Adolescence ending explained: did Jamie kill Katie?

Adolescence is a hard-hitting crime Netflix drama following the arrest of a 13-year-old boy on suspicion of murder.

Each episode is filmed in one continuous shot starting from the boy’s arrest and picks up on different points of his and his family’s lives. In just four episodes, the story unfolds in real time as the main characters of the investigation try to seek the truth behind the horrific crime and the reason behind it. A stellar cast list includes Stephen Graham as Jamie’s father, Ashley Walters as the main investigator, Owen Cooper as Jamie, Erin Doherty as a clinical psychologist and more.

Here's a recap of everything that happened in Adolescence episode 4.

The final episode starts 13 months after the murder. Jamie’s mum, Manda, is cooking Eddie a birthday breakfast for his 50th. He opens a card from Jamie, but he's interrupted as Jamie’s sister, Lisa, comes downstairs and tells him to go and look at his van. Outside, someone has spray painted a derogatory term on the side in huge letters. He tells his wife to phone the police. On the phone, she says she’ll send over photos, but they're not waiting for someone to come round.

Eddie then tells his wife to calm down for Lisa's sake and she replies that she’s had enough of this. She says Jamie’s trial is in four weeks and then everyone will be staring. She says her mum can get Eddie some work and he says he doesn’t need work, he’s got work where they are. He’s angry and says that moving back to Liverpool won’t be any better, it’ll be worse.

It's revealed that Lisa was listening on the stairs and she’s upset. Her mum goes to see Lisa and they talk about Jamie. They’re both sad, but Lisa says she can look after herself. Meanwhile, Eddie is trying to desperately wipe the spray paint off his van with a sponge and soap, but it’s not helping. Two boys ride past on their bikes and shout out to him. He yells down the street at them asking if they did it.

With no luck, he tells Lisa and Manda that they need to go and get it sorted, but he’s not leaving Lisa at home alone after what's just happened. They go together in the van and Eddie says when they get back, they’re going on an outing to the cinema. The mood lightens as Eddie and Manda reminisce about the good old days and how they started dating at school. Manda talks about a school disco where Eddie danced all on his own on the dancefloor. She says people were laughing, but he says they weren’t. Then, she says they were, because he was slipping all over the floor and Eddie explains it was his bowling shoes. She said everyone made a joke about it at school for years afterwards.

They turn up at the store and Eddie asks the workers how to get the spray paint off his van. One boy explains how to clean it off, but says you’ll need to respray to get it all off. He asks for the blue paint and the worker stops and says he recognises him from Facebook. He starts to say that he’s on Jamie’s side, that he thinks they’ve made up where her stab wounds were and he’s seen the photos of her. He tells Eddie if he crowdfunds for a lawyer, there’s loads of people like him that would help. To this, Eddie is angry. He hands him the paint and leaves.

Lisa tries to talk to him, but Eddie is zoned out. As he heads outside, he spots the two boys on their bikes from earlier and grabs one of them. He shouts at him and throws him to the ground, accusing him of spraying his van. The boy admits it, but says it was just for a laugh and Eddie tells him not to laugh at him and to stay away from his family. He lets the boy go, but heads back to his van in the car park, opens up the paint pot and throws it all over the graffiti on his van. As they go to leave, the security guard says they’ve got him on camera. He yells at the worker that spoke to him in the shop and they drive home in silence, until Eddie’s phone rings.

As they answer in the van, it says it’s a phone call from Jamie. He wishes his dad a happy birthday and tells him he’s been getting some bother in the yard, but it’s alright. Eddie tells Jamie that they’re going to the pictures later and getting a Chinese takeaway. Then, Jamie tells him he’s going to change his plea. He tells him he’s going to plead guilty and he’s sorry. Eddie doesn’t reply, so his mum and sister say they’re there too and they make more small talk. Jamie seems upset that he's not just talking to his dad. He apologises to Eddie and says happy birthday and hangs up.

Adolescence ending explained

When they get home, Manda starts to sob when Eddie and Lisa are out of shot. But, she composes herself to talk to Eddie in their bedroom. She tells him they don’t have to go to the pictures and that Jamie sounded better on the phone than last week. She asks Eddie why he’s being like this and that he was the one in with him and she’s never even seen the tape. He asks her not to do this again. She says she knows he’s angry, but Jamie pleading guilty is probably for the best. She then starts to talk about how Jamie would never leave his room and just sit on the computer.

Eddie says even when he’s on his phone these days, things pop up that he doesn’t even want to watch and that they can’t know what Jamie was watching on his computer. Eddie tells Manda you can’t keep an eye on them all the time. She then tells him he has a terrible temper, but so does Jamie. Eddie asks if he gave it to him, and she says no, but we should’ve stopped it. He says the therapist says it’s not their fault, but Manda says they still made him.

Eddie talks about how when he was younger his dad would beat him with his belt and that he’d never do it to his own kids. And he never did. He just wanted to be better. He asks Manda, “But am I?” To which she says, “You tried to be.” Then Eddie talks about how he used to take Jamie to football, but he was rubbish. That he stood there on the side of the pitch while the other dads laughed at him and that he couldn’t even look at Jamie. He says Jamie used to draw all the time and then all he wanted was the computer. By then, Eddie was busy working and wouldn’t get back until late. Manda says she was home earlier and she didn’t do any better, but Eddie says she’s a good mum.

They talk about how they felt he was safe in his room. She tells Eddie he’s a good dad, too, but they still made him. Eddie says, "If my dad made me, how did I make that?" She says they didn’t know what Jamie was going to do, but that Jamie wanted his dad in the room to protect him, but that Eddie couldn’t protect him from what he'd done. She says she thinks it would be okay for them to think that they could’ve done more though and then they talk about when Jamie was little. Eddie says Jamie kept telling him over and over it wasn’t him and he believed him, until he saw the tape. He says he wishes Manda was in there, not him. She’d have done better.

Lisa comes in and Eddie apologises to her. She says everyone causes her trouble, but that they still can’t move. If they move, someone will find out about them and it’ll be even worse. They agree instead to rent a film at home and get a takeaway. She goes downstairs to help her mum make breakfast and Eddie asks, “How did we make her?” And Manda replies, “The same way we made him.”

Manda goes downstairs and Eddie heads into Jamie’s bedroom. He sits down on his untouched bed and sobs into his pillow. Then, he tucks in Jamie’s teddy bear and kisses it on the head saying, “I’m sorry, son. I should’ve done better.”

All episodes of Adolescence are available to stream on Netflix now.