Aahana Swrup
The Spanish Netflix crime show ‘Caught’ charts a tense investigation that ends up leading a reporter down unexpectedly chaotic roads. Originally known as ‘Atrapados,’ it follows the narrative of Ema Garay, an investigative journalist who takes up the case of an online predator who is targeting young girls to groom on online platforms. As the journalist dives into a sting operation against the perpetrator, she discovers a local social service worker, Leo Mercer, as her prime suspect. However, shortly after this discovery, Martina Schulz, a teenager, goes missing, opening up an entirely new mystery. Once Ema sets off on the path to dissect the reality behind her disappearance and its connection to Leo, an abrupt new mystery arises. The complicated web of lies and conspiracy that surrounds the case instills an air of intrigue around the narrative, enhancing the mystery that plagues the Argentine town of Bariloche. SPOILERS AHEAD!
Caught Recap
Ema Garay is known for her sting operations in multiple criminal cases, which are recorded in her series of online publications known as “Caught.” She has recently picked up the case of an online groomer and has even established a correspondence with a suspect, FinalGame05, with a fake user ID, posing as a 17-year-old girl. Nonetheless, the meet-up trap that she and her colleagues set up bears little to no results. Simultaneously, Ema also tries to interview Isabel and Facundo, the parents of another teenage girl, Camila, who was recently lured and abused by a man through online communication. This is how her paths cross with Leo Mercer, a family friend who tries to keep her away from their family, who is still grieving the tragedy of the recent events.
Even though he and Ema get off on the wrong foot, Leo agrees to work with her to find the abuser soon enough. Furthermore, sparks seem to be flying between the duo despite the journalist’s complicated feelings about the devastating recent death of her husband. Shortly after they team up, Ema finds an opportunity to plan another meeting with FinalGame05. Thus, she finds herself at a remote house in the dead of night, waiting to catch the man who comes through the red doors, proving his guilt. Surprisingly, it’s Leo who makes an appearance. In the confrontation that follows, he seems confused and insists that he isn’t a predator. Still, the fact that he came into the house to meet a minor is plenty of jarring proof for the journalist.
Thus, as Leo makes a narrow escape from the authorities, Ema declares him a fugitive and an abuser through social media channels. As the news reaches Camila’s family, it invites Facundo’s fury, who can’t believe someone as close to him as Leo would abuse his daughter. As a result, he sets out on a witch hunt after him. Although some of the suspect’s close friends, including Marcos Brown, insist on his innocence, the public opinion remains against him. Around the same time, the local high school kids break into a lake house for a party. At the end of the night, one of them, Martina Schulz, goes missing without any trace. Meanwhile, Ema receives a cryptic call from Leo, asking for a private audience with her.
During the meeting, Leo reveals that he and Ema had both been set up to use him as a scapegoat for the real abuser’s crimes. Although his claims get the journalist’s attention, they are rendered obsolete when Facundo finally tracks Leo down. In the tense altercation that follows, the father shoots his friend, who tumbles down into the river below. In the aftermath—as Martina’s dead body is found, Leo takes the blame for her death as well. However, Em’s persistent investigation reveals a concerning connection between the young girl and the wealthy Fran Briguel, who had tried to initiate a sexual relationship with Martina. The case leads the journalist to startling new conclusions. Yet, one thing becomes evident: Leo Mercer is not the culprit everyone had thought him to be. Therefore, in the end, Ema can’t help but wonder if the fateful fall truly delivered the man to his death.
Caught Ending: Did Facundo Actually Kill Leo?
From the immediate aftermath of Facundo and Leo’s violent altercation, the details of the night remain ambiguous. Although Ema had seen the father shoot the other man in the neck, he hadn’t actually died before tripping off the cliff and into the river below. Furthermore, even months after the event, his body couldn’t be found anywhere. Although the theory remains that it was likely carried away by the current—and would show up around the lake—no firm conclusion arrives. Even though other narrative threads take priority afterward, the uncertainty around Leo’s demise remains.
As the plot progresses, Leo earns the blame for Martina’s death—after her cell phone is found among his belongings at a makeshift campsite. Nonetheless, by the end, that blame is erased once the truth about what happened to the young girl emerges. Consequently, Leo and his fate become the last mystery for Ema to solve. This brings the journalist to Facundo, who has been detained on the charges of murder. Yet, those charges have recently been changed to attempted murder in light of the continued absence of Leo’s dead body. Facundo used to be incredibly close to the man, who was almost like an older brother to him. Therefore, his insight on the matter is crucial. He believes if Leo were alive, he would have found a way to forgive Ema and the others for making rash judgments about him.
