In Eric, a puppeteer does everything in his power to bring the monster imagined by his son to life, convinced that this is the only way to get his missing son to return. The series is now streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
In New York in the 1980s, Vincent is a genius puppeteer who created a hit children’s show called Good Day Sunshine.
His father is a prominent property developer named Robert Anderson. Vincent does not have a good relationship with his parents, who were never there for him and put him on psychiatric medications at a young age.
In addition, he is not much liked by his coworkers because he is extremely harsh and insensitive toward them, not appreciating their ideas and efforts.
He is also an overbearing father to his 9-year-old son, Edgar, and keeps getting into fights with his wife, Cassie, who is having an affair.
Edgar comes up with an idea for a new puppet, which he names Eric, but his pushy father does not give him an opportunity to freely express his idea.
On the same night, Edgar witnesses a particularly bad fight between his parents. The following morning, Vincent lets him walk to school alone, and Edgar goes missing.
Edgar’s case is assigned to Detective Michael Ledroit, who immediately turns his attention to The Lux, a club near Edgar’s house.
The club is owned by Gator, who served time because his previous nightclub, Sierra, was running an underage sex ring. Ledroit busted his club.
Despite Gator’s insistence that he is not doing anything illegal this time, Ledroit does not believe him and keeps going to The Lux to investigate.
There, Ledroit comes across two police officers, Kennedy and Nokes, talking about someone called “8”. Not long after, Kennedy is killed in a hit-and-run case.
A man working for Hudson Sanitation brings the police Edgar’s t-shirt, which has blood on it. Vincent and Cassie’s relationship worsens from this point on.
While Cassie does everything to find Edgar, Vincent becomes convinced that he can bring his son back by introducing Eric as the new puppet on his show.
Vincent starts creating Eric based on Edgar’s drawings. He also begins seeing the monster everywhere, with the monster voicing Vincent’s worst thoughts.
The police then find CCTV footage showing that Vincent went after Edgar the day he went missing, leading to Vincent confessing that he lied about his last meeting with his son.
That day, Edgar was angry with Vincent and pushed him away. Vincent was hurt, and used Edgar’s t-shirt, which Edgar took off and threw away in anger, to wipe his blood.
Edgar then went to school, while Vincent went to work. Although Vincent is found innocent and released, Cassie decides to leave him.
Vincent successfully pitches Eric, but the producers decide to take his idea and fire him because Vincent, who keeps drinking and using drugs, has become a liability.
At the same time, Ledroit keeps revisiting Kennedy and Nokes’ conversation. He wants to question Nokes, but his captain, Cripp, does not allow it.
Eleven months before Edgar went missing, a 14-year-old boy named Marlon had disappeared. Ledroit has still not found him.
Ledroit starts linking the two disappearances after Marlon’s mother, Cecile, holds him accountable for not doing enough to find her son.
He goes through the list of names of the people who were pulled in when the Sierra was raided and finds Lennie’s name on the list.
Lennie is Vincent’s best friend and co-creator of Good Day Sunshine. He became successful because of Vincent’s ideas but did not stand up for him when he was fired.
When Ledroit pressures Lennie, he asks him to speak to a boy named Ricardo, who tells Ledroit that he exchanged jerseys with Marlon the last time he saw him.
Marlon was wearing Ricardo’s jersey, which had the number eight on it. Ledroit realizes that Kennedy and Nokes were talking about Marlon when they referred to a person called “8”.
Earlier, Ledroit had spoken to Nokes’ wife, who had informed him that her husband was relieved to hear about Kennedy’s death.
Ricardo also tells Ledroit that Marlon was going to meet someone that night. All these pieces of information lead Ledroit to believe that Nokes had something to do with Marlon’s disappearance.
Cripp does not let him bring Nokes in for questioning, so Ledroit meets Gator and asks him for CCTV footage from the day Marlon disappeared.
Vincent continues drinking heavily and using drugs. As a result, Cassie asks him to move out, revealing that she is pregnant with her boyfriend’s child.
It is then that Vincent sees the drawings Edgar made on their building caretaker’s wall and realizes that Edgar drew a map. Vincent decides to find his son by following the map.
It turns out that Edgar grew to fear Vincent after witnessing his parents’ nightly fights, so he decided to leave home and follow a homeless man named Yuusuf.
Yuusuf lives in the underground tunnels of New York, and he keeps Edgar, who refuses to go back home, safe.
Knowing he cannot let Edgar stay with him forever, Yuusuf decides to send Edgar home and claim the reward offered by his grandparents.
Yuusuf lives with a girl named Raya. She wants to sell Edgar to a boy named TJ, who works at The Lux and is involved in illegal activities.
Yuusuf contacts Cassie and asks her to bring the money and take her son later that day. Cassie then goes to Vincent’s parents to ask for money.
Vincent’s father informs Ledroit, who has found CCTV footage of Edgar following Yuusuf, about Yuusuf’s phone call.
Ledroit convinces Cassie to let him accompany her, as the police are set to evict homeless people at night as part of Councillor Costello’s scheme.
