S01.E12: Madame X / S01.E13: Whistler's Mother

[formerlyfreedom]

Two part season finale;

Quote

With a killer taunting them, the Hawthornes look to the police for assistance, but Brady needs Garrett’s help to solve the case. Alison prepares for the election and is rocked by a shocking discovery about her family and the unexpected return of an old friend. Also, as the family gathers for Election Day, they attempt to identify the killer in their midst, but one of them won’t make it out alive.

 

 

"Madame X or Portrait of Madame X is the informal title of a portrait painting by John Singer Sargent of a young socialite named Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau, wife of Pierre Gautreau."

 

Quote

With a killer taunting them, the Hawthornes look to the police for assistance, but Brady needs Garrett’s help to solve the case. Alison prepares for the election and is rocked by a shocking discovery about her family and the unexpected return of an old friend. Also, as the family gathers for Election Day, they attempt to identify the killer in their midst, but one of them won’t make it out alive.

 

 

"Arrangement in Grey and Black No.1, best known under its colloquial name Whistler's Mother, is a painting in oils on canvas created by the American-born painter James McNeill Whistler in 1871"

[Cardie]

Please let Maddie not make it out alive.

[Chaos Theory]

6 hours ago, Cardie said:

Please let Maddie not make it out alive.

Oh I want her to win it all.  I know Brady is tecnically not a Hawthorne but I want him to die so bad.  

[Free]

On 9/1/2016 at 6:58 AM, Chaos Theory said:

Oh I want her to win it all.  I know Brady is tecnically not a Hawthorne but I want him to die so bad.  

This, Brady has been so annoying.

[Happytobehere]

On September 4, 2016 at 5:23 PM, Free said:

This, Brady has been so annoying.

Yes.  The actor is so bad.  No wonder he got paired with the equally poorly portrayed Tessa.

[aimlessbird]

Perhaps the last scene will have Maddie calmly knitting again after she just committed murder.  

[Chaos Theory]

Well damn!  The show pulls it out in the end.  I absolutely loved the finale.  So many killers so little time.  Plus the finale explained a bunch of things....like Jack.  Ha!

Sophie being the accomplis was a good move because she was well embedded in the family. Her motives for letting things go (loving Cam and Jack) made sense but when they got taken away from her her need for revenge took over again. 

Alison....so much like her mother.  Doing what needs to be done.  Yes I couldn't be happier with the finale.

[TigerLynx]

I was going to give Cam the to stupid to live award, but the lady cop who took bribes and the guy cop who is related to the Hawthorne's were investigating the case to the very end so them and their superiors are not to bright either.

I wanted Sophie to kill both Maddie and Cam.  1) because it would be really lame if all the Hawthorne's made it out alive, and 2) because I really hate it when the killer talks forever and never does anything, or the killer allows the victim to talk forever and then doesn't kill them.

Jack's ending didn't surprise me.  I was wondering if Allison was going to turn into a killer, but I didn't consider her teaming up with Sophie to get rid of Maddie.  Also, did Garrett finish killing Maddie off?

[partofme]

Did they ever say what happened to Dylan Bruce?   He was criminally underused on this show.   I hated that Sophie was the killer, though her and Alison teaming up to bring down Maddie was cool.   I wanted to know what happened to Maddie's mom.

[augmentedfourth]

Well, that was fun. I had been wondering how Sophie had found out about how her father died and guessed we were just supposed to assume Cam told her. Loved the ending with Alison, taking over the reins as the ice cold matriarch. I'm glad she and Naomi wound up together, though what would have been a public divorce and juicy gossip just got handwaved away with the flash forward. I doubt there will be a second season of this (was that even a possibility?), but there are still some loose ends with Sophie and Jack.

 

I was kind of rooting for Madeline to make it out alive. Other than that, my biggest complaint (and it's not even that big) is Cam and the rehab nurse winding up together. That was pretty pointless, and I'm kind of rolling my eyes at how both Cam and Garrett seem to have this mystical sexual attraction that women in the medical field just can't resist.

