Warning: This article contains spoilers for “Adolescence.”
The end of “Adolescence’s” second episode has a subtle, heartbreaking detail, according to the show’s co-creator.
The series asks how a 13-year-old boy could be capable of killing a female classmate, as Jamie Miller (played by Owen Cooper) does. Footage in Episode 1 proves conclusively that Jamie fatally stabbed his classmate, Katie (Emilia Holliday).
The question, then, is why. The series argues he was indoctrinated by online subcultures and ideologies that convinced him he wouldn’t receive love and attention.
At the end of Episode 2, Jamie’s father, Eddie Miller (played by Stephen Graham), lays flowers at the site where Katie was killed. In the background, a children’s chorus sings a haunting version of Sting’s 1987 song “Fragile,” about time and the meaninglessness of violence.
As Eddie places the flower, the sole voice of a young woman plays. She sings, “On and on the rain will say/ How fragile we are / How fragile we are.”
Graham, who also co-created the show, revealed in an interview on Netflix UK and Ireland’s Instagram account that the voice is none other than Holliday’s, and he credits director Philip Barantini with the idea.
“The girl singing this is the girl who played the girl that got killed,” Graham said, adding that the choir is composed of children from the area where the series was filmed.
In an interview with Netflix’s Tudum, Barantini explained why. While Holliday never speaks in the series as Katie, Barantini said the “voice in the score is Katieโs voice.”
โKatie is a part of the whole series,โ Barantini said. โHer presence is always there.โ ย ย
The series has racked up rave reviews for its depiction of social issues and the cast’s performances.
Each episode was filmed in a single take.
Graham, during an appearance on TODAY, said he hopes the series opens doors for conversations between kids and parents.
โI think weโve created an opportunity for parents to open that door and go into the bedroom and talk to our youth because theyโre our future,โ he said.
Over the course of the show’s four episodes, it explores the many influences that could have turned a young boy into a killer.
โWe wanted to look at whatโs happening to young boys today in todayโs society where this kind of radicalization from the internet but also the school system and parenting. So itโs really a kind of question of why has this young boy gone out and done this horrendous act,โ he said.
โWe arenโt pointing the finger at any one individual or any particular thing,โ he continued. โWeโre just saying maybe we should look at this โ put a mirror up to society and maybe we are all accountable in some way, shape or form.โ
