Eric ending explained after tense final episode of TV series on Netflix (2024)

Warning: spoilers ahead for Eric.

Eric, the new thrilling TV series on Netflix starring and produced by Benedict Cumberbatch, is a gripping watch from start to finish.

We’re sure there are plenty of viewers around the world who have already sped through all six episodes, desperate to find out what happens to nine-year-old Edgar (Ivan Morris Howe) after he goes missing.

The story begins showing Edgar’s family life in 1980s New York with his parents Vincent (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Cassie (Gaby Hoffmann), who are in a turbulent marriage.

After Edgar goes missing one day on his way to school, Vincent and Cassie’s lives begin to unravel, as police detective Michael Ledroit (McKinley Belcher III) begins his determined investigation to find the missing child.

There are plenty of twists and turns in this harrowing tale, which some viewers might question whether it’s based on a true story. Let’s unpack how it all ends.

Eric ending explained

Throughout the six-episode arc of Eric, viewers were likely wondering if Edgar would ever be found, and if he would then be able to return home to his family.

It turns out that Edgar made his way to a community of homeless people living underground after following a man called Yusuuf (Bamar Kane), because he liked the homeless man’s graffiti tags.

Yusuuf takes Edgar under his wing, providing him with shelter and protecting him from others underground, but a woman called Raya who Yusuuf knows wants to take Edgar so that she can make money off of him in a child prostitution ring.

When the homeless community in the subway tunnels is raided by police, Raya takes Edgar under the guise that she’s trying to protect him – but as they try to claim up a ladder, they slip into the water below.

It turns out that Raya has died in the fall, but Edgar has survived, and he manages to climb out onto the streets through a manhole.

Meanwhile, Edgar’s father Vincent was in close proximity to his son underground, but was knocked unconscious when the raid of the homeless people was happening by police.

Vincent makes his way to the studios of Good Day Sunshine, donning the costume of Eric that he has made and then travelling to a big public event taking place in New York City in protest of the measures that the authorities have put in place against homeless people.

Standing up on a platform, Vincent – dressed as Eric – addresses his son through the news cameras, and is broadcast on TV, as he professes his love for his son and admits how sorry he was for how he acted.

Edgar, who is eating pancakes in a diner, sees his dad’s declaration, and then races back home to meet him, where they’re finally reunited.

While Vincent and Cassie might have had the happy ending they were hoping for with their son, the TV show Eric shines a spotlight on others who weren’t so fortunate.

Cecile (Adepero Oduye), the mother of the missing boy Marlon, finally finds out what happened to her 14-year-old son.

Gator (Wade Allain-Marcus), the owner of The Lux club, finds footage on a videotape of the night that Marlon disappeared, and hands it over to Ledroit, with whom he spent the night and has a history with.

On the tape, it’s revealed that Marlon was filmed giving oral sex to Deputy Mayor Costello (Jeff Hephner) outside the club, before being caught by dirty cops, who beat him to death while Costello stands helplessly handcuffed on the side.

A rubbish truck then arrives to take Marlon’s body away, making it clear that he has been horrifically dumped along with the city’s litter, which is where Cecile and Ledroit go to try and find his remains.

By the end of Eric, Ledroit and Cecile are on good terms, with the police officer going over to her place for a meal while her young grandson watches Good Day Sunshine.

In his own private life, Ledroit has suffered even more heartbreak following the death of his partner William (Mark Gillis), as he’s been forced to move out of the home they shared together by William’s sister.

In the final moments of Eric, a few months have passed when Edgar goes to visit his dad Vincent at work at Good Day Sunshine.

Edgar is joined by his mum Cassie and her partner Sebastian (José Pimentão), who she was having an affair with and who she is now expecting a baby with.

In the very final shot of Eric, Vincent and Edgar are sitting together on the stage of Good Day Sunshine against the backdrop of a picturesque bridge, with Vincent crying silent tears while his son playfully puts on Eric’s voice while wearing the puppet’s huge costume.

