Psychologist exposes secret meaning of Jamie’s wallpaper in Adolescence and it’s genius

Guys, we’ve got ANOTHER secret meaning from Netflix’s new show Adolescence, this time about the wallpaper in Jamie’s childhood bedroom that also serves as the final shot in the TV show.

From the significance of the final scene to those random childhood pictures, people on TikTok, Twitter, and Reddit are loving the secret meanings of Adolescence. The multiple nuanced layers are partly why the show has done impressively well both on the Netflix chart and in the wider TV industry, with trend forecasters revealing this week how it demolished numerous British records.

With Adolescence season two looking less and less likely, we are left to agonise over the four hours of content we actually have for all the hidden meanings and cheeky easter eggs. Some are outlandish, but this context to Jamie’s wallpaper actually makes a lot of sense.

What does Jamie’s space wallpaper mean in Adolescence?

We see Jamie’s space and planets wallpaper in episode one when the police storm the house to arrest him for the murder of schoolgirl Katie, but we don’t get another look until the climactic final scene when Stephen Graham’s character Eddie cries into Jamie’s teddy bear.

Speaking to Tyla, psychologist Dannielle Haig unpacked the symbolism of Jamie’s bedroom in Adolescence and how the wallpaper is meant to highlight his innocence.

“These could be deliberate visual cues emphasising Jamie’s arrested development or innocence,” she said. “If the room remains unchanged from his younger years, it might further highlight the tragic contrast between the child Jamie once was and the crime he has now confessed to.”

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In the emotional final scene, Jamie’s bedroom forces us to grapple with a “devastating contrast: a father, in his son’s bedroom, holding onto a symbol of childhood after learning that his son is responsible for an unspeakable act.”

“The discomfort it evokes is likely intentional, leaving us to grapple with the complexity of human psychology, morality, and identity,” she added.

This is not even the first time someone pointed out Jamie’s wallpaper, with people earlier arguing that a knife-shaped tear pointed to his fate at the end of the show.

The wider symbolism of Jamie’s bedroom

Jamie’s bedroom is one of the very first things we see and the very last, but the effect is quite different at either end of the Netflix show. At the start, the childhood room is a reminder of his youthful innocence, while in the final episode, it serves to shockingly contrast said innocence with his abhorrent crime.

“Eddie sitting in Jamie’s childhood space and engaging in a nurturing act like tucking in a teddy bear may reflect a subconscious attempt to hold onto the image of his son as an innocent child, rather than facing the reality of what he has done,” Dannielle shared.

“Parents of children who commit violent crimes often experience profound cognitive and emotional conflict, struggling to reconcile their perception of their child with the horror of their actions.”

Adolescence is on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news, drops, quizzes and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook. 

Featured image credit: Netflix