Rectify: The Series Endings You Could Have Seen

The series finale of Rectify aired last night. Recently, creator Ray McKinnon spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about how he decided to end the SundanceTV series.

The drama centers on Daniel Holden (Aden Young), who returns home after spending 19 years on Death Row. The cast also includes Abigail Spencer, Adelaide Clemens, Clayne Crawford, Bruce McKinnon, J. Smith-Cameron, Jake Austin Walker, Luke Kirby, JD Evermore, Johnny Ray Gill, and Sean Bridgers.

In the interview, McKinnon revealed that several endings were considered for the series:

Oh, you know. Lots of different avenues get explored in the writers room and that’s part of the reason to have a group-think on different avenues to go down. Part of the reason I was drawn to this story, part of the reason I have been drawn to telling this story is that in life we don’t always get the answers. I think in story, a lot of time we do. I think that’s part of the reason why the idea of story came around, is to give our fellow humans perhaps a deeper understanding or some kind of comfort and a closure or a denouement or whatever. That’s usually valid and it’s a device of storytelling that’s a part of story, but I just always felt that maybe part of this is the mystery that will never be completely solved, just like in life.”

He also explained why there wasn’t a full revelation about the murder:

It’s something we talked about in the writers room and I felt pretty strongly that we had started a story about a murder and the ramifications of that and we didn’t want to frustrate the audience by not addressing that. At the same time, I didn’t necessarily want to explain everything. So I was trying to walk that line, which is paying to service to that aspect of this story without it becoming completely, absolutely clear and that was always the trick.”

What do you think? Are you a fan of Rectify? Did you find the series finale satisfying?