[partofme]

Yeah Cam and Garrett's new love interests were ridiculous.   Jack is going to grow up to be a serial killer.

Edited September 8, 2016 by partofme

[sjohnson]

Among the many laughs tonight was seeing Sophie apparently using generic windex to clean the bell and the table, when she left a witness who would tell everyone whodunnit. Cleaning up after a murder scene is one thing, but ruining the finish on fine furniture is just unforgivable. Boo, hiss. 

Cam's new woman is marrying up, and that explains that. Garrett's is just weird. Brady's not too quick and he's got stamina, Tessa could do a lot worse. Allison could do a lot better, she's not nearly as smart as she thinks. 

Lots of laughs, ready for the next season in ten years when Jack begins his career.

[Free]

22 minutes ago, Chaos Theory said:

Well damn!  The show pulls it out in the end.  I absolutely loved the finale.  So many killers so little time.  Plus the finale explained a bunch of things....like Jack.  Ha!

Sophie being the accomplis was a good move because she was well embedded in the family. Her motives for letting things go (loving Cam and Jack) made sense but when they got taken away from her her need for revenge took over again. 

Alison....so much like her mother.  Doing what needs to be done.  Yes I couldn't be happier with the finale.

I enjoyed the full circle ending with the characters and it did wrap everything up in the end.

[Cardie]

So Sophie it is! This show might have been OK as a four-hour miniseries. They just had to come up with all these stupid plot twists to fill up the 13. Everything made sense in the end. It was just that the show hoarded valuable information about the original killings to keep the attention on Mitch, Maddie and their kids as the only suspects, when it became obvious pretty soon that none of those doofuses was either SBK or the accomplice. Allison always seemed the only one capable of murder and at least her victim-by-conspiracy was the woman who had admitted to killing three people and conniving in the death of Gunther. I have a feeling the ending was implying that Allison has killed Sophie to tidy up loose ends. That's why we're back to Whistler's Mother, Allison has just switched rocking chairs with Maddie, so to speak.

Why hire Dylan Bruce and not even have appear in the final few episodes, just to be a red herring?

There's no way there will be a second season of this but I'd pitch this spin-off: Twenty years after the harrowing events of 2016, medical examiner Jack Hawthorne is called on to autopsy a strangling victim who was posed beneath a print of Grant Wood's American Gothic. Soon three other killings happen using this m.o. (different paintings but all American artists.) Jack must determine if the killer is to be found among his aunts, uncles and cousins, his serial-killer, missing mother, or the few people who watched that dreadful TV show made about SBK. Meanwhile, he's been having these blackouts . . .

[Chaos Theory]

Before I forget.  Art was a running theme thoughout the show going so far as naming episodes after peices of art and imitating the artwork so I thought it was clever to compare serial killing to art even in a bizarre way.

Also it's nice to see father's spending quality time with their daughters.

And it's always nice to see women making their mark in the male dominated world if serial killing.  Progress!  

Edited September 8, 2016 by Chaos Theory

[Sandman]

I knew this show had a kind of batshit sense of humour running through it, but it never made me laugh so hard before these episodes. That whole "... C-minus efforts of a narcoleptic beat cop ..." "I'm kinda rooting for the dollmaker" exchange for Maddie and the officer made me howl.

And I thought the tag line "I think my mother would be proud" put a high shine on Alison's "elegant solution." (Yeah, you and your mother are nothing alike, toots. Not at all.) Amazing Ali always did creep me out.

Congratulations to the posters who predicted Sophie would prove to be the accomplice. Good call!

I admit I was taken in by the "Naomi is really Dara" fake-out. There were a couple of twists too many, I agree; but, not on the level of Secrets and Lies, I'd say, which was a regular red herring festival. It got to feel a little pointless, but American Gothic never felt like it was toying with me to that extent.

Did none of the cops notice that (almost) all of SBK's victims were the biggest donors to the biggest hospital in town? That seems like something important.

Edited September 9, 2016 by Sandman
Not quite all.

