Eric – Episode 1 Recap & Review

Episode 1

In episode 1 of Eric, Benedict Cumberbatch’s character Vincent Anderson speaks at a press conference. He begs his missing son Edgar to come home and to prove everyone wrong who thinks he’s dead.

We then flash back two days prior. Nine-year-old Edgar attends a live showing of the children’s show his dad created, called Good Morning Sunshine. In a meeting, Vincent’s co-creator Lennie insists the show has to bridge the gap between preschool and elementary kids to boost views. He even pitches a new beatboxing puppet, but an upset Vincent blows up about changing a good thing.

Meanwhile, someone on the show gives Edgar a swatch of fuzzy blue fabric for “Eric,” a puppet Edgar has been designing. On the subway ride home, Edgar tries to tell Vincent about his idea of a puppet for the show, but Vincent is too distracted to listen.

At home, Edgar draws a picture of Eric. The puppet seems to be inspired by Vincent, as Edgar imitates his dad while working on the drawing.

At dinner, he tells his parents about Eric, but Vincent only cares about how well he pitches his idea, and not about the puppet itself. His overly critical nature angers his wife Cassie, and they get into a loud argument that sounds like only one of many. That night, Cassie says good night to her son in tears after looking under the bed for monsters.

The next morning, Vincent is supposed to walk his son to school, but Edgar leaves without him, as his father is too busy making empty promises to Cassie. George, the building superintendent, says goodbye to him on his way out. A man in a van spots him walking alone and starts his engine.

When Vincent arrives at work, Deputy Mayor Richard Costello and his kids are there to watch the taping of Good Day Sunshine. Vincent changes up the beatboxing episode, clearly not caring to impress the city hall official. When meeting Richard later, Vincent mouths off to him, while Lennie tries to smooth things over.

When Vincent gets home, he learns from Cassie that Edgar didn’t get to school today. Missing persons officer Michael Ledroit is there to question him. 

Michael goes next to Superintendent George Lovett’s place downstairs to ask him about anything unusual. “Only that the garbage truck finally picked up,” he answers. George then says that Edgar “was a good kid,” and Michael notices the use of past tense.

He later gets a team together for the missing persons case. He’s particularly interested in The Lux nightclub and its owner Alexander Gator, as the club is on the way to Edgar’s school. He’s already acquainted with Gator, whom he sees when he visits The Lux that night on duty. Apparently, Gator has been gone for a while, as others note that it’s good to have him back.

In the club’s bathroom, a guy named Kennedy, along with his friends Nokes and Cal, beat up another guy while asking him if he wants to end up like “8.” Michael then tries to arrest the guys, but they turn out to be Vice officers. He asks them about 8, but they leave without explaining.

At the office, Michael labels a tape from what he recorded tonight with the date: April 30, 1985. He has a collection of tapes from The Lux going, dating back to February, it seems. Back at home, he greets his sick partner, who tells him he smells like old times (assumedly like the club).

It’s been 24 hours now since Edgar has gone missing. The fact that his dad created “Good Day Sunshine” and that his grandpa Robert Anderson is a prominent property developer makes his case of high profile on the news.

Cassie tells Vincent as he’s about to leave the house that he should have walked Edgar to school. Vincent doesn’t say anything to that–he simply leaves with a flask in his pocket that he drinks from while walking to Edgar’s school.

We then hear a voiceover in what sounds like the deep voice Vincent once used for Eric. “Should have walked him,” the voice says. “Should have walked him to school.”

That night, George helps a drunk Vincent upstairs, where Cassie tells him the police called. They got Edgar’s blood-stained T-shirt from a guy in sanitation. 

In Edgar’s room, Vincent sees pictures of Eric all over the place. He starts drawing his own pictures of Eric, ignoring the ringing phone. Cassie leaves him a message telling him she’s going to stay with a friend. But when we see Cassie, she’s walking up to the owner of a food truck and kissing him. His name is Sebastian, and he’s the same man who watched from his van as Edgar walked to school.

We later learn from a conversation between Michael and his boss that Alexander Gator just got out of jail and is now back to running the Lux. Michael is suspicious of him because he had young kids working at his old place, the Sierra, which the police shut down. His boss thinks he spends too much time investigating Gator and The Lux, however.

His suspicions only grow when he listens back to his most recent tape. In the recording, a man named TJ says he has a near-ten-year-old bourbon in the back. When another man declines, he tells him he doesn’t know what he’s missing. This makes Michael pause, as Edgar is nearly ten years old, and he already suspects the club of human trafficking. He also hears the voice of a child in the back.

Meanwhile, Vice Officer Kennedy drunkenly stumbles out of a bar and is hit by a car that speeds away. 

The next morning, Vincent wakes up in Edgar’s bed. He hears a deep voice. “Wake up, pathetic f***.” A life-size version of Eric the puppet kicks him awake. He tells him to get it together. It’s time to find his kid.

Elsewhere, the camera pans over the ground. We can hear the subway in the background. And on the ground sits a red jacket–the one Edgar had with him when he disappeared.

The Episode Review

Yes, limited series are everywhere these days, cropping up to briefly whet our appetites for more in-depth stories than films might offer that still suit our busy lives. But of course, they’re mostly to satisfy studios’ appetites for a quicker buck. Yet Netflix’s new six-episode crime drama starring Benedict Cumberbatch just might have what it takes to stand out against the ever-growing crowd of always bingeable, sometimes throwaway miniseries.

For one, strong parallel performances from Cumberbatch and McKinley Belcher III support intriguing plot lines. One in which Vincent must reckon with his own part in his son’s disappearance and one in which Michael Ledroit attempts to solve the missing person case as a Black (and closeted gay) man. Both of their personal lives will certainly intersect with this case in interesting ways.

The setting of ‘80s New York has been developed thoughtfully in this first episode to display the racial and homophobic prejudices of the time. Just one case sees Vincent pouring a milk carton that contains a picture of a missing Black teenager. It’s a picture Vincent paid no mind to, even when his own son went missing.

Several little details like this enrich the overall production. Did you catch the defaced picture of Costello up in the Good Day Sunshine meeting room? It looks like Vincent’s work, similarly to how he defaced a picture of his father in the newspaper.

So far, Eric is playing with a lot of threads, and I’m curious to see how they will come together. This was a strong start to what’s so far a compelling mystery. Still, it remains to be seen whether the show can juggle and resolve the mystery, family drama, and social commentary in just six episodes.