Abhiroop Das
Created by James Wood, Prime Video’s ‘Malice‘ tracks Adam Healey, an infectiously charming tutor who joins the family vacation of the wealthy Tanner family. Although an outsider at first, Adam quickly finds his footing in the family’s intricate network and brings a welcome sense of unpredictability. However, what starts out as a series of fun adventures with him slowly turns into a horror show, as we learn that his real reason for being there is full of malicious intent. As he infiltrates the family further, things go from bad to worse, and Jamie, the patriarch, is forced to look into his past in search of answers. A race against time begins, and Jamie, along with Nat, is forced into a twisted chess match with Adam, one with seemingly no victors. In the final episode of this psychological thriller show, Adam’s revenge plot unfolds in its entirety, with Jamie having to make a judgment call before it is too late. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Malice Plot Recap
‘Malice’ opens with a young man getting off a flight, only to be stopped at the passport checkpoint. His credentials appear to have flagged the authorities, and soon, a Homeland Security agent questions him about his previous employment. The man, named Adam Healey, reveals that he is a nanny cum tutor, and was last employed by the wealthy Tanner family for over a month. However, when the agent shows him a picture of a dead man, identified as the Tanner family patriarch, Jamie, Adam is hardly surprised. A flashback takes us back to the Tanners’ summer vacation in Greece, where they own a private bungalow. The family comprises Jamie and his wife, Nat, along with their three children, Kit, April, and Dexter. Nat’s family friends, Jules and Damien, are invited with their daughter as well, and they bring along Adam, who is her tutor. Although Jamie is initially upset by the presence of an outsider, Adam soon works his magic, turning himself into an invaluable member of the vacation.
However, while on the outside, Adam maintains the charade of the perfect man, he has sinister plans of his own. One by one, he creates problems for the Tanners, whether it’s throwing away Jamie’s passport or involving him in a criminal conspiracy with his neighbors, the Papadakis. Going a notch further, he poisons the Tanners’ nanny, Jodie, securing his position as an indispensable part of the family. Impressed, Nat suggests employing him full-time even beyond the vacation, and with this, Adam makes his way into their house and unleashes his entire game plan in stages. First, he kills the family dog, Frank, and then subtly manipulates Jamie’s eldest son, Kit, to further his drug abuse. Following this, Adam creates artificial rifts between Nat and Jamie to ensure that the latter is slowly stripped of everyone he cares about.
Eventually, Adam also manages to hack into Jamie’s laptop and sends inappropriate emails, ensuring that he is kicked out of the very company he founded. Exhausted and confused, Jamie plans another vacation with his family, but that turns into an even bigger disaster. His daughter, April, who chooses to stay at home, is ambushed by two robbers, who lock her up and then steal every single object inside the house, stripping it completely bare. When the Tanners slowly realize that these seemingly random misfortunes might be connected, opinions split on how to deal with them. After a fight, Nat takes April and Dexter to Greece, while Jamie digs through his past to solve the mystery. Adam is relieved of his duties in the meantime, and this signals the final stretch of his plan. He follows Nat and the kids to Greece and openly threatens Jamie with the death of his family. Although the patriarch makes it to Greece and confronts Adam, the real plan turns out to be far more horrific.
Malice Ending: Is Jamie Tanner Dead? Why Did Adam Kill Him?
‘Malice’ ends with Adam fatally shooting Jamie Turner in the head, bringing an end to his quest for vengeance. However, he doesn’t leave things at that and points his gun at Yorgos Papadakis next, shooting him point-blank. Although Adam has no enmity with Yorgos, the latter winds up as the perfect scapegoat, as Adam is now able to frame the entire scene as Yorgos killing Jamie and then dying by suicide. Adam’s plan is informed by what he overheard a while prior, when Yorgos barged into Jamie’s Greek home to demand reparations for his father’s injuries. When Nat refused, Yorgos threatened to kill Jamie, giving Adam the perfect opening to execute his crimes. Although we never see the aftermath of this confrontation, the very first episode of the show features a police photograph of Jamie’s corpse, and by the end, we have all the context at hand.
Upon being asked about Jamie and his death at the start of the show, Adam claims that he is not surprised and describes Jamie as a problematic person who had hurt a lot of people. The revelation about Adam’s past recontextualizes that state, as he considers himself one of the people whose lives nosedived because of Jamie. Shortly before their final confrontation, Jamie realizes that Adam is not just a nanny who appeared out of nowhere, but is, in fact, the son of his former business associate, Colin Tilderman. While Tilderman had a semi-successful luggage company in place, he joined hands with Jamie to expand further, but ultimately failed. The official records that Jamie unearths show that Tilderman was pushed to the brink after this economic failure, and later died in a fire incident with his wife, leaving behind his two children, Adam and his sister, Sophie.
