The only explanation I’ve been able to come up with is that Dylan knew the baby wasn’t his. I’m thinking she was either pregnant before they first had sex or they still hadn’t had sex yet. Think about it, you’re back in your teens/early 20’s. In your first serious relationship, sex happens…a lot. If they had sex, somewhere between once a week and 10 times a week and she banged John a handful of times, she has no way of knowing who the kid belongs to (unless that bright red hair tracks back to someone in the Ross family). Meaning (WAGs on my part), Erin had a paternity test done and disclosed the results to Dylan. She was pregnant before they first had sex and he was aware of it. Or they hadn’t yet had sex so Dylan knows she was cheating on him.
But that all comes with it’s own set of ‘what ifs’.
In any case, the idea being that he knew the kid wasn’t his and didn’t want his friends/family to know so he was trying to make sure Erin, and Brianna kept their mouths shut.
As for where he was that night, I have no idea. However, he did threaten Briana. Remember after she started talking to the police, he started treating her a lot worse, culminating in him chasing her around the streets and finding her hiding under the car.
Never watched Law and Order. I thought of it as a combination of Fargo and Tommy. Did anyone else watch Tommy? It may just have been the slight resemblance between Edie Falco and Kate Winslet. At least WRT to their work ethic.
So in the ‘thoughts before finale’ thread I called it on John being the father (not a great leap of logic) and I also called the possibility of what turned out to be the ‘big’ twist that Ryan was Erin’s killer.
I agree that Dylan’s actions, up to sticking a gun in Jess’s face to keep her quiet, were over the top dumb and a clumsy red herring. And his little redemption arc at the end was also dumb and unconvincing.
And the Guy Pierce character, what a pointless sub plot. I really do think they stuck him into the show just as another red herring, to have people like us say “he’s got to have SOMETHING to do with all of this, right? Right? He’s too A-list to be in this otherwise. Right?”
It certainly worked on me. Right up until the credits rolled I was trying to figure out how they were going to reveal that Guy Pierce was the real killer.
Overall I felt that the first episode really grabbed me with its gritty portrayal of small town PA and Winslet’s stellar character acting. Then it slowly devolved into “sUbVerT YouR eXpEcTAtiOns”. Which is fine for a schlocky 45 minute Law and Order episode, but over 7 hours it starts to feel a bit pointless.
I think he was meant purely as a distraction for her. It gave the writers a chance to show her outside of work and away from her family. If it wasn’t meant to be a miniseries, I may have thought differently. That he would be involved with the case somehow, or that he would move in or something along those lines. But as it is, I think it was purely to give us a break from watching her grinding her gears at work and yelling at her mom at home.
Edit: I should add that what it actually showed was that she had no ‘off switch’. She was Mare all the time. She didn’t have time for anyone’s bullshit. Be it a suspect, a partner, her mom, her daughter or even someone she might have future romantic relationship with. But again, part of her character still reminds me of Edie Falco from Tommy (and Sopranos, for that matter) and that’s certainly coloring my perception of her [Mare].
As I recall the series:
–When Katie disappeared, she was known to be into drugs somewhat heavily. Most figured she ODed somewhere or disappeared with a dealer. When leads played out, they really had nothing else to pursue.
–When Erin was found to have an ad on an escort site, they also found Katie’s profile. This, along with the disappearance or murder of another prostitute, made them rethink the possibility that Katie was also abducted while working as a prostitute. This lead them to put out feelers among the local prostitutes, which gave them a lead.
Of course, I may be misremembering some details.
I finished watching it last night over a 3-evening stretch. I found it quite entertaining, even though, as has been pointed out, there were plot holes and inconsistencies. Kate Winslet was excellent, as were most of the actors. I especially liked Mare’s mom, Helen, played by Jean Smart.
One unanswered question for me was what happened to John? He was in prison for murder, then it turned out he wasn’t the murderer, so shouldn’t he have been released? Obviously Lori wasn’t going to take him back, but where was he at the end? Or did I miss something?
