Why Mare of Easttown might not return for season 2, according to the creator

The final episode of Mare of Easttown was the most-watched episode of an original series on HBO in the first 24 hours of its availability, with four million weekend viewers on HBO and HBO Max. So it’s not entirely a surprise that the show creators, and HBO, and the audience, want to return to our favourite vape-smoking small-town detective.

The problem is, all the loose ends were tied up nice and tight in the season finale. The show was designed to be a limited series with just one season. Ahead of the finale, creator Brad Ingelsby told TVLine that he “very much had to have the ending’ in his head ‘even prior to starting the opening scene. “If you know where it ends, then you can cheat some things and have the audience leaning here when they should be leaning there. It was a learning experience and I hope we’ve pulled it off.”

So even though Mare Of Easttown was a gripping perfectly plotted twist that seemed to have left no reason to revisit the town, nobody has entirely closed the door on the possibility of a season two just yet.

“If we can crack a story that is as great [as Season 1] and that would do justice to the characters and carry on the story in a way that was organic and yet surprising, I would love to do it,” said Brad Ingelsby. “I just don’t know what the story is. That’s the issue right now.”

Ingelsby says that he’s waiting for a “lightbulb moment”, but “it may never happen. That’s the reality.”

Well, that didn’t stop us getting four different Batmans in the last ten years, or eight Spider-Man movies since 2002. Bond keeps finding villains, Sherlock keeps solving crimes. Big Little Lies, another HBO show, was supposed to be a limited series and then they came back with Meryl Streep. Someone else in Easttown can be up to something.

“We gave Mare such a personal arc where she had to confront this loss in her life, and we would have to construct another emotional arc that was able to compete with [that],” he continues. “And I’m also acutely aware of the dangers of doing a Season 2 just because you have the [opportunity] to do it. I would only want to do it if we were convinced we had something great.”

Well, that’s fair enough. But still, we’re not ready to give up that easily. Kate Winslet is ready to head back to Easttown too. “I miss her,” she told TVLine. “I really do. It’s the strangest thing. I feel like I’m in mourning. It was an absolutely wonderful role… There’s something very addictive about Mare, because she’s so outrageous and lovable and brilliant and real, you know? I loved playing her.”

Angourie Rice, who plays Siobhan, told Elle that she loves it as a standalone series but would love to return to another season. “My immediate response is, “Yeah!” But then, the more I think about it, the more I think, actually, I’m so happy to leave those characters where they are. The more I think about it, the more I’m like, “No, no, no.” I kind of love the power that this standalone story has.

“But, of course, if Brad wrote an incredible second season or an incredible spinoff, of course, I’d be like, “Yeah!” I don’t know how he feels about it. When it was pitched to me, it was always going to be just seven episodes.”

Finally, HBO have also said they’d be on board for another season, “If Brad felt like he had a story to tell that felt like it would be at the same level, I think everybody would be open to it,” the head of HBO, Casey Bloys, told Variety. “Right now, he doesn’t have that story. Who knows? We’ll have to wait to see if they come up with something they’re dying to tell.”

Maybe while Brad Ingelsby is figuring that out, he could start planning a way to make Evan Peters’ character survive a gunshot wound to the head.