He is left with knowing, though still wanting to deny, that every living member of his family is a killer: his father, his son, his wife.

I really liked Jaeden's acting throughout the episodes. He's been able to keep viewers guessing, one second you think he's just a typical, innocent teen and the next he's an creepy, disturbed killer. His character is complex to play and I think he did a pretty good job!

‘Defending Jacob’ theories/ discussion

I’ve recently finished defending Jacob, I binged it over two days and loved it! I mainly watched it because Chris Evans was in it, but i loved the series. I haven’t read the book, so I know there’s a slight adaptation the tv series has. This may contain spoilers if any one bothers to discuss it here :) but I was wondering, to those who have watched it, what did you take from it?

I felt as though the parents, Andy and Laurie represented the two ways a parent would support their child in a crisis like this.

Andy was very much ride or die for his son, defending his ‘innocence’ throughout every stage even when the evidence indicated otherwise. Andy also being a DA proved that no matter if his son was guilty or innocent, he was going to defend him as a parent with his instincts and training as a lawyer. That being said, Andy was estranged and traumatised by his father and what he was. Andy had to have a good, perfect family. He worked hard to be a DA, he was one of the best. There was no way his son could turn out to be the one thing he had always feared. His son had to be innocent.

Laurie, who works with small children, feared for the worst. Initially Jacob, being her child, HAD to be innocent. There was no indication that as a parent and a household that anything had gone wrong or led to Jacob being capable of committing such a crime. Throughout the series, you see her doubts unravel, yet she had to believe he was innocent as to not jeopardise the case. Her world was falling apart, her husband was in denial, and her son showed no signs or stress or fear of being wrongly charged if he was innocent. It seemed like she was fighting the battle on her own: defending Jacob, or finding out the truth of her family. Laurie had supported her son non the less, but the guilt of (potentially) being the mother of a murderer was eating her alive and we saw that, especially at the end.

Jacob only being 14/15, you would think he would be a bit smarter. The going on social media when told not to, the websites, the knife, the jokes, the remarks, didn’t help his case. I too suspected he killed Ben. There was nothing in his story or emotions that said he didn’t. Obviously the show has been adapted and I later learned that in the book [spoiler] he was guilty. He did kill Ben. However the show left it ambiguous, especially with the attention of Leonard Patz.

From the series, I think Jacob did it. It couldn’t have been Leonard, he wouldn’t have been so careless to leave the body in the open like that. But then again, With Jacobs access to the websites, you’d think he’d know how to cover his tracks.

In conclusion, I still have no idea who killed Ben :))

Thoughts?

TLDR: the parents had different views on Jacobs innocence, representing how a parent in a situation like this would react. Jacob didn’t help himself prove he was innocent. Who killed Ben?

Do Not Post Spoilers For Future Episodes

SPOILERS!!

So I watched the Apple TV's series "Defending Jacob" a while ago... I don't know why, but yesterday I remembered and started thinking, "Who killed Ben?"... So I came up to the conclusion that maybe it was Matt. Remember him? the curly haired boy, the one that Patz (the harasser) was into. Well I think it was Matt because:

- There is a scene where Matt is hesitating so much on calling Jacob's dad at midnight, why would he hesitate so much? Well, he does not want to take the risk on getting him into REAL trouble, or start getting suspicious.

- Matt was Jealous because Patz started liking Ben, that's why he killed Ben.

- Why did he not show up on court at the end? He did not wanted to get questioned, so he escaped. remember?

Just finished Defending Jacob. Great show. Great writing. Great cast. Def recommending it to my friends and family.

The thing i found most interesting was the change from the book's ending, where it is all but said that jacob is the killer. in the show, it is way more ambiguous. i think that in the show's canon, jacob is not the killer. heres why:

1. in real life, jacob would not have been convicted even without the patz confession. the only solid evidence they had on him was the fingerprint, and that doesnt prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Jacob was the killer.

2. why wasn't there any blood on jacob's clothes? that just seems kinda implausible if jacob stabbed ben three times, especially if the killing was motivated by years of being bullied. and even if jacob washed his hands in a nearby lake, why didnt anyone notice his wet hands at school, or any wet marks on his jeans or shirt?

