The Netflix psychological drama show ‘Adolescence’ presents a gripping narrative about a young boy and his family whose lives are turned upside down in light of a serious criminal accusation. Jamie Miller, a 13-year-old boy, is dragged away from his home by the authorities, facing murder accusations for the death of his classmate, Katie Leonard. In the harrowing ordeal that begins, his family—his father, Eddie in particular—remain by the teen’s side, unfaltering in their conviction of his innocence.
However, the investigation, proof, and psychological tests that ensue uncover a grim truth about the world and Jamie’s position within it. The series is still filled with unsettling tension as it addresses the sobering truths regarding today’s society, examined through a distinctive filter. Consequently, Jamie’s situation and the truth behind his experiences with ease attract the audience’s attention and interest. SPOILERS AHEAD!
Adolescence Recap
Jamie and the Miller family’s descent into debasement begins on a typical morning when an armed team of officers, led by Detective Bascombe, bust open their front door. They take the teenage boy into custody for suspicion of murder and lead him downstairs to the station as his family trails along behind. The ordeal horribly traumatizes the boy, who insists that he has not done anything wrong. As much as he is his arresting officer, Bascombe tries to be kind to Jamie and even suggests getting him a solicitor while being questioned and tested for the first time. When his processing starts, the young boy chooses his dad, Eddie, as his appropriate adult to take with him through each step of the process. Nonetheless, when the time comes to lock him in detention, he’s left completely by himself in a prison cell.
Meanwhile, Jamie’s family is still completely bewildered about what has happened to them—irate and perplexed in equal proportion when they find out that the kid has been charged with killing someone with a kitchen knife. But when he’s given the opportunity to talk to Eddie, his son assures him that he’s completely innocent. Finally, with his father and his lawyer, Paul Barlow, Jamie has a series of initial tests, which consist of mouth swabs, a blood test, fingerprinting, and a body strip. There is then a questioning phase by Detectives Bascombe and Frank, who interview Jamie about his friends, most notably two young boys called Tommy and Ryan. Katie Leonard, the murder victim, is also mentioned. Despite Jamie avoiding any observations about what he was doing the previous evening, the Detectives have in their possession a sequence of CCTV images that locate him within the same places as Katie around the time of the murder. Indeed, it is possible to create a timeline that shows Jamie seemingly stalking the girl. However, the boy categorically denies all accusations. But Bascombe has one last piece of evidence: video evidence of an altercation between Jamie and Katie, during which the former knifes her with a blade and abandons her to bleed to death. Afterward, Eddie is shocked to shock, incapable of reconciling reality about Jamie in light of his steadfast denial.
Before long, news of Jamie’s arrest brings a busy day when Bascombe and Frank show up at his school for questioning. Although Ryan and Tommy, the boy’s friends, continue to be evasive, Katie’s closest friend, Jade, confronts the detectives with raw anger. She appears to loathe Jamie and his friends utterly. Later, together with his son Adam, Bascombe acquires some truths regarding the social bubble of the school. Secondly, the police also discover what they were seeking after Ryan reveals some important details about the still-missing murder weapon. Thus, Jamie is accused of the crime and placed in a training center to wait for his court hearing. Meanwhile, some psychologists, such as Dr. Briony Ariston, arrive to assess him and determine the cause of his homicidal intent
Adolescence Ending: Why Did Jamie Kill Katie?
Despite the initial ambiguity regarding Jamie’s potential innocence in Katie’s murder, it soon disappears with the unveiling of the CCTV footage. The video clearly shows the boy stabbing the girl in a car park and then running away from the scene. Naturally, the only actual secret that is left is regarding his reasons. Bascombe’s visit to the child’s school shows Jamie and Katie were not friends, contrary to the frequent visits of the latter on his Instagram profile. In real life, Katie’s remarks were covert yet clear digs at Jamie because he is an incel—a member of an internet forum of men with aggressive views of women who think they cannot get the latter’s sexual interest. Thus, a aspect of revenge is added to the boy’s lethal actions on the girl. However, it is not as if Jamie was a pure victim of bullying—something that becomes clear through Jade’s attitude towards him and his friends. The complexities of his troubled mind betray themselves—with great effort—under Briony Ariston, who has continuous conversations with the suspect to get an idea about how he perceives the incident.
