Still, Netflix’s “Adolescence,” episode 3, Jamie Miller speaks with his psychologist, Briony Ariston
Quick Thought(s) on Netflix’s “Adolescence“:
In episode 3 of “Adolescence,” thirteen-year-old Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper), accused of violently killing a female classmate, meets with clinical psychologist Briony Ariston (Erin Doherty). Ariston is one of several psychologists tasked with assessing Miller’s “understanding of [his] understanding.”
Through her understanding of Miller’s tastes (e.g., he likes hot chocolate with marshmallows) and dialogue with a security guard at the “secure training center” where Miller is being held, we learn that Briony is taking longer than previous psychologists to form her assessment of Miller. She reasons that getting the assessment right is more important to her than completing it quickly.
We observe one of their sessions through a single-shot perspective (only one camera moves through the space). As the camera moves and their conversation develops, one feature of the character of social media influence on teen behavior (what the series investigates) becomes glaringly apparent.
Detective Misha Frank (Faye Marsay) alludes to the cultural fixation on masculinity that has become embedded in social media (e.g., “the manosphere”) earlier in the series.
What bothers Misha about the murder investigation is that its sole focus is Miller. She speculates that Miller will be remembered, while the murder victim, Katie Leonard (Emilia Holliday), will be forgotten (and there are a good amount of posts on the internet that do not mention Katie’s character and/or her name, instead describing her as Miller’s “female classmate”).
Her partner, Luke Bascombe (Ashley Walters), rejects her claim. He reasons that the focus on Miller is necessary, and it will eventually serve justice. He is equally sure about not being “the right fit” for his own son, Adam (Amari Jayden Bacchus). Adam is smart, observant, and bullied by his peers.
Only one character genuinely challenges Misha’s insight: Jamie Miller. I speculate that Briony suddenly decides to conclude her assessment of Miller because she knows he has not forgotten about Katie.
Briony perhaps realizes that Miller can’t accept that he has actually killed Katie (recall that Miller says that the CCTV recording is “fake news,” and the young man working at Menards shares with Miller’s father that he is on Miller’s side because the video has clearly been doctored) because she has become Katie for Miller (think of his ambivalent relationship to flat chests, a feature he notices Briony shares with Katie). So, Briony ends her assessment and declines to answer Miller’s final question: Do you like me?
What is less explored is Briony’s investment in Miller. Why spend more time with him than other psychologists? Why not answer Miller’s question about whether or not she thinks he is likable?
By declining to answer Miller’s question, Briony may be refusing to side with either Katie or Miller. She will neither reject him nor affirm him, but that would be to literalize the transference: Miller’s identification with Briony as Katie.
So, why not affirm him? Why not be an avatar of love?
The answer may be simple: she (i.e., Briony) does love him. In loving him, what is she loving? Why does Briony shed tears after Miller is forcibly removed from the consulting room?
If I remember correctly, no one cries for Katie. If they do, their tears are not as memorable as Briony’s for Miller.
We are given a good reason not to cry for Katie. She bullied Miller, demeaning him on social media. But why did Katie bully Miller? Perhaps she was taught to believe that love = domination.
It is curious that Stephen Graham (who plays Miller’s father, Eddie), the show’s co-creator, wanted to “create a narrative where the crime decidedly isn’t the parents’ fault” (emphasis original). But consider his rationale:
[W]hat if I was a 13-year-old boy who didn’t really have an ideal relationship with my father, and all of a sudden I’m seeing this [misogynistic] man who has everything I aspire to have — a fancy car and loads of money — this [misogynistic] man who is everything I, maybe, aspire to be. If you’re influencing the youth with your own views and opinions, then surely you know that we need to be mindful of what’s being said?” (emphasis added).
It would seem that parents do have a role to play in crime (prevention). That is, in fact, the view of Jamie Miller’s parents–especially that of his mother, Manda Miller (Christine Tremarco).
In response to her husband’s unwillingness to accept any responsibility for his son’s actions, Manda asserts several times, “We made him.” The series concludes with Eddie’s own confession, “I should have done better.”
Miller is his parents. We can discern in him his good-natured but generally compliant mother and his loud, angry father. They did make their son, indeed.
And if boys learn that the only way to relate to the “feminine” is through control and domination, why can’t girls? Why is Katie a forgettable “bitch” while Miller is the object one mourns?