The Ridiculous Ending of Harlan Coben's 'Caught' on Netflix Explained

Here I am again, for the third time in three months, outlining the plot of a Harlan Coben Netflix series, because I am a completist and because Netflix’s obsession with Harlan Coben is unhinged. But I’ve done them all: Missing You, The Stranger, Stay Close, Gone for Good, Fool Me Once, and The Woods. Last month’s was the Polish series Just One Look, and this month’s is Caught (Atrapados), an Argentine Spanish-language thriller.

The Harlan Coben shows range in quality from mediocre to bad, and I’m inclined to place Caught somewhere in between. It’s convoluted, and there are several plot holes — typical of Harlan Coben shows — but the biggest issue is that there are six episodes, and the four between the premiere and finale are almost entirely pointless. They’re filler. You could watch the first episode to get the premise and then jump to the finale, which fills in most of the gaps with flashbacks.

To make the explanation easier this time around, I’m using images so you can put faces to the characters (especially helpful if you bailed a few episodes in).

This is Ema Garay (Soledad Villamil). She’s a journalist who hosts a To Catch a Predator-like show called Caught. She’s currently investigating a man who uses an online video game to lure girls into sexually abusive situations.

One of the girls attacked is Camilla, daughter of Facundo (Alián Devetac), a guy who is — presumably on purpose — depicted as sketchy.

Facundo lives on or next to an outdoor camp run by Leo (Alberto Ammann), a handsome family friend who’s beloved in the community as a longtime counselor and mentor at the camp.

At one point, Leo allows Ema to question the kids at the camp about the predator. Afterward, the two sleep together in the middle of the day — because Leo is handsome and Ema is lonely (her husband died two years ago after being hit by a drunk driver). After they have sex, Leo’s best friend Marcos (Juan Minujín) stops by to go kayaking or something.

This is Martina (Carmela Rivero), a teenage girl who’s a talented cello player and, as viewers later discover, secretly runs a popular OnlyFans-style account. She disappears after a party — last seen on a boat — and is found dead in the woods a few days later.

This is Armando, Martina’s pervy classmate who lives next door to Martina and spies on her through her window. He’s also friends with Leo because everyone in town is.

This is Bruno (Matías Recalt), Ema’s son. He’s a red herring who spends most of the series looking furtive and complaining that his mom is too busy catching predators to spend time with him.

This is Gael, Martina’s shady ex-boyfriend who follows her around at the party and looks suspicious. Another red herring, but he gets questioned a few times, so he’s worth mentioning.

Those are the major players. The bulk of Caught centers on Ema’s dual investigations: she’s trying to find both the online predator and Martina’s killer. On the same night Martina goes missing, Ema — posing as an underage girl — lures the predator to a house, only to discover that it’s Leo, the camp counselor she slept with that very day.

Leo, caught on camera, insists he’s not a predator and flees. He hides out at Marcos’ house. The next day, he arranges a meeting with Ema to explain himself, but Facundo — whose daughter was a victim — finds Leo and shoots him. Leo falls off a cliff into the water, and Facundo is arrested.

Leo, as it turns out, is not the predator (who ends up being a completely unimportant red herring). Nor did Leo kill Martina. Here’s what happened: A couple of weeks before the party, Martina agreed to give a wealthy businessman in Buenos Aires a live performance of her online content. She flies there on a private jet, where Leo’s best friend Marcos is also a passenger. Marcos is working on a land deal with that same businessman. The businessman asks Marcos to “deal with” Martina afterward, and Martina and Marcos hit it off and end up having an affair.

Marcos’ land deal requires Leo to give up control of the camp. Marcos pressures Leo to step aside, even bringing up an incident from their childhood as leverage. Leo refuses. So Marcos recruits Martina, unknowingly, to frame Leo as a predator to push him out and secure the land deal. That plan ends with Leo presumed dead.

But that’s only tangentially related to Martina’s death. At the party, a drunk Martina leaves with Armando. They hit it off and go back to his house, where they have sex. Armando is thrilled until he discovers she helped frame Leo. Furious, he tries to kick her out, but in the process, he pushes her — she falls down the stairs and dies. Armando and his mother move the body to the woods to cover it up.

Ema uncovers all of this. When she confronts Marcos, he tries to kill her, but she livestreams her findings. Marcos flees and drives into another vehicle, taking his own life. When Armando is confronted, he confesses and is arrested.

Meanwhile, Facundo’s murder charge is reduced to attempted murder because Leo’s body is never found. That’s because Leo didn’t die — he swam to safety and is now off living his best life, riding horses through the mountains of Argentina. The End.