Last Thursday, FX aired the final episode of their latest miniseries, Under the Banner of Heaven. Although the murder mystery central to the story is wrapped up, questions of faith and love abound in the gripping conclusion. For many, this finale may not have contained a lot of surprises. The true-crime drama is based on Jon Krakauer’s nonfiction book of the same name, which explores the real-life murder of Brenda Lafferty and her 15-month-old daughter, Erica, juxtaposed with the history of Mormonism. Show creator Dustin Lance Black injects many original elements into the series that create an engrossing mystery for viewers who aren’t already familiar with the historical case, as well as a compelling character study for those who are. But what from this finale is fact, and what’s fiction? As we break it down, keep in mind how that question permeates Under the Banner of Heaven to its core.

The most significant of Black’s additions to the show is its main character, Detective Jeb Pyre (Andrew Garfield). Pyre is an entirely fictional figure who serves as a fascinating device for the dramatization of Krakauer’s book – a Mormon detective who becomes disillusioned with his own testimony as he uncovers the horrible deeds his spiritual brothers commit out of fundamentalist ideology. As Pyre moves deeper into his investigation of the Lafferty family, he grapples with the fact that these so-called God-fearing men are not just twisting their doctrine for their own desires, but that their horrible crimes may actually have scriptural justification according to the writings of the earliest Latter-Day Saints. Confronting these realities shakes Pyre’s faith so badly that his marriage is threatened, and his standing with his church falters. But in the finale’s last moments, we see Pyre reconciling with his wife – how does he overcome everything he’s seen?

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RELATED: 'Under the Banner of Heaven': What Happened to the Laffertys?

The finale begins with Pyre’s partner, Detective Bill Taba (Gil Birmingham) catching up with one of the murder suspects, Prophet Onias (Dean Paul Gibson). As a member of the Lafferty brothers’ School of Prophets, Onias was a first-hand witness to the corruption of Ron Lafferty (Sam Worthington). As the eldest son, Ron shirked his father’s wishes for him to stay in the family chiropractic practice and instead started a construction company. With an economic downturn affecting his business, Ron became susceptible to his brother Dan (Wyatt Russell) and his increasingly anti-government views. Ron became more and more radicalized, resulting in his ex-communication and his separation from his children and his wife, Dianna (Denise Gough). Onias pushed Ron into believing something his mother already believed of him – that Ron is The One Mighty and Strong, who was prophesied by Mormon founder Joseph Smith to “set in order the house of God.”

Instead of using this perceived status to lead his brothers to success and happiness, Ron abuses his position of power for his own selfish ends. He participates in Dan’s doctrine of polygamy. He gambles much of the School’s money, sending his brother Robin (Seth Numrich) to Reno to bet on horses, who loses all their money by betting on the wrong horse at the last minute. Feeling threatened by Ron, Robin leaves the school and flees with his family. Most frightening of all, Ron produces a list of names that he claims, under the word of God, must be blood atoned. The names are of those Ron blames for his current circumstances– his wife, Dianna; the Mormon families who helped her escape Ron; and most of all, Brenda Lafferty (Daisy Edgar-Jones).

Ever since her husband, Allen (Billy Howle) became wrapped up in his brothers’ anti-government sect, Brenda started working to protect the rest of the family from the delusions of their men. She helps write letters to the church with concerns about the Lafferty brothers’ tax evasion and helps expose Dan for attempting to take his underaged stepdaughter as a second wife. Even things as little as trying to help the family business are seen by the brothers as meddling, but her most egregious trespass of all in Ron’s eyes is how instrumental she was in moving Dianna away from him. While Allen reveals to Pyre in the finale that they did make up in the end (more on that later), the only other Lafferty brother who really saw value in Brenda was Jacob (Taylor St. Pierre).

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Last seen stealing food on a convenience store security camera and heading towards Pyre’s neighborhood, Jacob finally surfaces in search of Pyre. After a tense standoff, Jacob explains his heartbreak over the news of Brenda’s murder, and he gives Pyre Dan’s diary. Pyre comments on the diary that Dan writes as if he is creating the sequel to the Book of Mormon. Dan details a time he threatened Brenda in her own home as he calls himself the Hand of God. What the book also reveals is the full names of the other two men who were with Ron and Dan the day that Brenda died: Ricky and Chip.

Traveling to Wyoming, Pyre and Taba interview Ricky and Chip and confirm by their accounts that Ron and Dan murdered Brenda and her daughter. Of the two brothers, both poisoned by their own self-importance, Dan committed. Dan initiates the violence, though it is Ron's plan he enacted. And according to Ricky and Chip, Dan killed Erica. In a flashback, we witness Brenda’s final stand, and her fervent condemnation of them both. It’s a haunting revelation that shines a light on the horrors men like Ron and Dan are capable of. These are men who use their faith to misguide others toward their own intentions, who veil their fleshly and materialistic desires with the guise of God’s word – men who frighten and abuse their own families as a way to impose their supposed dominance.

