Plot hole?


The widower Mr. Carroll tells Mare his gun went missing for awhile but then suddenly turned up in the box. I assume he meant the gun was missing for a few days or weeks.

But then Ryan says he took the gun just before meeting Erin at the park, then shot Erin, then returned the gun the SAME NIGHT.

When did Carroll notice it missing? Did he go check the shed between midnight and 3 am the night of Erin’s death?

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Yes unless he checks his GUN every hour on the hour throughout the night it makes NO SENSE.

And neither does having DYLAN being willing to BURN Erin's JOURNALS as a favor to JESS who wants to honor Erin's wish not to reveal JOHN's her son's father.

So what you've got is DYLAN burning them to protect JOHN and Erin (who have SCREWED him over by taking him to court to force him to support a child that's not his), and then DYLAN also being willing to HELP the guy who did that to him (and also tried to PIN Erin's MURDER on him by moving her body back to where Brianna beat her up).

FAT CHANCE DYLAN would be willing to PROTECT JOHN by burning those journals after he discovers what JOHN and Erin had done to him !!!

🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄

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The burning of the journals and the gun in Jess's mouth were only there to throw the viewer off - it was annoying and completely not believable for his character. After the reveal, I started thinking how unbelievable it was that John would not only let his own brother take the fall for his son, but he would kill him to keep the secret going as well. It was much more plausible that John would kill his brother to hide his own murder (because he's just a sociopath - which we now know he isn't) or just take the fall himself (which he finally did).

It was all to show this twist.

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Yes exactly!!! The reason DYLAN was a character was to MISLEAD the viewer into thinking he killed ERIN, and the same situation with the DEACON. All of this other stuff which got inserted into the story was to DIVERT our attention away from John's son and not suspect him (which one still doesn't find believeable anyhow).

The show was GREAT up until the last episode where NOTHING REVEALED MAKES any sense.

Because they also said that PARK was 13 MILES away from the other area where Erin's body was found. So did Ryan also ride his bike 13 MILES to that park in the dark???

Plus he would also have to ride it to that shed and back again.

And that would also mean his sister would be left home ALL ALONE that night with Lori and John at the bar where Mare meets Richard.

In other words, They've created so many TWIST that they've TANGLED themselves up to a POINT where what they've done doesn't even work once you stop to think about it.

And JOHN's also still a SOCIOPATH for having SEX with a MINOR who was also his relative (INCEST), getting her pregnant, getting her to BLAME DYLAN for it, and then also causing her to try to prostitute herself as a way to try and get money to pay for the SURGERY that the baby needed. PLUS he also planned on killing his BROTHER as a way to HIDE those facts!!!

And he also MOVES ERIN's Dead body so DYLAN and BRIANNA would also take the blame for killing her instead of his son!!!

And Having sex with an UNDERAGED MINOR is also SATUTORY RAPE. So also hope he stays in prison for a long time for that (as well as for the way that he OBSTRUCTS solving the crime of Erin's murder).


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Great series but the whole last episode left a bad taste in my mouth. They shoehorned in way too many suspects and had people do things that didn't make sense.

Does it bother anyone else that John's wife would care for DJ after everything that happened?

John...
- Cheated on his wife with at least two different women
- The second time was with an underage relative
- With whom he had a baby with
- With whom he tried to pin the responsibility on Dylan
- Was going to murder his brother

What woman in their right mind would agree to take their SOB husband's incestual bastard love child in while he rots in prison? That kid is a forever reminder of the awful things her husband and son did.

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Ryan is the father.

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13 year old RYAN was only 10 YRS old at that time of that FAMILY REUNION when JOHN starts screwing ERIN and then got her pregnant.

Most 10 yr old boys aren't that into screwing older girls at that time of life.

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We don't know exactly how old Ryan was and who took the initiative during the family reunion.

I understand that most audiences are not comfortable with this idea, that's probably why the showrunner didn't make it too obvious. Yet, the makeup, acting, and dialogues are revealing enough to the clever minds who could detect all cover-ups and lies.

I am 99% sure about it. And you don't have to agree with me.


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They CLEARLY STATED that RYAN was only 13 when he kills ERIN. And since she's got an INFANT that's a year old, and it takes 9 MONTHS to have a baby, that means Ryan was still a PRE- TEEN at the time when Erin got pregnant.

They also made it CLEAR that the reason he attacks her was because he felt the need to PROTECT his family (due to the other woman named SANDRA that John had been seeing before he began his affair with Erin).

