Deacon Mark Burton
On paper, person of interest number one has to be Deacon Mark, a semi-recent transfer to Easttown with a suspicious past. Not only was he the last phone call Erin made prior to her murder, but the Deacon also failed to offer up that incredibly relevant information on his own. He avoided Detective Colin Zabel’s calls, probably because he assumed the police had uncovered the circumstances of his reassignment — a sexual misconduct charge involving a fourteen-year-old girl. But the most damning piece of evidence (even if Mare and Zabel haven’t found it yet) is the bicycle he tossed in the river under the cover of darkness. However, the puzzles of Erin’s murder and the girls’ disappearances solve far too easily if the Deacon is the answer, meaning he’s almost certainly a red herring.
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Frank Sheehan
The odds on Frank went down this week, as a paternity test proved he isn’t the father of Erin’s baby. However, Erin’s friend and confidant, Jess, implicated him after she witnessed him buying her baby items and driving her home, and that negative test result doesn’t mean he’s innocent of everything. There was more to his relationship with the dead girl than he let on to Mare. Now that the body has been seen, if not the face of the man involved in Katie and Missy’s abductions, one can’t rule Frank out altogether. He’s one of only a handful of men in town who could fit that physical description, though he (sort of) has an alibi for the night Erin was killed, and he’d have to be pretty brazen to kidnap teen girls with his detective wife living next door.
Richard Ryan
Richard fits the stereotype of someone who might ultimately be the culprit. He’s an out-of-towner who cozied up a little too quickly to the locally famous sports star and detective. He’s playing mind games with Mare, ignoring her at his fancy party before opening up to her about what he sells as his deepest secrets. He was also a bad husband and father and might not actually be a very good writer. Richard enjoyed the attention of adoring young female fans too much for his own good, and he even jokes that he doesn’t have bodies in his basement. Early on, the show warned viewers of a weasel-faced peeper, and it wouldn’t be shocking if Richard turned out to be either Erin’s killer or the serial assaulter. Unfortunately, Richard is most likely just a romantic foil to puppy-loving Detective Zabel.
Kenny McMenamin
Erin’s dad isn’t a great guy — viewers could gather that from the way he treated his put-upon teen daughter in the premiere. He appeared to care more about his truck until Mare and his cousins, the Ross brothers, told him about her death. Kenny’s grief seemed genuine, as did his attempt to revenge kill her ex-boyfriend Dylan, a crime to which he immediately confessed without much remorse. Mr. McMenamin hasn’t had much screen time, and it feels like he’s tumbled down the list of suspects. He probably didn’t have anything to do with Erin’s murder, but the three crimes haven’t all necessarily been committed by the same perpetrator, and he’s another man who could plausibly be behind Katie and Missy’s imprisonment at Bennie’s Tavern.
Dylan Hinchey
In a show full of not-great guys, Dylan is among the worst. He sat by while his new girlfriend nearly beat the life out of his ex, and this week, it looked as though he was seriously contemplating suffocating a baby with a pillow. But Dylan didn’t have a strong motive for wanting Erin dead. He didn’t appear desperate for sole custody (of the child he now knows isn’t even his), and he’d moved on with the equally awful Brianna. If Dylan and Brianna tracked Erin down to finish the job, that wouldn’t feel as though it had come out of nowhere for these enormously unsympathetic characters, though Dylan’s hospital confinement does mean he couldn’t have been the man who strangled Missy.
Siobhan Sheehan
Siobhan is practically a goody-two-shoes by Easttown standards. While she was one of the last people to see Erin alive, she was the only one who stood up for her. It doesn’t mean much that she didn’t immediately share this with her mom; their relationship is strained. The clue that might point to Mare’s daughter is her documentary about her deceased brother, Kevin. It seems she’s trying to put a positive (and perhaps not very accurate) light on his memory. There’s a theory afloat that Kevin is actually the father of Erin’s baby, plus gossip still in the air that Frank may have slept with the girl. And if that’s the case, it’s possible Siobhan resorted to violence in order to protect her family.
Jess and Her Mom
It’s probably a stretch to accuse them of Erin’s murder, but Jess and her mom have popped up in almost every aspect of her case so far. She was at their house the night of her death and they’ve been Mare’s primary source of information, though several pieces (Frank’s paternity, the location of the journals) have turned out not to be true. Jess also reluctantly showed Mare Erin’s Sidedoor profile, which she created for her. Then, as Mare drives away, Jess looks worried in the upstairs window. In the first episode, Jess’s mom was all-too-eager to give Erin a sexy makeover. All three girls had at least signed up to be escorts, but maybe they had help from these two.
Father Dan
It’s possible Mare of Easttown gave viewers a second creepy clergyman just to keep our attention off of the first one. That might’ve been Father Dan’s plan all along in inviting an alleged abuser to run his church’s youth program. Mare’s cousin could be rounding up women he perceives as “fallen” — addicts and prostitutes — and keeping them prisoner at the tavern. And to add fuel to the fire, he abused Kevin (and could be abusing his son) and will kill to keep that truth from coming out. At this point, the audience doesn’t have the full story of Kevin’s complex mental health history, but Drew is clearly exhibiting the same symptoms.
The Ross Brothers
There’s no real reason for John and Billy Ross to be in this show if they didn’t kill or kidnap at least some of these girls (and there’s a workable explanation that they’re behind all three cases). First, the audience didn’t need to meet Lori’s husband. In a town where everybody is related to everybody, anybody could’ve partied with Frank or consoled Kenny. Both brothers could conceivably be Katie and Missy’s abductor based on their physical appearance, and if one of them went to meet an escort and it turned out to be their niece, Erin, panic might’ve kicked in. There’s definitely more to the Ross family’s story than has been revealed.
Starring Kate Winslet, Julianne Nicholson, Angourie Rice, Jean Smart, Evan Peters, Guy Pearce, David Denman, Joe Tippett, Cailee Spaeny, John Douglas Thompson, Patrick Murney, James McArdle, Sosie Bacon and Neal Huff, Mare of Easttown airs on Sundays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on HBO.
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