Adolescence Ending Explained: Jamie’s Motivations to kill Katie, Eddie’s Guilt, and Online Radicalization

Adolescence on Netflix is an interesting take on online radicalization, especially of young boys. From the manosphere to incel rhetoric, this short series tackles it all. The story follows Jamie Miller, a 13-year-old, who faces murder accusations for the death of Katie Leonard, a schoolmate. 

However, he maintains that he hasn’t committed the crime. His father, Eddie, who accompanies him to the authorities, stays by his side, and believes his son’s innocence. But is he actually innocent? In this article, we will talk about Adolescence’s ending. 

Why did Jamie kill Katie?

In Adolescence, Jamie insists that he is innocent and hasn’t killed Katie, the CCTV footage reveals that he did kill her. The video shows him confronting Katie and stabbing her multiple times in rage. The series slowly goes into multiple concepts to tell viewers just how deep Jamie’s online radicalization was. 

The young boy was led to believe online that he should be sexually active, so he began pursuing Katie. Yet, evidence showed that his persuasion was more like stalking. Also, it becomes clear that he and Katie weren’t even friends. Jamie didn’t even like her. Instagram comments and other interactions on social media revealed that she thought of him as an incel. But this didn’t stop him. 

When Katie’s nudes were leaked, she was mocked and socially ostracized in school. Jamie tried to sympathize with her in the hopes of getting her attention. He believed that most women fall for only 20% of men, so to increase his chances, he did what he was told online- to use trickery and fake sympathy to gain a woman’s attention when she is vulnerable. 

However, Katie could see through his lies. So when he followed her, she rebuked him, telling him that she would never be desperate enough to be with him. This hurt Jamie’s ego, and he lashed out, killing her. 

Why did Jamie Change his plea from Not Guilty to Guilty?

Throughout the show, we see that Jamie doesn’t really believe that he did anything wrong by killing Katie. To him, Katie didn’t exist as a person, but rather as an object. He repeatedly makes demeaning comments about her body, personality, and appearance, even saying that he isn’t bad because he didn’t sexually assault her at knifepoint. 

To him, Katie was a bigger culprit for leaving incel comments and for refusing his advances. Jamie had trapped himself in a victim mindset. Due tot his, initially, he pleads Not Guilty to the allegations; however, by the end, he changes it to Guilty. It’s possible that in the training center (where he has been kept till his court date), the boy accessed mental health resources that helped him reach this conclusion. 

Also, the mental health counselor might have made him look at his actions differently. With there being concrete evidence of him being the murderer, the defense too probably thought it was better to plead guilty. 

Did Eddie play a role in Jamie’s Radicalization?

Eddie questions if he has done something wrong in disciplining or raising Jamie. After all, he can’t accept that his son has murdered someone. Initially, he seems like a good dad who tried his best to break the cycle of abuse that was perpetuated in his childhood by never being violent in front of Jamie. 

However, his habit of taking out his anger on objects did mirror itself in Jamie, the only difference was that women were objects to him. It’s also shown that Jamie seems to have almost inherited his father’s short-temper. Additionally, Eddie failed to check how his son was spending his time online and what material he was interacting with. 

So, even though Eddie didn’t want to be a bad example, he couldn’t prevent his son from getting radicalized. 

The four episodes of Adolescence are streaming on Netflix.