Absentia Season 1, Episode 10 confirmed the identity of the bleeding-eye serial killer from Boston, Massachusetts. The Amazon Prime Video series follows the story of FBI special agent Emily Byrne (Stana Katic), who disappeared while hunting the killer and was later found alive, yet almost drowned in a tank six years later. This killer was described as one of Boston's most notorious murderers, and this was proven by the fact that this individual continued to torment Emily when she returned in the present day.
Emily's trauma from being held captive for six years was not the only horrifying thing she dealt with in Absentia Season 1. The FBI agent was also framed for the kidnapping of her own son and the abuse she took from her husband, Nick Durand (Patrick Heusinger), who remarried and started fresh after she was presumed dead. As it turned out, the root cause of Emily's hardships was the person who started it all: the serial killer, whose real identity was part of a shocking twist headlined by revenge.
Directed by Oded Ruskin, Absentia stars Stana Katic, Matthew Le Nevez, Patrick Heusinger, The Fantastic Four: First Steps star Ralph Ineson (who played Galactus), and Lydia Leonard. The series premiered on Prime Video on September 25, 2017, and its final batch of episodes was released on July 17, 2020. Although the show was canceled, Absentia was recently added to Netflix in the United States and is experiencing a surge in popularity.
Who Is the Killer in Absentia?
Absentia Season 1, Episode 10, "Original Sin," was full of twists and turns, highlighted by the fact that Nick (Emily's ex-husband) believed Emily had abducted his wife, Alice, and their child, Flynn. However, the finale eventually revealed that framing Emily was part of an elaborate revenge plot that spanned decades because the killer had close ties to her.
As it turned out, the serial killer is none other than Laurie Colson (Lydia Leonard), a crime reporter who had been keeping tabs on the FBI's investigation and Emily's disappearance. Laurie was just an alias, and her real name was Logan Brandt.
Logan had a compelling reason for seeking revenge against Emily, claiming that she was "the first life she destroyed." The finale showed that Logan and Emily had been in the same orphanage when they were young. Emily had a "low probability of adoptive success" because she showed little affection to others, causing her to do something about it so that her future parents could choose her.
Emily made a reckless move by swapping her files with Logan's, which resulted in her becoming one of Dr. Shen's test subjects in his gruesome experiments. These experiments included being submerged in water tanks and electrocution, which broke and changed Logan. By swapping those files, Emily unexpectedly made Logan a monster without her knowing.
Logan blamed Emily for stealing her life, and she plotted revenge so that she could feel the horrors she experienced during Dr. Shen's years of torture. As Logan pointed out, Dr. Shen "forged" them into "killer soldiers," and he was successful in doing so.
Absentia's Season 1 finale also unveiled that Logan killed Dr. Shen, and her partner, Conrad Harlow (the man convicted initially of abducting Emily in Episode 1) was his accomplice and Shen's test subject as well.
Did Emily Kill Logan in Absentia?
To free Flynn, Logan tried to force Emily to kill Alice in exchange for her son's freedom. While Emily contemplated the idea of murdering Alice, she was still a good person, but Nick's arrival made things complicated because he still believed that his first wife was the actual killer.
Nick's arrogance and recklessness almost placed Emily in harm's way, but the revelation about the true killer's identity changed his tune. After leading Nick, Alice, and Flynn to safety, Emily pursued Logan in the woods, leading to an all-out clash. Ultimately, Emily defeated Logan by drowning her in a nearby lake.
Despite putting an end to Logan's reign of terror, it was clear that the psychological trauma that Emily endured during her six years of captivity would forever be engraved within her, and this struggle carried over in future seasons of Absentia.
Read more about the plot of Blindspot, which is similar to Prime Video's Absentia due to its protagonist grappling with a new reality after a previous FBI mission.
