What started off as an on-the-nose social commentary turned into a disturbing horror flick. Netflix’s I Came By stars some accomplished British actors and initially doled out several gripping twists. But did it bring home a satisfying ending?
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Probably not, given the confusion over the identity of a particular person in a particular basement. Plus, when it seemed like certain characters would survive, they ended up incinerated off screen. Let’s drill into the carcass of this frustrating flick.
Spoilers ahead. Content Warning: sexual violence, self-harm, suicide.
These two suffer a shockingly tragic fate.
Nick Wall/Netflix
First things first. Is that Ravi in the basement or not?
The answer is no. The man kept chained in Hector Blake’s (Hugh Bonneville) basement definitely isn’t Ravi. How do we know that?
It’s not just because the timing would be way off. Blake told his masseuse Omid (Yazdan Qafouri) that growing up, his family had a young Indian Persian helper named Ravi. His father “came across him working in his factory, and decided to take him under his wing.” Blake says he was a “little boy” himself at the time and was later shipped off to boarding school at 9. In a photo Toby (George MacKay) inspects in Blake’s house, there are two boys: one who appears to be Blake and a much taller one who appears to be Ravi. This all indicates Ravi was likely older than Blake, so the young man found chained in his basement must be someone else, probably another migrant worker. Blake’s backstory reveals he despised Ravi, and it appears he’s still on a vendetta to unleash his bouts of rage on more victims.
The main reason we know the man isn’t Ravi is because on IMDb it says the prisoner’s name is Said and he’s played by Tarik Badwan.
Who is Hector Blake?
That’s Sir Hector Blake. He was shipped away to board at Birlstone School as a junior. He later studied law and became a High Court judge, but recently retired after 30 years. He was regarded as a “saint,” known for his “philanthropic work on behalf of refugees.” He was involved in a prominent fictional case with Kazima Ajang in 2016, according to a letter he receives from a student asking him if he’ll read their dissertation (he promptly chucks it in the bin).
This all, of course, is a thin veil hiding Blake’s true identity. Toby reads up on Blake, discovering his family were all “staunch colonialists,” his father a factory owner. Blake quit being a High Court judge after one year, calling the bench too “white and elitist” seemingly to avert attention from his own shady history.
He also reveals his wife is in Chesham House, a psychiatric hospital. He regularly plays squash with police superintendent William Roy and, crucially, likes watching Ricky and Morty.
What are Blake’s motivations?
Why is Blake drugging migrant workers and imprisoning at least one in his basement? Much of his conversation with Omid reveals his motivations.
Blake says that his father invited Ravi to live in their house “like a member of the family.” Eventually, he invited Ravi “into his bed.” According to Blake, this drove his mother to suicide. Blake was the one who discovered her with her wrists sliced open. Shipped off to boarding school, Blake believed that his father had replaced him and his mother with Ravi. He calls Ravi a “peasant” and says that he “hated” him.
Blake reveals he had a “rage” inside him that was “very hard to suppress.” A line Jay (Percelle Ascott) says at the beginning of the movie, referencing a portrait of Blake’s father, appears to sum up Blake’s actions. “Is that your old man? I can see the resemblance.” Blake stares at the portrait meaningfully. He appears to wrestle with his hatred for anyone echoing Ravi, as well as his sexual feelings for them. This could be why he keeps Said alive and entrapped in his basement, similar to how his father kept Ravi as his prisoner.
Hector blackmails Omid into getting in his car.
Nick Wall/Netflix
What happened to Ravi?
“I thought I’d killed him, one summer when I came back from school, I pounced on him like a savage beast,” Blake tells Omid. “Nearly destroyed his face.” Toby discovers a photograph of Ravi with the side of his head looking bloodied, apparently the aftermath of this attack.
We never hear the end of the story, so it’s understandable to connect the dots and think Ravi was the prisoner in Blake’s basement, not Said. Potentially, Blake treated Ravi the same way as his other victims: killed him and burned the remains.
What happens to Omid?
Blake essentially blackmails Omid into getting in his car, warning he has the power to either stop or expedite his application for permanent settlement in the UK. We later see Blake, in his basement, holding Omid’s phone which has a smear of blood on it. Omid can be heard banging on the secret room’s door, yelling to be freed (by now, Said would have been moved to Blake’s other secret room in his garage). Blake’s clothes are off, suggesting he and Omid had sex, before Blake trapped him. Blake later chops him up and incinerates him in his kiln (which belonged to his pottery-loving wife), just like he did with Toby and then his mother Elisabeth.