As the camera pans away, it’s revealed that Eric is actually sitting on a balcony watching them.

Could this final shot perhaps mean that certain elements of the ending of the series have been imagined by Vincent, considering he conjured up Eric as a figment of his imagination?

Perhaps that theory has been left purposely open-ended so that viewers can interpret it for themselves.

Is Eric based on a true story?

The actual story of Eric – Vincent leading a show called Good Day Sunshine, having a child called Edgar who goes missing, and the investigation being led by a detective called Ledroit – is fictional.

However, the series does shine a spotlight on a range of real issues that impacted New York in the 1980s and continues to affect people around the world today, including homelessness, hom*ophobia and racism.

It was previously suspected that the case of Edgar going missing might have been inspired by the story of Etan Patz, a six-year-old who went missing on his way to school in Manhattan in 1979 and who was never seen again.

However, creator and writer Abi Morgan explained that she came up with the idea for Eric after hearing about multiple cases of missing children when she was growing up in the UK.

‘I remember that being haunting, as a child who really enjoyed her freedom,’ she told Esquire.

Benedict told Metro.co.uk what it was like for him to act out every parent’s ‘worst nightmare’, outlining how going home at the end of the day to his family ‘helped’ him.

‘This character is so sort of… it’s a very peculiar particular odyssey he goes on and his own struggle and failures and loss of his own child within him that again – it was shedding that as much as the horror of losing your offspring,’ he said of his character Vincent.

‘It’s a show that’s about what happens when all institutions fail and children get lost as the victims within that, whether it’s a family institution, whether it’s societal institution, policing, City Hall, and the culture at large.’

Who’s in the cast of Eric?

Benedict Cumberbatch stars as Vincent, a puppeteer who created a Sesame Street-style show called Good Day Sunshine, who suffers from substance abuse issues and mental health struggles.

His wife, Cassie, is played by Gaby Hoffmann, who previously appeared in Sleepless in Seattle as a little girl and in the TV series Girls, while Cassie’s boyfriend Sebastian, who she’s having an affair with, is played by José Pimentão.

McKinley Belcher III takes on the show-stealing role of police detective Michael Ledroit, who not only is determined to find missing children, but is also hiding the fact that he is gay and is living with his partner William (Mark Gillis) from his prejudiced colleagues.

Ivan Morris Howe plays nine-year-old Edgar, who it turns out initially ran away from home, rather than was kidnapped, while Adepero Oduye plays Cecile, the mother of missing child Marlon who will not give up the fight to find her son.

Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them star Dan Fogler plays Lennie, Vincent’s long-time friend and colleague at Good Day Sunshine, with Roberta Colindrez starring as their puppeteering colleague, Ronnie.

Wade Allain-Marcus depicts Gator, who owns the club The Lux where shady deals take place in the shadows, and also has a romantic history with Ledroit.

Jeff Hephner plays Deputy Mayor Costello, who turns out to be connected to the disappearance and murder of 14-year-old Marlon.

Clarke Peters portrays George, the superintendent of Vincent and Cassie’s building who is suspected early on in the disappearance of Edgar to be involved in the case, but is later found to be innocent.

The Office star David Denman is also in the cast as Cripps, the police boss who tries to hinder Ledroit’s investigation into the case of Marlon going missing.

Bamar Kane depicts Yusuuf, a homeless man who tries to help Edgar, while Alexis Molnar stars as Raya, a homeless woman who knows Yusuuf and tries to swindle him so that she can take Edgar off his hands for menacing means.

Eric is available to stream on Netflix.

Got a story?

If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@metro.co.uk, calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.

MORE : Fans are convinced Jennifer Lopez’s co-star in $100,000,000 film ‘really doesn’t like her’

MORE : Viewers lost for words after Good Morning Britain platforms ‘absolutely unhinged’ former politician

MORE : For a series about the ‘reality’ of the property market, Buying London massively falls short