Mare of Easttown episode 6: Fans left riled up by show’s ‘unbearable’ cliffhanger

Mare of Easttown premiered its sixth and second to last episode last night (24 May) – and fans have been left on edge.

The HBO crime drama stars Kate Winslet as small-town Pennsylvania detective Mare Sheehan, who is investigating the grisly local murder of a teenage mother with the help of an outside detective Colin Zabel (played by Evan Peters).

Since debuting on Sky Atlantic on 18 April, the show has garnered critical acclaim and amassed a large group of fans that have followed along with the show’s nail-biting weekly releases. This week particularly packed a punch.

***Spoilers follow! You have been warned!***

With the abduction of Katie Bailey and Missy solved, and their abuser shot dead by Mare in episode five’s suspenseful stand-off, the question of whether Erin was murdered by the same man loomed over last night’s episode.

It soon transpires that the answer is no. The two crimes appear to be unrelated meaning that a killer is still at large. A tearful confession (not to Mare) later in the episode seems to confirm the identity of the murderer and the motive. Done and dusted. After discovering the news, Mare goes en route alone to pick up the confessed killer.

As we watch her approach the scene, however, we also see Erin’s friend Jess arrive at the police station with a photo she had taken from Erin’s journal before burning them. Upon viewing the photo – which we aren’t privy to – a stunned Chief Carter orders his men to call Mare immediately and the episode ends.

Needless to say, viewers have been left on tenterhooks until the series finale next week. And fans had a lot to say about last night’s cliffhanger (24 May).

Sharing a photo of detailed notes, one user joked: “Me getting ready to watch #MareofEastTown every week.”

Journalist Sam Adams quipped: “The last shot of MARE OF EASTTOWN had better be someone saying, ‘Forget it, Mare – it’s Easttown.”

“Mare going out to arrest a suspect with no backup like she didn’t just lost  apartner last week?” commented one confused viewer.

Film critic David Erlich suggested that the real culprit could be Mare’s new love interest, writing: “Mare of Easttown: a nice and handsome former novelist (Guy Pearce) moves to the safest place in America and has sex exactly once with a woman who kind of has a lot going on right now.”

Another person appeared to agree, stating: “The most unbelievably twist in television history is Guy Pearce turning out to just be a genuinely decent, normal dude.”

“Me calculating how John, Billy and Dylan could potentially be in cahoots because they all seem guilty,” said someone else.

Many viewers fixated on the photograph itself.

“Me trying to decipher the photograph from the back,” said one user, accompanied by a GIF of a man holding a magnifying glass to his phone screen.

“I just wanted to see what’s in the damn photograph,” said another, while someone else wrote: “How I’ll feel about that photo until we find out next week,” together with a GIF of Brad Pitt’s famous “What’s in the box?” scene from the 1995 thriller Seven.

“Was it actually John? This show has me spinning in circles,” said one user.

The final episode of Mare of Easttown will air next Monday 31 May at 9.00pm on Sky Atlantic.