Defending Jacob ending explained: Is Jacob innocent or guilty?

So, what happens in the final moments of the Defending Jacob ending?

After his time with Neil is finally finished. Andy visits Jacob and Laurie at the hospital. Jacob is being kept alive by ventilators and hope. Laurie is awake and doing better, but she doesn’t remember what happened that day.

Since Andy didn’t give the prosecution anything to go off of, they have no definitive proof that Laurie was trying to kill Jacob. They vote against indictment.

Her tune has changed significantly from before. Now she’s just eager to get her family back and remains hopeful that Jacob will recover. That said, she worries that Jacob will think she tried to kill him. Yikes, this is a family I wouldn’t want to share a Thanksgiving meal with.

At the end of the day, all of the Barbers (sans Billy) are free of prison cells, but honestly, at what cost?

Anyone hoping for an open-and-shut ending to this case will be sorely disappointed, but I’m not sure that was ever the point of Defending Jacob. The series preferred to explore the lengths a family would go to stick together against unfathomable odds.

The final seconds of the Defending Jacob ending are seriously depressing as Andy sits in his son’s bedroom alone in the dark, drinking.

Defending Jacob ending: Did Jacob kill Ben? What happened between him and Hope?

In my opinion, he did it. The story was too detailed, even if he did get the information from police reports.

As for Hope, the way I see it, there are only a few possibilities here, either Jacob raped her or Hope really did get carted off by some guy. Jacob could have seen Hope leaving with another guy and not even realized she had been roofied (or maybe he did, which is an even darker thought).

Feeling rejected, Jacob might have sullenly gone home and left Hope to her demise. Remember, we have actual evidence that Jacob has a tendency to lash out nastily when he feels like a girl he likes has mistreated him — see the texts he sent Sarah a few episodes ago.

If he did rape Hope or even just drug her, it would make sense why he changed his shirt and it would fit with him becoming another version of Billy. It is the most disturbing, but likely answer.

As an aside: The Defending Jacob ending makes some significant changes from the source material. I won’t spoil it here in case you plan on reading it. If you are curious about the changes, you can learn more at the Cheat Sheet, obviously, there are heavy spoilers.

What did you think about the Defending Jacob ending? Is Jacob a stone-cold killer? What really went down between Jacob and Hope? Do you want to see a second season? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Season 1 of Defending Jacob is now streaming in its entirety on Apple TV+.