What would you do if the most important people in your life, your mom, your best friend, your son, one day just simply disappear? What would you do? Would you let the authorities handle it? Or would you go by yourself after all the clues until you find the truth?
British-Iranian director Babak Anvari uses these questions and all their possible answers to shape his Netflix thriller I Came By. So, if in the midst of the kidnappings, the USB flash drives, the raids, and the messages of racism and discrimination you have been left with doubts or questions about this film, don’t worry. Now, and without further ado, we begin the Analysis and Explanation of this movie, I Came By.
1 ^Who is the murderer in I Came By?
If there is something that the film makes clear, it is who the murderer is. The murderer is nothing more and nothing less than the former British Judge Sir Hector Blake (Hugh Bonneville), who is known as Saint Hector, for being a champion of minority causes, such as immigrants, the LGTBI population, women , Muslims and even people with disabilities.
The point is that Sir Hector Blake has a dark secret – in the basement of his residence on Pitt Street, he keeps a prisoner in subhuman conditions. Now, two questions arise. Why does a man of the stature of Sir Hector Blake keep a prisoner in his house? And better yet, who is Sir Hector Blake’s prisoner?
2 ^ Why did Sir Hector Blake keep a prisoner in his house?
As Blake told Omid (Yazdan Qafouri), the ex-Judge harbors uncontrollable bitterness and resentment against Ravi. But who is Ravi? Ravi was his father’s Indo-Parsee lover. If we are to believe the Judge, who in view of the circumstances we can say was quite trustworthy, Blake’s father accepted Ravi into his home, initially to help the young man have a livelihood, and also to help in the domestic chores.
The thing is that over time, Blake’s father, the same one we see in the gigantic painting in the living room, began a romantic-sexual relationship with the young man, and not only that, he decided to make it visible to his wife and son, to the point that Ravi was sleeping in the same bed with him, while his wife was exiled to another bedroom. Of course, Blake didn’t go public with the matter, as he had a reputation to uphold, but he did force his family to accept the fact, and from what we know, Blake Sr. was quite violent, so we can assume coercion as well. included physical violence.
Unable to bear the humiliation that her husband was a closeted gay, living in concubinage with another man, inside her own house, and in front of her own son, Blake’s mother cut her wrists, and Hector himself witnessed the event. It is this rage that drives him to use his house to hold hostages.
3 ^ The prisoner Hector Blake keeps in his basement is Ravi?
No, the prisoner Sir Hector Blake keeps in his cellar is not Ravi. First of all, Ravi, if he were still alive, should be about the same age as Blake and the prisoner he’s keeping there is much younger, and likewise, Blake wouldn’t be hunting down other guys to put in his basement like he told Omid.
The question that now arises is, did Sir Hector Blake murder Ravi? Here the answer is probably yes. Ravi had to outlive Blake Senior, and it is highly unlikely that Blake Sr. legally left anything to his Parsi lover. So once Blake Sr. died, it would not be illogical to think that Hector kidnapped Ravi and made him his first prisoner, keeping him in his basement in subhuman conditions. And the photos Toby found in Blake’s basement prove it. Now, in these conditions Ravi could not have survived long and since Hector continued to feel this monstrous resentment, he decided to hunt down young men with the same profile as Ravi: immigrants that no one would miss, like Omid.
And since these subjects, due to starvation, the terrible sanitary conditions and confinement do not last long, every so often they have to go out and look for replacements.
4 ^ How did Toby and Jay end up in all of this?
Toby (George MacKay, 1917) and Jay (Parcelle Ascott) had been raised practically like brothers by Liz (Kelly Macdonald). Jay had been kicked out of his house, and Toby as his friend offered him his house. Jay and Toby decided to create the movement I Came By with which they marked rich, influential people, who had a discourse of social justice, and in favor of the marginalized, but who in reality lived as powerful tycoons whom they he cared little or nothing about the people in his speeches.
