'Haunting' hidden meaning behind Adolescence ending that Netflix viewers might have missed

The director of Netflix's latest crime-drama Adolescence has opened up on the hidden meaning behind the song chosen to round off the gut-wrenching four-part series.

Speaking to Tudum, Philip Barantini unpacked one small detail you might have missed about the conclusion to Stephen Graham and Jack Thorne's harrowing drama.

For those who haven't yet sank their teeth into the gritty police-drama, it stars Liverpool-actor Graham, 51, as devoted father-of-two Eddie Miller, whose life is changed forever when his 13-year-old son is arrested of brutally stabbing his female classmate Katie to death.

The series welcomed TV newbie Owen Cooper as his teen son Jamie.

Top Boy actor Ashley Walters also joins the line-up as the investigation's lead detective, whilst The Crown's Erin Doherty features as Jamie's court-ordered psychologist.

How does Adolescence end?

The fourth and final episode of the production takes place 13 months after the other three, with Jamie currently awaiting trial in prison and Eddie, his wife and daughter attempting to acclimatise to life again.

As the trio battle disdain from neighbours and strangers, Jamie calls to reveal he'll be pleading guilty in court.

The series then ends with Eddie walking into his son's old bedroom before breaking down in tears, as an emotional rendition of Aurora’s heartbreaking track 'Through the Eyes of a Child'.

After picking up one of Jamie's teddy bear, he tells it: "I'm sorry, son. I should have done better."

The hidden meaning behind the song choice

What some viewers of the eerie new series might not have realised, however, is that the person singing over Aurora's already-popular song is Emilia Holliday, who plays the victim, Katie, in the production.

This marks the second time that her voice is heard throughout the series, as her vocals also feature in a song played at the end of episode two.

The series stars and was co-written by Stephen Graham (Netflix)

Discussing the song, show director Philip Barantini revealed he'd first heard it around the same time that Jack Thorne sent him the script, claiming he knew from the get-go that it needed to feature.

"I couldn’t stop thinking about it," he told Tudum. "It’s just absolutely incredible. The voice in the score is Katie’s voice. Katie is a part of the whole series. Her presence is always there."

The inspiration for the show

Stephen Graham also spoke to press about the inspiration behind the series, explaining that the show was contrived as a means of depicting how prevalent the theme of knife crime feels for many UK parents nowadays.

Despite revealing that the show is not based on one specific, real-life case, he added that it's an amalgamation of many, with 262 people stabbed to death in England and Wales between 2023-2024.

"There was an incident where a young boy [allegedly] stabbed a girl," he told the publication. "It shocked me.

"I was thinking, ‘What’s going on? What’s happening in society where a boy stabs a girl to death? What’s the inciting incident here?'.

The series ends with a gut-wrenching song (Netflix)

"And then it happened again, and it happened again, and it happened again.

"I really just wanted to shine a light on it, and ask, ‘Why is this happening today? What’s going on? How have we come to this?'"

The actor - who is a father-of-two in real life - went on to explain: "We could have made a drama about gangs and knife crime, or about a kid whose mother is an alcoholic or whose father is a violent abuser.

"Instead, we wanted you to look at this family and think, 'My God. This could be happening to us!’ And what’s happening here is an ordinary family’s worst nightmare."