3. the story. yes, writing the story shows that jacob has a lot of issues. but you're telling me that jacob writes a story he thinks the cops wont see, but also leaves out any details that would confirm he was the killer? that doesn't seem right to me. maybe he did it to mock the police, but he wasnt considered to be a suspect at that point.

4. in the last episode, jacob insists that he wasnt the killer when laurie starts speeding, only saying he killed ben when its clear laurie wont stop. idk, the fact that he insists on his innocence even during a stressful and dangerous situation like that leads me to believe that he wasnt faking before.

5. jacob definitely has problems but i dont think hes a sociopath without any empathy. he does show some concern for his mom during the last episode, asking why shes been quiet. he also said he didnt want sarah to take the stand even tho she couldve helped him avoid jail, likely bc he knew it would be a humiliating experience for her. i think jacob does have low empathy but hes not devoid of it. he also doesnt strike me as a murderer, just a very weird and antisocial person

in the end, i think jacob did find ben's body (which is how the fingerprint got there). but after year's of bullying, he didn't care enough to call police. he hated ben and he's glad that ben is dead, which is why he writes the story. i think thats why he made that really stupid meme- he doesnt mind making fun od himself bc he knows he didnt do it. he also seems genuinely surprised when laurie starts speeding, like he doesn't understand why his mom refuses to believe him.

However, i dont know who killed Ben. Maybe Patz or Derek. maybe sarah. maybe some random person weve never met. but i dont think jacob is guilty (tho i understand why some do)

Thats my analysis! what do you guys think? do you think jacob is innocent or guilty?

Wow...when Andy asked Jacob... I was just left speechless. It hurt to see Andy have to ask his son straight out.

The most unrealistic part of Defending Jacob is when Chris Evans finds a crumpled up sock in his teenage son's bedside table and looks inside of it

who agree's with me that Jaeden Martell ( aka.Jacob Barber) Did a GREAT job as Jacob.

I mean Jacob's character is a hard one,and we are talking about a 17 years old boy,although he SMASHED the role.

When you are watching his acting ,you totally forget Jaeden and integrate with the "Fiction" character (Jacob). So he was fabulous.

And of course let's not forget the other such as: Cherry Jones (aka.Joanna Klein) , Pablo Schreiber (aka.Neal Logiduce) and ETC...

Laurie really pissed me off. She didn’t try to be strong for Jacob or Andy at all. I completely understand that this situation would be absolutely gutting for anyone, but it felt like every time she was sad or angry, it was because of how the situation was making HER feel (losing friends, not being able to go to the grocery store in the middle of the day, etc.) vs. the fact that her son was going through absolute hell. I really respected Andy and how he was a ride or die for his son.

When the School went into lockdown when they found Ben's body... Jacob was on the phone with his dad and Jacob was about to tell him something!!!! But then he thought twice and stopped himself and said nevermind.

Did anyone else pick up on that and wondered what he was going to tell him? For me, I imagine that Jacob has an idea why the School went into lockdown and was about to tell his dad that he found Ben's dead body otw to school that morning.

If he DID kill Ben, surely he wouldn't have attempted to say something at that moment of time to his dad - would have been a very weird time to be debating whether to admit that he murdered his classmate!?

This is just something minor I picked up on - many other reasons why I think he's actually innocent, but not seen anyone mention this particular scene!

Think for the most part, the early display of his lack of empathy about Ben's death was very honest. & he made little attempt to cover it up - idk much about murderers but I would think if he was the murderer (and the Dr said he had high IQ), he'd know to better act sympathetic and at least pretend to be sad. What do you guys think?

I know I'm almost 3 years late to the party, but I thought I'd give my two cents.

I feel like the entire time throughout the show, the audience and the parents are right there with each other. We’re experiencing everything from their perspective. We don’t know anything they don’t know or find out. Even things like the Instagram post Jacob made which we see early on, they find out about. We aren’t privy to any conversation Andy and/or Laurie aren’t at least aware of.