However, Adam has his own version of what happened, one that paints a far grimmer picture. He reveals that his father murdered his mother before burning their house down and taking his own life. The incident scarred Adam for life and likely played a formative role in his turn to a criminal lifestyle. However, at the root of it all, he considers Jamie to be responsible for this fallout, and his immense wealth in the present only infuriates Adam further. Given that we merely hear chunks of the story, the level of truth in Jamie’s or Adam’s words cannot be ascertained. On the other hand, based on Sophie’s account of the events, it is possible that Adam was abused by his father and had blocked those memories. A traumatic relationship likely worsened the psychological impact of his father’s death, pushing him onto a muddled path of revenge. As such, although Jamie’s murder is a calculated move, it is also emotionally motivated to a great extent.
Does Adam Get Away With Murder? Is He Arrested?
Given that the entire Tanner saga is framed as a flashback to Adam’s present, while he is being questioned at the airport, it is implied that Adam initially evaded police suspicion for murder. However, ten days in, his face and credentials are flagged by airport security, which indicates that he has been recognized as a person of investigative interest on some level. The most likely explanation for this is that Nat is pushing the police to focus on him, as she is the only person alive who knows about Adam’s darker side. Right before his death, Jamie reconnected with Nat and told her the entire truth about Adam, explaining how all the mysterious happenings in their lives could be tied back to him. As such, his sudden death is bound to trigger Nat’s suspicion tenfold, which makes her the only person truly capable of taking Adam down. As the police likely have complete knowledge about Adam, it is only a matter of time before they uncover the truth.
Notably, this is not Adam’s first encounter with law enforcement, as earlier in the story, Damien found out that he was arrested in Thailand for the murder of a male sex worker. While we are not given any more information about this chapter of Adam’s life, it is enough of an indication for a troubling behavioural pattern, which is unlikely to be ignored by the police. Additionally, Adam bore a different name while committing that crime, in the same manner that he used a fake name to get in touch with the Tanners. Given that he introduces himself to Homeland Security as Adam Healey, this is bound to clash with his true identity, which might lead the police to the body of evidence that can put Jamie’s murder case to rest. While there is a distinct possibility that Adam escapes suspicion with his charm and confidence, an arrest is the more likely scenario given the circumstances at hand.
On top of the murder of Jamie and Yorgos, Adam also has the blood of Damien on his hands. While the season finale does not give an update on his case, it is likely that his wife, Jules, will join Nat in providing testimony and steering the investigations towards Adam. In episode 4 of the show, Adam kills Damien shortly after the latter figures out his true identity. While we never quite see what he does with the corpse, it is implied that he drops it in the river and frames the entire event as a suicide. However, with the mystery of Jamie’s death likely taking the spotlight sooner rather than later, Jules might connect the dots herself and bring the case to the police’s attention. Once Damien’s body is found, there is also the challenge of recovering usable DNA or other incriminating elements from, but nonetheless there is a good chance of the truth being discovered.
What Happens to Nat and the Kids?
While Jamie is brutally murdered and Adam makes a clean exit from the crime scene, we merely see a glimpse of Nat sitting with the kids, sensing that something is wrong. Although the aftermath is never shown, it is likely that she connects the dots in no time and realizes that Adam is behind all of this. Given that she was on the receiving end of Yorgos’ threats not long ago, her approach to Jamie’s death might be led astray, which has been Adam’s plan all along. With the disappearance of Damien and the Tilderman connection adding to the pile, she is bound to reach the truth one way or another. To that end, Nat’s role likely shifts from being a reactive character to a proactive one who can singlehandedly end Adam’s villainous streak. This is made more apparent in how she is the first to pick up on Adam’s malicious side and safely distances her family from him.
Notably, while Adam has ample opportunities to harm Jamie and Nat’s children in the final episode, he chooses to leave them out of the violence. Instead, the children end up serving as the perfect bait to bring his real plan to fruition, which involves killing just Jamie. As his intention thus far has been to emotionally torture Jamie, not targeting the kids appears to be a decision on the criminal’s end. While it is possible that he has grown to emotionally care about Dexter and April Tanner as their nanny and tutor, his history of cold ruthlessness proves otherwise. Instead, a more sinister possibility is that he intends to continue the cycle of abuse by traumatizing the children in the most devastating ways imaginable. To that end, his entire strategy of stripping Tanner of its wealth and then personal belongings is recontextualized with symbolic value, as it mirrors how Adam, as a child, lost his family’s house. Jamie’s death, as such, can be interpreted as Adam’s recreation of how his father died, bringing things full circle.
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