Is Jamie Actually the Killer?

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.