[Arynm]

I thought Maddie would be on a boat watching them from afar cackling and spending all the money with a young hot boatboy, or poolboy or something.

Missed the pictures again, I must pay better attention

I did love the ending, figured it was Sophie, but I didn't see the Alison angle. Jack is the next killer, give him a few years.

I did miss Tom, he just disappeared.

Lets do this again next summer, what do you say??!!

[Sandman]

Also, I'm not sold on the idea that trauma, even losses as devastating as those DaraSophie experienced, can make someone decide to be a serial killer. (Not that I like Cam's "my kid has the crazy genes (but not from me, whoo!)" explanation better.)

[Cardie]

36 minutes ago, RogerDodger said:

Arguably, care for the "poor" would be worse without the contributions of the donors. 

Dara and her dad were fixated on the idea that rich people got good care, complete with special blue blankets, and, probably rightly, surmised that those who gave the most to the hospital soaked up resources like sponges. To their resentful, grieving minds, these fat cats had siphoned off the medical attention that would have saved Bridget.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Cardie said:

Why hire Dylan Bruce and not even have appear in the final few episodes, just to be a red herring?

I would put him behind Enrico Colantoni and Jamey Sheridan in star power and they were just small role, red herrings, too.  

[ForeverAlone]

Cam using the security guard's body to surf down the stairs was a brilliant piece of unintentional (?) comedy. By the end, I thought the writers were turning this show into more of a black comedy (which is not necessarily a bad thing in and of itself).

I was left wondering if Sophie went and got the $500,000 in cash in Mitchell's mausoleum, or if it is still just sitting there, ripe for the picking. 

[izabella]

1 hour ago, Sandman said:

Did none of the cops notice that all of SBK's victims were the biggest donors to the biggest hospital in town? That seems like something important.

And it should have been super obvious.  All they had to do was ask themselves what the SBK victims have in common.  They could have googled all their names and found that connection in seconds.

[CelticBlackCat]

Congrats to those of you who called the Sophie accomplice ending!  Father and daughter a la "American Gothic" by Grant Wood, indeed!

As soon as I noticed the cherry blossom tree near the Bridget Martin gravestone (before Brady looked up and realized) I thought, "So it is Sophie."

I wasn't convinced Madeline actually died until Alison confirmed it in the end.  I was hoping she had just passed out and the body they rolled out on the gurney was Russo the bodyguard.  Cam sleding down the stairs on the bodyguard was a hoot.

Garrett's girlfriend Christina was pregnant so that was why he ended up with her and the baby.  Cam had to wind up with Rehab April to show he's moved on from Sophie and Jack has a mother figure in his life.

A riveting two hours and a satisfying reveal and round up.  Dara/Sophie is in the wind...

Edited September 8, 2016 by CelticBlackCat
Added a thought.

[Black Knight]

49 minutes ago, izabella said:

And it should have been super obvious.  All they had to do was ask themselves what the SBK victims have in common.  They could have googled all their names and found that connection in seconds.

Not really. The cops already knew the SBK was targeting rich people, and rich people who donate generally donate all over the place, not just to one. So the victims would have donated not just to the hospital, but to museums, opera, various foundations, and so on. There wouldn't be anything to show that it was hospital donors specifically being targeted. It's also not at all uncommon for rich people to make donations (if for the tax breaks if nothing else), so being philanthropic donors is not much more of a commonality than their all being quite rich. Maybe if the SBK had gone on, but there weren't all that many victims, and as it is, the cops never knew about the Hawthornes being targeted, and then David Morales, who may or may not have been a hospital donor, was believed to be a SBK victim. As for the other side of things, there would have been so many potential candidates - there are a lot of bad outcomes in hospitals, so there are a lot of potential suspects.