But you're right about how it would MAKE MORE SENSE for him to be that UPSET if he also had feelings for Erin. But they also didn't say or indicate anything that would make that the case.

The idea mostly seems to be that he didn't want his mother upset again like she was before when his SLEAZY father was screwing Sandra.

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https://www.webmd.com/children/news/20121020/earlier-puberty-age-9-10-average-us-boy

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Sunday night on HBO's other show called IN TREATMENT a guy was telling his SHRINK that he started to masturbate at age 8.

And apparently it's also turned him into a PSYCHOLOGICAL wreck for some reason -- which has something to do with his writing a letter to him mom telling her how sorry he was -- (because he also thought it could cause him to get AIDS).

Hopefully this other article doesn't mean other kids who are 9 and 10 don't also become as messed up as the other character is that we've recently met in IN TREATMENT.

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The community was very forgiving in its own tragic way. It was like one big dysfunctional family that stayed united through adversity, their church, and Easttown itself. Only one brave soul made it out if Easttown, alive - Siobhan, and even she had an emotional breakdown before deciding to cut the cord and go to California.

So Lori was just another tragic citizen of this sad, mixed up town. She is a forgiving person, took her cheating husband back, took Mare back as a friend, and took in DJ because he’s a baby, a half-sibling to her own children, and because it is not his fault how he came into the world. I take it all that crying at the end was her not being happy with her lot in life, but she is trapped like everyone else. A very typical small town story.

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Bravo Who you nailed it.

WELL PUT !!!

At first Lori also resisted taking in DJ because we also saw her sitting there at the hospital not picking him up until the nurse came in to comfort him. It was at that point that she looks at his medical records and at his name and decides he's also related to her children (which is also confirmed when she tells Ryan his brother was there to see him in the place for the juveniles).

And then RYAN also smiles back at the baby to let us know that he's also let go of his HOSTILITY and accepted him as a member of their family.

And we also get the other SERMON by the DEACON to let us know most of these characters are CATHOLICS (who are also big on the process of FORGIVENESS and letting go of resentments).

And finally MARE also climbs the ladder to the ATTIC as a way to let us know she's also FORGIVEN herself and let go of the GUILT that she felt over the death of her son.

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[deleted]

I was confused about the same thing, but I rewatched the scene and it makes sense. Remember the show started with Mare gong to the Carroll house to discuss the Peeping Tom. This was the morning of the murder. That night (the night of the murder) he heard a sound and went out to get his gun and it was missing. This would be at the time that Ryan took the gun. He probably heard Ryan entering the shed and by the time he got out to the shed Ryan and the gun were gone. Ryan returned the gun later that night.

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Right - that part was actually right in line with the first scene and was a cool nod back to the first episode. The only thing that irked me was he didn't mention the gun being missing then. He clearly knew it was gone. Obviously if he did then we wouldn't get that reveal in the final episode.

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He found the gun missing after Mare came over:

Carroll: Do you remember the morning you came over for my granddaughter and the prowler? Well, I'd gone out to the shed and got the gun so I know I had it then. But that night I heard a noise out in the shed and I went out to get it and it was gone.

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Ok, makes more sense. I agree with jek’s point above about not mentioning the gun on Mare’s first visit, especially with him being an ex-cop.

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He found the gun missing after Mare came over:

Carroll: Do you remember the morning you came over for my granddaughter and the prowler? Well, I'd gone out to the shed and got the gun so I know I had it then. But that night I heard a noise out in the shed and I went out to get it and it was gone.

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Still, you’d think an ex-cop would find a missing gun suspicious. Especially one kept in a locked shed, inside a commemorative box. It’s not like a set of keys that slide under something then turn up later. He kept that gun in an intentionally safe, designated spot. Opening that box and seeing it totally empty should have raised all kinds of red flags, enough to call back Mare right away.

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You're right again Who.

It MAKES NO SENSE that an X COP wouldn't tell another one about a MISSING GUN which should have been REPORTED right away (especially with a PROWLER on the LOSE), a MISSING GIRL (KATIE) assumed to be DEAD), and then another MURDERED GIRL showing up DEAD the same night the GUN goes missing!!!

But the writers probably also thought NO ONE would notice or stop to think about it with the way that they'd placed those 2 scenes so far apart???

🙄

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he was in the early stages of dementia

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That's also what I'm thinking with the way we see the FOOD laying around that looks like it had been there for SEVERAL DAYS.

But that could also be due to the GRIEF he felt over the death of his wife and the other GUILT he felt over CHEATING on his WIFE with Mare's mom.