Therefore, to Facundo, the fact that the man hasn’t returned to Bariloche suggests that he’s well and truly dead. However, the narrative presents an alternative answer to the question. In the show’s conclusion, Leo can be seen riding a horse through a desert with a new herd of friends for company. This scene is a bit ambiguous, inviting more questions regarding the man’s survival and current whereabouts—especially due to its dream-like warm tinge. Nonetheless, there’s no concrete reason to assume Leo isn’t actually alive and thriving with a horse in a mysterious place. In fact, a glimpse of a scar can be seen on the side of his neck that subtly references the near-mortal wound Facundo had given him.
As a result, it almost confirms the scene’s setting in the aftermath of Leo’s presumed death. It seems the man has survived the difficult times Bariloche threw his way. Nonetheless, as he emerges on the other side, he isn’t eager to give the city and its citizens another chance. Facundo believes Leo would have returned to town if he had survived and found a way to forgive everyone for their slights against him. Therefore, since he has survived but hasn’t returned, one can only assume he isn’t ready to forgive and forget just yet. Thus, he’s enjoying a new life away from the baggage that is bound to weigh him down in Bariloche. Until the very end, Ema also remains hopeful about his survival, as evidenced by her presence at the lake, where she expects his body to turn up.
Who Killed Martina? What Happens to Them?
The clearance of Leo’s name in Martina’s death doesn’t come from any evidence that proves his innocence. Instead, Ema’s dogged continuation of her investigation unravels the case further, revealing the true party guilty for the young girl’s demise. As it turns out, Martina had a much more complicated past than imagined. Even though Leo wasn’t grooming her, the teenager was still a victim of unwanted advances and manipulation by adult men. As it turns out, she used to make explicit self-pleasure content on a subscription app. Eventually, it invited the attention of a lucrative businessman, Fran of the Briguel family.
Fran flew Martina out to Buenos Aires, offering a deal to pay her handsomely for a private session of her content. Nonetheless, once she met the man in the hotel room, he attempted to initiate a physical sexual encounter with her despite her protests. Eventually, she was able to lock herself in the bathroom to save herself from him through threats of outing him as a predator online. As a result, Fran sent his friend and colleague, Marcos Brown, to calm the girl down and send her back home. This ended up opening up the possibility for a dynamic between Marcos and Martina. Since the older man had extended a helpful shoulder to her in a time of need, she ended up trusting him despite his dubious advice of refraining from reporting Fran.
In time, Marcos is able to use that connection to use Martina in his future plans. Consequently, the young girl ends up unwittingly becoming a catalyst in Leo’s demise. On the night of Ema’s sting operation, Martina attends the high school party, where her paths cross with Armando, a young boy who has a close, almost fatherly relationship with Leo. As the two teenagers hit it off, they ended up returning to his place and hooking up. Later that night, when Martina is trying to sneak out, the news about Leo’s apparent identity as a child groomer breaks out, thanks to Ema. Thus, the young girls start freaking out, which attracts Armando’s attention.
Armando is confused and frustrated at the news circulating about Leo, and he soon turns his anger on Martina after realizing she had a hand in framing the older man. Therefore, in a fit of rage, he ends up pushing the girl away from him, which inadvertently sends her flying down the stairs and to her inevitable death. By the time his mother, Juliana, returns home, Martina is long dead, compelling the mother-son duo to cover up her death. After stowing his dead body away in the forest, Juliana plants the young girl’s phone at Leo’s campsite to scapegoat him as the killer. Even though she’s the closest thing he has to a family, she’s choosing to save Armando over him, having realized the older man’s case is a lost cause at this point.
All of this gets revealed to Ema at the very end, once she has wrapped up Martina’s case and even drawn out her judgment. Yet, the fateful discovery of a polaroid identifying the young girl’s whereabouts at Armando’s house after the party serves as the catalyst for uncovering this mystery. In the end, even though Juliana tries to keep her son safe by begging for the journalist’s silence, Armando steps up to take responsibility for his actions. Martina’s death, though accidental, has been eating away at the young boy all this time, and he’s prepared to bear the consequences of his actions. Ultimately, he turns himself in at the police station, opening himself up for future court cases and criminal charges. In doing so, he allows Martina’s family the truth about their daughter’s demise.
