A Man on the Inside Ending explained by Mike Schur and Ted Danson

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From the start, A man on the inside tugs at various heartstrings – a wedding speech that will make you cry, a recruitment process that will make you laugh, a child-parent dynamic that will feel eerily relatable.

The show’s inciting incident comes when Emily (Mary Elizabeth Ellis) challenges her retired professor father, Charles (Ted Danson), to find a project or hobby that will bring some purpose and excitement into his stagnant life. Charles sees a classified ad seeking an “investigative assistant” who is “aged 75-85” and so begins his professional search for a jewel thief.

What happened in A man on the inside?

Evan’s (Marc Evan Jackson) mother is a resident of Pacific View. When her necklace, a family heirloom, is stolen, Evan hires Julie (Lilah Richcreek Estrada), a private investigator, who in turn hires Charles to infiltrate the retirement home and sniff out the thief. His trickery turns out to be thought provoking – touching on grief, complex family relationships and debilitating illnesses.

Creator Mike Schur (The good place) based on the series of the Oscar-nominated documentary The mole agent. He tells Tudum that his favorite scene is in episode 5, when Charles and roommate Elliott (John Getz) talk about Gladys (Susan Ruttan), a woman who suffers from memory problems similar to those Charles’ late wife experienced when she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Charles is upset, but Elliott is unfazed, saying that he has “seen countless people die” – that it simply “becomes part of the background of your life.”

“Elliott says, ‘This is where we are, Charles. This is a fact,'” explains Schur. “And basically, there’s no point in beating yourself up about it. It’s just a fact of our lives.”

Schur points to that feeling when the series deals with sensitive topics such as Alzheimer’s or aging. “That was the starting point for all the difficult things we talked about on the show. What the writers and I talked about the whole time was, ‘We’re just going to present it. We’re not going to shy away from it. We’re not going to make it a bigger deal than it is, and we’re not going to pretend it’s a smaller deal than it is. We just have to do it.”

Charles struggles to keep a low profile, but reconnects with his daughter, befriends other residents, including Calbert (Stephen McKinley Henderson), and ultimately learns that despite being 75, he has plenty of more life to live fully.

For Danson, Charles is relatable. Charles’ daughter has an active household and is raising children. “I can feel it around my children, who love and adore me,” says the actor. “They have very busy lives, and I get great pleasure from being around them. When they are too busy or don’t answer a question or a text or a phone call, I can feel my seat on the bus receding further and further. I think that’s what happens a bit with aging. All of a sudden you have to find relevance within, because you don’t always get it from the outside.”

Still, Charles develops connections in his investigative tasks that conclude in ways the audience may not see coming.

Who stole the family heirloom A man on the inside?

In episode 8, Charles realizes that Gladys, a former costume designer now experiencing memory problems, has been taking things from other residents. While the case is solved, Didi (Stephanie Beatriz), CEO of Pacific View, is furious to learn of Charles’ undercover status and orders him off the premises. Julie defends him, but Didi remains upset, as does Calbert, who feels that Charles faked their entire friendship.

Didi is so upset that she plans to quit, but Charles convinces her to stay, an act that helps Calbert see that Charles was a true friend even while undercover. When Charles gives a guest lecture to university students, Calbert shows up afterwards and the two bond.

Between his Boy Scout gig and the feeling that his visiting lecture could mean a return to teaching, Charles is left with a renewed sense of purpose, something Schur believes society doesn’t often encourage. “I think America is obsessed with youth,” he says. “It has always been that way. The new thing, the next thing. Revolutions. How do we quickly get rid of the old guard and bring in the new guard? People over 49 are traditionally non-entities. It’s stupid and self-destructive. One of the things you miss out on if you’re obsessed with youth is just honest, straightforward portrayals of all parts of humanity as we get older. The joy, the sorrow, the joy, the pain, the misery, the adventure.

“A lot of other cultures and countries do it better than we do, in my opinion. My uncle married an Irish woman and she said, ‘Why do women in America lie about their age?’ I said, ‘Well, there’s a premium on youth in America,’ and she says, ‘No, I get it, why do they lie the wrong way?’ . I’m 46. I tell people I’m 55. And they say you look great for 55.’ I thought, that’s such a better way to do it, right?”

How did A man on the inside end?

In the final scene of the series, Julie gets a fresh case that Charles would be the perfect mole. When she calls to tell him, Charles says, “Whatever it is, I’m in.”

There will be more A man on the inside?

Check back with Tudum for future updates on A man on the inside, but for now, enjoy season 1 of A man on the inside and its many takeaways. “I hope and believe it will be mind-blowing, or at least people will see themselves in those stories,” says Schur. “Who hasn’t been affected by (Alzheimer’s) at this point? Even if it’s your friend’s grandmother or your great-uncle, everyone has been through some version of it. I hope they see themselves in that story.”

Danson eloquently sums up the series’ overall message. “We tell our kids, ‘You can do anything you want’ when they grow up. ‘You can be anything. You can do anything. You are magnificent.’ Why do we stop saying that to ourselves? Don’t put your foot on the pedal. Just go as fast as you can.

A man on the inside streaming on Netflix.