The Sinner ending explained: How did it all end with Jamie and Harry Ambrose?

An ENTIRE rollercoaster ride

4 years ago

*Obviously, this article contains spoilers*

The latest offering of The Sinner, that Netflix hath generously bequeathed unto us mere mortals, is splitting opinion across the land – shock. Watch the first few episodes and you’d be forgiven for thinking that they’ve smashed it out of the park once again, BUT wait around, for something sinister starts to happen, and it’s not Jamie’s relentless killing of a load of randomers.

You see, there’s something weird going on with Ambrose, and that “something weird” is that he just can’t keep help but get waaay too involved in every single case that he gets his mitts on. But what were Jamie’s actual intentions? What happened to Harry Ambrose in the end? And what was the significance of the paper fortune teller? We’re going to try and shed a bit more light on what exactly happened in The Sinner’s ending.

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The Sinner Ending: What actually happened?

Jamie turns the threatening of Ambrose up to 11 when he targets various people that are of importance to him. Again, he leaves this to chance with the paper fortune teller, firstly killing Harry’s boss before going after Eli (his grandson), Melanie (his daughter) and Sonya (his lover).

Jamie fails to stab Sonya after the police arrive, and flees back to Harry’s house where he waits with Eli. Harry arrives and Eli manages to escape as the two fight on the floor. Eventually, Harry shoots Jamie, and he is left to bleed out as Harry comforts him, clearly regretful of what he has done.

What was the deal with Jamie?

The mystery started out so nicely when we were introduced to the car crash and Ambrose with his usual awkwardness and lack of eye contact, but things quickly descend into Jamie becoming an absolute nutjob and, by the end, it’s hard to make sense of what he actually wanted.

He clearly had an obsession with hurting Harry, but also seemed hurt that he had been used – on the other hand, there were times where Harry and Sonya seemed completely enamoured by him. For example, Harry seemed genuinely distraught when he died, so what was going on?

Well, the only viable explanation is that Harry must’ve seemed to be able to forgive Jamie for his killing, or at the very least try and find compassion for a person who was so troubled. It’s pretty clear from three series now that Harry cares deeply for the people he works with, even when he’s trying to crack the mystery.

Why did he kill so many people?

Nick claims that God is simply a concept that human beings invented themselves, just as most things in society are constructs – he believes that regular people don’t see the same truths that he and Jamie do. By partaking in such reckless activities like jumping off the bridge and, eventually, killing, they could see the truths that everyone else couldn’t, and take control of their version of reality. Nick believed that he and Jamie had reached a kind of enlightenment that others hadn’t.

This is evident from Jamie himself saying in the last episode that he was looking for something to “stop” him, but there was no reason or God to do so. When not even Harry was successful in putting an end to the bloodshed until the very end, Jamie likely believed that the only obstacle in doing whatever he wanted and reaching ultimate enlightenment was his own learned conscience.

Killing seems to be a way for him to gain control over his own actions, and prove to himself that he is powerful over his very own inhibitions.