Caught, aka Atrapados, is Harlan Coben's first Latin American adaptation, and it's currently streaming on Netflix. This marks the third Coben series to be released on the platform in 2025, and like his previous adaptations, it's got everyone talking. In fact, it's one of the most popular shows on Netflix at the moment.
The mystery thriller series stars Soledad Villamil as Ema Garay, a respected journalist known for exposing criminals who have slipped through the cracks of justice. After meeting trusted and well-known community figure Leo Mercer, she finds her investigative skills tested when he becomes her main suspect in the disappearance of a teenage girl.
In this article, we're going to break down how everything wraps up in Caught on Netflix. What really happened to Martina, and who was behind her disappearance? Was Leo really the culprit? We answered these burning questions and more right below.
Major spoilers ahead from Caught on Netflix!
What happens to Leo Mercer in Caught on Netflix?
Leo is a well-known figure in the Bariloche community, where he runs a foundation for teenagers called the Fronteras Foundation. He’s seen as an upstanding, good-natured person, and even Ema initially believes this. However, everything changes when Leo unexpectedly walks right into her carefully planned trap. Ema had been trying to track down a child predator she had been conversing with on an online game, arranging to meet him at a house. But to her shock, it’s Leo who walks through the door instead.
Despite Leo's insistence that he was innocent and that a teenage girl had asked him to come to the house for help, Ema remains skeptical and doesn't believe his story. She immediately begins accusing him of abusing other teenage girls and records their entire conversation. Shocked by the allegations, Leo flees the scene. After Ema shares the video online for everyone to see, Leo realizes he can no longer stay in Bariloche and retreats into the woods to hide.
One of the key people pursuing Leo is Facu, a former student from the foundation and a friend. Facu’s daughter had been abused by a child predator in the past, but the perpetrator was never held accountable. Now that Leo faces accusations of similar crimes, Facu believes Leo is the one responsible and is determined to seek revenge. Exhausted from hiding and unsure of his next move, Leo finally contacts Ema, requesting a meeting in the woods. He promises to reveal the full truth, but only if there are no cameras or police involved.
Ema agrees to the meeting and the conditions, making her way to see him. During their conversation, Leo once again insists on his innocence, claiming that someone framed him by planting evidence to make him look like a child predator. He urges Ema to remove the video so the authorities can focus on finding the real culprit, but she remains unconvinced. In a final attempt to prove his case, Leo reveals the name of the teenage girl who contacted him for help—Martina Schulz. As he claims he's been set up, their conversation gets interrupted by Facu. Facu appears with a gun and aims it at Leo. He urges Ema to leave before he shoots Leo in the neck. Leo falls back into the river and starts sinking to the bottom.
Is Leo alive in Caught on Netflix?
Yes, he is! Let me start by clarifying that Leo was innocent from the beginning. He was framed by someone close to him, and sadly, he never saw it coming. In the final moments of the limited series, we learn that Leo survived and managed to escape the water, eventually making his way back to civilization. However, it doesn’t appear that he’s in Bariloche anymore. This is an understandable choice given everything he endured.
Even if he wanted to return, his reputation has been permanently stained. People will forever remember him as the man accused of horrific crimes, even if he turned out to be innocent. In the last scene, he's shown riding a horse in the countryside with a bunch of teens. It looks like he's started over and created a new foundation for teens elsewhere.
Was Marcos Brown really a good guy?
No, he wasn’t. He was the one who framed Leo for online grooming and sexual abuse. Marcos and Leo had been close friends since childhood. Unlike Marcos, who came from a wealthy family, Leo grew up with much less. As teenagers, they decided to break into the home of one of Bariloche’s most powerful families, the Briguel family, to steal a badge.
Marcos thought that with the badge, he'd be able to prove the Briguels were secret Nazis and tarnish their repuation, forcing them into settling a business dispute they had with his father. However, during their escape, Marcos was caught by the housemaid. To keep his son from facing even worse consequences, Marcos’s father ultimately sacrificed their land.
