The incredibly haunting detail you may have missed in the second Adolescence episode

Netflix’s four-part series, Adolescence, has received rave reviews for its talented cast and harrowing storyline.

Co-created and written by Stephen Graham and Jack Thorne, the gripping show sees schoolboy Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper) accused of murdering fellow pupil, Katie.

It charts the aftermath of the crime and its impact on Jamie’s family as well as the wider community. As Thorne puts it, it’s “not a whodunit, but a why-dunit.”

Crucially, each episode was filmed in one continuous shot, allowing for the drama to unfold in real time.

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The second episode features one particularly haunting detail right at the very end. As Eddie visits the scene of Katie’s murder to leave flowers, a rendition of Sting’s 1987 single ‘Fragile’ starts playing. Poignantly, the director used a choir as well as the voice of Emilia Holliday who portrays Katie. 

In a post shared to Instagram by Netflix, Stephen explains: “There’s a beautiful song at the end and Phil [Barantini] had this wonderful idea from the very beginning. He said what he wanted to do was have a choir and the voice of young kids singing this particular song that he had in his head from the get-go, actually.”

He continued: “The beautiful process of it is, is that we used the choir from the actual school, and the kids from that area. The girl singing this is the girl who played the girl that got killed.”

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.”

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The final scene, meanwhile, includes a heart-wrenching unscripted moment from Stephen. Speaking to Tudum, the director revealed how the Lancashire-born actor elevated the scene by tucking Jamie’s teddy bear into bed.

“We rehearsed it, and it was great… but I just felt like there’s something about him tucking in Jamie’s teddy,” he explained.

“This is the only thing that Eddie’s got that he can touch – that’s malleable, that Jamie’s cuddled, and Jamie’s been with. And then Stephen made it his own.”

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Another unscripted moment took place in the third episode which sees child psychologist Emma (Erin Doherty) analyse Jamie. During an appearance on The One Show, Owen explained how a moment of tiredness prompted a surprise line from Erin’s character.

“In episode three, it was the second take of the day – we do two takes a day,” he explained. “I was tired, so a yawn came to me. Then Erin did an amazing line, she said, ‘Am I boring you?’ “That took me back and made me smile because it wasn’t in the script. I wasn’t expecting that at all, but it was amazing.”