Well, while Alison wasn't guilty in the way I thought last week (I'd still like to know where she was the night the SBK came to the Hawthorne mansion, though), I knew there was something weird about her look when she was sitting in Sophie's place and something too confident about the way she was assuring Tessa they were safe, being too casual about going around town when there was a killer targeting the family, etc. So the final scene made sense of all of that, and Maddie would indeed be proud if she could look at it objectively enough. Heh. I loved Virginia Madsen in this and got a kick out of Maddie's scenes (especially loved her exchange with the cop, and of course the neighbor), but I couldn't get upset about Maddie getting killed after all the people that she'd killed.

However, Alison? As long as you're busy taking care of "liabilities" in order to "protect the family," you really should have Jack committed, or shoved off the nearest cliff, immediately. But I'm glad she's with Naomi, who did prove herself to be completely loyal and devoted, and congratulations to the show for avoiding the #BuryTheGays trope - you'd think if any show had an excuse to do it, it would've been this one since it's a murder mystery show, but the writers avoided that.

The endings of the two final scenes, the shots of Jack and Alison, were a perfect way to wrap up the season. I do hope if there's a second season - and I'd like there to be one, this was enjoyable summer TV viewing - the show turns out to be an anthology, where we'll have a whole new set of characters and a new murder.

Edited September 8, 2016 by Black Knight

[justmehere]

"Someone's at the door."  Maddie's line was my favorite moment of the finale. Nice little shout out to the first American Gothic series.

This show had a number of problems and weaknesses, but I still looked forward to it every week. I didn't try to guess ahead. I just went for the ride, and it was a fun summer one.

[ghoulina]

First of all - I have to give a big shout out to Cam for riding the dead (unconscious?) body of the security guard down the stairs. That is, without a doubt, my absolute favorite part of this entire series. I laughed so hard I thought I would die. 

Second shout-out goes to all the Sophie-as-accomplice speculators! I will openly admit I gave this theory all kinds of side eye, but it ended up working out well in the end.

Although, I felt like the concept of killing wealthy donors to the hospital fell a little flat. I may be wrong, but I feel like a true killer can't just arise out of nowhere. You'd have to be pretty fucked up your entire life to be able to do that. A revenge killing - that I can understand. But then you'd have a certain number of people and target them for a specific reason. The doctors who didn't take good care of your wife. Maybe the hospital board members who MADE those decisions about the blue blankets. While I'm sure some of the donors are rich dickbags, I'm sure many others were just generous people who thought that donating would help the community at large. I can't see a man who was supposed to have been a good man just going around targeting people because they were rich. Maybe once and then he'd stop himself and say, "What the hell am I doing?" I get being consumed by grief, and being angry at the hospital who didn't help your wife when they could have. But I just think that unless the dude had killer tendencies his entire life, it would have made more sense if the target list was more responsible for his wife. 

But I liked that it ended up being Sophie because it made all the stuff with Jack that much more interesting. When they all ran together at the beach and the sappy music was playing, I actually teared up. Seeing Garret with the baby carrier - that got to me. I'm glad he finally got to have a real life, unburdened from his past. But I immediately noticed Jack wasn't with them. I think I would have liked it better if they ended in that moment. All the hugging and smiles and emotional music and then Tessa asks, "Where's Jack?" - and we hear a scream, then cut to black. 

But I did like learning that Alison was complicit in her mother's death. That was kind of cool. Because for all the reasons she wanted to take her mother out, it kind of proved that the apple didn't fall too far from the tree. 

Overall, this wasn't the best show ever, but I thought that it was decent and often a lot of fun. 

Edited September 8, 2016 by ghoulina

[sjohnson]

Allison no doubt would have liked to have Sophie dead instead of talking to police. But Sophie knew where $500 000 was hidden, which helps a getaway immensely, I'd say. Plus the hint dropped by the stuffed bear, I'd say the producers had hopes for a second summer season. Not going to happen from my vague impression about the ratings. 

But I do sincerely believe there was nothing unintentional about any of the humor in the series. 

As a final note, on reflection, I'd say the happiest ending is Dana on her boat. There *is* a God!

