Does Adolescence leave a murder mystery unsolved?(Photo Credit –Instagram)
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In the Netflix miniseries Adolescence, the chilling tale centers around a 13-year-old boy, Jamie who is accused of brutally stabbing his classmate Katie to death. While the show unravels the details of the case by its finale, one critical mystery lingers and that is the fate of the murder weapon.
A Key Piece of Evidence: CCTV Footage
In the opening episode, viewers are left stunned as they learn Jamie isn’t the innocent boy they might have initially believed as surveillance footage shows Jamie committing the murder, practically sealing his guilt, but the case remains far from straightforward.
And, despite having this undeniable evidence, the police, portrayed by Ashley Walters and Faye Marsay, dive deeper into the investigation, determined to find the murder weapon.
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This family’s life is flipped upside down when their 13-year-old son is arrested on suspicion of murder.
Episode 2 escalates this search, with Detectives Bascombe and Frank focusing on Jamie’s schoolmates for clues and their primary mission becomes clear – uncovering the knife’s whereabouts. However, even after a day of tense interactions and small breakthroughs, the question of what happened to the weapon remains unsolved.
While Bascombe and Frank face obstacles, they make unexpected progress, largely due to contributions from Bascombe’s son, Adam, and Jamie’s friend, Ryan. Adam sheds light on troubling online behaviors at the school, particularly incel culture and bullying, which might provide context for Jamie’s motives.
Meanwhile, Ryan’s evasive behavior becomes pivotal when, at the episode’s climax, he confesses that the knife actually belonged to him. He admits that he gave it to Jamie, believing it would only be used to intimidate Katie and not to murder her.
As a result, Ryan is arrested for conspiracy to commit murder, but the mystery of the knife’s final location persists. Was Ryan involved in hiding it? Or could another friend, Tommy, have played a role? The show offers no answers, leaving this piece of the puzzle unsolved.
Ashley Walters as DI Luke Bascombe deserves accolades for his stellar work in the first two episodes. His Detective makes our interest in the case immediate and getting to know him outside his job makes for another great character from this series#Adolescence#AshleyWalterspic.twitter.com/gsCaLXQTMy
The intentional omission of the knife’s fate isn’t a mistake but a choice by the creators. In an interview with Deadline, co-creator Jack Thorne explained the decision to leave this mystery hanging.
“I think that there is a real joy in the incomplete. There is a real joy in how partial this show was able to be. It was written in a really partial way, we couldn’t cover all corners. For instance, episode two has a whole question going through it, of where is the knife? That’s why DI Luke Bascombe [Ashley Walters] is there. We cannot answer that. We don’t answer that,” he said.
He added, “I could have tried to fit it into dialog in episode three, but that would have felt inauthentic and wrong… I’m not going to answer [where the knife is] because if I did, then that would spoil it… Stephen [Graham] and I worked everything out. But the point is that we didn’t have to answer it, and by not answering it, we create a question, and that question hangs on.”
NEW: From today we are making Adolescence available to all secondary schools across the UK through Into Film+.
Additionally, healthy relationships charity Tender will produce guides and resources for teachers, parents and carers to help navigate conversations around the series.
Ultimately, Adolescence is crafted in such a way that some questions remain unanswered. With its real-time storytelling and one-shot takes, the series avoids shoehorning in excessive dialogue just to clarify every plot detail.
The creators believed it was more powerful to leave certain mysteries unsolved, allowing the tension and uncertainty to echo throughout the show. In doing so, they highlight the joy of the unknown, a theme that resonates deeply within the world of Adolescence.
