Eric ending explained: What happened to Edgar? Stars unpack "devastating" finale

The series stars Cumberbatch stars as Vincent Anderson, a grieving father and creator of a children's TV show who grows convinced that his missing son will return home if he can get a puppet called Eric – that his son created before he vanished – on screen.

However, while the series pulls us in with one premise, it soon branches out to tackle a myriad of big themes alongside the central storyline, touching on homelessness, the '80s AIDS crisis, racism, and more, and leading to a climactic ending.

Wondering who kidnapped Edgar and whether he's found? Read on for a full breakdown of the ending of Eric, as well as what the show's stars had to say about the finale.

This article includes discussion of suicide and suicidal ideation, as well as sexual abuse, that some readers may find upsetting.

Eric ending explained on Netflix: Who kidnapped Edgar?

The case of Edgar's (Ivan Howe) disappearance slowly started to become clearer as the series progressed, and we learnt that he hadn't been kidnapped, but had simply followed Yuusuf (Bamar Kane) into the underground tunnels.

There, Vincent is awoken by his delusion of Eric, and when he gets up, he sees Yuusuf and, behind him, the recognisable sketches of Edgar's. Yuusuf tells Vincent that he knows him from what Edgar's told him, and that Edgar was too scared to go home so followed Yuusuf down into the tunnels.

Yuusuf eventually has to leave Vincent because he's on the run from the police, and that's when Eric and Vincent get into a fight after Eric tells Vincent some confronting home truths.

There's then the news that a body has been found and Edgar's red jacket has been retrieved from the body of a woman, which we know to be Raya. Just as Ledroit is giving Cassie (Gaby Hoffmann) the news, we then see Edgar struggling to push his way out of the manhole cover.

Is Edgar found in Eric?

Vincent eventually regains consciousness after his 'fight' with Eric and makes his way out of the tunnels via the manhole opposite The Lux. As he's making his way through the city, he sees multiple homeless people flocking to Central Park to protest against the city's homelessness orders.

But Vincent makes his way to the Good Day Sunshine studio and retrieves the full body costume for Eric, walking through the park with it on.

Gaby is also in the park and sees Eric on the stage. Vincent is inside the costume trying to get everyone's attention and to be caught on camera by the newspeople. He uses the opportunity to speak directly to Edgar, who is now eating pancakes in a diner.

Vincent apologises for his behaviour and eventually tells Edgar they should race each other home. They both do, and Vincent and Edgar are reunited outside their building, with Cassie tearfully joining them.

However, while Eric is found safe in the end, show creator Morgan has said she wanted the ending to be a reminder that this isn’t the case for so many others.

“I didn’t want the audience to say that was a happy ending. That was an uncomfortable ending. There is relief, because everyone wants a child to find their way home to their parents," she told Variety.

She continued: "But for me, there is also an ache at the end of the show, and it is a very deliberate and intentional ache that we should all feel. It is palpable and important that it is present.

If it isn’t, then this is just another TV show that used the trope of a kid disappearing as entertainment. I want it to be more than that.”

What happened to Vincent in Eric?

That same day after Vincent and Cassie are reunited with Edgar, Edgar is finally asleep in his room and Vincent tells Cassie that he'll "call when he's allowed family", clearly leaving to go to a rehab facility.

A few months later, Vincent meets up with his father Robert in Central Park and seems better. Vincent tries to tell him about the memories he has of his childhood, of going to the zoo and going for French toast together. He then tells Robert that he doesn't respect him anymore and that ignites something in Robert, who tells Vincent of the true history of Central Park originally being Seneca Village.

"You don't have to respect it, but you can't deny it," Robert tells him, saying that it's known as "progress". "Or theft," Vincent says, then bids him goodbye and goes to work.

On the set of Good Day Sunshine, we see that Vincent now gets to be Eric, and as he dons the suit, he also notices Lennie's policeman character still sitting on one of the tables. As the show gets started, Edgar, a heavily pregnant Cassie and Sebastian all make their way to their seats to watch.