[Chaos Theory]

I think the cops had tunnel vision when it came to the Hawthornes which is why they missed the hospital angle.  They were so so sure something fishy was going on in that house, that family that they missed other signs.  Cutter made a comment about not seeing your own family clearly when Brady said he had known Sophie for years.  I think she is right but you also do t see things clearly when you are intensely focused.  I think the cops missed a lot be caused they were so sure it was the Hawthorns.  

[augmentedfourth]

Quote

Why hire Dylan Bruce and not even have appear in the final few episodes, just to be a red herring?

Well, it worked on a lot of us, didn't it?

 

Cam riding the bodyguard down the stairs and Madeline's exchanges with the C-minus cop and the neighbor were hilarious. Also, DNA Dana finally got her boat. You go, Dana!

 

Okay, so in thinking this over, there's one minor bit I'm not super clear on and maybe someone can help me out. So in the first episode, the kids find the box of silver bells in the shed. Madeline tells them Dad was a true crime buff (right? or was there another reason/excuse she gave for the bells? my memory is a little fuzzy here), gets rid of them, except not really, uses one when she killed the reporter, and then Alison tosses all of them (except one more) into the water. So what was the deal with that box of bells? If they were SBK's, how did they wind up in the Hawthornes' shed? Was Madeline actually telling the truth for once when she said Mitchell was so interested in the case, he went out and bought a box of silver bells to keep around? (Which is kind of weird.)

[sjohnson]

Since the bells were supposed to be distinctive (something about a knob inside the rim?) it can't be from Mitchell, it has to be from SBK. But SBK didn't have a box. So I think it's just a plot hole, like young Sophie being able to drive so well without ever getting pulled over. 

[ghoulina]

9 hours ago, Chaos Theory said:

 

Before I forget.  Art was a running theme thoughout the show going so far as naming episodes after peices of art and imitating the artwork so I thought it was clever to compare serial killing to art even in a bizarre way.

 

Yes. And the show was basically giving us clues the entire time - that the killer was an "artist". Sophie was an artist. I never saw it. 

 

9 hours ago, Sandman said:

Did none of the cops notice that all of SBK's victims were the biggest donors to the biggest hospital in town? That seems like something important.

THESE cops? Nah. Not surprised at all that they missed that. 

 

21 minutes ago, sjohnson said:

As a final note, on reflection, I'd say the happiest ending is Dana on her boat. There *is* a God!

Yes, thank you! I forgot to mention that in my original post, but that moment made me so happy. 

 

7 minutes ago, sjohnson said:

Since the bells were supposed to be distinctive (something about a knob inside the rim?) it can't be from Mitchell, it has to be from SBK. But SBK didn't have a box. So I think it's just a plot hole, like young Sophie being able to drive so well without ever getting pulled over.

Yea, I thought Sophie's whole part was to come in later and help stage the tableau. So it would make sense that SHE would have the bells and what-not out in the car with her. Did we notice any kind of bag or backpack with SBK when he came into the Hawthorne's house?

[boochez]

I actually think the bells were in SBKs backpack the night he broke into the Hawthorne's house..............finding those bells in his pack was the reason they knew who he was.   I believe Maddie saved them "just in case" they needed them for any other "problems" that may have arisen later............

[Enigma X]

I haven't watched yet, but I am so looking forward to this later.

[sugarbaker design]

A satisfying conclusion, who knew!?  Not even close to perfect, but satisfying nonetheless.  It would've been perfect if:

• It was less than 13 hours, so much was filler, and it seemed to take forever to get started.
• Sophia not only survived, but thrived.  An ideal ending would've been the Hawthorne clan gathered at Cam's burial (after his latest overdose), each family member placing a rose on the casket, then leaving.  A lone woman, dressed in black, placing a cherry blossom on the casket while muttering through her black veil "You're a lost cause."
• Better acting:  Rylance, Madsen and Starr stole the show.  The others not so much.
• More Dylan Bruce.
• Less animal abuse.

[LakeGal]

I really enjoyed this show.  I even liked the finale.

