billy (Robbie Tann) meet with her outside of Kenny’s place before they go inside to tell him about his daughter’s murder.

Kenny (Patrick Murney) lets them inside before he learns about Erin. He gets upset and begins knocking stuff around while telling the others to stay away from him. While the men try to calm him down, Mare begins searching Erin’s room. Then, she returns to Kenny and begins asking him questions about the night before. Kenny is convinced that Dylan Hinchey was responsible for his daughter’s murder and he saw her last night during dinner. He tells Mare about Erin asking to borrow his truck before she left on her bike. Kenny says no one had a reason to hurt Erin except for Dylan because he didn’t want the baby and hated her for it. He is asked where he was last night and he seems hesitant to answer the question. He looks at Billy and says he was here all night.

Frank (David Denman) and the family meet with Carrie Layden (Sosie Bacon). She plays with Drew while Siobhan (Angourie Rice) says she seems to be doing okay. She joins them and thanks them for letting Drew come. When asked, Carrie says she is living at a sober house in Kennett Square. She admits she misses her son and wants to get full custody of him. She has already filed the paperwork with her attorney. Carrie reminds them that she is Drew’s mother and not Mare. Meanwhile, Dylan (Jack Mulhern) is interviewed by Mare at the police station. He explains he last saw Erin when he went to pick up DJ around 3. Then, he saw her again in Sharp’s Woods last night around 10 to 10:30. He says he didn’t talk to her because things between them are not good right now.

He reiterates and explains they’ve been arguing about things with DJ. Mare doesn’t believe they didn’t talk to each other but Dylan sticks to his story. Brianna calls and Mare questions him about her. Dylan claims he doesn’t have a new girlfriend and says he got home around midnight. She asks him the same question before he says he likely left the woods around 11:45. He recommends Mare ask his mother because she was up with DJ when he got back home. When asked, he promises he didn’t kill Erin and Mare hopes he is telling the truth. Mare wants to know if Erin was making Dylan pay for their son’s ear surgery but he doesn’t want to answer. He contemplates leaving but she says she won’t be able to help him once he leaves. She threatens to start digging through his life as soon as he leaves the station.

He says he didn’t kill her once again before leaving. After that, Mare and Chief Carter (John Douglas Thompson) conduct a press conference. Mare asks for people to come forward with information before Chief Carter takes over. He is quickly asked if this might be connected to Katie’s case but says they’re not investigating them as related incidents. He reminds everyone that they don’t know what happened to Katie Bailey so Dawn (Enid Graham) quickly speaks up and asks for answers. The crowd gets loud and out of hand so Mare steps inside. When she steps inside, she is introduced to Detective Colin Zabel (Evan Peters). She isn’t nice to him as he explains he asked the secretary to pull Katie’s file for him.

Later that night, Deacon Mark Burton (James McArdle) talks to the congregation about the murder. When he finishes, Dan tells him it was a lovely sermon. Then, he talks to Father Dan Hastings (Neal Huff) about Erin being with their youth program for a while, but Mark says he didn’t know her well. He admits they didn’t keep track of her well after she left. Mare learns a tip has come in and there is a video online from last night. She also receives the ping information from Erin’s phone. She joins Colin and they watch the video of Brianna (Mackenzie Lansing) beating Erin. Mare is surprised to see her daughter involved. She says she wants a warrant for Brianna before calling Siobhan and encouraging her to call her back.

Colin joins her although she doesn’t seem happy to have a passenger. They visit the place where Brianna works and talk to Patty who agrees to go get her. Colin asks if they should do this outside but Mare doesn’t think so since she beat up Erin in front of other kids. Colin watches as Erin arrests Brianna right in front of everyone. He is forced to calm Tony who wants them to take it outside of his dining room. When they get to the station, Brianna says she wants a lawyer before talking to them. Mare takes over and shows Brianna the video of her assaulting Erin. Brianna asks for a lawyer numerous times but Mare goes on and on. Colin tries to stop her until Brianna says it is no wonder Mare’s son killed himself. Colin gets up and asks someone to come in and process Brianna.

When Mare prepares to leave, Jan gives flowers that were dropped off for her. She checks the note and finds that Richard sent the flowers. She calls Richard (Guy Pearce) and thanks him for the flowers. He invites her to an event for him but she refuses initially. Then, he mentions the discovery of the girl’s body. Mare returns home and asks about Siobhan. Helen encourages her to eat before Mare asks how things went with Carrie. Helen doesn’t say anything about what Carrie said about custody. Mare leaves and tries to get in touch with Frank. Faye greets her before getting Frank. They talk about the wedding and Drew blinking his eyes again. Frank agrees to call Dr. Long in the morning. Mare tries to leave. However, Frank stops her and admits he saw the press conference.

