Jamie is not in episode four besides a phone call

Netflix’s new project Adolescence is all anyone can talk about and that’s partly down to Owen Cooper’s performance as 13-year-old killer Jamie Miller.

We all know how talented Stephen Graham and Ashley Walters are, but Owen Cooper was undeniably the shining star of the four-part Netflix project. It was his first acting gig, with more exciting opportunities set the follow, which made his standout performance even more intense.

Besides a brief phone call in the final episode, we don’t see or hear from Jamie again after episode three and we’re left wondering about his trial and life behind bars after changing his plea to guilty. But this wasn’t an overlooked moment or something they hope to address in the rumoured season two, in fact, it was deliberately designed to focus on the family in episode four.

The real reason Jamie wasn’t in the last episode of Adolescence

Besides a brief phone call from Jamie to reveal his guilty plea, episode four of Adolescence largely focuses on Stephen Graham’s Eddie Miller and the rest of the family. It might seem like a bit of a risk to leave out the character the entire story is based around, but as Stephen told Tudum, they wanted to showcase the effect Jamie’s actions had on the family and disprove any negative assumptions people might have had about Eddie, Manda, and sister Lisa.

“I wanted to eliminate the possibility of thinking Eddie is a violent man,” Stephen Graham said. “Eddie is a hardworking father who goes to work early in the morning, comes back late at night, and puts food on the table. He brings in as much love as he can. He does the best he can.”

The same could be said of Jamie’s mum Manda and sister Lisa who Stephen wanted to show in a positive light so they couldn’t be blamed for Jamie’s crimes.

“I wanted Jamie’s mum not to be an alcoholic in any way, shape, or form. She’s just a hardworking woman,” he added. “His sister is most likely to succeed within her class.”

Adolescence writer Jack Thorne also noted how focusing on the other characters allowed us to understand “the final part of Jamie”, his family, and how none of them were to blame for his crimes.

“You’re getting a new perspective on Eddie — the complicated vision of Eddie. You need to understand how he allowed his son to become absent, what Eddie taught his son, and what he didn’t teach his son. You need to understand that for the whole family,” he said.

Of course, the show ends with Eddie cradling Jamie’s teddy bear in his childhood bedroom