Who Framed Leo? Why?
By the end, it begins to become clear that Leo wasn’t framed as a groomer by Martina’s killer to wipe their own hands off the event. Instead, Martina’s death and the grooming allegations were actually used as tools to frame Leo due to a more personal vendetta against him. Ema begins to consider this angle once she realizes that in the man’s absence, his Foundation was dissolving, leaving its land up for the taking. Initially, she believes Fran Briguel is behind the entire thing. The patches of land surrounding the Foundation’s property are already owned by the Briguel family, who have been acquiring these assets through suspicious methods for a long time. Therefore, the theory emerges that Briguel groomed Martina and tacked the blame onto Leo to acquire his land.
As per the Foundation’s bylaws, if any of the higher-ups are charged with criminality, the entire organization would be disintegrated, opening up the land to the highest bidder. Nonetheless, a more concise look into the bylaws reveals that the land is actually meant to go back to the original owners, the Brown family. Therefore, the truth emerges: Marcos, Leo’s closest friend, had framed him as a child groomer. Ever since his complications with his last firm, Marcos has been struggling to gain back his reputation and influence as the heir to the Brown family. Inevitably, he had ended up needing to gain ownership over the Foundation’s Lakeside land. Nonetheless, Leo wasn’t willing to sell, no matter the margin for profit.
Leo believed the land belonged to the Foundation’s kids, who profited from such a close connection to nature. For the same reason, in light of his adamant refusal, Marcos decided to set him up. First, he orchestrates for Ema to take on the online groomer’s case. Next, he uses his influence over Martina to convince her to lure Leo to the house with the red door, where he ends up being discovered as the groomer in Ema’s sting operation. Although he never planned on Martina and Leo’s deaths, his actions indirectly led to their demise—a fact he was willing to accept as long as he could reap the profit of the Foundation’s land.
Why Does Marcos Kill Himself?
Once Ema discovers the truth about the Foundation’s bylaws, concluding that Marcos must have framed Leo, she boldly confronts him about the same. As a result, he freaks out and whacks the journalist across the head with an aor. In for a penny, in for a pound, he decides to kill her to keep his secret safe. Nevertheless, Ema foils his attempts to drown her in the lake. Afterward, she acts fast and goes live on her social media account, establishing the facts she had recently uncovered. She also calls for help, ensuring that Marcos can’t kill her without getting hard-cold evidence of it.
For the same reason, Marcos flees from the area and tries to find a way out of the corner he has been backed into. Initially, he calls his wife to dissuade her from tuning into the news, insisting they’re spreading lies about him. Nevertheless, he knows that the live footage of his actions is bound to open up a can of worms that will reveal the truth about all his past actions. As such, he finally realizes there’s no way out without facing the consequences of his actions. Worse yet, he would have to face his family—-including his two young girls—knowing he had lost their trust and respect. Thus, unwilling to see reality play out, he speeds down the road and slams his car onto an oncoming truck. In the end, Marcos kills himself to escape from the hole he had dug himself into.
What Happens to Fran Briguel?
Even though the conclusion of Martina’s case reveals that Fran Briguel has no direct connection to her death, the man still remains guilty of plenty. He had flown a minor out to a new city with the intention of forcing her to engage in sexual acts with him. Even though cops were aware of this part of the story—minus his attempts at assaulting Martina—they had refused to move against him. Fran comes from a powerful family whose influence was felt all across Bariloche. Consequently, even the authorities are willing to turn a blind eye to his harmful and criminal indiscretions.
Nonetheless, Ema and her team don’t hold the same opinion and want to expose Fran for his dark reality. Even so, the journalist has realized her reckless adventure came with a precarious price. In fact, Fran had come to her house and threatened her son, Bruno, for his mother’s snooping into his business. Furthermore, Ema’s increased focus on her work took valuable time away from her role as a mother, especially in the traumatic absence of Bruno’s father. Therefore, in the end, she decides against pursuing an expose against Fran. Instead, she passes on the mantel to Vicky, her partner and budding journalist, who is equally as passionate about the case. Thus, the passing of the torch cements the completion of Ema’s journey and perhaps the beginning of a new journalist extraordinaire in town.
Read More: Caught: Is the Netflix Show a True Story? Is Ema Garay Based on a Real Journalist?
