Benedict Cumberbatch on Vincent’s future

SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers from the limited series “Eric,” now streaming on Netflix.

Abi Morgan wants the sting of her new Netflix limited series “Eric” to linger with audiences long after it ends.

Of course, there is reason to rejoice in the final moments. Edgar (Ivan Morris Howe) returns to his parents. Vincent (Benedict Cumberbatch) seeks rehabilitation help for his addiction and behavioral issues with the goal of becoming a better father and human being. Cassie (Gaby Hoffmann) leaves Vincent to focus on herself, Edgar and a new baby on the way. Detective Ledroit (McKinley Belcher III) achieves some semblance of justice in the tragic murder of Marlon Rochelle.

But as Morgan says Varietythe joy of a child coming home reminds us that so many others, like Marlon, never do.

“I didn’t want the audience to say it was a happy ending,” explains the creator and screenwriter of the series. “It was an uncomfortable ending. There is relief, because everyone wants a child to find their way back to their parents. But for me, there’s also a pain at the end of the show, and it’s a very deliberate and intentional pain that we should all feel. It is palpable and important that it is present. If not, then this is just another TV show that uses the theme of a missing child as entertainment. I want it to be more than that.

In six episodes, Vincent loses everything, while the fear of his guilt in the disappearance of his son worsens his already fragile state. A selfish puppeteer and creator of the “Sesame Street”-style children’s show “Good Morning Sunshine,” Vincent sinks into the depths of his drug addiction and mental illness until he believes the only way to bring his son at home is to give life to his son. hand-drawn creation –– a gentle furry giant named Eric. In doing so, Vincent’s mind also manifests a much more inflexible version of Eric who serves as his walking subconscious.

What Vincent doesn’t know, of course, is that his volatility at home is what caused his son to run away in the first place and end up in a manhole, where he is held captive by members of the homeless community living in the abandoned subway. tunnels under New York City. In the end, Vincent used his artistically gifted son’s own map of the city to follow him to this same underground community that Edgar was already observing from afar.

But as the city government ruthlessly begins clearing the tunnels of the homeless, Edgar is on the verge of being sold to a human trafficker, while his father succumbs to the temptation of drugs just steps away. of his son. It is only after Vincent gets rid of his bad habits thanks to his imaginary Eric that he is able to call his son through the news persona and encourage him to come home, this that he does.

After a stint in rehab — and a late-in-the-life break with his own estranged father — Vincent is able to return to his job at “Good Morning Sunshine,” where he now plays the fan-favorite character every day, Eric.

“He’s still in a very fragile and very vulnerable state, which, to me, speaks to a profound change,” Cumberbatch says of where Vincent ends up. “He went through this dark night of the soul to reach a quantum of comfort, if you will. I think it’s a start. This is the beginning of hope.

The final scene shows Cassie and Edgar attending a taping of the show, where Vincent is excited and nervous for them to see how far he’s come. Cassie had her own revelations during the investigation.

“I think she finds peace,” Hoffmann says. “On a deep level, even from the beginning, she knew that her fear kept Edgar in a situation that was not best for him. Not to mention herself and Vincent, for whom she has a lot of love. But I think that in facing not only this fear, but also the greater and much more troubling fear of her son’s disappearance, she discovers that she is capable of providing Edgar and beyond with everything she needs. requires.

After the recording, Edgar dons Eric’s costume and imitates his raspy but cuddly voice to reconnect with his father, a bridge that even Vincent is still afraid to cross.

“It’s a really beautiful scene,” Cumberbatch says. “He is afraid to know where he stands with the love he has for his child, where his behavior has left him and if there is anything to be saved. He managed to truly be present for his child and witness it. It’s deeply moving for him to see the connection Edgar has with Eric, the voice he uses to approach him as this creation. It is the medium that begins to bring them together in this relationship. It’s caring, engaging and loving.

Although Vincent’s story has a hopeful ending, there is no denying that anyone who alienated everyone in his life through his behavior would not be so lucky. Morgan says she thought carefully during the finale to recognize that Vincent’s quick recovery (described as “a few weeks”) and the opportunity to return to his life and work, not to mention the chance to prove to Edgar that he has changed, are one of his reasons. privileges as a white man with access to money.

“I think if this was a drama without a side story with Marlon, then I would feel very uncomfortable with that ending,” Morgan said. “But it’s a very deliberate decision to show the abilities that Vincent possesses because of his privilege, his profession, his intellect, his education and the support of his family, and because he is a white man with a status There are the tools that allow him to rehabilitate himself and find a form of redemption.

One of the ways Morgan chose to recognize these privileges can be seen in the long-awaited reunion between Edgar and his parents, which cuts to the NYPD station lobby where Cécile (Adepero Oduye), Marlon’s mother, is still sitting each. day to remind detectives that her son never came home.

“That’s a very powerfully conscious awareness,” Morgan says. “We worked a lot on this cut. You cut to Cassie as she’s about to cross the road and be with Edgar, and we stopped them from being able to reunite.

She adds: “I’m trying to show that in an unfair world, there is a reason why some children don’t come home. And we have a moral, social and cultural responsibility to be held accountable.

It is Ledroit who takes on this responsibility in the series, as he is dogged in his quest to understand what happened to Marlon. Ultimately, he discovers video evidence that the 14-year-old was killed by members of the New York Police Department after being discovered engaging in a sex act outside the Lux nightclub with Costello (Jeff Hephner), now a candidate for mayor.

Ledroit did not give in to pressure from the ministry to leave Marlon’s case aside and openly defied his superiors by calling for the arrest of the officers involved in his death. Ledriot’s story is not without its difficulties, however, as he silently mourns the death of his partner Michael from AIDS and questions how he identifies with the very things that made Marlon a target.

But neither Belcher nor Morgan wanted Ledroit to apologize for who he is.

“I didn’t need to portray a man who is being shut down or getting smaller over the course of the series,” Belcher says. “I have to play someone who deals with real things that a man doing his job, who is black and queer, would have dealt with. But I can navigate a space in which he thrives. He is walking toward what it means to accept himself, to love himself, to function at his full potential, and to step into what it means to be the change he wants to see in the world.

Ultimately, changing the world is what Hoffmann says is the message of the series. Not in the macro sense, but rather in its own corner of a broken world.

“It’s easy to point the finger at Vincent and his mental illness, but it’s actually a larger crisis,” she says. “Vincent, himself, is the victim of a larger crisis of bad parenting, of lack of love. For me, that’s what this show is about. It’s about our inability to properly love ourselves and our children in a society that doesn’t care for us and doesn’t love us.