Caught is the latest Harlan Coben adaptation for Netflix which follows the story of a journalist known for bringing criminals to justice, but when a young woman disappears, the investigation unravels a web of interconnected mysteries and suspects that no one could have predicted.
Want to read the book? Buy Caught by Harlan Coben here
The first episode opens with a teenage girl, Martina, playing the violin in her bedroom when she spots teenage boy, Armando, next door watching her through the window. As she gets a broken string on her violin, she tries to fix it and is distracted by a phone call. It is a mystery man, who she says 'sounds different' and he blames the fact there is no signal where he is. He is flirty and suggestive, and it is clear that she likes talking to him, however, his identity remains a mystery.
We then see journalist Ema Garay getting ready for work. She checks her messages on a laptop, but nothing new has come through. As she leaves for work, the postman brings two letters for her and her son, Bruno, but she rips them up without opening them.
At work, Ema is given a baked pie from a grateful woman who tells her that if it wasn't for her, then her husband would still be in jail. We learn that Ema works in digital media and exposes criminals who manage to evade the law. She checks her messages again and the person she is trying to get in touch with contacts her. Vicky, who she works with, helps her reply to him, and it turns out she is pretending to be a teenage girl to trap someone for grooming.
They talk about how the police won't look into their case or let them look at any files for missing or abused girls, and Ema tells Vicky she is going to try talking to one of the families to get some more information.
Meanwhile, at the local school, everyone is talking about a party happening in an empty house on the lake. The boys are working how they are going to break into the house as it has a fence and an alarm, but Ema's son, Bruno, says there is no fence on the water side and that is their way in, and the other boys are impressed.
Leo Mercer arrives to see his friends Isabel and Facu, and brigns them some shoping. Their daughter, Camila, is also there and he gives her a chocolate bar. Ema arrives and explains she is a journalist, but before she can really speak to Camila's parents, Leo gets in her way, physically blocking her and asking her to leave.
Ema is annoyed and leaves her card, and back at work, she tells Vicky that they need to corner this man they're chatting with alone and ask him to meet. He replies and they arrange to get a teenage friend of Vicky's to pose as the girl, and they decide to take the broadcasting van so they can watch the man arrive from afar.
They watch the teenage girl, who is waiting in the skate park for the man, from the back of their van. At first, they think he isn't coming, but eventually, he turns up. They don't get a good picture of him, only one from the back, but he is holding a teddy, which means it has to be him as he said online he would bring a gift. Ema follows the man, who has his hood up, into a warehouse, but he gets away.
The police come, and they're not impressed about Ema following the suspect and not informing them. They ask her to hand over all her work so they can take the investigation from here, but she refuses.
Martina goes to a violin exam and she calls her mystery man on the phone and asks where he is, but he doesn't answer despite promising to be there. The exam goes well and she learns that she got in to become the third violin of the camerata, and her parents are thrilled when she delivers the news.
Later, when Martina gets home, Leo is working on her neighbour's gutters when he sees her through the window. Leo's friend, Julianna, talks to him about her son, Armando, who is refusing to continue with the therapy that he has been going to, and he promises to talk to him. Julianna asks after Camila, and he tells her about Ema's visit and asks if she knows Ema. Leo's friend does and says she hasn't spoken to her much but that her son goes to school with Armando. Armando gets home from school and talks about the party, telling his mum that he is going along, too.
At home later, Leo does some research on Ema after his friend told him she is a good person and a great journalist. Meanwhile, Ema is working on her grooming case when Bruno asks her for the keys to his dad's workshop. He wants something to use to break into the house for the party, but she is distracted by work and doesn't question him. Leo then calls Ema and apologises for his behaviour earlier and tells her that Camila's parents aren't in the right place to help her, but he will.
The following morning Ema visits Leo at work at a youth centre and sees him teaching canoeing. Afterwards, he gathers all the kids in the common room and she asks them about online safety. They have all heard of the game that she is using to message the online predator called City Of Persons, and they also almost all put their hand up when she asks if any of them feel like they might have been subjected to online grooming.
Later, Ema talks to one of the teenage girls who was groomed. She opens up about what happened and says she was going to meet the man, but her friend warned her not to and told a teacher, who shut the whole thing down. She says that when she didn't turn up, the man stopped messaging her online. Ema asks her if the online profile is the same as the one she has been messaging, but the username is different.
Later, Leo walks Ema to her car and she tells him that the work he does there is touching and the kids seem really happy. He is grateful and tells her that when he started the centre, Facu, Camila's father, was one of his first students. When they get to his house, Leo asks Ema in for a coffee, but she says she would rather a beer, and it doesn't take long before they are kissing and they end up having sex on the sofa. Afterwards, Ema seems sad about something and makes her excuses to leave, just as Leo's friend, Marcos, arrives and asks if they are still going rowing, joking that Leo doesn't waste time, as he watches Ema leaving.
Later, Martina is in her room when her phone rings, and it is a burner phone that she has hidden in her school bag. It is the mystery man again, who apologises for not being there at the exam. As she is talking, Martina makes sure her bedroom door is closed and no one can hear.
Back at home, Ema is reflecting on her afternoon of passion with Leo when Bruno comes in and teases her about the fact Leo is calling her. He tells her about the party he is going to and says he will be out late. She is distracted again when a message comes through on City Of Persons and the predator tells her he is sorry that he didn't see her yesterday at the park and says she had gone by the time he arrived. He asks to meet that same day, and she agrees. The police say they don't have any officers to help, but Ema and her colleagues at the magazine agree they need to go to the meeting otherwise the man will disappear if they try and rearrange.
While Ema is arranging the meeting with the online man, Bruno steals someone's boat with a friend and uses it to get to the house where they want to hold the party. He breaks in and disables the alarm and then opens the front gates where a huge crowd of teenagers are waiting to be let in.
Meanwhile, Leo and Marcos are having dinner when his phone rings and he goes outside to take the call. Martina arrives and Gael, a boy from school, watches her dancing and asks her to go upstairs... but she refuses and hides in the bathroom and tries to call someone, who doesn't answer.
Meanwhile, Leo has ditched Marcos and their dinner and is driving to an abandoned house. But when he gets there he can't see anyone... until Ema and her colleagues come out of hiding, filming him and asking him why he is meeting young girls that he has been grooming online.
Ema is shocked to see that Leo, the man she was sleeping with just hours before, appears to also be the man she has been messaging online for work, but when she grills him about being a predator, he denies it and tells her he is there becasue a girl called him for help as she said she was in danger. Ema asks Leo how many girls he has abused and accuses him of being at the skate park the day before. He seems shocked and runs out of the house. Ema calls the police, telling them to go to his house before he can destroy any evidence. When he gets home and sees police there, Leo keeps on driving past.
Ema arrives at Leo's house and the police are already there. They have found the teddy bear that the hooded man at the skatepark had the day before, and also countless images of minors. Emma goes indoors and sees the beer glasses from earlier and is reminded of her time there with Leo that afternoon. As she looks around the house, someone is watching her from the bushes outside.
The next morning, everyone is waking up at the party house and Bruno sees that someone has untied the boat and it has floated away. Meanwhile, Martina's mum goes to wake her and finds her bed hasn't been slept in.
All episodes of Caught are available on Netflix now.
