The four-episode British crime television miniseries Adolescence, from creators Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham, has been one of the most talked about releases on Netflix in 2025. It’s not just about the difficult subject, or the way the show was shot, it´s about the conversations the show has elicited. This was, in many ways, what creator Stephen Graham wanted when he created Adolescence, and when he initially conceived it.
Directed by Philip Barantini, the series is filmed in one continuous shot and follows a 13-year-old boy named Jamie Miller who is arrested for the murder of a classmate. As Graham discussed his reasoning for making the show with Netflix, he said, “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? And the pressures that come from all of those things are as difficult for kids here as they are the world over.’”
But what exactly happened in Adolescence? Why did Jamie kill Katie? And what happened to him after he did? We break down the ending of the miniseries right here.
Why did Jamie kill Katie in Adolescence?
Katie’s murder isn’t exactly a mystery in Adolescence. At the end of Episode 1, detectives have the CCTV footage showing Jamie stabbing Katie seven times in a parking lot. But even when shown the footage, Jamie insists he didn´t do it. It´s not until Episode 4 that Jamie confesses to the murder. Thirteen months later, on Eddie´s 50th birthday, Jamie calls his father to say he’s planning to plead guilty to the murder charge. The scene starts with a seemingly normal day, and a family trying to move on, but ends with the notion that it’s impossible to truly move on. That what Jamie did will be with them forever.
Co-writer Jack Thorne told Tudum that in this moment, “Jamie now knows what he’s done and what his future might be. That allows him to put his feelings in a box and close the lid on himself in some way.”
But to get there, Jamime had to unpack a lot of things, including toxic masculinity, his attraction to Katie, and his entanglement with misogynistic propaganda. All of these things, on top of his lack of self-esteem, perceived bullying at school, and access to online incel propaganda make up the why of Jamie’s crime
According to Jamie’s conversation with clinical psychologist Briony in Episode 3, he asked Katie out after a topless photo of her was circulated among classmates on Snapchat as an act of revenge porn. He was originally trying to make her feel better, but when Katie rejected him and then made fun of him afterward, Jamie’s reaction was to stab her. It’s not exactly the normal reaction, but that is perhaps the point. He reacts in anger, and because he thinks he’s entitled to her saying yes.
But the story is not about blaming the family, as so many of these stories typically are. Instead, it’s about how so many external factors influence people these days, and how vigilant we have to be about kids. “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 harm. 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,” Graham said in an interview with GQ U.K.
The show ends exactly where it starts, in Jamie’s bedroom, but not with the teen trying to hide from his crime, but with the father crying with grief and guilt about what happened. Jamie’s life is forever changed, and so is the life of everyone in his family. But at least now Jamie is taking responsibility. And Eddie, well, he cannot apologize to Jamie for not being better, so he apologizes to Jamie’s teddy bear.
“We knew that we wanted to end it in that room. We wanted the journey to finish where it began,” Graham told Tudum. “This is where the person who Jamie became was created.” And as the final scene was filmed, director Barantini had the Adolescence art department print out happy photos of Graham, his wife Hannah Walters, and their children. Those photos were then placed in Jamie’s wardrobe with a note that read “We love you. We’re so proud of you.”
“If you watch the scene closely, he looks over to the right-hand side, and he spots the pictures and the notes. It broke him open,” Barantini told Netflix. “The other takes before that were very different. They were all still incredibly emotional. But that last take, which we used, was real, raw, and unexpected from him as well.”
For Thorne as for Graham, the final scene is about the whole picture. “You’re understanding the final part of Jamie. You’re getting a new perspective on Eddie — the complicated vision of Eddie. You need to understand how he allowed his son to become absent, what Eddie taught his son, and what he didn’t teach his son. You need to understand that for the whole family.”
