Defending Jacob ending explained: Is Jacob innocent or guilty?

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Defending Jacob Season 1, Episode 8 – Courtesy of Apple /

The Barber family travels to Mexico

In Mexico, it almost seems like the Barber family is normal. Jacob even meets a girl named Hope Conners from Toronto and strikes up a flirtation with her. She knows who he is and doesn’t seem to think less of him for it.

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In the flash-forward, Andy reveals that Mexico was amazing, a “paradise.” By this point, it is evident that something else is going to go wrong. Will the truth about Leonard come out?

Neil starts to question Andy about Hope. He asks whether or not Jacob confided in Hope, implying he could have confessed to killing Ben. Then he presses Andy to tell him what happened on New Year’s Eve.

Back in Mexico, Jacob pleads with his parents to attend a New Year’s bonfire party with Hope. They give him permission to go. Meanwhile, Andy and Laurie enjoy a romantic candlelit dinner together near the beach.

Not long after the dinner, Laurie and Andy retire to their hotel room hoping to continue their alone time. Instead, they find a rather forlorn Jacob watching television in his room. Laurie notices that he changed his shirt and appears upset — uh-oh.

Jacob claims he was just moody because he hates drunk idiots and bad music, but it sounds like there is something more he’s not saying.

The following morning, the cops want to speak to Jacob — déjà vu! Hope did not return home last night. That seals the deal, doesn’t it? Jacob has got to be a serial killer in the making, it’s much too coincidental to happen twice.

At the questioning by Neil, Andy says both he and Laurie believed that Jacob had nothing to do with Hope’s disappearance, but the police didn’t buy it. They assumed the Barber’s were lying for their son.

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Laurie struggles to deal with the truth

Later that night, Laurie starts to think. She mentions Jacob’s shirt. She is definitely not buying the story Jacob is selling.

As I suspected, Andy isn’t without his doubts. He breaks into the liquor and gets drunk on the balcony. When Laurie finds her husband drunk and depressed, he confesses the truth. Patz didn’t kill himself, O’Leary did!

Laurie immediately jumps to the horrific conclusion: Jacob was never really innocent. It all becomes too much for Laurie, who makes the chilling realization that their son might truly be a murderer.

Except, then there is a twist! Hope is found and she’s relatively okay, except she claims someone slipped something in her drink, implying she was raped. But it doesn’t change the fact that Andy admitted the truth about Patz’s death to Laurie, changing everything between them.

Back at home, Laurie is not coping with the reality of Jacob being a killer well at all. She spies on the Rifkins and even Jacob notices that she is acting strangely.

Well, the next day, Laurie takes Jacob to get his haircut. She begins pressing him for the truth, with every question, she increases the speed of the car. I think it’s easy to see where this is going before we get there but it doesn’t make it any less shocking.

Laurie realizes that she will never know the truth. Even if Jacob admits to killing Ben, part of her won’t believe it, but part of her will also always remain convinced of his guilt. It’s driving her crazy. She rams the car into a bridge, putting both her and Jacob in the hospital.

While this is happening, Andy finds Jacob’s trashed baby photo album and gets a sinking feeling in his gut as he frantically tries to call his wife. Unfortunately, it’s too late, as revealed at the questioning by Neil.

Andy is still reluctant to tell the truth. He denies that Laurie deliberately ran the car off the road, sticking to the lie that she simply lost control despite the fact she placed calls to both Dr. Vogel and Joanna hours before the crash.

But as Neil says, “Jacob is owed justice.”

To Neil’s credit, he does soften the blow, acknowledging that Andy is a victim in this scenario and despite his desire to respect his son’s memory. He needs to come clean, but Andy resists. He remains loyal until the very end, whether that is for better or for worse.

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