So, we found the pink bike. Erin McMenamin’s bike. The one detective Mare Sheehan (Kate Winslet) has been looking for on HBO’s Mare of Easttown. It’s one of the missing pieces in the case to solve her murder. Toward the end of the episode Deacon Mark Burton (James McArdle) was seen taking Erin’s bike out of the back of his car and throwing it off a bridge. Pretty suspicious, right? After seeing that, one has to ask, did Deacon Mark kill Erin on Mare of Easttown? Based on last week’s episode, it’s possible. Last week, we were lead to believe Mare’s ex-husband Frank Sheehan (David Denman) could have killed Erin. But week, he pretty much cleared his name. And we were given quite a few reasons to believe the Deacon did it. Here’s why we think he could be Erin’s murderer.
Who is Deacon Mark Burton on Mare of Easttown and did he kill Erin?
Mare’s suspicions begin when she gets Erin’s cell phone logs and sees that late on the night of her murder, right after the fight in the woods that left Erin beaten and bloody, she spoke to Deacon Mark. Mare wastes no time in confronting the deacon. He willingly answers Mare’s questions about the call. He says he was at the church when he got the call. They spoke briefly, he says, for a couple of minutes. “She was very upset, I could tell she was crying,” he recalls. “There was some betrayal, I gather, but I didn’t get into specifics.” When Mare points out that it was sort of odd for Erin to call him of all people in that moment, which we agree with given last week’s church convo (more on that in a minute), he says he didn’t see it as odd. “We had a relationship. A friendship that began while she was in our parish youth group.” While he says he makes himself available to members of the youth group, he admits it’s unusual for them to call him late at night, but, he says, “if they did, I would answer.” It gets creepy when he admits, “over the years there were times that we were alone.” He says the bad rap that priests have gotten recently, the scandals surrounding the Catholic church and children, wouldn’t stop him from fulfilling his duties. He doesn’t offer many other specifics. Just that he told Erin she was loved before the call ended. And he willingly hands over his phone to Mare when she requests it, so she can dig in a little deeper. Deacon Mark started out the episode seeming super guilty, but once he hands over his phone, no questions asked, he almost crosses over to the innocent side with Frank. That is, until later in the episode when Detective Colin Zabel (Evan Peters) gets a tip about Deacon Mark. Apparently, he was “at one parish, and got shipped off to another, for a reason.” What’s the reason? Murder, maybe? OK, probably not, but maybe he was sent away because of a tendency to forge inappropriate relationships with young churchgoers.
What happened to Erin’s bike?
Erin rode her bike to the woods the night of her murder to meet that guy (who turned out to be Brianna taunting her) after her dad, Kenny, refused to let her use his car. But the night took a turn, and Erin ended up dead. The bike was never found after the murder. Through more investigation, Mare and Zabel discover that Erin was actually murdered somewhere different than they thought. It didn’t happen in the woods where she was last seen. Mare is becoming convinced that Brianna couldn’t have done it because, how could this young girl have gotten Erin and her bike over to this crime scene, which seems to be a bit of a distance away? We’re not convinced yet but we’ll go with it for now. So, who got the bike and Erin over to this other park, and killed her, and where is the bike? We get the answer to one of those questions a few minutes before the end of the episode, when we see the deacon dump the bike in a river, looking so sketchy.
Is Deacon Mark the father of Erin’s baby, DJ?
What makes this extra sketchy is that all of a sudden, Deacon Mark is openly saying he and Erin had a relationship and doesn’t think it was odd that they spoke that night. Let’s rewind to the first time we met the deacon, in episode 2. He gives a sermon in which he references Erin’s death, an “unspeakable tragedy that claimed the life of a beautiful daughter and mother like Erin McMenamin.” After the service, he’s in the church with Father Dan Hastings who says, “wasn’t Erin with our youth program for a while?” Mark says yes. When Father Dan asks if he knew her very well, Mark says, “Um, no, not really, I didn’t spend much time with her, then she stopped attending meetings soon after the baby was born.” OK, but in the next episode, he basically contradicts that. “Did we keep track of her after she left?” Father Dan asks, to which Mark replies, “Not as well as we could have.” Oh really? It seems like you kept pretty good track of her Deacon Mark! So, you can see why we’re hesitant to believe Deacon Mark is innocent. Whether he murdered her or just had an inappropriate relationship with her, something’s afoot. Don’t forget, we still don’t know for sure that Dylan is DJ’s father. We’re waiting on the paternity test, along with some further questioning of Deacon Mark that will happen in the next episode.
Who is the actor who plays Deacon Mark Burton, James McArdle?
McArdle is a Scottish actor. He’s mostly a theater actor but was in Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens and a series called Love and Marriage. Next, if you love solving crimes, you’ll want to know about Crystal Theobald.