I did think that they would find that Sophie had taken the money that Maddie had hid.  They did keep saying that Sophie was so good at picking locks. 

One thing that annoyed me.  Why didn't Cam just pull out his cell phone and call for help when he was handcuffed to the guard?  Of course then we would have missed the hilarious moment where he rode the guy down the stairs.  But I thought he should at least try to call for help.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Chaos Theory said:

I think the cops had tunnel vision when it came to the Hawthornes which is why they missed the hospital angle.  They were so so sure something fishy was going on in that house, that family that they missed other signs.  Cutter made a comment about not seeing your own family clearly when Brady said he had known Sophie for years.  I think she is right but you also do t see things clearly when you are intensely focused.  I think the cops missed a lot be caused they were so sure it was the Hawthorns.  

But didn't they have like 11 years of investigating this case before the belt evidence pointed them toward the Hawthornes?  

What cracked me up is everyone just trusted Sophie that Maddie was dead, no one bothered to check for a pulse or even call 911.  First Cam, then Garrett, then the cops even just gazed over at her like,  "oh bummer, dead woman."  It's not like she had her head blown off.  

[preeya]

How nice! They wrapped it all up in a "lived happily ever after" package.

[sjohnson]

SBK carries the bells in his backpack? Isn't that kind of noisy for house breaking? 

Not that it really, truly matters, it's just nitpicking. Addams Family vs the Keystone Kops is doing great if the big mystery more or less makes sense and plays fair, which I think they did. A tolerable answer is enough pay off, given the laughs, as far as I'm concerned.

[Guest]

10 hours ago, Sandman said:

Also, I'm not sold on the idea that trauma, even losses as devastating as those DaraSophie experienced, can make someone decide to be a serial killer. 

And TRUE LOVE 'cures' it.  (With Cam, no less.)  

Part of my disbelief that Sophie was an artist was because the art in their apt. was photographs of her.  Who takes giant artsy selfies and hangs them all over their own wall?  I figured it was the actual artist, Cam.  

[sjohnson]

^^^See the works of Frida Kahlo. 

[Guest]

But Kahlo was a painter.  It seems more normal to paint artistic self-portraits.  Kahlo's are small and probably weren't all over her own home, too.  

Setting a timer on a camera and then going to pose against a wall then blowing those up into posters is different to me, and odd.  Though maybe Cam is the one who posterized them and hung them.  

[Chaos Theory]

10 hours ago, Winston9-DT3 said:

And TRUE LOVE 'cures' it.  (With Cam, no less.)  

Part of my disbelief that Sophie was an artist was because the art in their apt. was photographs of her.  Who takes giant artsy selfies and hangs them all over their own wall?  I figured it was the actual artist, Cam.  

But it didn't cure her not completely.  She was still and addict who couldn't quite quit her addiction even for Cam and Jack.  She was willing to let things go because she loved her son but love didn't "cure" her.

Edited September 9, 2016 by Chaos Theory

[iMonrey]

That was an OK finale in that it answered most of the questions, but overall the show lacked enough story to merit 13 episodes. There were also several glaring problems.

1. The show made the Boston police department look horribly inept. After 13 years none of them noticed that all the SBK victims were major hospital donors?

Quote

There wouldn't be anything to show that it was hospital donors specifically being targeted. 

How about the big freaking list right on the hospital wall? Wouldn't that have been something of a giveaway? "Hey, look at that! All the donors on this wall  also happen to be SBK victims! What a co-inky-dink!"

2. This is a pretty common trope, but you can't strangle someone to death in the short time Sophie had Madeline in her grasp unless you break their neck, and when Cam finally got downstairs it didn't even look like there was any damage to Madeline's throat. A slight redness at most but no indentation or anything to indicate she'd been choked. She could have passed out from lack of air but she wouldn't have been dead. I kept expecting her to regain consciousness. And since police were there within minutes couldn't they have tried to resuscitated her? 

