Over the weekend, Mare from Easttown – The instant cult classic HBO crime thriller starring Kate Winslet in a Delco accent in a flannel shirt – ended on a devastating turn. The show attracted national attention in the seven weeks it ran, and while the finale was unsatisfactory for some, that collective cultural moment ended with at least one coherent takeaway: Kate Winslet was the star of the show, but Wawa was its backbone.

During the press cycle for Large, there was hardly an interview in which the broadcast Actors didn’t redirect the conversation to Wawa, the east coast most appreciated General store. „Wawa is like … It’s unbelievable”, Evan Peters, who plays the serious detective Colin Zabel, who died prematurely, told the . “It’s a one-stop shop. It’s all in there. „Peters’ order of preference? The Gobbler, a hoagie who shows up for Thanksgiving with all the turkey-day fixins required.” It’s incredible. They have great coffee. You can get ice cream. You can get all kinds of good things there. „

HBO

Winslet says she prepared for the role of Mare Sheehan by subscribing to the subscription Delco times and read the pro every day. “There were regular articles about Wawa,” she said said on the LA Times’ Podcast The Envelope. “It almost felt like a mythical place. When I got there I thought, ‘Ah, it’s real!’ ”Winslet – a vegetarian – mostly went to Wawa for coffee, she said, but Peters often entertained her with stories about his hoagies. „Entering Wawa felt like an honor in a weird way,” she said. “For me, that was the heart of Delco. I am here, I belong, here it is. ”

Director Craig Zobel said the characters on the show got their authentic feel – remember when Mare wore a piece-dyed Ocean City hoodie? – from the time of Meghan Kasperlik, Large‘s costume designer, spent in line at Wawa. “Our costume designer kept sending me pictures from the Wawa convenience store, only of people in line,” Zobel said. „Whenever we find something unflattering,” Winslet told the of the Wawa costume instructor: “We jumped up and down and said, ‘Yes! We wear that. ‘”

But it wasn’t just filming preparation that influenced Wawa alone – there were several defining moments when Wawa appeared on screen. Get out of your car in episode one? Mare weighs a wawa cup. An early sign of his love for Mare? Detective Zabel asks Mare if he can bring her a wawa coffee. Under a cluster of suspicious items on the coffee table in a dingy predator dungeon? A wawa hoagie body.

HBO

Wawa’s public relations officer, Jennifer Wolf, told Eater that she was honored to have played such a prominent role on this spring’s most talked about show. „We are so proud and humble to take part in such an authentic and warm show that honors our Delco region,” said Wolf. „And even more proud to call Kate a real Wawa customer!”

Mare from Easttown may be over and our devotion to Wawa more and more solidified, but at least one mystery remains: Why so much Rolling Rock? Lacey Clifford, Senior Director of Marketing Communications at Anheuser-Busch, gave Eater the last word: „If you ask if Anheuser-Busch has a paid sponsorship for the show to show Rolling Rock, the answer is no.”