She tells him about the investigation before asking what she was like in school. Frank says he didn’t talk to her much and she was quiet. He believes things weren’t good at home. Mare returns home and looks through the evidence until Siobhan returns home. She confronts her daughter about being in the woods last night. Siobhan tells her mother about breaking up the fight and asking Erin if she needed a right home but Erin said nothing. Erin walked into the woods alone. Mare admits she is mad and warns Siobhan that someone from the station will likely want to talk to her. In the morning, Mare meets with Dr. Long to talk about Drew’s problem. She explains that her son Kevin took his life almost two years ago. They’re worried that the ticks might be a genes thing and passed down.

Her son was normal until he started having ticks. She admits that her ex-husband was in charge of everything and it was many years ago. Their son was diagnosed with Tourette’s and pervasive developmental disorder. Mare admits she was against medicating but she isn’t sure either of them was right. Dr. Long agrees to recommend a neurologist. When she returns to the office, Colin greets her and says they need to reset. He lets her know it is her case and he just wants to help find out what happened to the two girls. He eventually makes her shake his hand. Before long, they begin questioning the kids from the woods. They learn about Brianna being jealous and catfishing Erin, but they don’t think she killed her. Then, they talk to Erin’s best friend Jess Riley.

Jess can’t remember anything significant going on in her friend’s life. After that, Colin interviews Siobhan about breaking up the fight. She wonders what would’ve happened if she’d pushed her harder to let her give her a ride but Colin says she did everything she could. Colin asks for tips working with her mother and Siobhan suggests lowering his expectations. She leaves with a friend moments later. Next, Colin and Marie say they interviewed 40 kids and 5 saw Erin arrive on her bike around 10:20. A witness claimed it was gone when he left at 12:05. No one saw anyone with a gun or heard anything that sounded like a gunshot. A ping on her cellphone shows her last known location was roughly 13 miles east of where the body was found.

The pings stopped around 2:37 so the battery died or the phone was destroyed. When they see what time it is, Colin agrees to get coffee and Mare rushes out the door. Mare returns home and gets dressed. When she steps outside, Tony is there to confront her. He says he isn’t going to let Mare ruin his daughter who didn’t kill anyone. Patty arrives and tries to stop Tony. Mare threatens to have him arrested before leaving in a hurry. Meanwhile, Billy and John try to come to grips with everything that has happened. Mare arrives at Richard’s event and finds him talking to several women. Mare sits alone and seems to be tired of waiting. She hides the food she spit up in the couch and prepares to leave.

Richard follows her outside and tries to stop her from leaving. He admits he didn’t know she’d show up before encouraging her to come back inside. She agrees to go back in but says he isn’t getting laid tonight. Dylan decides to take a ride to the store. When he goes to the store, he finds Dawn working there. She checks him out and he leaves moments later. Kenny is in the back of his vehicle and he has a gun pointed at Dylan. He tells Dylan to drive out to the turnpike while Dylan promises he didn’t kill Erin. As Mare stops for gas, she notices the Delrasso van nearby. She goes inside and pays Dawn for gas. Tony joins her moments later. Mare encourages him to walk out of here and go home before telling him what his daughter did. Dawn tells him to leave her alone but Tony doesn’t understand why she would defend Mare.

Dawn gets in Tony’s way and he can’t believe she is going to try to stop him. Trisha Riley (Katie Kreisler) finds her daughter crying in her room and tries to comfort her. Jess (Ruby Cruz) admits that Erin told her a secret and made her promise not to tell anyone. Mare eats, drinks, and looks at a letter from Delaware County to Frank. What appears to be Tony’s jug of milk is thrown through her window and the Delrasso van speeds away. Siobhan checks on her mother who says it was an angry, scared father. She tells her mother that Frank got served because Carrie is filing for custody of Drew. Trish takes Jess to Lori and asks if they can talk in private. Kenny tells Dylan to stop and get out. He holds the gun on him and tells him to walk.

Dylan tries to talk him out of doing something stupid before he starts running away. Kenny shoots him several times. Jess tells Lori that Dylan isn’t the baby’s real father. She says Erin wouldn’t tell her who the father was but she thinks it is Frank Sheehan. Mare sits outside of Frank’s place and watches him clean up the yard as the episode ends.

 

Mare Of Easttown Review

Sadly, I am really torn by Mare of Easttown through two episodes. Were the revelations shocking and intriguing enough to make me want to watch the next episode? Yes. However, the rest of the episode was pretty much bland. The relationship between Colin and Mare is just awkward so far. It is starting to come together but I don’t see an authentic connection here yet.

I’ll say that there is too much going on at once and a lot of it doesn’t seem realistic at all. Some casting choices are questionable too. I find it difficult to believe some of the things that are going on. Are we really to believe that Tony would just go around and harass a detective? Would Mare really be so hostile to a new detective being brought in to help?

Once again, we’re really overwhelmed with a lot of side stories that may or may not matter in the long run. The show isn’t bad and I’ll likely finish it. However, it is full of gimmicks and lots of fillers. There are plenty of scenes we could do without. The episode scores a 7 out of 10. Past and future recaps of Mare of Easttown will be available on Reel Mockery here.