‘The Staircase’: HBO Max’s series finale, explained

This article contains spoilers about ‘The Staircase’, HBO Max series

On May 5, hbo max premiered the 8-episode miniseries ‘The Staircase’, one of the 21 best series in 2022, created and directed by Antonio Campos (‘The Devil at All Hours’) which tells the true story of Michael Peterson and Kathleen Peterson, a ‘true cime’ -whose documentary series on which this fiction is based can be enjoyed on Netflix- that has become one of the television sensations of the season.

‘The Staircase’, an exceptional cast

The HBO Max series is one of those cases in which its leading partner is surrounded by a truly luxurious cast, in which everyone manages to shine in their respective roles.

In this way, the series headed by Colin Firth (Michael Peterson) and Toni Collette (Kathleen Peterson) also has Michael Peterson’s later romantic interest and documentary editor, Sophie Broussard’s character played by Juliette Binochean actress who received one of the Donostia Awards this year in recognition of her extensive career, while Michael Stuhlbarg plays David Rudolf, Michael Peterson’s lawyer, Rosemarie DeWitt is Candance Zamperini, Kathleen’s sister and Parker Posey plays Freda Black, the prosecutor on the case.

Lastly, among the children of the couple (none of their own, so it turns out to be a family tree that is at least curious) we find actors of the stature of Patrick Schwarzenegger, Dane DeHaan and Sansa Stark herself from ‘Game of Thrones’ (which will feature a spin-off starring Kit Harington), Sophie Turner.

‘The Staircase’, the case

On December 9, 2001, in North Carolina (United States)there was a 911 distress call: a man (Michael Peterson) requests an ambulance at his home. His wife has had an accident when she was going up the stairs and has stopped breathing. What at first seemed like a misfortune fruit of chance begins to turn into something more… Is it an accident or a murder?

At that time, the writer Michael Peterson (Firth) will become the main suspect in the brutal murder of Kathleen (Collette), his wife, which led to his arrest, accused of murder. With countless time jumps that show the before and after of the life of the Petersons, the series offers a view of the events through the people closest to themresponsible for revealing many of the mysteries surrounding a case in which no one is who they say they are.

‘The Staircase’, the ending explained

The series recreates the three possibilities that could end Kathleen’s life on the stairs of her mansion: the murder at the hands of Michael, an accident by Kathleen herself after hitting her head and, finally, the fortuitous attack of a owl (reminiscent of the famous and bizarre “magic bullet theory” introduced by the Warren Commission in the JFK assassination). All may be true, but none of them has served as an answer to resolve the truth.

Michael has been in prison for eight years, without any glimmer of hope, but a parallel investigation by the SBI (State Bureau of Investigation) determines that Duane Deaver, a blood spatter analyst and a key witness in the case, lied. This gives Michael the opportunity for a new trial, something that David Rudolf, his lawyer, takes advantage of to ask him to adhere to the ‘Alfrod Doctrine’, which accepts the existence of plenty of evidence against him but without renouncing his innocence. . After not wanting to admit his guilt, Michael accepts and since he had already been in prison the entire time of the new sentence, he comes out of this new trial as a free citizen.

As was the case with other fictions such as ‘The Sopranos’, despite the fact that David Chase revealed the true ending of the series, ‘The Staircase’ has an open endingfree to the interpretation of each one, who should be the one to decide which version to believe.

Nevertheless, there are little clues throughout the series that let us see what Michael Peterson’s character is like. First of all, he has a knack for lying to his wife, especially about his busy and hidden (bi)sexual life. Second, he is a character with sudden mood swings, could he be capable of exerting physical violence on someone? We don’t know, but he certainly has a complex and unpredictable emotional state.

‘The Staircase’ is a series in which every little nuance or detail counts so that we tip the personal balance towards one of the sides of justice. A) Yes, there is a scene that could be key… or maybe it means absolutely nothing. In the last episode, Michael is enjoying the pleasure of freedom with his family in a restaurant. At a certain point during dinner, Margaret Ratliff (Sophie Turner) pulls out a home trophy wrapped in a cloth to toast and dedicate some nice words to the attendees. Michael’s face when observing the object is quite a poem. Could it be the gun that caused Kathleen’s fatal head injuries? We may never know.

The HBO Max proposal ends with a lonely Michael Peterson returning to what was his homenow without their children, all independent, staring at the camera while a slight smile spreads across her face. A grimace of satisfaction at getting away with it or sadness at the memory of his late wife and the guilt he has had to bear all this time? Pure ambiguity. ‘The Staircase’ is an event that, 20 years later, remains unclear.