After the show, Cassie tells Vincent that she'll pick Edgar up around 8pm to allow for the father and son to spend the day together. But Edgar has walked off and Vincent can't seem to find him. That is until Edgar makes his way across the Central Park bridge on set in the Eric suit and copies his father's signature deep voice to emulate the puppet character.

Vincent is clearly bowled over by emotion as his son makes his way over and gets teary as Edgar pretends to be Eric, and they get chatting. As the camera slowly pans away from them both, we see that the Eric delusion that has followed Vincent around for the series is still there and is now just sitting quietly watching them from the stands above.

Speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com about what he loved most about the finale, Benedict Cumberbatch said: "I think there’s a lot of moments where characters are stepping into themselves fully and realising their power in their vulnerability and facing up to society to do that.

"Whether it’s Ledroit, whether it’s Adepero’s character [Cecile], whether it’s Cassie in her new life with her new partner or whether it’s Vincent finally having a step away from the damaged child into trying to take ownership and responsibility for who he is and why he is the way he is.

"Separating from a toxic relationship with his parents and trying to become a less toxic father to his son, letting his child come to him and seeing him possibly for the first time."

What happened to Marlon and who killed him?

The final episode of Eric leads on from the previous night's mission by the NYPD and City Hall to 'clean up' the city by displacing the homeless people who live in the underground tunnel network.

Hundreds of homeless people are left to sleep on the streets after they had flooded the tunnels, with the news the talk of the town alongside the now public poster of Yuusuf, who has been linked to Edgar's disappearance.

Ledroit and Gator (Wade Allain-Marcus) wake up on that morning together after spending the night together, and Ledroit tells Gator about the time he met William as he played a piece of music at the Lincoln Centre.

The pair clearly have history with one another that goes far beyond Ledroit suspecting Gator of criminal activity, but Gator surprises Ledroit with a videotape.

He tells him to fast-forward to 11:23pm, and leaving the room, Gator tells Ledroit that he got it out of TJ before he skipped town.

Ledroit watches the tape on his TV and sees CCTV footage of the alleyway behind The Lux. He sees Marlon, recognisable by his number eight basketball jersey, and a mystery man. Marlon bends down to perform oral sex on the man in question, but is interrupted by Nokes and Kennedy, who pulls Marlon away.

Nokes handcuffs the man and Kennedy throws Marlon to the floor on the other side of the bin. Nokes walks over and proceeds to kick Marlon repeatedly, with the footage too much for Ledroit to carry on watching. When he returns to the screen, Kennedy tries to pull Nokes away, but Nokes pushes him and yells, continuing to kick Marlon.

Once Marlon is unresponsive, the mystery man on the other side of the bin walks out to yell, and we see clearly that it's City Hall's own deputy mayor Richard Costello (Jeff Hephner).

We then see that two rubbish collection men have arrived and proceed to carry the now wrapped up body of Marlon to their truck.

Ledroit tells Gator that he's going to the station and gives him a rough time frame so that he can get out of there before The Lux is raided. Gator tells Ledroit to "do damage", and also provides Ledroit with the little black book that TJ kept client notes in avidly.

At the station, Ledroit shouts at everyone to crowd around the TV to watch the tape in question, and immediately Cripp (David Denman) tries to stop it from being viewed. Ledroit stands up to him and other police officers head off to arrest Nokes and the men who work in the sanitation unit.

At the sanitation unit, Alexander Lakatos and Misha Varga are arrested, and on inspection of Misha's trailer, Ledroit finds a cupboard filled with newspaper clippings about Marlon and his bloodied basketball jersey.

That afternoon, Ledroit storms into the church where Costello's child is being baptised and arrests him in connection with Marlon's murder, much to the surprise of his family and friends.

In his interrogation of Nokes, Ledroit confronts him with the facts: that Marlon was skimming money from his profits by having other clients and taking them behind The Lux. Kennedy grew a conscience about what Nokes did and said too much, which ultimately led to him being killed - but both Nokes and Lakatos plead the fifth.