3. Sophie and her dad "learned how to break into rich peoples' mansions." Even assuming Sophie wasn't a heroin addict yet, that's a pretty impressive skill  for a couple of civilians to learn, given the expensive, high-tech and different systems each mansion would have had. Not only did they have to learn how to bypass them to gain entry they had to disable any video surveillance and wipe any recordings made of themselves prior to disabling the systems - which are usually kept in a remote location. Sophie's skills in this area were no less than magical.

4. Sticklers, think back - why did Garrett seek out Christina in the first place? Weren't we led to believe it was because he felt guilty her father was a SBK victim, making Garrett himself somewhat responsible for her loss? At the time we were either meant to think Garrett himself was SBK or his father was which would explain his interest in her and his feelings of regret. Only, in the end, it turned out he had nothing whatsoever to do with the SBK killings, so why did he go looking for her? Obviously they were dangling Garrett in front of us as a red herring from the beginning but looking back it almost feels as if the writers had something else in mind in the earlier episodes because now it doesn't make any sense that he ever sought her out.

5. Alison's master plan was extremely risky since it relied on an unstable drug addict who almost got caught and certainly would have spilled her guts once captured. 

6. Since Alison is now living openly with her lesbian lover I wonder how the voters of Boston feel about the bait and switch since she ran as a conservative/traditional wife and mother only to ditch her husband right after the election. Tricky!

[TigerLynx]

11 hours ago, Sandman said:

Also, I'm not sold on the idea that trauma, even losses as devastating as those DaraSophie experienced, can make someone decide to be a serial killer. (Not that I like Cam's "my kid has the crazy genes (but not from me, whoo!)" explanation better.)

Cam has killers on his side of the family to.  He doesn't know about Allison, but he knows about Maddie and Mitch.

10 hours ago, ForeverAlone said:

Cam using the security guard's body to surf down the stairs was a brilliant piece of unintentional (?) comedy. By the end, I thought the writers were turning this show into more of a black comedy (which is not necessarily a bad thing in and of itself).

I was left wondering if Sophie went and got the $500,000 in cash in Mitchell's mausoleum, or if it is still just sitting there, ripe for the picking. 

 

3 hours ago, sjohnson said:

Allison no doubt would have liked to have Sophie dead instead of talking to police. But Sophie knew where $500 000 was hidden, which helps a getaway immensely, I'd say. Plus the hint dropped by the stuffed bear, I'd say the producers had hopes for a second summer season. Not going to happen from my vague impression about the ratings. 

But I do sincerely believe there was nothing unintentional about any of the humor in the series. 

As a final note, on reflection, I'd say the happiest ending is Dana on her boat. There *is* a God!

I could see Allison killing Sophie or Sophie getting the money, and returning at some point.

 

3 hours ago, Chaos Theory said:

I think the cops had tunnel vision when it came to the Hawthornes which is why they missed the hospital angle.  They were so so sure something fishy was going on in that house, that family that they missed other signs.  Cutter made a comment about not seeing your own family clearly when Brady said he had known Sophie for years.  I think she is right but you also do t see things clearly when you are intensely focused.  I think the cops missed a lot be caused they were so sure it was the Hawthorns.  

The cops missed several things, the two main detectives investigating the case never should have been on it, and the Hawthornes were hiding lots of things including killing people, but they weren't the SBK.  I agree with the poster who said this would have worked better with fewer episodes.  Stretching it out to 13 made it to repetitive.  Especially the Garrett is a suspect AGAIN part.

[Cardie]

52 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

Only, in the end, it turned out he had nothing whatsoever to do with the SBK killings, so why did he go looking for her?

Garrett knew that his dad killed David Morales to cover up his embezzlement. (It was really Maddie but Garrett didn't know that.)

[iMonrey]

Quote

Garrett knew that his dad killed David Morales to cover up his embezzlement. (It was really Maddie but Garrett didn't know that.)

Was Christina the daughter of David Morales? If she was I wasn't clear on that.

[Guest]

Yes, she was.  

[iMonrey]

That's still . . . creepy. She had a kid with the guy whose mother killed her father. He thinks it was his father, but whatever - he sought her out and impregnated her. Because, he felt guilty about his dad killing her father. OK then.

