This is harrowing

People have spotted a detail in Adolescence on Netflix that we all missed. The drama tells the story of Jamie Miller, a 13-year-old who is accused of killing one of his school classmates.

The classmate Jamie is found to have killed is Katie Leonard. Katie isn’t featured much in the show, apart from being spoken about in police interviews, and some pictures of her are shown. But, now people have spotted a haunting detail in Adolescence that means Katie was present more than we might have thought.

Katie’s voice is absent from the show. The episodes were filmed in one-take, which means there are no flashbacks to what happened, and we don’t see Katie. We also don’t hear from her at all. But, we do actually hear from her.

It’s been noted that the actress who plays Katie is heard, because she is who is singing in the soundtrack. In episode two, Eddie Miller, Jamie’s father, visited the scene of Katie’s murder to leave flowers. During this, Sting’s Fragile was playing. The director used a choir, as well as the voice of Emilia Holliday who portrayed Katie, for this.

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via Netflix

A TikToker has also spoken about how Katie’s voice is heard more than we realise. “Throughout the show we don’t ever get to hear from Katie,” they said. “However, the haunting secret detail is that Katie is actually talking to us throughout the show in her own way through the soundtrack.

“This is really as close as we ever get to hearing from her. This gives the show a much deeper meaning, knowing Katie was essentially a part of the whole thing and expressing herself through the music.”

Speaking about this, the show’s director, Philip Barantini, told Tudum: “The voice in the score is Katie’s voice. Katie is a part of the whole series. Her presence is always there.” The director said it was it was a choice to keep this as a poignant hidden meaning behind the music, so that Katie was also felt throughout the show.