Edwin Payne is one of the main protagonists in Netflix’s Dead Boy Detectives. George Rexstrew plays the character in the show.
In 1916 Edwardian London, Edwin was a student at St. Hilarion’s boarding school for boys.
He was regularly bullied by others and one day, his bullies decided it best to offer hin up to hell as a sacrifice, a prank that would come to cost them most heavily very soon.
Going to Hell on a technicality
His bullies offered Edwin to the demon Sa’al and summoned the demon using a book they found. The prank turns into a nightmare when the demon actually turns up.
He vaporizes every bully, before dragging Edwin to Hell as well. He’s kind of hilariously apologetic when he does it, saying the boy is technically a part of the nether realm now.
Edwin spends 60 years in Hell, being tormented endlessly and being sold from one demon to another, who sells him to a different entity.
However, due to his incredible tenacity and brilliance, Edwin manages to escape Hell and his torture, into the land of the living, where he wanders until he finds another teen ghost who hasn’t quite realized he is dead yet — Charles Rowland.
Finding his ‘best friend forever’
He strikes a friendship with Charles and eases him into the revelation that he’s dead. After he does so, Edwin takes a leave, advising Charles to go for the light of the afterlife as Death will be coming for him soon.
However, Charles doesn’t want to move on just yet; he wants to stay and solve mysteries and unresolved paranormal cases with him. The two soon begin the ‘Dead Boy Detectives’ Agency together.
The pair is incredibly efficient and works together wonderfully. Whereas Charles only tends to employ raw strength, Edwin has a penchant for magical solutions. He’s a great scholar and holds encyclopaedic knowledge about most things paranormal.
Dynamic with Crystal
In 2023, after helping a teen girl named Crystal by exorcising her demon ex from her body, they let her join their agency because her psychic powers will be greatly useful for them.
Edwin is reluctant to the idea as he doesn’t trust humans and thinks she would only create problems for them, contrary to what Charles thinks. He keeps putting on air around Crystal and taunting her every chance he gets.
However, having faced great many perils together and helping each other, by the end of the first season, he and Crystal a good friends.
The romantic troubles
Edwin also goes through quite a romantic arc in the show. His flame is first lit when he encounters the Cat King, who tries to seduce him but it doesn’t go anywhere, mainly because Edwin begins to realize who he has true feelings for.
It is someone he’s always held dear but only now that love is in the air amidst so many dangers, that he comes to terms with it.
When Charles ultimately helps his best mate escape Hell again, having been dragged there by the demonic entity who tortured him for decades, Edwin finally confesses.
He tells Charles how he loves him, but also that he doesn’t have to love him back. Charles doesn’t reciprocate the same kind of love but he’s his best friend and will remain so, and Edwin is more than fine with that.
Also Read: The love triangle in Dead Boy Detectives explained