Black Cake Ending: Who is Mabel’s Father? Theories

Ever since Eleanor Bennett reveals that Byron and Benny have an elder sister in Hulu’s mystery series ‘Black Cake,’ her two children start to wonder about who the father of the first child can be. Upon knowing about her biological mother, Mabel shows up before the Bennetts to know the same. In addition to revealing a tragic happening from Eleanor/Covey’s past, Mabel’s two half-siblings inform her that their mother recorded everything she needed to know before the latter died. The series finale ends with Mabel playing the same audio record to learn the secrets about her birth, only to pause the same before she learns the name of her father! SPOILERS AHEAD.

Covey’s Boss

When Byron and Benny learn about their elder sister, the former quickly assumes that the father is Covey’s former Scottish boss, who raped her before she returned to London. When Mabel shows up to learn more about her birth, Byron tells her about their mother being a rape survivor, indicating that the food critic can be the daughter of the unnamed man who hurt their mother. After learning that she was pregnant from an English doctor, Covey told him that the only way she could have conceived a child was through the crime she had to endure back in Scotland.

When the nun at the convent, where Covey gave birth to Mabel, asked her about the race of her daughter’s father, the Jamaican replied Scottish. If Covey was being honest in these two instances, Mabel is the daughter of her mother’s former boss. Covey must have hidden the identity of the person from the previous recordings she created anticipating her other two children’s efforts to track down the person. She might have feared that Byron and Benny would hunt down the person to expose him as an act of vengeance for hurting their loved one. As a mother, the last thing Covey likely wanted was for her children to get into trouble in her name, especially after her death.

Furthermore, Covey possibly didn’t want to destroy the lives of the people who love the man who raped her by exposing him to her children. That could be the reason why she intentionally hid the man’s name in the recordings for all her children. But Covey also knew that Mabel didn’t deserve to live without knowing the truth about her father. As the child of a mother who abandoned her when she was just a girl, Covey experienced the hardship of not knowing what happened to one of her parents. She didn’t want Mabel to deal with the same conflicts, which explains why she recorded the name in a different audio file.

Covey might have wanted to give Mabel a choice to discover who her father is, especially when it is someone unacceptable. By hiding the name of the rapist, she could be respecting her eldest child’s right to not know her father. Covey might not have wanted Byron and Benny’s curiosity to know about the person who hurt their mother to force Mabel into discovering her parent. That could also be why Covey chose to hide the identity of the man. Since Mabel knows about what happened to her mother in Scotland, she may choose not to listen to the recording further.

Mabel now has a family she formed with Byron and Benny. Dragging her father into the same may only offend her brother and sister, which may stop the food critic from trying to know more about him.

The Daughter From a Secret Relationship?

Whenever Covey confronted the identity of her daughter’s father, she insisted that the person was her former Scottish boss. However, in the final recording she created for Mabel, Covey said that her father is an integral part of the food critic’s life story. Considering that the Scottish man’s presence in Covey’s life was brief and hurtful, it is possible that another man was in the picture. Mabel can be the daughter of that person whose existence has been a secret for decades. After resigning from her job in Scotland and before getting pregnant, Covey might have had a brief but intense relationship with a man. Mabel can be the daughter of that person.

After leaving Scotland severely hurt, Covey could have sought comfort in a man without expecting them to be intimate. Their companionship might have led them to sleep together, only for her to get pregnant with Mabel. The person might have wanted their relationship a secret, possibly forcing Covey to present her former Scottish boss as her daughter’s father in front of the doctor and nun who helped her. One way or another, this man might have remained in Covey and Gibbs’ social spheres, which explains why she added in the recording that lives would be severely affected if her daughter chose to listen to the name of her father.

If Byron and Benny know that the man, Eleanor might have chosen to keep him in the dark. That can be the reason why she names him in the recording created only for Mabel.