Misha then admits that they disposed of Marlon's body under the orders of Bruno Di Bari, Costello's brother-in-law. In his interview, Costello is confronted with the CCTV footage and says they wouldn't listen to him and that he tried to stop it all.

We then see on the footage that Costello was eventually released from his handcuffs by Nokes, who saw Marlon's body and ran away.

We later see that although Vincent and Cassie get their happy ending and are reunited with Edgar, the same cannot be said of Marlon's mother Cecile (Adepero Oduye), who we see still seated in the waiting area of the police station.

Further into the finale, we hear via news reports that multiple arrests have been made in connection with Marlon's disappearance. We see that Cripp's office is being raided for evidence, which is being collected by other officers and Nokes is in prison.

Cecile and Ledroit then have to take a boat to go out to the landfill where all the rubbish is disposed of, in the hopes of finding Marlon - but with endless amounts of rubbish on the island, it seems unlikely. The news channel reveals that the search continues for his remains in the hopes that doing so will bring the case to a close.

Chatting exclusively to RadioTimes.com about the final episode, Gaby Hoffmann said of her reaction to it: "I was just devastated, of course, again and again.

"What I really took from the final episode, which still, I’m still hearing her voice, is the beautiful Adepero Oduye who plays Cecile, standing up and saying, 'Do better, my son was not loved by this city and he deserved to be loved.'

"To me, that’s what the whole show is about. That we are not doing better, we are not doing well by our children, and thus ourselves. Some of us are doing better than others, and that is what is illustrated by these two different boys’ journeys, and that is absolutely unacceptable and disgusting on many levels.

"But certainly, none of us are doing as well as we should be doing, and to me, that’s what the show is highlighting."

What was happening at The Lux?

Gator obviously provided Ledroit with the damning video evidence of Marlon's murder, and we later hear on the news that further information has been uncovered about what's been happening at The Lux.

While Gator was unavailable for comment, we can assume he's on the run after getting some time to do so from Ledroit before the raid went ahead. According to the news, the raid on his former club The Sierra was done six years prior, as we know from tidbits that Ledroit shared throughout the series.

The raid exposed an underage sex trafficking ring involving high-profile clients, which the news channel explains included a senator, a Hollywood actor and "a leading creative on a popular children's show". It's clear that the ring continued, now under the management of TJ, at The Lux.

The camera pans to Lennie (Dan Fogler), as the news anchor then reveals that more details are being released to the public and are expected to continue to threaten careers. As we've seen in the series, Lennie visited The Lux and also paid for sex from one of the young men that TJ was managing.

Lennie switches off the TV and then takes his own life by jumping from the window of his apartment.

What happened to Ledroit?

After the case has progressed under Ledroit's actions, we then see the detective alone in the apartment that he shared with his partner William. The place is filled with boxes as Ledroit breaks down in tears looking at some of their shared belongings, forced to move out by William's sister.

A few months later, Ledroit drives past The Lux, which is now closed as he makes his way to see Cecile at her apartment and brings a bag of shopping for her.

When he walks in, he sees that Cecile's grandson is watching Good Day Sunshine and smiles sadly at him. He then sits down as Cecile says she'll make him something to eat, the pair clearly still close after the roller coaster journey they've been through in trying to find justice for Marlon.

Chatting to RadioTimes.com about the journey we go on with Ledroit in the series, McKinley Belcher III said: "I’m also really proud of his journey over the course of the six episodes because I think he very much steps into himself. In that regard, sort of steps into what it is to be the change that he wants to see in the world.”

In terms of what people should take from the finale, Belcher says that he hopes audiences understand "how important it is to lead with love and specific to Ledroit".

"I think a lot about how to be the change. I really believe you can’t really do that unless you’ve come to the point where you’ve unlocked your full potential, and loving yourself is at the start of being able to give that love to other people."

Eric is available to stream on Netflix now. Sign up for Netflix from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.

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