‘Snakes And Ladders’ Ending Explained & Series Recap: Did The Police Catch Leo?

Prime Video’s 2024 series, Snakes and Ladders, is an investigative drama about a robbery that goes wrong. It takes inspiration from Enid Blyton’s Secret Seven and Famous Five books, in which a group of children set out to investigate crimes. Unlike in those books, the children in this show are in serious trouble and are desperate to find their way out of it.

Spoilers Ahead


Who got robbed in the town of Rettamugadu?

Snakes and Ladders began with a group of preteen children: Gilbert, aka Gilli, Bala, Santosh, aka Sandy, and Iraiyan, aka Irai, who were well known for their antics in the town. Irai’s father was a police officer, and Raagitha, aka Raagi, was their friend in the town who was being homeschooled. She was living with her single mother, Revathy. One fateful night, after the boys left Raagi’s home, she and her mother were brutally attacked by two thieves in an attempt to rob them. The names of the robbers were Paari and Blade. Blade was the older one, and he injured Revathy to the point she slipped into a coma on admission to the hospital.


Who did Gilly kill accidentally?

On the same night, Blade and Pari parted ways, and the latter left with the loot from their robbery of Raagi’s home and the Indigenous Museum from the town. Blade entered Gilly’s home and hid himself in a kitchen cabinet. The young boy sensed the presence of a thief and locked him in. Gilly later found him dead and freaked out as he believed he had killed the robber. He along with his friends got together to find a solution to the problem. They hid the body in the backyard and placed flower pots on it to avoid suspicion. 


Was Rico concerned about Blade?

Rico was the leader of the gang Paari and Blade were members of. Rico was livid at Blade for taking a detour after their museum robbery instead of following their plan. While Paari was back at the den and mentioned Blade planned to rob Gilly’s home. Rico and his henchmen were not willing to believe Paari, and since Blade did not show up, all of them assumed he might have run away with the valuables stolen from the museum and Raagi’s home. Paari was kept under close watch by the gang, and he felt the sudden pangs of ostracization. 

Rico’s business partner Leonard, aka Leo, was a part of a company that sold and installed CCTV cameras. One of the places where the CCTV cameras were installed was at the Indigenous Museum, and he was involved in the robbery due to his access to the place. Rico and Leo were supposed to deliver Airaa, a mafia Don, a locket stolen from the museum. Since Blade was nowhere to be found, they had to find out what happened to him. 


What did the children plan?

The boys learned from Raagi about the two thieves and the robbery at her place. The boys had no choice but to inform her about the body they had buried in Gilly’s home. Irai came up with a plan to frame the deceased robber’s partner so that the police never rounded them up as accomplices in the murder. He also believed the robbers could be working for a gang, who would be looking for the valuables as well. They wanted to create a trail of evidence, but it had to be meticulous to make sure they were not caught by gang or the police. 


How did Santosh’s father get involved?

Santosh’s father was an absentee figure in his life. He was verbally and physically abusive to his son, and Santosh was not very fond of him. The kid’s rival in school, Vinay, was found selling gold jewelry and his father was informed about it. Vinay’s father confronted him, and he quickly confessed to having gotten from Santosh’s school bag. Santosh’s father was informed about the incident, and he was not lenient to him. The young boy revealed the death of the thief in Gilly’s home and their role in burying the body. Santosh’s father was flabbergasted, and the children found him digging up the grave to steal the gold and other valuables. The boys and Raagi soon held him hostage at Gilly’s home and blackmailed him into aiding them so that the police wouldn’t come looking for something at Gilly’s home.


What happened at Panneer’s home?

Raagi was unwell, and as a result, she was staying at Irai’s home, and both had become close friends. The boys came across the robber’s broken mobile phone, and on it they found a landline number. Irai, with the help of his father’s office, cross-checked the address the phone number was registered at. They came across the name of a pimp named Panneer and planned to plant evidence in his place to mislead the police and the gang looking for the robber.

Rico was under the impression Panneer might know about Blade’s whereabouts, and he was egged on by Leo to look for anything that would take them to Blade. Gilly left a voicemail on Panneer’s answering machine from a payphone as part of a trail of evidence against him, claiming they had a mobile phone in their possession and had found his number in it. On reaching Panneer’s home, the kids found him intoxicated and sleeping. The children hid themselves in his room on learning of Rico and his gang’s presence in the house. Rico and Panneer had a faceoff, which was followed by the former killing the latter. 

Raagi learned Paari was the name of the second robber who had joined Blade. The children finally learned of the gang leader, Rico, who was supposed to get his hands on the valuables, including a locket from Blade. They tried to escape without leaving a trace but were spotted by Alex, Rico’s henchman. To avoid being captured by Rico, Irai killed Alex, which was an outlandish move, keeping in mind he was a minor. As Rico moved Panneer’s body from his house, they assumed Alex would join them later, but since he was not found, Leo took it upon himself to find out what might have happened. 

Leo entered the crime scene wearing a hazmat suit to learn about the police investigation. Leo learned Alex was indeed murdered, and someone had written Rico’s name, pointing fingers at him as a prime suspect. While police concluded Alex’s murder was connected to the robbery. The plan set up by children was working in their favor. Leo informed Rico about the same, and he informed them the gang will have to leave the town. Leo also wanted to know who was framing their gang. 