Couples that have been together for many years also tend to end up dying within a year of the death of the other SPOUSE.

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Still, you’d think an ex-cop would find a missing gun suspicious.

Especially considering they were concerned about a strange character out there. Which is to say nothing of allowing a child entry into a shed that not only houses a gun but a loaded one.

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Ryan gets the gun before the planned late night meet-up. Whenever the precise time, Carroll heard it and checked, not returning to the shed for sometime after.

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Just want to add after reviewing the episode that Ryan texts Erin at 10:50 PM so, yes, Carroll hears him steal the gun at a latish hour, somewhere between 11 PM and 12 AM.

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So he sends ERIN a TEXT, rides his bike over to the SHED, STEALS the GUN, rides his bike again and beats her and the DEACON to the PARK, KILLS ERIN, then calls his father to come drive her body 13 MILES back to the other place again as a way to blame DYLAN and BRIANNA for her death???

And we also know she's killed between MIDNIGHT and 2 am.

And then RYAN also says he rode his bike back to the SHED again and returned the GUN again after having called his father for help with getting rid of ERIN's body???

And JOHN also told them that he took FRANK back to his house again that night???

That's a lot of STUFF to have happened in that SHORT of a time frame.

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As I wrote in another post, I found the ending unsatisfying, in part, because it was far-flung.

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I agree NVF. The ending definitely MAKES NO SENSE. Especially the part about DYLAN BURNING the JOURNALS as a way to PROTECT JOHN' and Erin's reputations after he also finds out how they TRICKED him into taking the blame for being the father of a child that he wasn't.

🙄

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Dylan doesn't know who the father is. He and Jess burn the journals so the baby stays with his parents.

Police Chief: Does Dylan know John Ross is DJ's real father?

Jess: No. I hid the picture from him.

PC: You never answered my question about burning Erin's journals.

Jess: It was my idea. If the police found them there might be something written in there like who DJ's real father was. Dylan wanted his parents to keep DJ. He told us it would break their hearts if he got taken away.

PC: That was his reason. What was yours?

Jess: I thought that's what Erin would have wanted too.

The ending makes sense; I just found it unsatisfying. Not only is it a bit far-flung but Ryan's a tertiary character we have no real investment in so the discovery falls a bit flat. As I stated in the other thread, Lori would've been a better culprit.

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Ok. Think about it this way. A girl tells you she's pregnant, takes you to court to FORCE YOU to pay support for the child, and then you find out she's LIED to you and you're NOT the father.

Then she's MURDERED, and you're a SUSPECT, and her friend tells you to BURN the JOURNALS that reveal WHO the father of the baby is.

Does it MAKE SENSE to you that you'd BURN THEM and NOT read them or turn them over to the COPS as a way to CLEAR your name as a SUSPECT in Erin's murder???

I don't think so.

PLUS John was also willing to ADOPT DJ (which is also SUSPICIOUS).

And he's also willing to do that because DYLAN's parents had already turned DJ over to CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES several episodes ago (which also NEGATES the reason why Jess claims DYLAN was BURNING the JOURNALS so that his parents could keep DJ).

If you stop to think about it long enough, it becomes QUITE CLEAR ENOUGH that the WRITING was pretty MANIPULATIVE and SLOOPY with the kinds of LAME EXCUSES that others are coming up with to try to explain what's happened.

Because the TRUTH is "DYLAN and the DEACON" were both "RED HERRING Characters" that were planted in the story to string it out and MISLEAD the VIEWER as to who the REAL KILLER would be.



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From the very limited dialogue there was an agreement that no one read the journals. This implies Dylan didn't want to know who the father might be, didn't care and/or didn't want to read through all of Erin's private thoughts to obtain what might not even be there. Dylan's an odd character so how he operates here is plausible though it can strain credulity to some extent, especially given Jess doesn't abide by the agreement and reads what she can.

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I believe he was looking for his gun that same night because his wife saw a peeper outside. Do I mix things up here? I was wondering about the same thing when I watched last episode, but then I remembered the peeping Tom.

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Here's a plot problem:

Erin went out that night to meet up with a boy, so why did she bring her disposable phone?

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EXCELLENT OBSERVATION Mav !!!

You should have had the STARRING ROLE in this show !!!

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Good catch. And why did Mr. Carroll wait so long to tell Mere about the missing gun?? 2 bullets missing from chamber? Maybe it was used for a crime. Not interested in dementia angle here

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