This article contains major spoilers for the ending of Who Is Erin Carter? Season 1 Episode 7.
The Netflix thriller Who Is Erin Carter? has a very familiar premise – a seemingly normal person really has a secretive set of skills and a dangerous past that they’re on the run from.
In this case, the titular Erin is an ex-pat schoolteacher in Barcelona who, we learn across the seven-part series, has fled Blighty after working as an undercover agent.
In the present day, she lives with her daughter Harper but finds her carefully cultivated cover exposed when she’s forced to intervene in an armed robbery. Suddenly front-page news, a whole can of worms is opened that comes to involve Erin’s husband Jordi, her cop neighbor Emilio, the villain Daniel Lang, and Harper’s birth mother, Lena.
Phew.
Here’s what went down in the finale.
Who Is Erin Carter? Season 1 Ending Explained
The start of Episode 7 finds Erin badly wounded, racing home to prevent Lena from revealing too much to Jordi and Harper.
Little does she know, though, that Lena has already been taken away by Daniel’s goons before she could present herself to Harper. After patching Erin up, Jordi takes Harper to the house of Olivia, Erin’s best friend.
Does Lena know Daniel?
Lena recognizes Daniel as the bankroller of the Harwich job, the same job Erin was undercover on.
Daniel wants Erin, Harper, and Jordi killed, though with some persuasion from Lena, and the offer of the gold from the Harwich job, he agrees to keep Harper out of it.
With Daniel’s people watching her, Lena reunites with Harper, but it isn’t quite the emotional reunion she was expecting. In fact, Harper is only really concerned with whether Lena will help Erin and pushes her away when she tries to hug her.
After Daniel’s team fails to pick up Erin, he orders Harper and Jordi to be taken instead to force her out.
How does Lena die?
Lena dies in a heroic self-sacrifice after teaming up with Erin to save Jordi and Harper.
After Lena understands that Erin took Harper because she thought Lena was dead and has recognized what she has done for Harper over the years and how much they care for one another, she works together with Erin.
Despite Erin volunteering to draw fire so that Lena can get to Jordi and Harper, Lena takes on that suicidal responsibility and ends up dying for it. The gesture allows Erin to rescue her family, with a final request that she only tell them the good things about Lena.
How does Daniel die?
Daniel is killed by Lena when she arrives to retrieve Jordi and Harper. She shoots him dead before he can pull his own gun.
Daniel, rather spitefully, says he hopes that Erin’s family sees what she really is, but what they’ve seen thus far is a good-hearted woman who will do anything to protect her family, so the barb doesn’t hold much water.
In the end, Erin and her family are safe – but for how long? A “chance” encounter with DI Jim Armstrong, who trained Erin and claims that, despite her being trouble, he has a use for trouble, seems to be screaming for a second season, though one wonders how it might play out without the mystery of the first.
Nevertheless, the series ends with a clear answer on who Erin Carter is, with Erin herself accepting not just the name but also the identity of mother, wife, and someone who will do what she needs to in order to protect those she cares about.
You can stream Who Is Erin Carter? Season 1 Episode 7 exclusively on Netflix. Do you have any thoughts on the ending of Who Is Erin Carter? Let us know in the comments.
