In Dear Edward, a young boy named Edward loses his whole family in a plane crash, but he cannot accept the fact that his older brother, Jordan, is not with him anymore. Jordan is played by Maxwell Jenkins.
In the show, Edward is introduced along with his older brother, Jordan. Edward and Jordan go to eat their favorite falafel for the last time before they leave New York and move to LA with their parents. Jordan assures him that they will find good falafels in LA as well.
The two siblings share a close bond despite their three-year age gap, but like other siblings, their relationship is not entirely free of conflict.
The better brother
Edward and Jordan are homeschooled because Edward was bullied in school when he was in second grade. The two brothers receive their education from their father at home.
Even though Jordan is older, Edward is able to grasp academic concepts faster than him. He offers to help Jordan, which does more harm than good. Apart from academics, Edward also learns to play the piano faster than his brother.
Jordan admits to their mother that the fact that Edward is smarter bothers him; Edward never even makes a single mistake when he plays the piano. Jordan decides to enroll in a public school once they move to LA because he needs his own life now.
Jordan knows that Edward would not react well to this news, so he gently breaks it to him in the plane. As expected, Edward gets angry and goes to complain to their mother.
He gets angrier when he finds out that their mother already knew. He does not understand Jordan’s need for independence and lashes out.
However, when there is turbulence and Edward is scared, Jordan holds his hand and comforts him. He promises to take him to the beach once this is over, just the two of them. Jordan fails to keep his promise, as he dies in the plane crash.
The bond between the brothers
Edward is the only one who survives the crash, but he imagines dragging his body to his brother. He believes that Jordan survived the crash with him.
When he is taken to Lacey’s house, he sees Jordan everywhere with him. He keeps talking to his brother until Lacey takes him to buy food, where a girl approaches Edward and tells him that she is sorry that he lost his brother.
Edward sees Jordan disappearing from all the moments he imagined with him, and at that moment, he realizes that Jordan died in the crash. Edward falls unconscious.
Later, he misses his brother and cannot fall asleep without hearing goodnight from Jordan. He goes to Shay’s house and sleeps on her bedroom floor. He asks her to wish him goodnight the way Jordan used to and falls asleep only after she does it.
When Edward visits his and Jordan’s favorite falafel truck with Shay, the vendor asks him about Jordan, and Edward lies that Jordan is studying at home, but he immediately has a nervous breakdown. He throws away the falafels and runs away.
Edward and Shay fail to find the mystery girl who mentioned Jordan’s death and handed Edward a shrunken head, but she makes an appearance again; she leaves a letter for Edward at Lacey’s house. It will be interesting to see how she is connected to Jordan.
It is clear that Edward loved Jordan more than anyone in the world, seeing that the two brothers were attached to the hip at all times. He struggles to accept the fact that his life has changed entirely and that Jordan will no longer be with him all the time.
He keeps lying to himself and others about his brother’s death, but Edward will have to accept his death and grieve in order to heal and move on in life.
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