Netflix’s newest limited series, Adolescence, is a British harrowing drama that follows a family and their community after a 13-year-old boy named Jamie Miller is arrested on suspicion of murder. While only four episodes long, the series has gained attention not just for its warning of incel culture’s influence on young boys but for the impressive way it was produced. Every episode of Adolescence was filmed in one take to intensify the stress and panic that follows a major crime.

Adolescence isn’t based on a real story, but is inspired by the rise of juvenile knife violence in the UK. Each episode of Adolescence focuses on a different time in the aftermath of the murder of Jamie’s classmate, Katie Leonard. The premiere episode opens with the police arresting Jamie, processing him in the police station and questioning him on his whereabouts the previous night. The second episode doesn’t feature Jamie at all, instead following DI Luke Bascombe and DS Misha Frank’s investigation at the local school. Seven months after the murder, Jamie is at a youth psychiatric facility talking to a psychologist in Episode 3. Finally, Episode 4 jumps forward again as Jamie’s family awaits his trial. Although Adolescence makes it clear who was behind the violent crime, many viewers are still left wondering whether Jamie killed Katie.

Adolescence Reveals the Big Truth in the First Episode

From the get-go, Adolescence was never interested in being a murder mystery that tries to solve who did the crime. Adolescence is more interested in the motivation behind Katie’s murder, digging deep into why a 13-year-old boy raised by a normal, loving family could commit such violence. The majority of the first episode does leave a little bit of suspense up in the air for the audience. The police break down the Millers’ door, handling Jamie’s confused family poorly as they arrest the boy. Jamie himself appears innocent, absolutely frightened throughout the entire process and unable to even answer simple questions.

Jamie adamantly tells the police and his father, Eddie (played by Stephen Graham), that the police have made a mistake. Jamie’s family, his parents and his sister, are bound to believe him. There were never alarming signs that Jamie would do such a thing. Regardless of whether he did it or not, Jamie’s lawyer advises him to only respond with “no comment” whenever he’s asked about his whereabouts on the previous night. But Jamie becomes uneasy when it comes to answering questions about his personal life, such as his sexually explicit Instagram posts and interactions with the victim. He’s even uncomfortable telling the police anything about his best friends.

Bascombe and Frank realize they’re not going to get a confession out of Jamie. They show the 13-year-old and his father the most incriminating evidence they have. CCTV footage of the previous night clearly shows Jamie following Katie around town until he confronts her in a parking lot. During a fight, Jamie takes out a kitchen knife and stabs Katie repeatedly. They both break down crying at the sight of the video, with Jamie still claiming it’s not him as his father asks what he’s done.

Jamie Changes His Plea at the End of Adolescence

If there was still any doubt that Jamie was the one holding the knife, Episode 3 makes it hard to deny the truth. Seven months later, Jamie is in a psychiatric facility for young children and being examined by a psychologist named Briony Ariston (portrayed by The Crown‘s Erin Doherty), for a pre-trial report on his mental health. Over the course of the episode, Jamie shows significant signs of being indoctrinated into the incel culture phenomenon. “Incel” is an Internet term for men who are “involuntary celibates.” Typically, participants in incel culture believe women have too much power over men in romantic relationships and society. The conversation around incels comes up in the second episode when Bascombe’s son reveals that Jamie was being bullied by Katie for being an incel on Instagram, and a lot of the boys at school were following misogynist online influencers, like Andrew Tate.

Jamie has violent outbursts at the slightest feeling of vulnerability when questioned about his idea of masculinity or his view on women. He makes up lies about his sexual experiences with girls and attempts to intimidate Briony by undermining her intelligence and standing over her while she sits. Near the end of the session, Jamie admits to being with Katie that night but never touching her sexually, even though “he could’ve.” Jamie views himself as a hero for refusing to give into his temptation to initiate sex, as he believes other boys would’ve, but never expresses regret for murdering her.

As incel culture conspiracies claim, Jamie believes he’s a victim of being marginalized by women because of his looks and lack of apparent masculinity. In Jamie’s mind, he was going to be nice to her despite her being “flat,” referring to her physical appearance. Katie had apparently rejected Jamie when he asked her out after she was a victim of online revenge porn, and he took that as his “kindness” being punished. Jamie killing Katie for simply turning him down is an unfortunate reality for a lot of women who are made to feel like they’re the villain for simply refusing to go on a date with a man.

Adolescence Forces Two Parents to Accept Their Son’s Crime

Reality starts to set in for Jamie’s family in the final episode. On Eddie’s 50th birthday, Jamie calls to inform him that he’s going to change his plea to guilty. It’s a shot in the heart for Eddie, his wife Manda and daughter Lisa. While the three all knew in the back of their minds that Jamie had killed Katie, they suppressed the truth in the hopes that Jamie really didn’t do it. But for Eddie and Manda especially, it was to avoid their own guilt.

Jamie’s parents have a heart-to-heart about how they acted as parents before the murder. They wonder if they could’ve done anything differently to prevent such a tragic outcome. After a teary conversation, they admit that they could’ve been better as parents by not forcing him into hypermasculinity when he clearly wasn’t interested, and paying more attention to what he was doing online. But at the same time, they accept that they are good parents and couldn’t have possibly kept an eye on him every minute. The final scene is of Eddie going into Jamie’s room where he sobs in his bed, tucks in the stuffed animal and apologizes to his son.

The perfect Rotten Tomatoes score series is smart about exploring all the possibilities of what led Jamie to this moment. When people hear of children and teenagers committing such horrible acts, people often resort to blaming the parents, as the employee at the hardware store in Episode 4 did. But Adolescence is a reminder that sometimes it isn’t solely the parents. In Jamie’s case, his parents were a very small percentage of why he commited the crime. Parents have an incredibly difficult job of monitoring what their children are watching online while also entrusting them with space and freedom. But in the age of social media, volatile language and online misogyny are deadly threats. A combination of aggressive hate, an ill-equipped handling of online surveillance and external factors that didn’t tend to the bullying is what ultimately caused this bright young boy to become a murderer.

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