Why did the children move Blade’s body?

The police soon came by Gilly’s home as they suspected this could have been the place where another robbery was attempted. To avoid the body being detected, the children, along with Santosh’s father, moved it to the riverside to make it look like the robber was murdered by his gang and his body was disposed of. 


How did Leo find out about the children and their involvement?

Leo was the villain here, as he was keen to find out what happened to the valuables Blade ran off with. Leo had moved into town and was living as a paying guest at Irai’s home to avoid any suspicion. Irai’s father had come across an inhaler that was dropped by Blade a Gilly’s backyard. Irai, out of fear of being caught, passed it off as his grandfather’s. While the grandfather’s doctor revealed this was not the medication prescribed, Irai’s father brought in a forensic team to Gilly’s home, where many fingerprints were found. 

Amidst Leo’s parallel investigation, Blade’s body was found by the river, and the police confirmed a gang war led to the deaths of two people, and they were looking for Rico. To confirm if the children were involved, a stranger was sent to them by Leo to let them know Rico was on to them. Their reaction was enough for Leo to conclude that the children framed him and Rico.


Where did the children move the jewelry?

Irai and Gilly came up with a plan to wrap the jewelry stolen by Blade and Paari in clothing and place them inside an airbag. They planned to place three bags such to avoid being traced by the gang, as they knew they would be traced. 


How did Irai know Leo was the mastermind?

Leo found the weapon used to kill Alex in Irai’s room, which further confirmed the children were framing him and his gang. Raagi saw Leo with Paari, and recognized the second robber. She helped her friends conclude that Leo was involved in the robbery that was orchestrated and that he needed to be stopped. Leo placed his phone in the bag Irai and Gilly had prepared to be donated. The man also kidnapped Bharath, Santosh, and Raagi. The phone he placed was used to blackmail Irai and Gilly and get them to Rico’s den. The plan was to keep them from talking about the crime. Leo also probably wanted the children to confess their role in Blade’s murder and find out where the valuables were kept. 


Did the police catch Leo?

The last episode of Snakes and Ladders was about Irai and Gilly planning to catch Leo. The kids used the only help at their disposal, which was Irai’s father, who was also narrowing down on who committed the robbery. Irai, Gilly, and the rest of the gang were hell bent from the start on not approaching the police, but since their friends’ lives were at stake, they had no option but to get help. Irai and Gilly made sure not to let the police know about their role in Blade and Alex’s deaths. It did not make sense, as the police were not suspicious of why Leo and Rico kidnapped the children. There were many plot holes in the story and subplots that were just ignored by the makers. This led to confusion as many questions remained unanswered.

The show ended with the conclusion of a few subplots and setting it up for the next season. Irai saved Raagi, Santosh, and Bharat from being killed by Rico. Paari also survived and landed in front of Irai’s father and was soon arrested.  Paari had been disturbed ever since Blade disappeared. He had agreed to do the job at the insistence of Blade, as he needed money desperately. Since he was also kept hostage by Rico and Leo, the whole ordeal was an eye-opening experience, as nobody from the gang believed in him and he felt abandoned. His plan to surrender was also thwarted by Leo. Paari’s only way to redeem himself was to save the children from Rico’s wrath, and he did so. He hoped he would be given a reduced sentence if he cooperated with the police. He reunited with his girlfriend by the end of the show, which was a sign that he had given up on the life of crime. 

Irai’s father, however, was horrified to find out Leo, the mastermind, lived in his house. Leo was on the run because he was looking for the locket that would get him a meeting with Don Airaa. Leo had bigger plans in mind, which was why he was trying to wrap things up. He asked Rico and his gang to leave town so that his name would not spring up if any of them were arrested. The man was diabolical, and he was finally exposed thanks to the children. Leo did not get his hands on the locket Don Airaa was looking for, but his disappearance does not mean he would not return.Gilly was finally leaving town to live with his parents. The rest of the gang was not happy, as this would mean the end of their friendship. Since Gilly had always wanted to be with his parents, this was a positive development in his life. Gilly gave away the locket from the stolen valuables to Irai and asked him to keep it as the symbol of their friendship. The locket would be a memory of what all of them went through. It was surprising that Irai was feeling fine after having killed a man, which the makers passed off as something normal. 

The ending of Snakes and Ladders had Airaa threatening an old man who was supposed to give him the valuable locket stolen from the museum by Leo. Since Leo had disappeared, there was no sign of the locket from the valuables that were found on Blade’s body. The makers did not show Airaa’s face as it was a set-up for the second season, which might be about police and the mafia looking for Leo and the locket. However, keeping in mind how messy this season was, the second installment looks highly doubtful.


Smriti Kannan
Smriti Kannan
Smriti Kannan is a cinema enthusiast, and a part time film blogger. An ex public relations executive, films has been a major part of her life since the day she watched The Godfather – Part 1. If you ask her, cinema is reality. Cinema is an escape route. Cinema is time traveling. Cinema is entertainment. Smriti enjoys reading about cinema, she loves to know about cinema and finding out trivia of films and television shows, and from time to time indulges in fan theories.


 

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