Adolescence Ending Defined: Did Jamie Kill Katie?

This text comprises spoilers for “Adolescence.” 

A four-part drama on Netflix has rapidly grow to be one of the crucial talked-about tv sequence of 2025 and among the finest Netflix originals ever launched. After beloved British star Stephen Graham dished out his interval boxing drama “A Thousand Blows” (a dream look ahead to “Peaky Blinders” followers), he is adopted it up with “Adolescence” which he each co-wrote and stars in. Graham performs Eddie Miller, the daddy of 13-year-old Jamie Miller (newcomer Owen Cooper), who’s arrested on suspicion of murdering one in all his classmates, Katie (Emilia Holliday). An unflinching and repeatedly heartbreaking story ensues because the household and the neighborhood affected by this brutal case are pressured to select up the items after the fallout. Every chapter is filmed in a single jaw-dropping single take, incomes its rightful place amongst a few of the biggest one-shots in historical past. 

Time leaping by days, weeks, and months, the grief and trauma stemming from the tragedy on the coronary heart of “Adolescence” seeps into the very bones of the city and its inhabitants, with the Miller household ceaselessly altered due to it. By the tip, all that is left are tears and oldsters questioning the place all of it went improper, haunted by the want that they’ll by no means have the ability to take it again. So, how does “Adolescence” conclude, and what inventive decisions have been made to use the superbly timed parts woven all through? To start, we should first keep in mind that Eddie and Manda Miller (Christine Tremarco) are pressured to confront the reality that their seemingly candy younger son is nothing just like the boy they believed they have been mentioning.

A subgenre in homicide dramas of late, “Adolescence” establishes in its first episode that this isn’t a “whodunit?” however a “why-done-it?” addressing its first massive query inside the preliminary hour. As a lot as he cries for his dad and mom whereas being taken away in a police automotive and as a lot as he guarantees his father that he did not commit the act that Detective Inspector Luke Bascombe (Ashley Walters) accuses him of, video proof proves in any other case. Jamie did kill Katie, and there is nothing he can do now to take it again.

It is the primary in a sequence of emotional intestine punches and a case-closing second that’s the setup for the present, however one which Graham reveals was fastidiously dealt with earlier than pulling the rug from beneath its viewers with the assistance of his younger co-star. “That was right down to the casting. We needed the viewers to be on Jamie’s facet and suppose, ‘Oh my God, this arrest is horrible. There isn’t any approach he is carried out this,'” Graham informed Tudum. In fact, video footage exhibits Jamie brutally stabbing Katie a number of occasions, and everybody, together with his father, watches in complete disbelief. “We needed the viewers to really feel the identical emotions that Eddie feels when he seems at it and realizes what Jamie did.” It is one of many first bookends of what’s undoubtedly a career-best efficiency from Graham, with the opposite being within the present’s remaining moments with a teddy bear and tears.

Episode 4 revisits the Miller household 13 months after Katie’s brutal slaying on Eddie’s birthday, with Jamie’s trial simply across the nook. In a home of strained smiles and tears behind closed doorways, Eddie, Manda, and their daughter Lisa (Amelie Pease) attempt to get by the day like every other. It is an effort that ends in additional heartache and struggles when Eddie finds his work van vandalized, and a name from Jamie that casts a wave of silence over the household. After arguing in opposition to the accusations from the start, the Miller boy accepts his crime and modifications his plea to responsible, making certain {that a} heavy jail sentence will probably be headed his approach.

From there, all that is left is for Eddie and Manda to ask one another the place the whole lot went improper. Ought to they’ve been extra weary of the late hours their son was in entrance of his laptop and the poisonous tradition he was falling into that consumed him? May a number of extra talks between father and son have stopped him from performing his unthinkable act? These are all questions that Eddie is aware of he’ll by no means get the reply to, and alone in Jamie’s room, he sobs into his son’s mattress for failing to see the indicators. Lastly, he takes his son’s teddy bear and tucks it into mattress, apologizing to it as if it have been his personal flesh and blood. “I am sorry, son,” Eddie whispers. “I ought to’ve carried out higher.” It is a soul-crushing second masterfully dealt with by Graham, which was improved with the assistance of his circle of relatives off-camera.

Chatting with the Radio Occasions in regards to the remaining emotional moments of “Adolescence,” Stephen Graham revealed that although he might need been alone within the present’s closing scene, his actual household was proper there with him, giving him emotional assist. “The take we truly used was the final take of the entire thing, and on that remaining take, my spouse [Graham’s producing partner, Hannah Walters, who also stars as a teacher in the show] and my two youngsters have been there as effectively.”

Graham’s household went the additional mile for his or her performing powerhouse of a Dad by posting messages to the wall that we see him look out of shot, turning up the tear rely to such a powerful stage. “And so after I go into the bed room, what they’d carried out was they put some footage on the wardrobe, and it stated, ‘So pleased with you, we love you, Dad.’ And it was footage of my two youngsters, Grace and Alfie, who I am keen on.” There was additionally the added considered his on-screen son and star-in-the-making that spurred him on. “In order that sort of sparked that final, remaining scene in that second as effectively whereas I used to be pondering of him, who I’ve had essentially the most superb expertise with.” It makes for one of the crucial memorable father-son relationships lately depicted on tv, and it could possibly be revisited if Graham applies the identical approach of working he has up to now.

Despite the fact that Netflix has made no bulletins about giving “Adolescence” a second season, alternatives are tucked away inside the cracks of this damaged and bleak story that might permit us to revisit it.

Jamie has modified his plea to responsible, however we nonetheless do not know the way harsh his sentencing will probably be or the additional ramifications that can impression his household when his case goes to trial. Will the Millers, who promise one another within the present’s finale that they will not relocate, follow their plan regardless of the continuing ostracization within the city? How will Eddie, emotionally devastated by the bombshell dropped in his house, handle to carry it collectively? Extra importantly, is there an opportunity that Jamie, lastly acknowledging his actions, finds some reprogramming throughout his time in jail? There’s an apparent argument that none of this must be answered, however upon contemplating a few of Graham’s finest performances with two of his earlier characters, it ought to be dealt with simply as effectively.

“This Is England” and “Boiling Level” are two movies that home a pair of the actor’s finest works, and in each circumstances, he reprised the respective roles in spin-off tv exhibits. Conserving that in thoughts, it is clear that the inventive power behind this must-see Netflix unique has it in him to return to roles that he has proven a real ardour for, refining and molding these fragile souls that he is dropped at life so brilliantly. “Adolescence” could possibly be one value rising with, as effectively.