Poor Sisyphus
Episode 4 of Mare of Easttown begins with our protagonist at rock bottom, sleeping in bed until late in the day. When she finally does get dressed, it’s just to puff a cigarette and meet Lori. She hasn’t told her family what’s happened yet and dreads the reaction she’ll get. Lori however, refuses to let her push everyone away and promises to stay by her side. Mare does eventually tell her family about the suspension, agreeing with the Chief’s request of attending therapy. Once there though, Mare warns her therapist not to expect a big miracle, as she continues to talk on. After her first session, Mare meets Richard again who comments on how much she has going on. In fact, he wants to help her and suggests going out for his birthday. At work, Zabel struggles to hold back his disappointment that Mare isn’t on the case anymore. However, there’s more important matters to attend to. The DNA results are back and it turns out Frank Sheehan isn’t the baby’s father…and neither is Dylan. So who could it be? Well, Zabel heads over to see Deacon Mark since he’s been avoiding calls for the last few days. This is only made more suspicious given Mark was accused of sexual misconduct at his previous parish. He’s not exactly helpful to Zabel’s questioning either, and eventually drives away. Meanwhile, Dawn receives a call from an anonymous source who claims Katie is still alive. Only, whoever this guy is, they want 5000 dollars. After some deep contemplation, she eventually heads back to work and scoops up the cash from the register. Back with Mare, Carrie brings home Drew from their night together. When he runs upstairs, Carrie presses Mare on the truth, telling her she knows the truth about the drugs. Exhausted and with tears running staining her cheeks, she tells Mare to stop before walking away. That evening, Mare heads over to Zabel’s house. After a bit of an awkward meeting with his Mother, the pair sit down and discuss the case. Hauser doesn’t think the two cases are linked but Mare has a very different theory. In fact, she believes these cases could well be linked to prostitution. “Teenage girls are sneaky,” She retorts knowingly. Well, it doesn’t take long before the pair find out the truth. Zabel and Mare both visit Jess, who in turn reveals that Erin opened an account on an escort site called Sidedoor. She wanted to get ear surgery and was just doing this line of work long enough to save up some cash. Apparently she never had sex with any of the clients, but it’s difficult to know if this is the truth or not. Believing the truth could be hidden in Erin’s journals, Mare heads off to try and find them. She also tasks Zabel with messaging Sidedoor and getting details for all the accounts that messaged Erin. The clue could well be somewhere within this line of enquiry. Back home, family drama ensues. After Siobhan and Becca break up, the latter heads over for the night to wait for her. Only, Siobhan winds up bringing a date back and the two start kissing. Becca sees, screams and races off. As she does, she hits Mare’s Mother in the head with the door. This inevitably sees the police get involved as she’s taken off to hospital to be checked out. Mare tags along too, just to be sure she’s okay. When Mare eventually brings her Mother home, news of a third missing person comes in. 23 year old Missy Sager. Dawn heads out to meet the caller who claims Katie is still alive. After being blindsided and attacked, it’s revealed that the caller is actually Freddie. He was just taking advantage of her and this was all part of a scam. Defeated and disappointed, Dawn heads home. As the episode closes out, Missy Sager is thrown into a locked room at Bennie’s. As she pounds on the door, a voice from afar calls out and tells her to stop. It’s Katie Bailey – she’s still alive!
The Episode Review
With Mare off the case for now and working on her own accord, Mare of Easttown changes its focus slightly. Most of this hour-long episode looks at our various different characters, with more emphasis on the comedic side of things than one may be expected. That’s not necessarily a bad thing though, as it becomes clear that the show’s lighter tone is an intentional respite before plunging back down into the dark depths of shock toward the end. The reveal that Katie Bailey is still alive brings a few new clues to this case. First, these three girls are definitely linked together. It could well be that Erin resisted being taken away and subsequently fell to her death. However, given the incident took place somewhere else other than the stream, it remains to be seen exactly what transpired. One thing’s for sure though – a gun was involved. It seems we have a few suspicious characters at the forefront of all this too, including Frank Sheehan and Deacon Mark. The latter seems the most likely though, especially given his history and alleged abuse. We’ll have to wait and see if that manifests into anything tangible though. In the meantime, Mare of Easttown bows out with a decent episode, one that keeps the investigation wide open.
