I Will Find You is Netflix’s latest eight-part thriller miniseries and an adaptation of Harlan Coben’s eponymous 2023 novel, starring Sam Worthington, Britt Lower, and Milo Ventimiglia in key roles.
The miniseries follows David Burroughs, a father serving a life sentence for the murder of his own son, Matthew. While David has not committed the crime, a game-changing eyewitness and DNA traces led to his wrongful imprisonment. Things took a turn when David’s ex-sister-in-law and former decorated reporter, Rachel Mills, came to visit him in prison after five years, with a shocking photograph that changed his life upside down. David assumed Rachel and his ex-wife, Cheryl, hate him for what he did.
I Will Find You took a turn when Rachel showed David a photograph from Six Flags in Springfield, with Matthew in the background, alive and well. While David could not believe his eyes, a birthmark on the boy’s cheek proved that it was Matthew. Once prison warden Philip Mackenzie and his son Adam helped David escape from prison, he teamed up with Rachel to find the truth about Matthew’s death.
Here’s what happened with Matthew in the series.
I Will Find You ending breakdown: The truth about Matthew’s parentage
Throughout I Will Find You, Rachel’s wealthy ex-boyfriend and the son of the Payne Foundation heiress Gertrude, Hayden Payne, helped the duo in tracking down Matthew. While Hayden and Rachel had parted ways, the former still loved her and was ready to go to any lengths to help her find Matthew. As David and Rachel investigated, they found out that the key witness was paid to lie about the murder weapon. Additionally, the duo discovered that the DNA at the crime scene belonged to Martin, a dying child who vanished from a Swiss orphanage connected to the Payne Foundation.
As I Will Find You finale revealed, when David and Cheryl struggled to conceive Matthew, the latter resorted to a fertility clinic behind her husband’s back. David suspected that the fertility clinic likely had a hand in Matthew’s kidnapping. However, the duo could not find Cheryl’s file in the hospital’s archive because Cheryl had visited the clinic under Rachel’s name to remain anonymous. Additionally, she also revealed that she did not go ahead with the procedure as David got her pregnant with Matthew.
I Will Find You ending breakdown: Who kidnapped Matthew?
The moment Rachel found out that Cheryl had visited the clinic under her name, she had the chilling realization that Hayden had interfered with the procedure by donating his sperm (to get ‘Rachel’ pregnant) in I Will Find You. Since Hayden was unaware that Rachel was actually Cheryl, he planned on donating his sperm to get his ex-girlfriend pregnant and earn a way back into her life. Once Hayden saw Matthew at Rachel’s Fourth of July party, he sought to get his biological son back, framed David for his murder, and kidnapped him.
In the I Will Find You finale, Rachel managed to find some missing photos from the Six Flags shoot, which revealed that Matthew was accompanied by none other than Hayden. Turns out, Hayden and Gertrude teamed up to kidnap Matthew and renamed him Theo. While Gertrude discovered that Matthew was not Hayden’s biological child, she participated in the ruse, and David’s son was living with the Payne family for five years.
I Will Find You ending breakdown: Were David and Matthew reunited?
In the I Will Find You finale, Rachel used Hayden’s obsession and tricked him into coming to his mother’s estate with Matthew, where Sarah Greer from the FBI’s Fugitive Task Force was already waiting to ambush him. Rachel’s plan worked its magic, and Hayden finally arrived, only to learn the shocking truth that Matthew is not his biological child and his mother had lied to him. In a fit of rage, Hayden killed his mother, shot David, and was about to flee with Matthew when Sarah caught him and shot him dead on the scene.
With Hayden out of the picture, David was finally reunited with his son, who was confused but will likely come to terms with his reality again. While David’s conviction was overturned, he lost Cheryl, who was about to have a baby with her second husband, Ronald.
I Will Find You concluded with David’s family reuniting at his father’s funeral and Matthew settling in with his family. While David had a long gap to bridge with his son, the series ended on a hopeful note, as he reassured himself that he would find a way back to Matthew.
I Will Find You is streaming on Netflix.
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Edited by Aashna