Illusions (Mare of Easttown)

Plot

A blackout hits Easttown after Betty Carroll suffers a fatal heart attack and drives into a pole. Drew gets scared of the dark and starts panicking, so Frank helps Mare and Helen manage the situation. Noticing Siobhan’s computer is still running on battery with her documentary open, Mare looks at it. She watches a clip of Kevin celebrating his birthday and reacts with a blank, stony face.

Back at Lori’s house, Lori overhears her husband John comforting their son Ryan about something, promising to keep it secret from her. Mare and Helen attend Betty Carroll’s wake, where Frank Carroll admits he had an affair with Helen. Mare finds this funny and teases her mother on the drive home, but they both agree affairs hurt people, and Helen apologizes for dismissing Mare when she was a child. Visiting Lori, Mare finds out that Kenny asked Lori and John to take care of Erin’s baby, DJ.

Dylan tells Brianna that his parents want to keep DJ, but Brianna suspects he’s hiding something because he wasn’t home the night Erin died, so Dylan breaks up with her. Mare agrees to a date with Zabel but mostly uses it to grill him about the case, which annoys him. He tries not to reveal too much to protect his job and calls Mare out on her real motive. Meanwhile, Deacon Mark is attacked by a group of teenagers while picking up food; they yell at him about his rape allegations.

He returns home injured and tells Pastor Dan that he was with Erin the night she was killed. He explains that Erin called him, but a text from someone told her to meet in the park, cutting the call short. When Pastor Dan pushes him, Deacon Mark breaks down and admits he lied to the police because he was scared of the consequences from his earlier allegations.

Reception

In its original American broadcast, "Illusions" was seen by an estimated 1.064 million household viewers with a 0.15 in the 18–49 demographics, meaning that 0.15 percent of all households with televisions watched the episode. This was a slight increase from the previous episode, which was watched by 1.049 million viewers with a 0.16 in the 18-49 demographics. The episode earned positive reviews from critics. Joshua Alston of The A.V. Club gave the episode an "A" grade and wrote that the episode swiftly connects important dots after the previous episode's dawdling, but brings swift, startling ends for multiple characters.

Roxana Hadadi of Vulture gave the episode a 4 star rating out of 5 and wrote about Mare standing alone after the deaths of Kevin and Colin. Alex Abad-Santos of Vox wrote that the episode sees the series lean all the way into its twisty murder mystery, with reveals that suggest people thought off the hook might be the biggest villains, while those thought doomed are still alive, but noted the show has always been about Mare's trauma and grief rather than whodunnit.

Sean T. Collins of Decider expressed skepticism about a plot development, calling it a cheap cheat regardless of emotional heavy lifting. Sarah Fields of Telltale TV gave the episode a 4.5 star rating out of 5 and called it the best episode of the series since the second episode, marking the end of the series as a slow burn.