A Man on the Inside Finale Recap: Did Charles Catch the Culprit? Plus, Grade the Season!
Charles revealed he solved the case of the missing ruby necklace in A Man on the Inside’s finale… but the answer was a little more complicated than we thought.
The finale begins with Charles sitting solemnly in Didi’s office, with her insisting she’ll do this alone. But Charles offers to go with her: “I think things will go better if I’m there.” They head to The Neighborhood, the home’s memory care unit, to go see Gladys, and Charles asks her if he can borrow a woman’s necklace. She happily goes through her collection of old theater trinkets… and yep, in there is Helen’s missing ruby necklace. Gladys thinks it was from a production of Cabaret, and she’s happy to give it to him. In exchange, he gives her his stuffed dog, which she says (again) looks like her dog Bunchy. “It belongs with you,” he tells her.
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Gladys had taken a lot more than that, including 30 of the missing salt shakers, and Charles remembers his wife used to do that, too, out of confusion. He realized that nothing had gone missing since Gladys went to memory care, and “nobody thought to suspect her, because everyone was pulling away.” (She brought Elliott’s watch back to Charles’ room thinking it was his.) So they have their answer, but Didi is still stung by the deception, and she tells Charles he needs to move out in an hour. On his way out, Calbert shows him he bought Charles’ book on the Golden Gate Bridge and asks him to sign it. Charles comes clean, telling him he was working for a private eye, and Calbert can’t believe it: “This was fake? The whole time?” Charles insists he was being himself, and he wants to keep in touch with Calbert after this, but Calbert cuts him off: “I think I’ve heard enough.”
Charles moves back home, and he and Emily finally clear out that room full of his late wife’s stuff. They smile looking at old photos, and he decides to keep a painting of parrots his wife made, when Emily finds a backpack filled with… candy? Charles explains that he began packing up his wife’s things to take her to memory care, and that was her way of trying to help. “I told her we were going on a trip,” he recalls, his voice quaking with emotion. “And I told myself that it was kind of true.” But she died the night before he was going to take her. “I promised she would never leave her house,” he laments through tears, and “I broke that promise.” Emily comforts him, though, assuring him he did the best he could.
Back at the home, all the residents are venting to Didi about Charles’ disappearing act. Susan thinks he was a Russian spy, and Elliott is glad he’s gone: “It was fun to punch him.” Calbert is the most bitter, though, calling Charles “a liar and a fraud. He made fools out of us. I’m glad he’s gone.” As Charles settles back into his old life, he starts sending newspaper clippings to Calbert, but Calbert throws them straight in the trash. Charles drops in on Julie, and she admits she owes him one after all this. They meet with Helen’s son, who’s annoyed that no one got fired or arrested over the necklace theft. He says his mother is still complaining about the home, and Charles points out that he never saw the son visit her while he was there — not even on her birthday. The son growls that he’s very busy, and he also drops a bomb on them: Didi is quitting.
Charles is determined to keep her from quitting, and he calls in his favor from Julie to get her to help. They meet Didi at a coffeehouse, and she tells them she blames herself for letting Charles in. Charles plays her one of his recordings where he notes how much the residents and staff all adore Didi, and he reminds her how she helped him come out of his shell: “What’s gonna happen when the next lonely person checks in if you’re gone?” They manage to change Didi’s mind, and she tells Calbert that Charles convinced him to stay. Calbert then reads the inscription Charles wrote to him in his book: “For Calbert, a new friend, which feels like a miracle.”
Calbert tracks down Charles at a guest lecture — where Ted Danson’s Good Place co-star D’Arcy Carden is the professor! — and they catch up, with Calbert revealing that his son decided not to take that job in Singapore. He brings Charles back to the home as his plus-one to Elliott and Virginia’s wedding (!), and Charles spends time with Gladys and watches people slow-dance, wrapping up the evening with a game of backgammon with Calbert. That would be the end of the story… except a month later, Julie gets a call for a lucrative new case, and she realizes only one man can help her solve it. (“Crap.”) She calls Charles and tells him, “I have another job for you” — and Charles dutifully puts his pocket square back into place.
Now it’s your turn: Give the finale — and the season as a whole — a grade in our polls, and tell us if you’d tune in to see Charles crack another case in a possible Season 2.
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