Waiting for the ending of a Harlan Coben series is like staying after the credits in a Marvel movie, and Caught is no different. It adheres to the typical formula, which means Episode 6 is the one where the full truth comes to light and the characters have to face it, which is particularly relevant in this case since the narrative is kick-started by what is quite clearly a mistake that results in an innocent man’s life being needlessly ruined.
For context, here’s the mistake: Investigative journalist Ema Garay (Soledad Villamil) spends her time entrapping potential predators by posing as a teenage girl in an online game/messaging app, and through this, she comes to believe that she’s about to catch the abuser of a 16-year-old named Camila Costa. When she gets to the meeting spot, though, she discovers social worker Leo Mercer there. Ema knows Leo personally, but she nonetheless outs him as a predator to her live audience, kick-starting a terrible chain of events.
Leo claims to have been at that location in response to a distress call from Martina Schulz, a 16-year-old who later goes missing and is subsequently found dead in the woods. Because of Ema’s video, Leo’s reputation is ruined, and he’s forced to go on the run. When he tries to explain himself to Ema at the end of Episode 2, he’s ambushed and shot dead by Camila’s father, Facundo. But Leo is innocent, so a guilty Ema delves deeper into the case to find out what really happened.
Leo Was Framed as Part of a Land Grab
Leo was set up by his childhood friend Marcos Brown, who was trying to claim back his family’s land, which was currently owned by Leo’s Fronteras Foundation. This is a relationship and a conflict stretching back years, with land at the very heart of it.
Years prior, Leo and Marcos had broken into the home of the Briguel family because Marcos was after a badge that would prove the family were descended from Nazis, thus helping his father in a land dispute. The badge was nowhere to be found, however, and during the escape, Marcos was caught. His family was forced to sell the land. It’s this break-in that Marcos reminds Leo of when, in the present day, he refuses to set up a trust fund for the foundation’s land.
While travelling to meet with Fran Biguel, Marcos crossed paths with Martina. Fran had hired Martina to record a lewd video for him in his hotel room after she had developed a following online for risqué content, but he went too far and tried to touch her. He subsequently sent Marcos to calm her down and get her out of the way without blowing the whistle, which was the beginning of a developing connection between the two.
After Martina revealed that she knew Leo, Marcos hit on the idea of framing Leo and used her as a component in the scheme. He manipulated Ema into investigating some fake claims about abuse, got Martina to make the call luring Leo out to the house with the red door, and then planted a bunch of evidence in Leo’s home to make him look like the abuser.
Marcos Would Rather Die Than Face the Truth
Naturally, Ema is able to get to the bottom of what Marcos has been up to, figuring out that the land will be returned to its original owners (in other words, him, since he’s the only living heir) after what happened to Leo. It doesn’t take much to put those pieces together and arrive at the obvious conclusion that Marcos is guilty of setting Leo up, and potentially of disposing of Martina.
When Ema confronts Marcos, he knocks her out from behind with an oar – I genuinely thought she was dead and the show had taken a bolder turn than I was expecting – and tries to drown her. Luckily, Ema is able to fight her way free and reach for her go-to weapon, which is the live social media broadcast. The same tool she used to ruin Leo’s life is now redeployed against his real enemy.
Knowing he’s busted, Marcos flees, calls his wife to tell her that everything she’s inevitably going to hear about him is a falsehood, and then drives his car into a truck, committing suicide. Better that than face the music.
Soledad Villamil in Caught | Image via Netflix
The Ending of ‘Caught’ Reveals Who Really Killed Martina
With Leo’s fate, it stands to reason that he was also guilty of killing Martina, perhaps to cover up her part in his scheme. But this is not the case – Martina was, in fact, killed by Leo’s ex Juliana and her son, Armando, whom Leo had helped raise.
It was technically an accident. Martina and Armando had left a party together and slept with each other. But once Martina saw the video of Leo being set up, so did Armando. Tempers flared, and in a bit of a struggle, Martina fell down the stairs to her death. When Juliana came home and found her dead, she helped him dispose of the body and cover up the crime, dumping Martina in the woods and planting her phone in Leo’s belongings.
At the end of Caught, Armando and Juliana turn themselves in. With that, Marcos dead, an abuser of young girls behind bars, Facundo on trial for attempted homicide (since Leo’s body was never found), and an investigation into Fran Briguel pending, it seems like a neat, tidy, and relatively happy ending.
But not quite so neat…
Leo Is Alive
Caught ends with a final reveal, which is that Leo actually survived being shot by Facundo and plunging into the river. The river would have theoretically carried Leo to the lake if it weren’t for a bend that might have allowed him to scramble to shore. As a seasoned outdoorsman, he could survive in the woods. Facundo believes that if Leo were alive, he’d return, but he turns out to be wrong about that.
Leo has gone to pastures new – and, apparently, drier – and seems to be living out his days happily enough, free from the tyranny of social media, virality, and irreparable reputational damage. His fate is the ultimate form of freedom, removed from all this, which Caught unambiguously considers to be the root of all its evil. Martina was made vulnerable through online videos, Leo was set up because of Ema’s need to instantly expose him, even though they’d both been set up, and the wildfire-like spread of gossip and information had led to Leo’s apparent death and Martina’s actual one.
Perhaps the great outdoors is the solution for all of us.