And that’s where former Crown Judge Sir Hector Blake comes in. At the beginning of the film, Toby and Jay recognize that the man is a hypocrite, who despite his speeches, actually lives as the best of the British nobility, in Pitt Street. Pitt Street is a street in the exclusive section of Kensington, halfway between Holland Park and Kensington Palace. Jay, who worked in network installations, identified Blake and passed the modem number to Toby in order to break into the house together, but Jay backed down when he learned that his girlfriend Naz was pregnant.
Toby raided the house, and found the prisoner in the basement.
5 ^ Did Blake kill Toby and Liz? How many people did he kill?
Since the beginning of the film, Sir Hector Blake murders a total of 3 people, although the murders always occur off camera.
Toby Nealey: He was killed after anonymously reporting to the police that Blake had a prisoner in his basement. When after the investigation, the policemen did not search thoroughly, and left the house, Toby decided to enter on his own and rescue the prisoner. Everything was going well until Blake appeared at the house, and when Toby was ready to attack him, he slipped on the prisoner’s urine and Blake reduced him to later kill him, cut him up, cremate him and put his ashes in the toilet.
Omid: Omid was to be the replacement for the prisoner Blake was keeping in his basement. He had the profile: an immigrant, with legal problems, with no one in the country who cared about him. The plan was simple, Blake was going to alter Omid’s drink to drug him, subdue him and put him in his house. However, Omid managed to escape, with the help of Liz – who was following the judge. Why did Omid fall back into Sir Blake’s hands? Omid believed that what Blake wanted was just sex, so when the judge appeared again, after the incident, and told him that he could help him with his asylum application, he assumed that the worst that could happen was that he ended up sleeping with him. He didn’t expect that he was going to kill him.
Liz Nealey : Looking for her son, Liz entered the judge’s house, using the key hidden outside her house, and was found there by the ex-Judge, and after cremating Omid, he murdered her.
6 ^ Why did Jay decide to finally face Sir Hector Blake?
Jay’s great dilemma was to protect his family, his girlfriend Naz and their son, or to do the right thing, to honor the memory, first of Toby and then of Liz. But then he realized that by trying to hide from his past self, he was destroying his life and his family. Naz knew something was bothering him and it bothered her that Jay didn’t tell her, and she wasn’t about to start a family with him after that. Partly because of that, and partly because Naz could be in danger near such a subject, he decided to take matters into his own hands.
Finally, after subduing Blake and tying him up, and paying tribute to his friend and his mother with I Came By graffiti , he released the prisoner and called the police. Finally, he had done the right thing and now he could live his way, free from past guilt.
7 ^ Did Jay save Toby and Liz?
No, Toby and Liz were murdered by Sir Hector Blake, what Jay managed to do was connect the evidence of their murders to the former Judge and make him pay for all his crimes.
8 ^ What is the message of the film?
The message of the film is clear: no matter how well you hide what you do, or how good is the mask you wear, there will always, always be someone who will find out your secrets one way or another, and you will be forced to confront them. Hector Blake and Jay had to deal with this in different ways, Blake having his perfect life consumed by his murders, and Jay having to sacrifice his physical integrity to do the right thing after the death of his friend and the woman he was like. his mother.
I would also say that it is a warning to all those who believe in those personalities – politicians?- who claim to fight for the rights of other people. As is clear in this movie, most of them are just fake people who want to take advantage of people’s anger to achieve their own goals.
And finally a message to families: Liz confronted her son about the money his father left her and because she thought she had a better idea of how to live his life. In the end, when Toby disappeared, all of that was left behind. Perhaps the message for Liz and for all parents is that there comes a point where you can advise your children, but in the end they must make their own mistakes and go their own way. Not giving them that freedom could ultimately lead to a far worse fate than their parents might foresee.
Questions? Annotations? More doubts? The comments section is open just below this post so feel free to use it. See you in the next installment of Ending Explained here at El Sabanero X.
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