[Guest]

Don't forget that she stabbed him.  The beginning of all fine romances.  

If Cam had done the normal thing and called 911 when his son was abducted instead of playing amateur detective with Tessa, their mother would be alive.  

It's kind of an easy way to make the whole cast appear guilty, to make them all BE guilty.  Cam was just about the only person who didn't directly or indirectly kill someone.  And Brady, I guess.  

[blackwing]

I thought this was a satisfying conclusion.  I was still going with my Dylan Bruce theory but when his name didn't show up in the credits at all, it obviously wasn't him.  The next obvious suspect was Sophie, and since the titles of the paintings have also been some meaningful reference to the storyline as well as a scene, once I saw the title of the first episode was "Madame X", I assumed the killer would be Sophie, the mysterious Madame X that nobody was able to discover.

Sophie being the accomplice made sense, although what made less sense to me was why she started killing again.  She killed an old lady who was like family to her because "the cops were getting too close"?  I don't buy it.  I think the old lady would have protected her.

I didn't fully understand why Madeline took Mitchell's ashes out from his mausoleum and put in $500,000 and a passport.  Was it her passport?  Why would she take the ashes out and bury them at the foot of the garden folly?  If she wanted them there, she could have just put them there in the first place.  Why bother to buy a mausoleum niche?  By putting the money and the passport there, was she keeping them there just in case she had to flee the country?  I also found it weird that the niche had a lock and could be opened like a door.  None of the other niches had a lock, they were all sealed.

I have always hated Naomi, and I get that the show had to throw her in as a red herring, but I hate that she returned.  What happened to Dylan Bruce?  A few episodes ago, Alison said that Tom took the girls out of town for safety.  I found it completely unbelievable that he would not have been next to her on the final days of the campaign and at her headquarters during her victory announcement.  The Hawthornes and Tom himself have lots of money, surely they could have hired their own competent bodyguards for the girls.

So in the flashforward, it looks like she has left Tom and has taken up with Naomi.  In today's society, sexual orientation is not the taboo that it once was in politics, but I do still think that any affair would have been very damaging.  The fact that bisexual Alison left her rich straight laced husband for her lesbian campaign manager would certainly have generated some news, but I guess maybe it doesn't damage her reputation at all?

I hate that Alison was complicit in her mother's death.  Madeline was evil and was a killer, and deserved death or prison, but it was fairly cold to learn that Alison had her killed simply because Madeline was a liability to her political career.  Never cared for Alison.

So many other plot holes / red herrings / dropped devices.  Madeline's mother didn't factor in at all.  Neither did Madeline's ex-lover Caleb.  Garrett's parentage never was addressed, so I guess the whole 38 year old Garrett and husband of 38 years thing was just that.  Either Madeline was pregnant with Mitchell's child before they married, or the timing/dates just worked out.  Neither did the theory that Tessa was the child of a Hispanic gardener.

I loved that I recognised the aquarium in the scene when Tessa and Cam retrieve Jack from Sophie.  They were in the Shark Tank tunnel with the moving walkways in Toronto's Ripley's Aquarium of Canada.

Not sure if this show will get renewed, but I read that the showrunner envisions each season of this show like American Horror Story... each season would be self-contained with a new family and a new mystery.  So I suppose that's the last of the Hawthornes we will ever see.  If there was a second season with this family, I would want it to start with Jack killing Alison.  

14 hours ago, CelticBlackCat said:

A riveting two hours and a satisfying reveal and round up.  Dara/Sophie is in the wind...

On the contrary, I assumed that Alison somehow found Sophie and killed her.  Alison had this really smug look on her face.  Sophie is the only one who could tie Alison to the death of Madeline, so I figured that Alison killed Sophie somehow.  The way Jack played the teddy bear recording over and over, with that angry look on his face, made it seem like to me that Sophie's never coming back.

Also, I missed the "Madame X" scene in the episode.  Where was it?