It’s a problem Pyre wrestles with in his own family. His testimony is failing, and his persona as the head of the household, the "priesthood holder," is coming under fire by the atrocities of the Laffertys. Pyre reads in his daughters’ diaries the kinds of subservient language that he fears will condition them to a life under the reign of men like Ron and Dan; or as Pyre learns from original Mormon texts, like Joseph Smith or Brigham Young. As he and Taba race against the clock to find Ron and Dan, Pyre reckons with generations of young men who believe themselves to be The One Mighty and Strong, and that trail is drenched with blood. In Pyre’s moment of panic, Taba pulls their car over, walks out into the desert, and delivers what can be considered the thesis of the entire series.

Taba looks out at nature while Pyre carries on with his freakout, and he asks Pyre to take it in. Pyre asked Taba how he lives life “without a compass”, but this is his compass. Taba tasks Pyre with simply appreciating the miracle of being on this planet. If there is no God, doesn’t that make it all the more special? It’s the jolt Pyre needs to be shaken out of his head as a Mormon and back into his head as a detective. Able to utilize his Mormon knowledge from a more detached perspective, Pyre deduces that Ron and Dan must inevitably turn on each other. if there is to only be One Mighty and Strong.

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While Pyre and Taba head to Reno to find and arrest Ron and Dan, Dianna is found by Florida police and her children are taken to safety. Spurred by the letter Brenda wrote to her the day she died, Dianna sneaks away and drives to Utah to rescue her other sister, Dan’s wife Matilda (Chloe Pirrie). When Sam (Rory Culkin), ever loyal to his brothers, catches up with them and takes Matilda, Dianna delivers the most red-hot scathing repudiation of the Laffertys and their bunk ideas of male dominance. Every word that comes out of her mouth is pure fire, meant for Sam as well as every useless Mormon neighbor at that gas station who was content to watch Sam drag a battered wife away from her screaming sister. He is small and weak, and he and his ilk make up for that by contorting holy words to reflect their oversized egos. Dianna compels Matilda to make her own choice and break free from Sam in a winning moment that honestly kind of overshadows any other moment in the finale. Sisters stick together.

In Reno, it’s of the utmost importance to Pyre that they apprehend both Ron and Dan alive. They need to see that they’re wrong – that everything they’ve been preaching is nothing more than the sick fantasies of weak men. Pyre catches up to the pair just as Ron turns on Dan and tries to kill him, per a revelation he conveniently just received from Heavenly Father. Despite his brother just trying to kill him, and despite the fact that he’s a child murderer, Dan goes all the way out to the squad car in handcuffs shouting to the crowd “what crimes have we committed?” Dan’s self-assured divinity has consumed him so entirely that he can rationalize any depraved impulse as God’s will. These men were taught to listen for the voice of God within, but they hear their own inner voice and attribute it to God. How dangerous is this? Raising men to believe their worst inclinations could possibly be the will of the divine? How easy it is in that case to abuse the faith of others in order to forcefully take whatever it is you think you’re owed.

The camera doesn’t show us what happens to Ron and Dan afterward, but they are both unfortunately very real people, so we don’t need the show to delve there. The two were tried separately. Ron received the death sentence but died in prison of natural causes in 2019 before his sentence was dealt. Dan remains in prison today, serving two life sentences. He was spared the death sentence by a lone holdout juror.

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With Ron and Dan in cuffs, and Dianna and Matilda safe, what remains is whether Pyre’s faith can survive the ordeal of this murder investigation. It’s Taba who again comes in clutch with some life-altering perspective. Taba tells Pyre of a Paiute prayer of hope that the violent colonizers would vanish, and the buffalo would return. He recites the prayer for Pyre, who asks if the prayer has power. Taba flatly says no, as it didn’t protect his people as the white men mowed them down with their guns. But he tells Pyre that it reminds him of home and that it’s okay to sing it every now and again even if he doesn’t believe it has power anymore.

In the police station, after the stake President condemns both of them for Pyre’s refusal to bend the law in favor of the church, Allen tells Pyre about his reconciliation with Brenda. He says that after he lost his faith, he realized he belonged to Brenda, and to Erica, not with his brothers or the church. Allen learned to value Brenda not for anything eternal, but for what they had in the here and now. “My family became my faith.” It’s a similar lesson as Taba’s, about the miracle of nature. Both men encourage Pyre to stop being consumed with eternity and divine power and to simply appreciate the spirituality in what he already has. It’s a miracle to be alive on this planet and to be with those you love. It’s fitting then, that the final moment of the show is shared with Pyre by his mother, Josie (Sandra Seacat), looking out at a grand lake vista and enjoying each other’s company – it is enough.