In the present time, it's revealed that Marcos had been fired from his old job in Buenos Aires after scamming the company. Desperate for money, he approaches Leo with a request to sell the land the foundation sits on. However, Leo refuses. The land the foundation sits on once belonged to Marcos’s family before they were forced to give it up, and Marcos is determined to reclaim it for his own financial benefit. When Leo rejects his request, Marcos resorts to drastic measures and decides to frame him. This is how the framing process went.
Marcos worked for Fran Briguel, a crooked businessman and child predator. Fran first came across Martina through a website where she posted provocative videos. He reached out to her with an offer. He would pay her a large sum if she flew to Buenos Aires to record a live, racy video for him in a hotel room. Martina agrees, with the stipulation that there be no physical contact. Fran arranges for her to travel on a private jet, where she meets Marcos. Once they land, they go their separate ways, but later cross paths again when Marcos is assigned to either calm her down or escort her elsewhere. This is after Fran went against his agreement and touched Martina.
After helping Martina out, Marcos and Martina build some sort of friendship. However, it's soon revealed that his intentions were not entirely genuine. When Martina mentions knowing Leo, Marcos sees it as an ideal opportunity to manipulate the situation to his advantage. One day, he lies and tells Martina that Leo is struggling and needs an intervention. He tells her to call him and lure him to a house so that the fake intervention can happen. Martina, believing she can trust him, does what he says. Marcos was also the person who was pretending to be a child abuser on the online game and messaging Ema.
The whole setup was put together by Marcos. He knew that if Leo were accused of being a child abuser and held responsible for a felony, he'd be able to get his family's land back. While Ema and her camera crew waited at the house for the online child abuser to show up, Leo received a phone call from Martina to go to that same house to rescue her. However, he ends up walking right into Marco's trap.
After Ema pieces everything together, she confronts Marcos with the evidence. In a panic, he knocks her out with a paddle and attempts to drown her in the river. However, Ema fights back, grabbing a rock and striking him. She manages to escape the water and quickly grabs her phone, recording Marcos as he approaches her with a rock in hand. Thinking fast, she starts a live stream, broadcasting the scene to the world. Realizing he's been exposed, Marcos panics and flees. He jumps into his car and speeds towards a truck filled with large logs, ultimately killing himself.
Who really killed Martina Schulz?
As Ema and the townspeople comb through the woods searching for Martina, who vanished after a party, they eventually discover her lifeless body. Initially, suspicion falls on Leo, but it's soon revealed that he isn’t the killer. The focus then shifts to Marcos, who appears to be the most likely culprit. Given his involvement in framing Leo and dragging Martina into his scheme, all signs point to him as the one responsible for her death. But at the very end of the series finale, the real culprit is finally revealed. The person who killed Martina is Armando. Here's how everything went down.
On the night of the party, Martina and Armando strike up a friendly conversation and decide to leave together, heading to his house to continue talking. While there, Armando takes a picture of Martina before they hook up. This same photo helps Ema connect him to Martina’s disappearance and death.
Later, Martina wakes up and checks her phone, only to see Ema’s video exposing Leo as an alleged child abuser. Panic sets in as she realizes that Marcos had manipulated her into framing Leo. At the same time, Armando wakes up and sees the video himself. When Martina frantically explains the situation, he becomes agitated, yelling at her to leave. In a fit of anger, he shoves her, and with one forceful push, she loses her balance and tumbles down the stairs. She dies instantly.
Armando's mom, Juliana, arrives later that night, and together they dispose of Martina's lifeless body in the woods and plant her phone in Leo's things. Juliana explains all of this to Ema, who then urges them to go to the authorities. In the end, Ema takes Armando and Juliana to the police, where Armando confesses to Martina's murder and is booked into jail.
All six episodes of Caught are streaming now only on Netflix.