Malice ending explained: Adam's big reveal is a big anti-climax – but maybe that's the point

*Warning: Contains major spoilers for all six episodes of Malice.*

Speaking to RadioTimes.com ahead of the release of Prime Video's Malice, comedian Jack Whitehall, who plays a man hellbent on revenge, said that viewers might experience a complicated emotional response to its antagonist when all is revealed.

"You're left with a very strange feeling as to what you feel about Adam," he said of his character, who pretends to be a tutor-cum-"manny" in a bid to take down David Duchovny's wealthy venture capitalist – and alpha-male douche – Jamie Tanner.

"And I think that's quite important, to have those moments of feeling almost sympathetic. Through the back half of the series, you really see him as a true villain, and you're really wanting him to get caught, and really praying for the safety of the family. But then at the end, there's just this... I don't know how to describe it.

"It's just this strange note that it's left on with him, where maybe you do [feel sorry for him]. I think some people will feel sorry for him."

Killing a kitten and a dog (you b**tard!) certainly doesn't help Adam's case. And there's also the double murder (maybe I should have started with that) – first Damien, whom he thwacks over the head with a cricket bat before dumping his body in the Thames – and finally Jamie, whom he shoots point-blank in the head in Greece, shortly after shooting another man dead. All horrible, obviously.

Details of another murder – the death of a kid in Bangkok – are also touched upon briefly.

Then there's the plethora of other non-murderous but still terrible acts Adam commits, from poisoning the Tanners' old nanny to his decision not to call off the burglary after learning that the daughter, April, was going to be at the Tanner house when it happened.

But his white-hot hatred of Jamie burned too bright to ignore – the reason for which was naturally held back until the finale for maximum impact.

Yet the big reveal ended up being a big anti-climax.

Malice ending explained

You didn't have to be a genius to know what was coming long before we got there. From Channel 5 drama The Catch starring Jason Watkins, to the aptly named Revenge, to the character of Sawyer in Lost, there are countless stories about people avenging their parents – and in Malice, Adam is on a mission to make Jamie pay for what happened to his own, who died in tragic circumstances when he was just a child.

Adam's dad, Colin Tilderman, killed Jamie's mother before he then took a load of pills and set fire to the family home.

And according to Adam, Jamie was to blame.

He had invested £15 million in the family's luggage business, which had been going for 150 years. But everything fell apart when Colin couldn't make his interest payments and, in a short amount of time, Jamie had washed his hands of Adam's dad, whose pride and joy had been left in tatters.

Cue fade to black.

It's a desperately sad story, and one that makes sense within the context of the show and this particular genre of TV. But it’s also an uninspired one; we’ve seen that before in various different guises.

But while it initially felt underwhelming, in hindsight the series was never really about the “why”, but the journey getting there – James Wood's script was incredibly moreish – and also what it has to say about grief and the emptiness of revenge.

When Adam first boards the boat that will carry him away from the scene of Jamie's murder, he initially looks pleased with himself. He set out to destroy the venture capitalist and he did just that. But as Jeff Buckley's Hallelujah swells – a song that the musician described as "a hallelujah to the orgasm" – it soon becomes clear that Adam isn’t triumphant or relaxed or happy after killing Jamie – his own climax, if you will.

Instead, he looks thoroughly miserable, like he could burst into tears at any moment, as it finally dawns on him: Jamie's demise will not resurrect his parents or bring him an ounce of peace or comfort, for the past cannot be undone.

While he may have felt satisfaction when he pulled the trigger – who doesn't love it when a plan comes together? – Adam’s parents are still dead, and he remains trapped in the throes of his grief, seemingly forevermore, unable to come unstuck and move forwards. By refusing to ever truly engage with his pain and instead channelling it into destroying Jamie, it has only escalated, becoming all that he is rather than just a part of his life.

Read more:

• Jack Whitehall talks his dark new psychopath role and his plans for an all-new sitcom
• Malice's Jack Whitehall on the "strange" challenge of playing a villain while adjusting to fatherhood

There's also something cruelly ironic about Adam making several children fatherless – Damien's kids will also grow up without their dad – given what he himself has experienced, something which might have crossed his mind in that moment.

Some might, of course, argue that Jamie's children are better off without him. But that wasn't Adam’s choice to make, and certainly not in the manner that he did. And who knows what the impact of that will be on the Tanner kids? Will their own grief manifest into something utterly monstrous, like Adam's?

So while condoning the actions of Whitehall's character, even with the full extent of Adam's pain laid out before us, isn't an option, those aforementioned comments do ring true. It's difficult not to feel sorry for him – and not just because of the manner in which he lost his parents, and at such a young age, but also because of the person that he has become in the aftermath of their deaths.

And that's also particularly sad given the moments when we get a glimpse of the man he could have become, particularly during his interactions with sweet Dexter, the youngest Tanner, if he hadn't withdrawn into himself and allowed revenge to consume him.

For all that is darkly fun and entertaining about Malice, the moment when Dex asks his mum if his dad is "coming soon" while police sirens wail in the distance — blissfully unaware that anything is wrong as he enjoys his ice cream — leaves you cold.

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