Sumith Prasad
Based on Ann Napolitano’s eponymous novel, Apple TV+’s drama series ‘Dear Edward’ follows the life of Edward Adler, who survives the plane crash that causes the death of his parents and brother Jordan. Edward finds it hard to accept his brother’s tragic death as he starts a new chapter of his life by moving to the house of his aunt Lacey and her husband John. Edward meets a girl, who gives him the shrunken head of a toy, at a supermarket while shopping with Lacey. Since she grows to become a mysterious presence in his life, the viewers must be eager to know more about her. Well, here’s what we can share! SPOILERS AHEAD.
Mysterious Supermarket Girl: Jordan’s Secret Girlfriend Mahira
In the second episode of the series, Lacey realizes that she should make Edward eat to avoid his hospitalization. She takes him to a supermarket and lets him buy anything he wants to eat. While he goes through the food items, a girl encounters him and expresses how sorry she is about what happened to his brother Jordan. She quickly places the head of a toy inside his hand and disappears from the place. At the end of the third season, she also drops a letter at Lacey and John’s house for Edward. Although the show hasn’t yet revealed who the girl is, the answer is in Ann Napolitano’s eponymous source novel of the series.
The mysterious girl Edward meets at the supermarket is Mahira, the girlfriend of his late brother Jordan. In the novel, Mahira is the niece of the owner of the deli the brothers always went to buy food, reminding us of Faakhir in the series. Jordan and Mahira cherished an intimate but secretive relationship. He didn’t even dare to talk about the same to Edward despite them being extremely close to one another. Even when his parents decided to move to Los Angeles, Jordan remained optimistic about his future with Mahira irrespective of the distance between them. Mahira even started aspiring to attend a college in Los Angeles to be with her boyfriend.
As someone who is mourning the loss of Jordan, Mahira knows the gravity of the emotional pain Edward suffers from. She reaches out to him with the belief that her words will comfort him in some way. “I also wanted to write in order to tell you that your name always made Jordan smile. If I were you, I would want to be told that,” writes Mahira to Edward in the novel to ease his pain. Since they are bound together by the loss of Jordan, we may see them extending their emotional support to one another in the upcoming episodes of the series.
Reminder of Lost Brother: Shrunken Head Toy as Memento
After meeting Edward and expressing her sympathies to him, Mahira gives the shrunken head of a toy to the former. Edward and Shay set out to find the meaning or significance of the same in the third episode of the series, only to fail. Since Mahira comes across Edward and eventually writes to him to share how much he meant to his brother Jordan, the shrunken head must be connected to the late Jordan. She must have given the same to Edward for him to think about his brother and feel the latter’s presence. She may even have explained its significance in the letter she drops at his aunt’s house for him.
When Edward shows the head to Shay, she finds out that it is similar to an object exhibited at a museum in Manhattan. Jordan and Mahira might have met at the place regularly so that the latter’s uncle wouldn’t find out about her relationship with him. The toy head could have been a souvenir for Mahira, possibly to recollect the intimate days she cherished together with Jordan. She may have realized that Edward needs the same more than she does since she knows how much the two brothers were depending on each other.
Read More: Where is Dear Edward Filmed?
