Warning: spoilers ahead for Adolescence.

Since launching on Netflix last week, Adolescence has blown audiences away and left them horrified in equal measure, with many calling it one of the best releases of the year so far.

Numerous viewers were left shattered by the time they finished the series, and the ending also features a hidden detail that makes the conclusion even more heartbreaking.

The drama stars 15-year-old Owen Cooper as Jamie Miller, a 13-year-old boy who’s accused of murdering a teenage girl.

Each episode was directed using an ‘immersive’ one-shot technique, with the show boasting magnificent performances from the cast, including Stephen Graham as Jamie’s dad Eddie, Ashley Walters as DI Luke Bascombe and Erin Doherty as psychologist Briony Ariston.

What happens in Adolescence?

Adolescence tells the story of a 13-year-old boy called Jamie who’s accused of killing a girl called Katie (Emilia Holliday), a classmate from his school.

The series opens with DI Bascombe leading a raid of Jamie’s home in the early morning, with the police detective informing the teenager while he’s in bed that he’s under arrest on suspicion of murder.

As Jamie is taken to the police station, his parents Eddie and Manda (Christine Tremarco) and sister Lisa (Amélie Pease) are left in utter despair over what’s happened, and convinced that he couldn’t have possibly done anything wrong.

At the police station, Jamie goes through a medical check before his interrogation with the police begins while he’s accompanied by his dad, who he’s chosen to be his ‘appropriate adult’ as he’s a minor.

While Jamie claims to have not been close to Katie and denies having any involvement in her death, Luke displays CCTV footage that shows the boy following the girl and then attacking her, revealing that he did have a violent altercation with her on the night of her death.

The next episode takes place three days after the murder, as Luke and his colleague DS Misha Frank (Faye Marsay) go to Jamie’s school to speak to students and to try to find out more about Katie’s murder, including where the murder weapon is.

During their visit, Luke speaks to Jamie’s friend Ryan (Kaine Davis), who tries to flee before revealing that the knife that was used to kill Katie belonged to him.

Luke also finds out from his son Adam (Amari Bacchus), a fellow student at the school, that there are secret meanings behind emojis that teenagers use when commenting on each other’s social media posts – revealing that Katie had accused Jamie of being an incel after he asked her out.

The third episode of Adolescence takes place almost entirely in one room at a psychiatric facility, showing a one-on-one conversation between Jamie and Briony, a psychologist who’s been assigned to this case.

Their exchanges flit between being friendly and terrifying, as Jamie attempts to try and intimidate Briony during several heated moments.

At the end of their discussion, Briony reveals that this was their last session, much to Jamie’s devastation. As he leaves, he pleads with Briony to say whether or not she liked him as a person, and as he leaves the room, the psychologist looks visibly shaken.

The Adolescence ending explained

The final episode of Adolescence takes place 13 months after Katie’s death, while Jamie is still awaiting his trial.

On Eddie’s 50th birthday, while he, Manda and Lisa are trying to celebrate the milestone occasion, he faces the horror of teenagers vandalising his van.

On the same day, Jamie calls and announces that he plans on pleading guilty to murdering Katie at his trial.

When they’re back at home, Eddie and Manda discuss what’s happened to their son and how unaware they were of how his online activity had impacted his mindset.

The crushing episode ends with Eddie sitting on his son’s bed by his teddy bear, breaking down in tears.

‘We knew that we wanted to end it in that room. We wanted the journey to finish where it began,’ Stephen told Netflix’s Tudum. ‘This is where the person who Jamie became was created.’

The actor also revealed that for the very last take of the show – with Eddie crying in Jamie’s room – the production team put photos on the wardrobe of Stephen with his wife Hannah Walters and their children, alongside a note that read: ‘We love you. We’re so proud of you,’ which were off-camera.

‘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,’ said director Philip.

‘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.’

Adolescence ending’s secret hidden detail

As Adolescence ends with its final episode, the song Through the Eyes of a Child by Aurora plays, which includes lyrics that go: ‘World is covered by our trails. Scars we cover up with paint. Watch them preach in sour lies. I would rather see this world through the eyes of a child.’

The rendition of this song that viewers hear as they finish the series was actually sung by Emilia Holliday, who played the murder victim Katie in the drama.

Director Philip Barantini explained to Netflix’s Tudum that as soon as they learnt that Emilia could sing, they decided they wanted her to perform the song for the finale.

‘Katie is a part of the whole series. Her presence is always there,’ he said.

Viewers were left shaken by the song choice in the final episode, with one called @Chels_x0x writing on X: ‘The song and scene at the end hits so hard. So powerful!😢 🤧.’

‘The impact this song has in Adolescence is insane,’ @allama04 also shared.

‘The @AURORAmusic song Through The Eyes Of A Child in the final moments of the astonishing #Adolescence broke me…,’ @StuartofLeeds wrote.

Is Adolescence based on a true story?

While Adolescence is a fictional story, it is inspired by horrific true stories of knife crime.

During an interview with Metro, Stephen explained that the idea for the drama, which he co-wrote with Jack Thorne, came about when he heard of ‘another incident of a young boy stabbing a young girl’.

‘I’m going to call them young boys, because they were young boys, and they are young boys. And it just hurt my heart, basically,’ the actor said.

‘I just wondered, what kind of a society and what kind of a world are we living in where this kind of thing has happened, not once, not twice, three, four, five times? It just really made me curious.’

On Parliament’s website, it states that in the year ending March 2024, ‘there were around 50,500 offences involving a sharp instrument in England and Wales (excluding Greater Manchester)’.

This marked a 4.4% increase for the period between 2022 and 2023, and a 2.8% decrease for the period between 2019 and 2020.

Writer Jack conducted deep research into concepts like the ‘manosphere’ for Adolescence, a network of online communities that promote toxic masculinity and misogyny.

‘I think the best thing about this show is the fact that Stephen, Phil and I had to look aspects of our own masculinity in the eye. The thing about looking at that culture and looking at the way that these people talk is I could see a logic to it, and I didn’t want to see a logic to it,’ he told Metro.

‘I could see something that would persuade me, particularly if I was Jamie’s age, persuade me to have a certain vision of the world, and that’s what makes it so powerful.’

How many episodes of Adolescence are there?

Adolescence consists of four episodes, each averaging a time of around one hour.

The first is 65 minutes, the second 51 minutes, the third 52 minutes and the fourth is 60 minutes long.

Each episode was filmed in one continuous shot, meaning that the camera never cut away, with around 10 takes produced per episode before a decision was made on the final cut.

Adolescence is available to stream on Netflix.

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