Adolescence Ending Explained: Is Jamie Actually the Killer — and Does He Plead Guilty?

‘Adolescence’ follows a murder investigation in real-time

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Adolescence revolves around a 13-year-old boy, Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper), who is accused of murdering a girl at his school.

Each of the show’s four episodes, which premiered on Netflix on March 13, were filmed in a single shot, making for a harrowing and deliberately tense experience for the viewer. The series premiere begins with Jamie’s arrest and initial detainment the morning after classmate Katie Leonard’s body is found, while subsequent episodes each take place 72 hours, seven months and 13 months after the slaying.

“We knew we had to grab you from the beginning,” Stephen Graham, who co-created the series and stars as Jamie’s father, Eddie, told Vanity Fair. “My main thing was to go into the house and arrest this 12-, 13-year-old boy, and then see the timeline that it would take for it to come to court.”

Graham even consulted with his cousin, who’s a police officer, about the duration of a typical murder case to develop the storyline for each episode. The real-time feel of Adolescence means there are no flashbacks or exposition, and the audience learns everything just as the investigators and Jamie’s family do.

So, did Jamie kill Katie? Here’s everything to know about how Adolescence ended.

Warning: Adolescence spoilers ahead!

What is the plot of Adolescence?

Adolescence follows the case of Jamie Miller, a 13-year-old boy accused of murdering his classmate, Katie Leonard.

Each episode follows events in real-time, starting with Jamie’s arrest in episode 1, followed by the police investigation and the impact on Jamie’s friends and classmates 72 hours later in episode 2.

The following episode features a meeting between Jamie and a court-appointed psychologist (The Crown‘s Erin Doherty) seven months after his arrest and lastly, the series finale shows the aftermath of the allegations on his family 13 months later.

The series has a particular focus on the why more than on the how of the slaying at its center, as well as the impact Katie’s murder has on the entire town, from the police officers investigating the case to Jamie’s sister to Katie’s best friend.

How does Adolescence end?

The final episode of Adolescence takes place on Eddie’s birthday, 13 months after Jamie’s arrest. After opening a hand-drawn card from his son, Eddie spends the morning trying to scrub graffiti off of his van. When soap and a sponge fail, Eddie, his wife Manda (Christine Tremarco) and daughter Lisa (Amelie Pease) go to a hardware store for paint to cover up the tag.

After shopping, Eddie notices a group of teenagers filming him and laughing. He chases them, catching up to one, who he grabs by the collar and slams onto the ground, shouting.

Eddie then opens the paint can, splashes it onto the graffiti, and gets into an argument with the store security guard for making a mess in the parking lot.

On their drive home, Jamie calls from the detention center, telling Eddie happy birthday and that he wants to change his plea from not guilty to guilty.

When they arrive home, with the shock of Jamie’s words reverberating, Eddie and Manda look back on warning signs about their son’s behavior. Manda recalls Jamie being on his computer at 1 a.m. and Eddie says that he just wanted to be a better father than his own, who abused him when he was a child.

The series ends as Eddie goes into Jamie’s bedroom, sobs into the comforter and holds his teddy bear. “I’m sorry, son,” he says through tears. “I should have done better.”

Is Adolescence based on a true story?

Adolescence isn’t based on one singular true story, but Graham says it was inspired by real knife crime incidents in the U.K., as well as the influence of “manosphere” personalities worldwide.

“One of our aims was to ask, ‘What is happening to our young men these days, and what are the pressures they face from their peers, from the internet, and from social media?’ ” he told Netflix.

Graham expounded in an interview with GQ U.K., explaining that he discovered podcaster Andrew Tate by accident after his son showed him a completely unrelated video about exercise training.

His daughter then explained Tate’s content to him, leading Graham to find the influencer’s reach particularly concerning, given that Tate is also under multiple investigations for human trafficking and rape. He has denied all allegations.

“When I was a kid, when I was in my bedroom, my mum knew I was safe. There wasn’t really much I could be doing that would bring me to harm,” Graham said. “But in today’s day and age, these phones are very dangerous. And these so-called influencers, I think there’s a huge responsibility there.”

Is Jamie actually the killer in Adolescence?

Yes, Jamie is the killer in Adolescence — but he didn’t work alone.

During episode 1, the police show Jamie, Eddie and their attorney a closed-circuit video of Jamie stabbing Katie in the parking lot where her body was later found. Despite being on camera, Jamie steadfastly maintains his innocence until episode 3, which takes place seven months after the murder.

During a conversation with a court-appointed psychologist named Briony, he accidentally confesses to stabbing Katie. After Jamie realizes what he said, he tries to backpedal his remarks.

The middle schooler’s accomplice in the murder is revealed in episode 2. DI Luke Bascombe (Ashley Walters) questions Jamie’s friend Ryan, who confesses to giving him the knife, but that he didn’t know Jamie was actually going to kill or hurt anyone with it. “I wanted things the way they were,” Ryan said. “I thought he’d just scare them.” Ryan was then arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit murder.

