(Ed. note: This post contains spoilers for HBO’s ‘Mare of Easttown.’ Consider yourself warned if you have not finished watching the series (Duh!.)
After seven weeks of red herrings, wild fan theories, Jean Smart being amazing, and lots of Wawa coffee, HBO’s Mare of Easttown offered up its final twists and turns on Sunday night when the identity of Erin McMenamin’s killer was finally revealed. Was Kate Winslet, a.k.a. Mare, surprised? Absolutely. And while all the credit for solving the murder goes to Mare, she might have been able to figure it out if she had just thought to ask the Master of Horror himself, Stephen King.
Late Sunday afternoon, the best-selling horror author tweeted out his prediction for how it would all end, noting: “My guess as to who killed Erin in MARE OF EASTTOWN: The boy, Ryan Ross.”
My guess as to who killed Erin in MARE OF EASTTOWN: The boy, Ryan Ross.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) May 30, 2021
Though it turned out that King was right on the money, some followers questioned the logic of King’s prognostication:
True, but that’s a kid with a lot of rage inside. Case in point, beating the bully with a lunch tray when the bully was mean to the girl with Down Syndrome, aka trisomy 21. https://t.co/SvRC5nKume
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) May 30, 2021
While King made it clear that he had no insider knowledge—that he, like the rest of viewers, was just a fan making a prediction for where our seven hours of TV-watching would all lead—he did seem pretty confident in his guess:
Just theories. I could be wrong. I was once, I think it was in 1973. https://t.co/jK4AYgAncf
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) May 30, 2021
All of which just goes to show you: Never question the opinion of one of the bestselling authors in the history of literature—especially one who has made his living keeping readers guessing.