Eric, the new Netflix original series, presents two central mysteries at the heart of this story set in New York City in the 1980s.
First, what happened to nine-year-old Edgar, played by Ivan Howe, who went missing on his way to school? How will his parents, Vincent and Cassie, played by Benedict Cumberbatch and Gabby Hoffman, find him?
Then, there's the missing persons case involving Marlon Rochelle, played by Bence Orere, a 14-year-old who went missing from the same part of New York one year earlier. Will Detective Michael Ledroit, played by McKinley Belcher III, find him or what happened to him?
Well, thankfully, in Eric's season finale, those central questions are answered. Let's talk about how Eric comes to an end.
After Vincent and Cassie get into an argument, Edgar leaves for school early. It's revealed that he's mad and afraid of his dad. Vincent hurt Edgar and injured himself in an alley near their home, but Vincent didn't kill his son. Edgar left for school, while Vincent walked the other way to work.
Edgar, then, begins following Yuusef, played by Bomar Kane, a homeless man who lives in the subway tunnels. He does graffiti, which is how Edgar comes to know him. Unsure what to do, Yuusef offers help to Edgar by letting him stay with him in a makeshift room with a bed under the city. He stays with Yuusef for most of the series, which must span about a week or so.
Yuusef, then, tries to secure the $25,000 reward that Vincent's parents are offering in exchange for Edgar's safe return. He contacts Cassie and arranges the meet-up, but Edgar's grandparents bring the police into the situation, which results in the police clearing hundreds of people out of the subways while looking for Edgar. Thanks to Detective Ledroit's hard work, they know that Yuusef is the last person to see Edgar, and they're searching for him, as well.
In the chaos, Raya, played by Alexis Molnar, a friend of Yuusef's, offers to take Edgar back to his mom to get the $25,000, but she's actually going to sell him to an underground sex ring to pay off her drug debts through TJ, played by Stefan Race. While she's dragging Edgar through the subway tunnels, Edgar slips while climbing up the manhole rungs. He pulls Raya with him. She drowns in the drainage tunnel, but Edgar escapes.
For a bit, it's unclear if Edgar died. His mother was called to the police station to look at Edgar's jacket that was near Raya's body, but Edgar didn't die. Somehow, he finds a way out of the tunnels.
Meanwhile, Vincent, who has been here, there, and everywhere doing all sorts of drugs and drinking, breaks back into this work to get the Eric suit that they'd been building for Good Day Sunshine. He finds a housing rally where there are news cameras. He hijacks the scene, speaks directly to the camera, and asks Edgar, if he's watching, to come home. He apologizes for everything he's done, and he vows to be better.
That's good enough for Edgar who is eating french toast at a diner while watching his father apologize to him on the news.
Vince offers to race Edgar home, and what do you know? Edgar actually turns up at home! He's safe, alive, and okay for the most part.
After Vincent goes to rehab, gets clean, and tries to rekindle his relationship with his father, which has dominated parts of Vincent's character during the series, he joins his son on stage at Good Day Sunshine, while Edgar puts on the Eric suit and pretends to be the puppet that haunted and then helped Vincent in the search for his son. It's a very full circle moment that puts a bow on that part of the story.
But, what about the other part of the story?
What happened to Marlon Rochelle?
Trigger Warning: Suicide
The search for Edgar and Vincent's erratic behavior take up most of the series, but we also have the other case that Detective Ledroit is trying to solve. He's been trying to find out what happened to Marlon, a 14-year-old who disappeared from the same neighborhood as Edgar a year earlier. Marlon is black, and his case has not been handled with the same fervor from the media and police as the disappearance of Edgar, a kid from a wealthy white family.
After shaking enough trees with some undercover officers, and sanitation workers, then getting railroaded by his boss, Ledroit is finally given the tape from The Lux from June 12, the night that Marlon went missing. A worker at the club, TJ lets Marlon in that night, but he also hides the tapes from the night in question.
Gator, played by Wade Allain-Marcus, gives Ledroit the tape after spending the night with him. On the tape, it reveals that Marlon was hooking up in the alley with Deputy Mayor Richard Costello, played by Jeff Hephner, when two undercover officers, including Detective Nokes, jump them. After putting Costello in cuffs, Nokes kicks and beats Marlon until he kills him. Then, they call in the sanitation workers to dispose of Marlon's body in the landfill.
Marlon was killed on June 12 by police officers and covered up by government officials. This is a huge bomb dropped on Ledroit's plate, but the question is, what he's going to do about it?
When he tells Gator he's going to turn it over to homicide and let them handle it, Gator gives him TJ's book that he kept of all of Lux's clientele and their secrets. Gator tells Ledroit to "do damage" with all of this information.
Ledroit walks back into the station and demands the other officers on his team to start making arrests, including Nokes, Costello, and all of the workers who were involved at the sanitation plant. Captain Cripp, played by David Denman, tries to stop him, but Ledroit threatens to call Internal Affairs, who surely gets involved after. We see Captain Cripp's office being cleaned out at the end of the series.
The investigation exposes the secrets of the sex ring at The Lux, which includes Lennie, played by Dan Fogler. Shortly after, Lennie dies after jumping out of his apartment window.
Ledroit seemingly moves on after cracking the case. During his last scene in the series, he's seen delivering groceries to Marlon's mother, Cecile, played by Adepero Oduye.
That's how Eric ends! Both mysteries are solved.
If you or someone you know needs to reach out about sexual abuse or assault, RAINN is available 24/7 at 800-656-HOPE (4673), or online at RAINN.org.
If you or someone you know are experiencing suicidal thoughts, call the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 988.
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