In the series finale, which takes place six months after Jamie confessed to murdering Katie, Jamie calls Eddie and says that he plans to change his plea from not guilty to guilty.

Why did Jamie kill Katie in Adolescence?

Unlike other crime dramas, co-creator Graham wanted to make sure that Jamie’s character had a healthy home life, in part to show how even seemingly well-adjusted young boys can fall prey to dangerous ideas.

“I didn’t want his dad to be a violent man,” Graham told The Guardian. “I didn’t want Mum to be a drinker. I didn’t want our young boy to be molested by his uncle Tony. I wanted to remove all of those possibilities for us to go: ‘Oh, that’s why he did it.’ “

Co-creator Thorne added, “Stephen and I talked a lot about the last few years in that family, and the moment Jamie just disappeared. It just happens. He’s gone. He’s locked behind the door, and he’s in another world, and the parents think it’s fine.”

During Bascombe’s investigation and Jamie’s conversation with Briony, the audience learns that Jamie is deeply insecure, which drew him to misogynist influencers online (with classmates mentioning Tate by name) and that his peers called him an “incel,” short for “involuntarily celibate.” Jamie’s attitude is laden with misogyny and dehumanization particularly when he discusses Katie and when he deliberately berates and tries to intimidate and frighten Briony.

Jamie tells the psychologist that Katie sent a topless photo to a boy nicknamed “Fidget” in their school, who then shared the photo with other students, and mocked Katie. Jamie says that after Katie’s photo circulated, he thought she’d be “weak” and asked her out on a date to a local fair. He recalled that she replied with laughter and said “No, I’m not that desperate.”

Jamie admits that on the day of the murder, he wanted to sexually assault Katie but refrained, telling Briony, “That night, I didn’t touch her … Most boys would’ve touched her. So that makes me better, don’t you think?”

What happens to Jamie in Adolescence?

In the final episode of Adolescence, Jamie tells his father he wants to plead guilty to murdering Katie.

He remains in the secure training center at the conclusion of the series, as juvenile offenders in the U.K. are never sent to adult prisons.

In the U.K., life sentences are mandatory for murder cases, but parole is possible. Even once paroled, convicted murderers will be on license (probation) for life.

Netflix’s Soapy The Hunting Wives Ends on Big Cliffhanger

• Entertainment
• Television

by

Melissa Locker

Locker is a contributor for TIME.

If you’ve decided to spend the hot summer days journeying to the heart of Texas by binge-watching all eight episodes of The Hunting Wives, you’re not alone. And, if you’ve made it all the way to the end of the show and have questions about the big finale, you’re also not alone.

Adapted from May Cobb’s novel, Netflix’s The Hunting Wives has it all: buried secrets, open-carry guns, bisexual affairs, kidnapped teens, questionable parenting, swinging politicians, and corrupt clergy. The show, which TIME’s critic described as “the wildest, silliest, and soapiest wife show ever made,” is such addictive fun that it’s easy to go with the Netflix flow and let the episodes roll. By the time the credits appear on the final episode, though, there may be a few bigger questions to answer. We’re here to help.

The show starts when Sophie (Brittany Snow), her husband Graham (Evan Jonigkeit), and their young son arrive in the Lone Star State with liberal ideas, a Tesla, and the hope of a new start. Graham is there to start a job working for Jed Banks (Dermot Mulroney), one of the most powerful men in Texas. His socialite wife, Margo (Malin Akerman), quickly takes Sophie under her wing, introducing the wide-eyed waif to her gaggle of girlfriends, including Jill (Katie Lowes), the wife of the megachurch’s reverend, and Callie (Jaime Ray Newman), the sheriff’s wife. Soon, they have the sober, non-driving, gun-hating, Cambridge girl with a dark past downing tequila shots, doing donuts in the parking lot, shooting a boar, having hot extramarital sex with Margo, and, ominously enough, buying a gun.

It’s all fun fun fun until a high school girl, Abby (Madison Wolfe) turns up dead in the woods. Turns out that Abby was dating Jill’s son, Brad (George Ferrier), and it’s revealed that not only did she no longer have her purity ring on, but Sophie’s gun is identified as the murder weapon. Despite the clear lack of motive (she didn’t even know the girl!), Sophie becomes the prime suspect in the murder. Now shunned by her new friends and her truly terrible husband, Sophie sets out to find the real killer. Along the way, she unearths some of the town’s darkest secrets.

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The Hunting Wives finale brings everything to a head

In the last episode, titled “Sophie’s Choice,” the clues and the bodies start piling up, and Sophie, the political PR-turned-girl-detective, realizes that the real killer has been right in front of her the whole time. She just didn’t want to see it. The big clue? It all started in the ladies’ room. Back to that in a minute.