The scheme aims to close all homeless shelters and relocate homeless people, who live on the streets or underground in tunnels, to new shelters.
The scheme is backed by Hudson Sanitation, owned by his brother-in-law, Bruno Di Bari, who was awarded the contract to clean up the tunnels.
However, Ledroit’s chances of finding Yuusuf and Edgar are dashed by Cripp, who circulates Yuusuf’s sketch in the press just before the police descend into the tunnels.
Ending explained:
Vincent in the tunnels
Following Edgar’s map, Vincent reaches the underground tunnel but, in his unstable state, ends up consuming the drugs offered to him.
Raya had warned Yuusuf that taking Edgar to his mother would lead to his arrest; nobody would believe that Edgar followed him underground willingly.
She urges him to sell Edgar instead, but Yuusuf refuses. However, with Yuusuf’s face now plastered across every news channel, he cannot risk taking Edgar to Cassie.
Additionally, the police arrive to evict homeless people from the tunnels, leaving Yuusuf with no choice but to flee.
While he entrusts Raya to take Edgar to his mother and collect the reward money, he packs his belongings and leaves the tunnels.
Vincent catches a glimpse of Edgar running with Raya, but he is too intoxicated to pursue them. Amidst the chaos of people rushing out, he passes out.
Upon regaining consciousness, Vincent finds Edgar’s drawings on the walls from his time with Yuusuf and meets Yuusuf himself.
Recognizing Vincent as Edgar’s father, Yuusuf reveals that Edgar left home because he feared Vincent. He also directs Vincent to the manhole through which Edgar left with Raya.
However, Vincent gets into a fight with the imaginary Eric that haunts him, leading to another blackout.
While climbing out of a manhole, Raya and Edgar slip and fall into a drain. Cassie waits at the exchange location for Yuusuf and Edgar, but they never arrive.
When Ledroit reaches the underground tunnels, Yuusuf, Raya, and Edgar are nowhere to be found, thanks to Cripp’s interference.
What happened to Marlon?
While looking for the CCTV footage that Ledroit asked for, Gator realizes that TJ has been procuring young boys despite his warnings.
Gator forces TJ to give him the footage before TJ flees town. Ledroit, who is grieving the recent death of his boyfriend, comes to seek comfort in Gator.
He sleeps with Gator, who hands him the footage the next day. It shows that Marlon went to meet Costello, who was paying him for sexual favors.
Kennedy and Nokes used to take a cut of profits from TJ. Marlon was skimming from their profits by meeting his clients outside the club.
Kennedy and Nokes saw Marlon with Costello. While they handcuffed Costello, Nokes beat Marlon to death. Nokes later killed Kennedy because Kennedy was feeling guilty and talking about the incident.
Costello then asked his brother-in-law to dispose of the body through Hudson Sanitation and gave him the contract to clean up the tunnels in return.
Gator also got the names of all those involved in covering up the crime from TJ. He now asks Ledroit to use his power to ensure that justice is done.
Ledroit storms into the police station and gives orders for the arrest of all the guilty parties; he is prepared to defy Cripp and anyone who stands in his way.
Ledroit manages to get a confession out of one of the workers who disposed of the body. The worker tells him that they took the body to a landfill.
Ledroit can finally answer Cecile’s questions and tell her what happened to her son. Cecile gets closure and becomes a close friend of Ledroit.
Edgar’s return
Ledroit also finds Raya’s body with Edgar’s jacket. He suspects that Edgar might have drowned, like Raya.
However, Edgar survived and made his way out of the tunnels. He goes to a cafe to get something to eat.
Vincent wakes up in the tunnels. When he climbs out, he sees the live coverage of the protests taking place in Central Park against the eviction of homeless people.
Vincent gets an idea to bring Edgar home. He wears the Eric costume and goes to Central Park, where he takes the stage to get Edgar’s attention.
He acknowledges his failure to provide Edgar with a safe home, apologizes to his son, and asks him to come home, promising to be a better father.
As the protests are being covered at length, Edgar hears his father’s speech on TV and decides to return home, where he reunites with his parents.
The aftermath
Vincent now recognizes that he should change and decides to get the help that he needs. He stops seeing the imaginary monster.
Nokes is imprisoned, Costello loses his position as deputy mayor, and Cripp faces investigation for obstructing Ledroit’s inquiry.
Now that both cases have been closed, Ledroit gets to mourn his partner’s death. He continues searching for Marlon’s body with Cecile.
Following the arrests related to Marlon’s case, the public learns of all those who were involved in Sierra’s sex ring.
Lennie’s career is threatened since his name is attached to the scandal, which leads to Lennie taking his own life and Vincent getting his job back.
Months later, Vincent meets his father. Vincent tells him that he no longer admires and respects him due to his involvement in Costello’s scheme.
He says goodbye to his father one last time, with no intention of having a relationship with his parents.
Vincent, now sober and stable, is seen puppeteering Eric on his show. His relationship with Edgar improves, as he now makes an effort to listen to him.
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