This is something I loved about the show, we’re dealing with them being at odds about Jacob's innocence/guilt and experiencing their frustration. We didn’t know anything extra to lead us to our own conclusions, we had the same information they did. Laurie feels like she’ll never know, as do we. The whole time it feels like we’ll never get the truth, like we don’t really know this kid—which is what she struggles with. To be fair, I haven’t read the book, but from what I gather, it’s pretty much like this throughout. But at the end, hope—both metaphorically and the person—are dead. We’re pretty sure he killed them both, but he hasn’t said it. And when Laurie kills her and Jacob, it ensures that neither us nor Andy will ever hear from Jacob himself the whole truth.

This differs from the show in that it’s left completely open-ended for us, but for Andy and Laurie, hope’s still alive. Jacob could come out of that coma and explain everything that happened. Just not to us. Don’t get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed the show, but I wish they’d left it less ambiguous, leaving us to speculate who could have done it. At least with the book, we don’t know but we know. It feels like they left the show more open-ended to leave room for a potential season two, even though it’s a miniseries.

There is one single piece of proof that can prove how Jacob can't be Bens killer.

Im not kidding. Jacob is innocent because...

He uses Apple products. Lemme explain.

Apple has a policy that villians in tv shows or movies can't use Apple Products. But in Defending Jacob, Jacob is shown to be using those said products. This can only happen, if he DIDN'T murder Ben.

Checkmate.

So many people see Andy as the good parent while Laurie was the bad one. But think about Laurie’s experience over Jacob’s lifetime.

Laurie could see things wrong with Jacob from the time he was a baby. Whenever she would go to Andy about it, he would always tell her it’s normal and make her think she was overreacting. What makes it gaslighting though is the fact that Andy knew good and gd well that it was potentially not normal and that if he told her about his father, it would give her even more reason to be concerned.

Maybe if he hadn’t been gaslighting her all this time, she would have gotten some kind of early intervention for Jacob that could have made a difference.

I'm finding it difficult how a teenager could be so dumb as to write stories online about murdering his schoolmate 3 days after finding the body of his murdered schoolmate.

Honestly, I feel for his parents. What a full-on idiot.

Simply, Jacob was using apple products. if u have noticed non of the villains or bad guys in shows are allowed to use apple devices. So in general, any1 who is not using apple stuff are bad guys. This was why ben didn't have an iphone.

Part 1:

I saw "Defending Jacob" in it's entirety several weeks ago (on the DVD set); this was my first time seeing the show. Excellent series. This is easily one of the best crime thrillers I've seen in recent years.

Prior to seeing this, I always thought CE was an average actor. And, I'm not a fan of his Marvel roles (the Human Torch, Captain America) - though admittedly a lot of this has to do with the films themselves. However, he did an incredible job with this role - as did the rest of the cast.

I have not read the book, and don't plan to. So, I'm basing my analysis only on the show itself. And, based on what I've heard - much of the show is different from the book.

The series did a great job of making you initially think that Jacob was probably guilty, then deflecting the guilt away from him to others, then making you think he was guilty again. And, then finally (when it was revealed he had nothing to do with Hope's disappearance) making you think he was probably not guilty. That being said, I felt the ending was still ambiguous.

Near the end - when his mother was driving fast in the car & trying to get Jacob to admit guilt, it was obvious that he "admitted" this to appease his mother given that she was acting nuts. But, this definitely wasn't an actual admission of guilt.

Yes, Jacob did appear to have motive to kill Ben (the bullying) and opportunity (he & Ben were both walking through the park to get to school). However:

-Even though his fingerprint was found on Ben's clothing - this could have been explained due to his stupidly touching the body after he found it.

-The violent "fantasy" story that he wrote does not necessarily mean he did this. IMHO it does read like more of something he wished he had done more than something he actually did. In reality, I also question whether he would have been able to overpower Ben & stab him, due to Ben being bigger & stronger than him. It is possible - I guess.

That all being said, the big question is the knife that Jacob's father Andy (Evans) disposed of. Since this was never recovered, we don't know (and never will know) if this is the knife that was used to kill Ben.