The show did a good job with the build-up, because in Episode 7, the penultimate episode, it felt like the crime had been solved when youth Pastor Pete (Paul Teal) was busted for preying on his flock. He kidnapped one young woman and was behind the disappearance of another missing girl mentioned earlier in the season. He even gave Abby a ride to a party on the night she died and he had her sweater in his car. But though he looked guilty as hell, but he did not kill Abby. The other false lead was Brad’s mom, Jill. She openly disliked her son’s girlfriend, calling the girl a gold-digger and accusing her of leading her precious boy down a path of fornication and sin. She acted very suspiciously, too, wiping her GPS, changing all her passwords, and furiously cleaning one spot on her car. She was also downright eager to provide Brad with an alibi for the night of the murder, which just so happened to give her an alibi, too. Jill looked even more guilty after Pastor Pete told Sophie that Brad had confided in him that he had gotten his girlfriend pregnant and she had gotten an abortion, despite the difficulty accessing one in Deep Red Pro-Life Texas. Even her own son started to suspect the good pastor’s wife when it was revealed that she was one of Abby’s last outgoing calls—and she happened to have Abby’s phone. Sophie believed Jill found out about the abortion and killed Abby to keep her quiet. However, it’s revealed that Jill didn’t do it either. Why she wiped her GPS and passwords and what she was doing the night of the murder is unclear, but she didn’t kill Abby— and soon wound up dead herself. Her death meant Sophie was cleared of the crime and was finally out of jail.

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Who really killed Abby?

Sophie goes back to her life as best she can, including reconnecting with Margo—and finding out what really happened to Abby. What finally cracks the case for Sophie, though, was an offhand remark Margo made to Sophie in the very first episode of the series. The two women first met when Sophie walked in on Margo in the bathroom, digging through the cabinet looking for a menstrual pad. Sophie offered her a tampon, but Margo explained she couldn’t use one of those. That comment came back to haunt her, though, because after a long, lusty round of afternoon delight in the bedroom, Sophie uses Margo’s bathroom. She is hunting through the drawers looking for some lotion, when she happens upon a box of tampons. Margo denies having ever said she couldn’t use tampons, but Sophie remembers it perfectly. Since Sophie is already on high alert because Margo herself has already betrayed her, and Margo’s friends had her jailed, she bolts. The moment she is alone, Sophie researches why someone might not be able to use a tampon, including one spicy little item: “after having an abortion.” Sophie quickly realizes that her friend-turned-lover has been lying to her.

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Margo has been having an affair with Brad, Jill’s son, and Sophie realizes that it wasn’t Abby who had the abortion that Pastor Pete mentioned, but Brad’s other girlfriend, Margo. When Margo found out she was pregnant with her teenage boyfriend’s baby, she had returned to her own dark past for help. Specifically, Margo née Mandy had gone to her biological father for assistance. As a doctor, he not only terminated Margo’s pregnancy (despite Texas state law), but also provided her an alibi, claiming that Margo was with him at her brother’s near-death bed on the night of the murder. Sophie gets the doctor to admit he lied and then gets Brad to corroborate the pregnancy story. She then goes to confront Margo about her many crimes. To her credit, Margo quickly admits them all. She explains that when a furious Abby confronted her about the affair, pregnancy, and abortion, Margo grabbed the nearest gun—Sophie’s—and killed Abby. She then let Sophie take the fall, because she didn’t want to jeopardize her husband’s run for governor and wanted the beautiful new life she had built for herself to continue.

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Unsurprisingly, Sophie is unimpressed with Margo’s reasoning. Similarly, when Margo tries to tell her husband the truth about it all, he chucks her out of the house. After all, he had already helped her overcome her past as an escort, given her a life as a rich swinger, and was about to make her the first lady of Texas. While killing an innocent young woman was bad, it seems sleeping with another man was the bridge too far for this relationship.

Despite murdering a girl and obstructing justice, Margo is not overly concerned about being jailed. She had gone to talk to her drug-addicted brother Kyle (Michael Aaron Milligan) and he told her to get her head on straight. After all, her sometimes-bestie and sometimes-lover Callie is married to the sheriff and he and the DA have closed the case, blaming Jill for the crime, so Margo has nothing to worry about. Plus, Kyle has decided to take care of Sophie for her. He tries to run Sophie off the road and winds up on the highway in front of her car, threatening her with a gun. That’s when Sophie hits the gas, and Kyle dies on the hood of her car. The season ends with Sophie dragging Kyle’s body through the woods and to the edge of a cliff, dropping it in the water below. Before his body disappears into the water, though, Sophie accidentally answers his phone. It’s Margo. Sophie doesn’t say anything and instead just breathes heavily on the line. Margo knows something has gone very wrong and Sophie is undoubtedly really wishing she had stayed in Boston.

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As Kyle’s body goes over the cliff, viewers are left to wonder, is this an actual cliffhanger? Is a second season of this Texas soap opera on its way? It’s up to Netflix now.