Adolescence viewers have eerie realisation after spotting major clue in first episode

Warning: This article contains spoilers and discussions of misogyny, death and violence

It has been one week since Adolescence dropped on Netflix, and it’s had everyone talking about it since… particularly a previously missed detail from the very first episode.

The latest crime-drama from the streaming platform has been a rollercoaster of emotions to say the least, as the four-part limited series follows the story of a father whose life is shattered when his 13-year-old son is arrested for the violent murder of a fellow classmate.

With a cast including This Is England's Stephen Graham as Eddie Miller, Top Boy's Ashley Walters as the detective, A Thousand Blows' Erin Doherty as the child's psychologist, and Owen Cooper as the troubled teenager himself, Jamie Miller.

The series is something that hits hard immediately, with themes of misogyny, incels, and the online 'manosphere', all which culminate in the brutal murder of a teenage girl.

However, Netflix viewers have just realised that there is a clue to how everything would unfold in the very first episode of Adolescence.

TikToker, @thefalselemma posted a short clip of a screenshot from the first episode which saw Jamie being startled in bed as he is apprehended by a group of armed police at his home for the death of his classmate.

At first, nobody knew Jamie was actually the killer and thought that this would be a ‘whodunit’ drama.

But within that shot, you can see Jamie placing his hands outwards, one on his bed post and another hovering against his wallpaper, which has a large rip in it with a curved edge, similar to a knife’s point.

So, when looking at Jamie’s hand on top of the curve, it almost looks like he is holding a knife - the same weapon as what he used to murder his female classmate.

Another user @kashi_ibbotson shared the same detail in her own video, as she wrote in the caption about the wallpaper tear and hand placement: “This cannot have been an accident. The level of detail in this show made it a masterpiece.”

A commenter went on to reveal another detail that many may have missed about the scene too, stating: “This plus the amount of people who didn’t realise he wet his pants not because he was scared but because he’d been caught.”

Someone else wrote: “And the very last scene when the dad is on his bed is like the knife in his back.”

Another said: “The rip in the wallpaper is like a knife and its as if he is holding it. It amazes me how so many people let this show go right over their heads.”

Graham, who co-created and wrote Adolescence alongside Jack Thorne, explained that the series is inspired by the 262 people who were stabbed to death in England and Wales between 2023-2024.

He said he wanted to ask the question of 'Why?'.

"There was an incident where a young boy [allegedly] stabbed a girl," he told Tudum. "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?' 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?'"

Adolescence is available to stream on Netflix now.