Adolescence Ending Defined: Did Jamie Kill Katie?

This text accommodates spoilers for “Adolescence.” 

A four-part drama on Netflix has rapidly change into one of the vital talked-about tv collection of 2025 and top-of-the-line 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 among his classmates, Katie (Emilia Holliday). An unflinching and repeatedly heartbreaking story ensues because the household and the group affected by this brutal case are pressured to choose 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 means of 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 perpetually altered due to it. By the top, all that is left are tears and fogeys questioning the place all of it went flawed, haunted by the want that they’ll by no means be capable of take it again. So, how does “Adolescence” conclude, and what artistic decisions had been made to use the superbly timed components woven all through? To start, we should first do not forget 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 had been citing.

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 huge query inside the preliminary hour. As a lot as he cries for his dad and mom whereas being taken away in a police automobile 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 collection 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 wished the viewers to be on Jamie’s facet and assume, ‘Oh my God, this arrest is horrible. There is no method he is executed this,'” Graham advised Tudum. In fact, video footage reveals Jamie brutally stabbing Katie a number of occasions, and everybody, together with his father, watches in whole disbelief. “We wished 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 means of the day like some 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 towards the accusations from the start, the Miller boy accepts his crime and adjustments his plea to responsible, making certain {that a} heavy jail sentence will probably be headed his method.

From there, all that is left is for Eddie and Manda to ask one another the place the whole lot went flawed. Ought to they’ve been extra weary of the late hours their son was in entrance of his pc and the poisonous tradition he was falling into that consumed him? May a couple 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 had been his personal flesh and blood. “I am sorry, son,” Eddie whispers. “I ought to’ve executed higher.” It is a soul-crushing second masterfully dealt with by Graham, which was improved with the assistance of his family off-camera.

Talking to the Radio Instances in regards to the remaining emotional moments of “Adolescence,” Stephen Graham revealed that despite the fact that he may need been alone within the present’s closing scene, his actual household was proper there with him, giving him emotional assist. “The take we really 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 had 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 depend to such a formidable degree. “And so after I go into the bed room, what they’d executed was they put some footage on the wardrobe, and it stated, ‘So happy 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 type of sparked that final, remaining scene in that second as effectively whereas I used to be considering of him, who I’ve had essentially the most wonderful expertise with.” It makes for one of the vital memorable father-son relationships just lately depicted on tv, and it may very well be revisited if Graham applies the identical method of working he has previously.

Though 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 would 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 may 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 dwelling, 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 must 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 instances, he reprised the respective roles in spin-off tv reveals. Retaining that in thoughts, it is clear that the artistic power behind this must-see Netflix authentic 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” may very well be one value rising with, as effectively.