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Eric Ending Explained: Does Benedict Cumberbatch's Character Find His Son At Last? Find Out
Despite a wide search around NYC and even with police involved, it all seemed futile. The Netflix series ends with a deep message to society and with a conclusion about Edgar’s fate.
Spoiler Alert: This article contains spoilers about the Netflix series, Eric
Trigger Warning: This article contains references to alcohol, drug addiction, abuse, and sexual harassment.
Benedict Cumberbatch’s latest endeavor isn’t anything like his Marvel features. His mystical persona as Dr. Strange is curtailed into a narcissistic children’s show creator who is desperate to find his son. Netflix’s Eric explores dark themes and the grim realities of life, highlighting the failure of society that boils down to individual failures.
In Eric, Cumberbatch’s Vincent is portrayed as the self-absorbed father of a nine-year-old boy, Ivan Morris Howe’s Edgar, who goes missing on his way to school one day. Despite a wide search around NYC and even with police involved, it all seemed futile. The Netflix series ends with a deep message to society and with a conclusion about Edgar’s fate.
Did Benedict Cumberbatch’s Vincent find his son?
Around the end, viewers find Vincent at his lowest. He is fired from Good Day Sunshine, the puppet show he created; a spiraling marriage with his wife Cassie played by Gaby Hoffmann; struggling with raging alcoholism and poor behavior, it is almost made certain that Vincent is a tragedy. But he somehow finds a ray of hope in his hallucinations of Eric, motivated to keep looking for Edgar.
After the NYPD finds a blood-stained T-shirt of Edgar, his mother Cassie believes she is not going to see him ever again. But not Vincent, his determination to find Edgar through Eric raises doubts about his mental state. With things falling apart, Vincent hallucinates about his son’s drawing, a blue monster puppet called Eric, who shall help locate his son.
Eventually, the viewers find out that Edgar is not dead. While Vincent and Detective Michael Ledroit played by McKinley Belcher III search around the city, a scene cuts to Edgar seen kidnapped by Bamar Kane’s Yuusuf and Alexis Molnar’s Raya. How did Edgar land among them? The day Vincent let his son walk all alone to school, Edgar had taken a detour and started following Yuusuf instead. The kid was intrigued by the latter’s graffiti. Thus, Yuusuf had entrapped Edgar in the illegal colonies of the subway tunnels.
When drug addict Raya insists Yuusuf sell Edgar to pimp Orlando Norman’s TJ, for money, he has a better idea. Yuusuf makes a call to Cassie lured in by the hefty reward put up for Edgar’s location. But it doesn’t go as planned and Edgar’s grandfather informs the NYPD about the call, resulting in Yuusuf’s identity being revealed on national television. Not left with a choice, Yuusuf wants to return Edgar but Raya plans to sell him to TJ instead. Simultaneously, the police break into the tunnels and chaos ensues.
On the other side, a dejected Vincent finds Edgar’s drawing on his neighbor’s walls that turns out to be a map of his whereabouts. It leads Vincent to the tunnels but the police’s charge sends Yuusuf and Raya fleeing from the scene. Vincent catches a slight glimpse of Edgar but is unable to get to him.
Edgar finds his escape from the tunnel and reaches a diner where he sees his father apologizing to him for his mistakes on TV. As was their tradition once, Vincent challenges Edgar to race him home. When he races out of the diner, the father-son duo are finally reunited.
What is the message behind Eric?
Created by Emmy-winning playwright Abi Morgan, Eric is brimming with morale about accountability, toxic parenting, child trafficking, and sexual exploitation amongst other things. But the primary message that the viewers, the show creators, and the cast can’t ignore is the need for change in society.
It also explores empathy by setting the timeline in the 1980s amid the AIDS epidemic in the U.S. And also highlights the loopholes in the justice system itself as many corrupted officers facilitate the death of another 14-year-old boy, Marlon Rochelle in the series.
Eric is available to stream on Netflix.
Disclaimer: If you know someone who is struggling with alcohol, substance abuse, abuse, or sexual harassment, please reach out and report about it. There are several helplines available for the same
ALSO READ: Benedict Cumberbatch Reveals How Eric's Role 'Fills Him With Fear' Ahead of Release
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