Mare of Easttown – Season 1 Episode 3 Recap & Review

Enter Number Two

Episode 3 of Mare Of Easttown begins with Mare and Colin working together, collecting clues to work out what happened to Erin.

According to the coroner, Erin was killed between 12am-2am and thankfully there’s no evidence of her being sexually abused. However, bruises across her body are consistent with being beaten and the missing finger seems to be hinting toward a bullet wound too.

Mare and Colin leave, going over what they know so far. Well, they both realize that Erin was killed somewhere else and then brought back to the woods. It seems this was all orchestrated to throw them off the case.

Johnny arrives to find Kenny passed out by the river. He smirks, proudly proclaiming that he killed Dylan. This inevitably sees him brought into the police station where he admits that he’s killed the boy. Only…Dylan is actually still alive. He’s unlikely to walk again though, and if he hadn’t have been brought in when he was, there’s no way he would have survived.

Back home, Mare and her Mother come to blows. It’s an incredibly well-acted scene, with both characters coming to blows and talking over one another. Eventually this sees Lori arrive with even more bad news. She confirms what she heard last night – Frank could well be the Father to Erin’s baby.

Hotheaded and enraged, Mare charges over to Frank’s house and bursts in the front room. When she mentions Erin, Frank is eventually led outside. She’s unhappy with being lied to and brings up the rumour about him being the Father to this child.

Frank sternly looks at her and claims he never had sex with Erin but did help the girl out with buying baby supplies. After Kevin died, he felt sorry for her and wanted to do what he could to help. Given the small town vibes in Easttown, it’s perhaps unsurprising to find rumours spreading like this. Just to be sure, Mare talks to Dylan’s parents and confirms that she’s going to run a DNA check to be sure.

Frank heads in to the police station with Faye, with the former filling out his statement. He goes on record and confirms that he never killed Erin. After a DNA sample is taken, he’s allowed to go. While he does, Mare heads into her office and begins looking through Erin’s cellphone records. The last call she made that night was to Deacon Mark Burton, a priest at Saint Michael’s Parish.

He definitely seems a little suspicious, especially when Mare and Colin talk to him about what happened. He casually confirms to them both that he’s definitely been alone with Erin before. It’s certainly odd that she would choose him to talk to at 11pm though, despite links to his youth club. Even stranger still, Deacon never bothered to tell the police any of this. However, he does comply with his cellphone being handed over though.

Out by the park, Mare and Colin go over the evidence, with Mare convinced there’s a bullet nearby. She encourages Colin to bring in the county dogs to help find any fragments in this half-mile radius. While the dogs don’t find anything out the ordinary, Mare most certainly does.

There’s a ricochet mark by the building, and using the trajectory Mare finds the bullet wedged up in the tree. This would explain why the dogs weren’t able to see it. In terms of suspects, they’re left with Dylan and Kenny. The latter, of course, has a firearm and we know he isn’t afraid to use it.

Deacon Mark is still a suspect but for now he’s on the backburner. That’s perhaps the wrong move though, especially when we see him dropping Erin’s bike in the river later at night.

As the day draws to a close, Mare and Colin both end up in the same bar. Colin is drunk though and he too is going through some personal issues. After telling her about his ex, she apologizes to him. Colin tries hitting on Mare too after calling her a good Mother, but that’s quickly shut down. There’s no way Mare is mixing business with pleasure – and thankfully Colin’s friends arrive to take him away.

In the morning, Mare is greeted by the chief with stern news. Mare confronted Carrie Laydon in her drunken state and planted evidence on her. Because of this, the chief is forcing her onto administrative leave – and counselling. Mare is forced to hand over her gun and badge, and watch as the Chief drives off.

The Episode Review

Mare of Easttown returns with another good episode, one that deepens the character ties and leaves lots more question marks hanging over this show.

The Deacon is certainly one of the more suspicious characters here now and he’s clearly hiding something. The way he threw Erin’s bike into the water late at night seems to hint that he was with Erin. Could this be a red herring and he just happened to stumble upon her bike? We’ll have to wait and see but right now he’s acting very suspiciously.

Mare’s personal life continues to interweave around this difficult case too, with her planting evidence at the end and showing the extent she’s willing to go to keep hold of her son – and not lose another child.

This essentially drives Mare forward, and given what a brilliant mind she has for the investigation, it’s quite disheartening to see her struggling so badly with this and unable to use her skills as best she can.

Still, the ending leaves the door wide open and after a really solid episode, Mare of Easttown is quickly becoming one of the must-watch dramas of 2021.