Aahana Swrup
In ‘Malice,’ the protagonist, Adam Healy, reveals himself to be an ominous individual from the start. He enters the Tanners’ lives seemingly by coincidence after the latter’s friends bring their kids’ tutor along for a vacation. While he’s a charming man in front of their eyes, behind their backs, he continues to make confounding moves, setting up an overarching plot to see Jamie Tanner crash and burn. All the while, the others remain none the wiser to his covert, revenge-fueled agenda. However, in secretive moments, while the two families aren’t paying attention, the viewers get a peek into the tutor’s reality. One such instance finds Adam feeding the stray cats around the Tanners’ villa. Under the night’s cover, he takes one innocent kitten and snaps its neck without any remorse. Naturally, this horrifying act of casual cruelty becomes a defining moment in his narrative and overall characterization. SPOILERS AHEAD!
The Cat’s Murder Showcases Adam’s Twisted Morals and Unwavering Desire For Revenge
For the majority of the show, the motivations behind Adam’s malicious actions aren’t obvious. While the narrative instills a sense of vengeance-driven motive behind his hatred for Jamie Tanner, a direct and conclusive explanation doesn’t arrive until much later. Instead, much of the story focuses on the enormity of the tutor’s distaste for the other man and the extent to which he’s willing to go for revenge. The casual, but intentional, murder he commits of the stray cat plays an instrumental role in this. Throughout the story, most of everything that Adam does is in service of a bigger plot he’s devising to ruin Jamie’s life in one way or another. The cat is no exception.
After Adam kills the cat, he violently guts the animal and uses its blood to smear across Jamie’s clothes. Earlier in the night, the duo had gone out on the town, visiting a strip club, where the latter indulged in one too many drinks. Meanwhile, the other man slipped away for a moment and assaulted Dimitri, an old man who is a neighbor of the Tanners. The existing rivalry between the two villa-owners compels Dimitri to accuse Jamie of the assault from the night before. However, given the fact that the businessman was near-blackout drunk, he couldn’t remember specifics of his late-night adventures. Therefore, by presenting him with his bloodied clothes from the night before, Adam is able to subtly manipulate Jamie into believing he could have had a connection with the assault.
By doing so, Adam ensures to instill a seed of doubt in the other man’s mind. This makes him less likely to speculate whether his new, strange friend could have been behind the attack. Furthermore, as the tutor offers to wash the cloth for him and keep its suspicious existence a secret between them, he ends up earning Jamie’s subconscious trust. Therefore, the poor cat’s death becomes a manipulative tool in Adam’s overarching revenge plot. The severity of the action, its fairly low narrative payoff, and the protagonist’s stark lack of regret over it all ultimately work together to establish the immoral characterization of Adam.
Read More: Do Frank the Dog and Bedford the Snake Die in Malice?
