Mare of Easttown Episode 1 recap: Mare deals with broken families in her hometown

Brad Ingelsby's Emmy-winning crime thriller series Mare of Easttown introduces us to the character of Marianne "Mare" Sheehan (Kate Winslet) in the pilot.

Mare is a sergeant detective, grandmother, and a legendary basketball player in the fictional Easttown, who is also grappling with her broken marriage and home. While the episode does not reveal details of her fractured marriage with her ex-husband, she dodges his calls throughout the episode.

As Mare reaches the police station, she is forced to remember an unsolved case of a young girl who went missing. When she is called onto a peeping Tom case, she reveals that her focus is only on burglaries and overdoses, which suggests the harrowing condition of her community.

Here is the complete Mare of Easttown Episode 1 recap.

Mare of Easttown Episode 1 recap: A haunting Pennsylvania

The first episode introduces us to the haunting and broken families of Pennsylvania, which plague every corner of Mare's town. The episode opens with Mare being called for an investigation, where an Easttown resident's granddaughter is being harassed by a peeping Tom.

Next, we see a teenage girl, Erin, living with her abusive father, Kenny, and her one-year-old son. We see her fractured relationship with her baby's father, Dylan, and his girlfriend, Brianna, who is very hostile towards her boyfriend's former partner. While Erin already has a hard life as a single mother, Kenny and Brianna continue to create more problems for her. Erin finally finds a way to escape her toxic life and decides to meet a date she met online.

Lastly, family trauma runs rampant in Easttown because of substance abuse, as seen in Katie Bailey's case. After Mare reaches the police station in Mare of Easttown Episode 1, she sees Katie's mother and grandmother on TV, calling out the police for not being able to find their missing daughter/granddaughter. We learn that Katie had a history of substance abuse and pr*st*t*ion, which is why the residents have given up on her case.

Mare of Easttown Episode 1 recap: A peek inside Mare's broken family

While Mare grapples with the broken Pennsylvanian families throughout the day in Mare of Easttown Episode 1, she comes home to an even more dysfunctional family of her own.

She is greeted by a doting mother who is always present on the couch in her living room. Mare finally learns why her ex-husband, Frank, was calling her all day from her mother. Frank is finally engaged to his girlfriend, Faye, and everybody at her house is going to his party.

However, Mare has an event of her own to attend. The second half of Mare of Easttown Episode 1 reveals that Mare was a legendary basketball player in her high school, and her town still celebrates one of her key shots in a major basketball game. Mare attends the 25th anniversary of her iconic basketball shot and is forced to face her failures as a player, wife, mother, grandmother, and detective.

While Mare is struggling with her downward spiral, she meets Richard at a bar, a published author who is guest-lecturing at the local college. The two clearly have mutual attraction, which is fueled by the fact that Richard is not an Easttown local.

Mare of Easttown Episode 1 recap: Erin's tragedy

The climax of Mare of Easttown Episode 1 checks in with single mother Erin, who arrives in the woods for her first meeting with her online date. However, it turns out that Erin never had a date and was being catfished by Brianna for flirting with Dylan. As Brianna and her friends humiliate, beat and film Erin on their phones, Mare's daughter saves her, and she limps away alone in the woods.

Elsewhere, as Mare sleeps next to her grandson, she has a harrowing vision about her son, which jolts her awake from her sleep. As Episode 1 reaches its conclusion, we see the n*ked and lifeless body of Erin, lying in the local creek, setting up an intense investigation for Mare in the show.

Mare of Easttown is streaming on HBO Max.

Trending

For the latest scoops on your favorite TV shows and movies, follow SoapCentral.

Also Read: Where does Task take place? Setting of the HBO series, explored

×

Was this article helpful?

Thank You for feedback