Diksha Sundriyal
In Netflix’s ‘I Will Find You,’ a convicted man discovers that his son, whom he is accused of killing, might actually be alive. The story begins with David waking up in the middle of the night to some noise. He finds his three-year-old son, Matthew, whose face is badly smashed with a baseball bat. Notably, the body is so disfigured that it is identified with blood tests, though in hindsight, some may have planted those samples. During the trial, things go rather badly for David. The fact that he has night terrors becomes the basis for an expert to claim that an episode could have turned him into a killer.
The baseball bat is found in the woods, spinning the narrative further against David. What seals the deal is the testimony from his neighbor, Hilde, who says that she saw him bury the bat. David is sent to prison, and for five years, he cuts himself off from the few people who still want to see him. Then one day, his ex-sister-in-law, Rachel, comes to see him, and the picture she shows him changes everything. SPOILERS AHEAD.
The Hope of Finding His Son Leads David to Make a Drastic Choice
Rachel used to be a reporter on the rise, working for the Boston Globe. However, she chased a story too hard, forcing a sexual assault victim to go on record even when she didn’t want to. While Rachel got her story, the victim ended up killing herself, and then Rachel got fired. Now, she teaches undergrads at the university. Meanwhile, her sister, Cheryl, who is convinced that David killed their son, has cut off all communication with him. She has married a surgeon and is pregnant with his baby. When Rachel gets the photo that shows Matthew might still be alive, she chooses not to show it to Cheryl, at least, not until things are confirmed.
Rachel does, however, take the photo to David, who is serving time at Briggs Penitentiary in Maine. The photo shows a boy at Six Flags. He is older than Matthew was when David last saw him, which means his features have changed a bit. However, he has the same birthmark on his cheek, sparking the possibility of Matthew’s survival. David takes this information to Phillip MacKenzie, the prison’s warden, who is also best friends with David’s dad and sympathetic towards him. His son, Adam, who is a police officer in Boston, has known David since they were kids and believes in his innocence, too.
It turns out that David was transferred to Briggs so Phillip could keep an eye on him. He, however, is not the only one doing so. A prison guard named Ted Wesson has been paid by some people to keep track of David’s movements. After the meeting with Rachel, Ted texts his overlords, who tell him to kill David. At first, he sends a cannibalistic serial killer named Ross Sumner, who almost succeeds in his task. David, spurred by his son’s voice in his head, fights back and beats Sumner to a pulp. Then, Ted decides to end things himself, but David escapes his grasp as well. These attacks convince the warden that David needs to get out of prison.
David and Rachel Chart the Next Steps of Their Investigation
Phillip and Adam plan an escape for David. He is dressed up in Adam’s uniform, using which he will walk out of prison through the front gate. Their plan is foiled by Ted at the final checkpoint, leading David and Phillip to improvise by ramming the car into the gate and driving away. They are chased by the cops, but they don’t know that Phillip is working with the fugitive. So, when David threatens to kill the warden, they are forced to comply, clearing the path and letting David drive into the city. Here, Rachel picks up David, while Phillip drives away on his own, distracting the cops.
Ted’s failure to kill David angers his bosses, who now see him as a liability. He is ordered to kill himself or watch his family die. Meanwhile, father-daughter duo, Max Williams and Sarah Greer, are tasked with finding David. When they find out that he escaped wearing Adam’s uniform, who was conveniently found tied up in the warden’s office, they suspect that the Mackenzies have something to do with the prison break. Back in the city, the news of the escape prompts Cheryl to call Rachel, but the latter doesn’t pick up. David asks her to let his ex-wife know what they are up to, but Rachel thinks her sister might not be able to handle the truth.
Williams and Greer, however, get a hint of their collaboration when they go through the visitor log and find Rachel’s name on it. To make matters more interesting, the footage of Rachel’s visit has been deleted by someone. This happened under Ted’s supervision, so Greer decides to visit him, which happens to be at the same time David has the same thought. David finds Ted first, who confesses that he was paid to keep an eye on him, but killing him was too much, and now his family is in danger. To protect them, he kills himself, and Greer arrives shortly after, though not before David has escaped the scene.
The FBI Agents Close in On David
An inquiry into David’s time in prison leads Max Williams to talk to the inmate in the next cell, who reveals that Ted took David to the infirmary the night before his escape. He and Greer also discover that Ted was being paid about a thousand dollars per month for the past five years by a shady company to keep an eye on David. This leads them to think that David may have killed Ted to protect himself. They also find Matthew’s case file hidden in the toilet, and the circle on Hilde’s name leads to their assumption: David is going to kill the woman who testified against him and secured his conviction.
Ted’s death convinces David and Rachel that whoever is behind Matthew’s fake death is tying up loose ends, which means Hilde, who gave a fake testimony, is likely next on the list. Rachel had asked her boss to look into Hilde, who is revealed to have changed her name and skipped town one month after she appeared in court. Her boss also asked her to use this experience to write her next story, though she doesn’t want to repeat her mistakes again. The only way to reach her is through a PO box in New York, so that’s where David and Rachel go. On the way, she tells him why she was fired.
David is Yet to Uncover the Secrets Hidden from Him
David receives a call from a mysterious man on Ted’s phone, which he stole before running away. The man warns David that he is going up against the forces he doesn’t completely understand, but this does nothing to dampen the man’s resolve. In New York, as David struggles to adjust to life outside of prison, Rachel talks to her ex-boyfriend, Hayden, asking him to let her crash at his place. Of course, she doesn’t mention that her convicted ex-brother-in-law is with her, though he finds out about it later through the CCTV footage of the apartment.
The Mackenzies, meanwhile, deal with the FBI agents closing in on them, which makes Phillip feel guilty about pulling his son into this mess as well. But Adam was already involved. This is confirmed in the last scene, where we watch him dig up Matthew’s grave. At the same time, we also find out that the mysterious man who has been keeping an eye on David’s father, Lenny, and warned David on the phone is an FBI agent. He looks around Cheryl’s house, which shows how close the danger is for David and his loved ones.
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