Diksha Sundriyal
In Hulu’s ‘Eenie Meanie,’ a reformed criminal is pulled back into the dark world she thought she’d left behind to save her ex’s life. The protagonist is Edith “Edie” Meaney, who is known for her skill as a getaway driver. She was plunged into the life of crime at an early age, and her father was the one who taught her how to drive out of seemingly impossible situations. However, he is nowhere to be found in adult Edie’s life, and when she does find him, it seems that his situation has changed drastically. SPOILERS AHEAD.
The Film’s Opening Scene Explains the Fate of Edie’s Parents
‘Eenie Meanie’ opens with a fourteen-year-old Edie picking up her parents outside a bar. The couple is a little drunk and high, and their daughter, despite being underage, is their designated driver. The way the three of them are casual about it shows that this is not the first time that she has driven them. The problem arises when they are stopped by a cop. As the police officer gets out of his car and slowly makes his way towards them, Edie’s parents argue about what to do. The mother is worried that having a 14-year-old behind the wheel with her intoxicated parents in the backseat is not a good look in front of a cop.
However, the bigger problem is that this situation will lead the officer to check their car more thoroughly, and they have a lot of cocaine with them, which will put them in jail for a long time. While the mother freaks out, Edie’s father calmly tells her to drive the car just like he taught her, and a nervous Edie punches it. The scene ends here, as the story picks up about a decade later. By now, Edie’s prowess as a getaway driver has earned her a soft spot in the heart of a local criminal, Nico, who wants her for a new job in return for sparing the life of her ex, John, who is known for making a mess time and again. The issue about Edie’s parents is not raised until much later, when Edie and John visit her father’s new house.
A day before the heist, they discover that Perm Walters, Nico’s other getaway driver and a man Edie and John hate, is hanging around the casino they are supposed to rob. This is not a good sign, and for backup, they need another driver, which leads them to her dad. And this is where things become clearer about what happened that night. Following her father’s orders, Edie raced away from the scene and was chased by the cops. But while she is extremely skilled at dodging anyone now, she had little experience back then, which led her to crash the car. And it was a pretty bad crash. It led her father to lose his legs, while her mother lost her life.
The Night of the Crash Changed the Trajectory of Edie’s Life
The events of the night left the teenage Edie alone in the world. Her father knew that he would have to spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair, and with the grief of losing his wife and the addiction problem, he didn’t see himself fit for raising his daughter. This is why he allowed her to be taken into foster care, where he thought she would be better taken care of by someone who could provide her with a more stable household. Instead, his decision turned out to be the thing that pushed his daughter further into a life of crime. Edie’s foster parent tried to use her as a sex worker, and she was brought out of that miserable fate by John, who happened to be there that night.
This incident tied up John and Edie together for the rest of their lives, and their toxic relationship kept her in a loop, which she got out of only when John died. What hurts Edie is that in nine years, her father never bothered to come back for her. Instead, he found a new house, a new wife, and a new daughter, whom he gave all his time and attention, something Edie never received from him. He changed for them for not for her, which breaks her heart. And tragically, she blames herself for all of this because she believes that things would have been different if she hadn’t crashed the car that night.
Read More: Eenie Meanie Ending Explained: Is John Dead?