The relationship between Briony and Jamie appears casual at first. However, the latter is given to angry and violent outbursts—little but troubling ones such as banging on the table, throwing objects, and shouting. In this way, the boy unwittingly shows us his bad temper and use of intimidation to get his way. Additionally, the 13-year-old appears to feel a strongly internalized sense that he ought to be at least somewhat sexually active while at the same time feeling that he is not sufficiently attractive to receive such offers. He is fixated on the notion that the basis of the dynamic between women and men is sex. Additionally, he holds the conviction that guys like him must use deceit in order to have girls interested in them. These abhorrent yet foundational pieces of Jamie’s reality are closely tied to his act of murdering Katie. What actually happened, however, is that a while prior to her untimely death, the latter’s nudes were leaked throughout the school, solidifying her in a socially exposed position. Her peers were mocking her and making lewd comments about her physique. But Jamie attempted to take advantage of the situation by trying to extend false empathy to the girl in hopes that she would perceive him as a potential boyfriend option. Essentially, he was attempting to use her vulnerability for his own sexual purposes. Indeed, he recognizes in retrospect that he did not even like Katie as an individual.
However, the social messaging Jamie has received from incel communities has led him to think that pinning girls against walls in momentary lapses of judgment is the only method through which he can access them sexually. The same, together with the increasing—but entirely imagined—duty he feels to have sex with them drives his behavior. Consequently, Katie quickly discerned his trick that evening and insisted she wasn’t desperate to date him. Therefore, she bluntly bruised his ego and went on to antagonize it further by making comments on his social media page. Here, events loop back to Jamie’s dependence on aggressive outbursts—and which prompted him to pursue Katie and threaten her using his knife. The girl perished from multiple stab wounds—a sign that the assault was conducted in rage and with intent to kill. At the end of the day, in the broad canvas of Jamie’s existence, his actions were constructed brick-by-brick by the poisonous and disgusting misogyny which radicalized him. Nevertheless, his actions—driven by anger at Katie for withholding something from him he believed he deserved—are his own fault.
Why Does Eddie Blame Himself For Jamie’s Behavior?
Weeks after Jamie’s quite harrowing final session with Briony, the boy continues to stay in the training center in the lead-up to his court hearing. He has thus far practiced pleading innocent for his trial and something that his family wholeheartedly supports. However, it’s clear that regardless of their efforts to stand up for Jamie’s assumed innocence, the overwhelming public sentiment disagrees with him. Therefore, on his birthday, Eddie wakes to see a slur spray painted on the side of his van. He attempts to uphold his aggressively positive mindset by driving his family to a supermarket in order to purchase cover-up paint. However, reality finally catches up with him once more.
Much of Eddie’s angst results from his failure to balance his son with what he has done. All this while, Jamie had been assuring him that he was innocent—something the father had been blind to. But the reality of the CCTV footage is something that speaks volumes for itself. Hence, Eddie is conflicted regarding the whole affair because his son continues to hold onto his innocent label with his intended court case plea. For the same reason, a moment of catharsis seals his fate when, on the way back from the market, Jamie calls his dad and makes a significant announcement he has made. The boy has opted to plead guilty at his trial. The discovery nearly amounts to permission for Eddie and his wife, Manda, to grieve the fact that they were so desperately hoping to believe concerning their son. Eddie would prefer to think that he did the best that he could as a father. In contrast to the way that he was raised, he made sure to exclude abuse from his children’s lives. But instead of addressing his problems, he just redirected his short temper towards other avenues. Thus, one way or another, Jamie found himself inheriting or copying his tendency to unleash violence on objects—which subsequently culminated in violence against women. Also, he lost the warning signs of his son’s online radicalization into the incel culture. No matter how he twists it, the reality is that some degree of separation between Jamie and his family permitted them to turn a blind eye to his violent and troubled thoughts and ideas.
