A Man on the Inside has come as a huge surprise because of just how good it is, and how much it has done with a relatively simple story. This Netflix comedy follows Charles Nieuwendyk (Ted Danson), a retired widower who is given the chance to find excitement in his life again when a P.I., Julie (Lilah Richcreek Estrada), hires him to go undercover at a retirement community called Pacific View to find out who stole her client’s grandmother’s necklace.
Along the way, Charles not only finds the adventure thrilling but makes new friends that help him cope with the death of his wife, Victoria. So much so, that his guilt grows as he continues to deceive these people. A Man on the Inside’s finale saw Charles not only solve the case and fix his relationship with the people of Pacific View, but we get a heartbreaking truth about his final days with his wife, Victoria, as well as the possibility of a second season.
‘A Man on the Inside’s Finale Finds Charles Solving the Case
The episode opens with Charles revealing to everyone that Gladys (Susan Ruttan) was the one who had the items people were looking for, though she technically did not steal anything. Gladys, because of her dementia, was simply getting “confused”, as Charles puts it, and not stealing out of “malice,” but pure mistaken ownership. Charles figured it out when he realized no new thefts had occurred since Gladys was moved into Memory Care.
It’s a strong revelation that is more satisfying than there being an evil thief. If there was, it would have felt unearned from a narrative point of view, since there are no real clues to anyone being a criminal mastermind in the previous episodes. By making it a tragic accident caused by Gladys’ dementia, we get to keep our rosy perspective of the characters we have already met and come to love, like Virginia (Sally Struthers), Elliot (John Getz), and Susan (Lori Tan Chinn).
Charles’ Cover Being Blown Makes Everyone in Pacific View Question Their Friendship With Him
The revelation that Charles was a spy shakes almost everyone in Pacific View, apart from Virginia, who still believes they knew the real Charles and not some completely unreal persona. However, Calvert (Stephen McKinley Henderson), who was Charles’ best friend in Pacific View, feels betrayed and Didi (Stephanie Beatriz), the manager, feels she let everyone down by not figuring out Charles’ deception sooner and in her own mind, putting the residents at risk. However, Charles uses one of his first memos, of him praising just how essential Didi was to the retirement community, to convince her that the residents need her, as she is a “marvel.”
This, in turn, convinces Calvert to read what Charles wrote for him in Charles’ book, calling him a friend. In the end, the two friends reunite and play a game of backgammon. Their relationship heals, as it seems that Calvert has accepted, like Virginia knew, that he had bonded with the real Charles and their friendship was never a lie. While some could argue this is too easy of an ending for Charles to have everyone like him by the end, we must remember that his ultimate loss, Victoria, means that no matter how happy the ending of A Man on the Inside may be, Charles has still had to suffer to get to this point.
Charles Reveals He Was Going To Send Victoria to Memory Care
Perhaps the most heartbreaking moment of the episode is when Charles and his daughter Emily (Mary Elizabeth Ellis) are going through Victoria’s belongings. Charles reveals that the reason all of these items were packaged by the time Victoria died was that he had planned to move his ailing wife into memory care because by that time there were “only bad days.” However, she passed away the night before she was due to move in. He calls this a “promise” that he’d broken as Victoria never wanted to leave the house.
It’s a testament to just how good the characters on this show are, because we feel no ill-will towards Charles for this, only compassion, as we can understand that he did his best for Victoria. Emily’s words of comfort feel like a comfort for anyone looking after a loved one in their final years. We may not be able to do a perfect job, and that is okay, provided you do the most you can. We see how other children of residents of Pacific View only do the bare minimum, never breaking promises yet never being there either, and that is far worse than putting in your all and only faltering when you have done all you can.
‘A Man on the Inside’ Ends With a CliffHanger for a Potential Season 2
The episode ends on a cliffhanger for a potential Season 2, as Julie is hired for a job she views as impossible. In the end, she and her assistant, Megan (Kerry O’Malley), decide that there is only one man for the job. The spy they know and, most of the time, love — Charles. She phones him up with another job, and Charles tucks in his spy pocket square, ready to go undercover once again. The fact Charles was ready to go is almost like he was waiting by the phone, eagerly anticipating the call to adventure, showing a clear difference from the reluctant, isolated man we met at the beginning of the series.
Currently, there have been no official announcements concerning whether we will get a second season of A Man on the Inside. All we have to go on currently is Danson and creator Mike Schur’s comments made to Deadline. Both men said they had their “fingers crossed” for a second season, with Schur adding there was “no shortage of ideas” when it came to what direction a second season could go in. Hopefully, we will get another outing for Charles, as the warm, loving nature of the show is something all of us need in our lives, and this show has so many fantastic actors, why not give them more material to work with?
