‘Mare of Easttown’ Review: Finale’s Emotional and Shocking Ending Rises to the Challenge — Spoilers

[Editor’s Note: The following review contains spoilers for “Mare of Easttown” Episode 7, “Sacrament,” including the ending.]Two seemingly contradictory elements from the two loosely tied sides of “Mare of Easttown” found harmony in HBO’s buzzy crime drama.

The first element is the red herrings, or as my editor begged me not to call them: the red mareings.

Creator and writer Brad Inglesby absolutely littered his seven-part limited series with clues, many of which eventually proved misleading, in order to create an addictive whodunit for viewers at home.

The second element, which runs very much in opposition to the first, is closure.

If the audience feels too jerked around during their extended search for the killer, a murder-mystery is bound to fall apart, no matter how shocking the big reveal.But the actual case is only one side of “Mare of Easttown,” and leading into the Episode 7 finale, closure had already started for our titular hero’s personal journey toward salvation.

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