It doesn’t seem like there was time to convict him of anything, even for a plea bargain. I assume he was in jail awaiting trial for murder and attempted murder, and would still be there on the attempted murder charge. Also, maybe statutory rape. However, it’s not clear how long it took to wrap everything up after Mare found him at the river.
I’m not sure John ever got to trial before the show ended. But yes, Billy should’ve in prison too, awaiting trial, we saw nothing further of him so may be he is.
Toward the end the captain said something to Mare to the effect of “since Billy fully cooperated, he should be out on parole by [month]”. So sounds like he gets less than a year jail time for his involvement.
BTW, though it was supposed to be one and done, on an entertainment segment of a morning news show this morning, they were speculating on a MOE S2. Apparently Kate Winslet said she’d be happy to play Mare again. So we’ll see…
Unless I’m totally misremembering, we very explicitly know that Dylan now knows the baby isn’t his, due to a paternity test, which happened while he was in the hospital for being shot. I believe the stated reason for all his actions in the last few episodes is that he wanted to keep the actual identity of the baby’s father a secret because he’d had a change of heart and wanted to keep the baby. That doesn’t seem in character for him, nor does it really seem like it makes much sense, from a legal/custody point of view. Certainly doesn’t seem like it justifies threatening poor Jessie with a gun, etc.
The funny thing is, that means Katie and Missy had nothing whatsoever to do with Erin. Cracking the missing girls case was just a bonus for Mare while looking for Erin’s killer. The entire Erin plot, I think, would hold up just fine, if the missing girls were never written into the story.
As for John and Billy, I would assume they’ll both be on trial for some type of ‘accessory after the fact’ or something like that. They didn’t kill Erin, but they moved the body so it would appear the murder happened at party.
Come to think of it. If Mare wanted to, she could probably charge Lori with obstruction of justice as well. Maybe. I guess what Lori said, she said to her friend [Mare], it wasn’t under oath, it wasn’t an official statement etc.
This show was actually really good, I should stop looking for holes to poke in it.
It was never said what Ryan was charged with. We just see him confess to killing Erin and then later on he is in a juvenile facility. Most likely he did plead to a lesser charge and didn’t have a trial, and will probably be out when he’s 18.
How old was Erin supposed to be when John had sex with her? Was she around 13 at the time or were the teens supposed to be 17-18? They all looked really young.
I disagree. The fact that Katie hadn’t been found after a year had gone by was thought by some to be an indication of Mare’s incompetence as a detective, and the townspeople were getting restless. And that was one of the reasons the chief cited for bringing Zabel onto the Erin case.
That I understand. I just mean that even if the missing girls hadn’t been part of the series, and everything else remained the same, Mare (and Zabel) would still have solved Erin’s murder. Mare would have found Erin on the website, talked to those other working girls, checked up on all the blue vans in the area and it would have turned out to be a dead end.
As for Zabel, I’m trying to draw a parallel between how he cracked his big case and how Mare cracked her case. Zabel solved his case by way of a fluke. A PI had already solved it, then died and his widow gave Zabel the files, which he took credit for.
Mare was, more or less, fed information by Lori. Some of it misleading, some of it a bit more direct, but it was still the picture Brianna had that brought to the station that tied everything together.
I don’t know, I’m starting to confuse myself here.
The heart necklace said 5/29/17. DJ was probably 1-2 years old. Erin was old enough to drive (or old enough that her dad had let her take his truck). I’m thinking she was 14-15 or so (she’s 23 in real life though).
Do we know what grade Frank taught when she was a student of his? I’m assuming high school. But I don’t know if they didn’t say it or I just can’t find it online.
and holy shit you guys…FRANK WAS ROY ON THE OFFICE…mind blown. I absolutely, 100% did not recognize him, not even a little. Not even enough to think to look him up and see what else he was in.
Carrie (Drew’s mom) on the other hand, I kept thinking was Ally Sheedy every time I saw her.
