Ferdinand “Ferdie” Platt’s involvement with Maddie threatens the career he has worked so hard to build. In Lady in the Lake, Y’lan Noel plays Ferdie.
Ferdie Platt is a Black police officer in the Baltimore Police Department. Ferdie likes Cleo and frequently visits Gordon’s club, where Cleo works.
He is well aware of Gordon’s illegal numbers game, but he is neither willing to work for him nor against him. That changes when Ferdie is assigned to investigate the assassination attempt on Myrtle Summers.
Ferdie’s investigation leads him to Cleo, who confesses to being involved. Ferdie promises to keep her name out of the investigation for as long as he can, which is all he can do for her.
Ferdie works tirelessly to catch the assassins, and his efforts pay off when he successfully captures two of the three assassins.
The possibility of becoming the first Black homicide detective in the Baltimore Police Department as well as Cleo’s murder motivates him further.
Ferdie even dares to question Shell Gordon, despite the veiled threats he receives in return. However, it is not just this investigation that threatens Ferdie’s ambitions.
Ferdie and Maddie’s secret relationship
After Maddie leaves her husband and rents her own place, she needs money to pay rent. Maddie then stages a robbery to make it look like her insured ring has been stolen.
Ferdie is the officer sent to Maddie’s house after she reports the robbery, and it does not take Ferdie long to realize that Maddie is lying.
Ferdie then informs her that until recently, she was a person of interest in the murder case of Tessie Durst, whose body Maddie found.
He also informs Maddie that it will take months for her to get the insurance money, implying that he is aware that she staged the whole thing.
Ferdie decides not to expose Maddie’s lies, and the next time they meet, they start sleeping together, which eventually develops into a relationship.
Despite interracial relationships being illegal, Ferdie and Maddie continue seeing each other, with Ferdie sneaking in through Maddie’s window to meet her.
Maddie’s relationship with Ferdie is unlike her relationship with Milton. Maddie can share her secrets and desires with Ferdie without feeling criticized.
However, tensions arise between them when Maddie becomes obsessed with Cleo’s case, and Ferdie urges her to let it go. Ferdie then starts investigating Gordon and Reggie only because of Maddie’s insistence.
A colleague of Ferdie’s sees him sneaking out of Maddie’s house at night. Ferdie’s relationship with Maddie gives the higher-ups the leverage they need to get him off the force for going after Gordon.
Ferdie is forced to resign because if he refuses, the information will be made public and Maddie will go to prison. Ferdie never gets to become the first Black homicide detective in the BPD.
Ferdie loses his job, but he does not want to lose Maddie as well because he has fallen in love with her. He asks her to move to Virginia with him.
However, Maddie does not want to be anyone’s wife. Furthermore, she wants to keep their relationship as it is, even if it means they will have to keep meeting secretly.
Ferdie realizes that Maddie will never let him in through her front door, forever treating their relationship as a secret. This hurts him deeply, leading him to end their relationship.
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