Consequently, there is no universe in which Eddie can possibly shed himself of at least some responsibility. After all, be it good or bad, his 13-year-old son’s rearing is his and his wife’s to have on their shoulders. Nevertheless, the realization that Jamie’s sister, Lisa, was a wonderful, caring person validates that Eddie and Manda were merely components of the grand equation that led to their child’s death. At the end of it all, Eddie is forced to fault himself for Jamie’s actions based on the merit of being a person who cares for him. He will necessarily feel responsible for not noticing the signs and doing what he could to prevent his loss to himself. Therefore, the man will most likely carry a conscience of guilt for eternity blaming himself for not being able to shield his child’s innocence.
Why Did Jamie Ask Eddie to Be His Appropriate Adult?
With Jamie Miller’s entry of guilt for his actions comes additional question as to his motives in the aftermath of the murder, where he attempted to battle the charges of murder. Regardless of the traumatic nature of the events of the night when he killed a poor girl, it is not like he can eradicate the truth entirely from his mind. Even though he wishes to convince himself that he hasn’t harmed anyone, Jamie is aware of what he has done, and he is aware that sooner rather than later, someone will be able to prove it. Thus, for most of the story, the boy is in survival mode. On some menacing level, he is aware that he can rely on his perceived innocence as a child.
Jamie is aware that he can count on his family, especially his father, Eddie, to defend him. Nonetheless, as he’s expecting some evidence to be produced against him, he knows that he requires someone in his company who would unconditionally trust him. Because the boy looks up to his father, he is certain Eddie will defend him tooth and nail. By contrast, his mother—another potential candidate to serve as an Appropriate Adult could be persuaded in her belief in him with sufficient persuasion. Similarly, for the same reason, the boy chooses his father to be with him throughout the legal proceedings. At the same time, Jamie is aware that confessing even to Eddie will leave a bad impression of his guilt upon the latter. So, he keeps on lying to the man, aware that if he repeats it enough, his dad will surely believe in his innocence.
Why Does Jamie Change His Plea? What Will Happen to Him?
Ultimately, Jamie’s move to change his plea comes as the perfect ending to the story. However, one can’t help but question what precisely motivated him to do the about-face. Even months later, even in his sessions with Briony, it’s still evident that Jamie is still claiming the fact that he didn’t kill Katie. He claims the video was falsified and that he never actually harmed her. However, the dialogue that continues to unfold in the story unveils a much darker aspect of his mind that speaks of something entirely different. Even after Katie’s death, the boy goes on talking about her with increasingly concerning lack of regard.
Jamies uses profanity to characterize Katie’s personality and makes degrading remarks about her physique. He argues that she’s a terrible individual and has no issue trying to manipulate her for his own sexual gain. While holding himself innocent regarding the issue, he asserts he believes she deserved to be killed due to her disagreeable personality. In his head, Katie’s rejection of him and then identifying him as an incel renders her a bad person and not worthy of living. At the same time, he regards himself as a good person for the mere reason that he didn’t sexually assault her at knifepoint when he could have. This extreme misjudgment in Jamie’s conception of personhood and morality between men and women is a large reason why he first decides to plead innocent. He’s wired to think his actions will never be worse than Katie’s because he’s gotten himself stuck in a victim mindframe. Hence, though he may be aware that he’s responsible for Katie’s death, he doesn’t necessarily believe that he’s harmed anyone or that he’s a bad—or guilty—individual. Though unlikely that he would have done that for himself, it’s possible that he used Briony’s advice and availed himself of some mental health services while detained. It would’ve benefited him either to realize the wrong he was doing or just the mere reality of the judicial system’s beliefs not aligning with his own. In the end, it’s preferable that he pleads guilty and at least acknowledge the irreparable harm he has caused. It also guarantees that Jamie will be convicted of murder and most likely receive a life sentence as penalty for his act. Whether or not this will continue to lead to his incel radicalization or put him on a moral path is in his own hands. Read More: Is Adolescence Based on a True Story?
