Malice season 1 ending explained: Did Adam succeed in ruining Jamie's life?

Amazon Prime Video’s newly added psychological thriller series, Malice season 1, features one of the most thrilling and exciting endings so far. With all six episodes already released on November 14, 2025, the show stars Jack Whitehall as Adam Healey, the overly eager manny whose arrival slowly disrupts the Tanner family. David Duchovny leads the series as Jamie Tanner, whose instincts about Adam spark the central conflict of the story. Carice van Houten appears as Nat Tanner (Jamie’s wife), Christine Adams stars as Jules (Nat’s best friend), while Raza Jaffrey plays Jules’ husband, Damien, among others. 

The show opens with an exciting family trip, which turns deadly when Adam begins to apply his dangerous plan one by one to ruin Jamie’s life. His reason was simple: to take revenge for his father, whom in his mind he thinks is Jamie, the villain, for his father’s and his family’s downfall. 

Jamie, being unaware of Adam’s motive, welcomes him as a manny into his family, only to later learn about his true colors. However, Jamie was being a bit suspicious of Adam’s behaviour, but it was too late for him to understand what he was up to. 

A trip to Greece turns into a nightmare for Jamie Tanner in Malice season 1

On a vacation trip to Greece, Jamie’s family and Jule’s (Nat’s best friend) family tagged along to enjoy their family time. However, Jule invites Adam as a manny on the trip to look out for their kids, and that’s where everything begins to fall apart. Meeting Jamie was not a coincidence for Adam, and he had a “full-fledged plan” to take Jamie down. 

Why did Adam want to take revenge on Jamie? The narrative dates back years, when Jamie was an investor in Adam’s father’s (Colin) business and had invested €15 million in a luggage business. However, when Colin’s business was struggling, he couldn’t repay Jamie, so Jamie decided to withdraw his investment from the company. After Jamie tried to withdraw his money, Colin’s downfall began. He became so disturbed that he ended up killing his wife (Adam’s mother) during an argument, and later, he killed himself. Seeing all this, young Adam created a story in his mind: Jamie was the villain who had taken his parents away. From that moment, Adam started planning his revenge. 

So, he begins to dismantle Jamie's life systematically: he poisons the family dog, orchestrates a sexual misconduct accusation against Jamie at work, causes his son to be expelled from school, poisons their nanny to take her job, makes his marriage fall apart, and the list goes on. In the finale, after realizing Adam's plan and racing to Greece to protect his family, Jamie confronts Adam. Despite Jamie's attempts to explain to him that there was no involvement of his in his father’s death, Adam shoots and kills him in cold blood.

Adam made a perfect revenge plan against Jamie, but the ending remains uncertain in Malice season 1 

Even after Jamie tried to explain his side, Adam didn’t wish to believe him and was on the verge of taking the revenge that he had lived with for years. By the end of Malice season 1, Jamie died, and he even succeeded in making him look like a real villain instead of a victim. With his life already falling apart, Jamie’s wife had reached her limit when the danger reached their children. When Adam staged a fake burglary at Jamie’s house, and Nat saw their daughter April being held hostage, she became overwhelmed and decided to leave.

Jamie then began putting the pieces together. He realised that all the bad things happening in his life were not just random “bad luck” or a “curse.” It had always been Adam behind everything. A disgusting Tilderman luggage which had human faeces in it triggered his past, and he recalls the time when he invested in Colin’s business and learn about his son, Adam, who is now back for revenge. 

The finale showdown in Malice season 1: What was Adam’s twisted plan in the end?

After Nat decided to leave Jamie because Adam’s plans made Jamie look like the villain in their lives, she went back to Greece. She did not take Adam with her, but Adam kept watching them from a distance. He even created another fake attack, where he stole Nat’s phone and sent Jamie a message to make him think his family was in danger. When Jamie reached Greece, he met Nat and told her the truth about Adam. 

Both of them started looking for their children. Meanwhile, Adam sent Jamie a picture of a location. When Jamie reached there, the kids were not present, but the final confrontation with Adam happened at that spot. Nat later found the children on a beach and informed Jamie.

Jamie tried to reason with Adam, but Adam had grown up with trauma and pain. He always saw Jamie as someone powerful who didn’t care about people. While they were talking, Yorgos (their neighbour’s son) arrived, and Adam immediately shot him. Jamie was shocked, so Adam explained his plan: he wanted to frame Yorgos for Jamie’s murder. Then Adam shot Jamie in the head.

The ending is sudden and leaves things open for the audience, but it suggests that Adam planned everything to make it look like Yorgos killed Jamie and then killed himself. Soon after, alerts were issued about Jamie’s murder. Adam is taken for questioning, where Nat and Ingrid tell the investigators everything they know about Adam, his lies, manipulations, motives, fake identities, and behaviour. There is enough suspicion against him, and he may eventually be charged, but there was no proof that he entered Greece legally when Jamie died. 

Malice season 1 ends without confirming whether he is found guilty for Jamie and Yorgas' murder, leaving the finale open-ended.