Saagar Kote
Netflix’s ‘Stephen’ follows the mysterious life of a young man named Stephen. When the sudden disappearances of nine girls shock the local community, Stephen shockingly comes forward as the murderer and also accepts the same in court. What follows is a deep examination of his reality by forensic psychologist Seema and Michael, the officer in charge of the murder cases. As Seema questions Stephen about the reasons behind his killing of the nine girls, he appears to be hiding something. Seema intends to delve deeper into his past, motivations, and discreet family life.
With the media and the ordinary citizens demanding justice for the victims, Stephen’s mind unravels a complex web of deception and intrigue, which profoundly challenges both Seema and Michael. To get to the truth of the matter, the cop and the forensic psychologist will have to test their own limits as they confront a complex individual. As the story reaches its conclusion, the fates of Stephen, Seema, and Michael are put to the test. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Stephen Plot Synopsis
A boy named Stephen has nightmares about his childhood. He thinks that he is being lured into a Ferris Wheel trap by his parents. As an adult man, he handles the auditions of several girls for the role of a killer’s victim. To make their jobs easier, he brings out a real knife, but then seemingly kills all of them. In Coimbatore, the cops search for someone responsible for the vanishing of nine girls in the area. However, they just have a sketch that matches Stephen. They get some clues about his possible location, but he is a step ahead. Shockingly, Stephen himself surrenders to the cops, saying that he killed the nine girls. As the police start to investigate further and hope for a fast judicial trial, public and media anger grows against Stephen. Michael Thangadurai is appointed as the case officer and is tasked with ensuring justice in a timely manner.
Stephen recounts details of how he killed each girl and reveals that he disposed of the bodies in the forest. At court, Stephen accepts his guilt, but the judge orders the cops to ensure that Stephen has no mental health issues that could help him legally. Seema, a forensic psychologist, is assigned to Stephen’s case to assess his mental health condition. She asks him about his past, and he says he spent his childhood being tortured by his abusive father. After being dominated for several years by her husband, Stephen’s mother gained control over her husband through pills and also controlled a young Stephen. It is revealed that Stephen’s dad killed himself after murdering his wife in the past.
Michael discovers that a fellow officer named Moorthy was assigned to Stephen’s parents’ case. Moorthy says that Stephen’s dad didn’t kill himself, but was murdered by Stephen. When asked about 2021, Stephen says his mother physically abused his father for failing to iron her clothes and going out with Stephen without telling her. She even tore his job offer letter, which made him choke her. Seema asks Stephen if he will admit to killing his mother or not. He says that he killed his mother brutally, following which his father became maniacal and agreed to go to jail instead of Stephen. However, Stephen says he also killed his father for insulting his mother. A security guard in Chennai reveals that Stephen used to stay with a girl.
Michael and Seema make a connection with a local church, where Stephen and the unknown girl may have attended together. They wonder if the girl is Stephen’s accomplice. Michael narrows down on a woman named Mary John. She says she was supposed to be his tenth victim, but he spared her after getting emotional during the audition. Mary reveals that Stephen used to love a girl named Krithika. Stephen gets emotional and recounts his past in Chennai. He and Krithika were childhood friends who later became lovers. He wanted to start a new life with her, but started to hear the voices of his dead parents. He begins to feel frustrated due to his hallucinations and admits to Krithika that he killed his parents.
Stephen refuses to seek therapy, which further strains the relationship. Stephen then refuses to let Krithika leave the house to visit her grandmother. He threatens her with a knife, believing that she will hand him over to the police. He then brutally kills her due to his fear as he hallucinates cop sirens. He killed the nine girls because they couldn’t give him the same love that Krithika gave him. But he couldn’t kill Mary as she showed the same innocence that Krithika had. This is why he surrendered to the police after telling his truth to Mary. He regrets his choices in life and feels guilty for killing the girls.
Stephen Ending: Why Did Stephen Kill His Parents? Why Did He Kill Krithika and the Girls?
Stephen’s trial approaches, and Seema is called to testify in court. And she says he is stable enough to stand trial and that he feels remorse. Based on Seema’s opinion and other evidence, the judge sentences Stephen to a double life sentence, along with an order to the cops to take care of his mental health. The people outside the courthouse try to pelt stones at Stephen, but he is escorted safely by the police. In the police van, on the way to prison, he imagines all his victims confronting him. It is revealed that he was the one who killed Kuttan the dog and was also the one responsible for the nude videos. He admits these things to himself as he imagines his dead parents and others questioning him. He also admits he killed his mother for questioning his violent actions. He also forced his father to take the blame for his mother’s death.
The nine girls also question him, and he says he killed them as he missed Krithika. He wants his hallucinations to go away, and the girls disappear when he does push-ups. He also killed Krithika since she found out about his killings and murdered his father for safety. His imagined mother tells him that someone will find out his truth. Stephen is a pathological liar, and nothing he believes, sees, or says can be completely trusted. It is possible that he created multiple imaginary scenarios in his mind. However, the only thing believable about his life is his desire to kill others. He doesn’t specifically have a motive to kill anyone, but enjoys spilling blood.
He killed his parents to feed his own ego and not because they were abusive. He exists only to kill and deceive, making him a dangerous killer. The only one he killed for a practical reason is Krithika, who found out about his murderous past. Other than her, all the other victims, including the nine girls, were killed to satisfy his violent instincts. He is a serial killer with no guilt, motive, or MO, which makes him unpredictable. It is also possible that he was lying about falling in love with Krithika. This could have been another lie in the grand scheme of things.
His killings of the nine girls also enabled him to achieve a deranged sense of superiority over them. He wanted all of them to suffer like Krithika. Stephen never trusted Krithika to keep the truth to herself and would have killed her even if she agreed to maintain his secret. None of his victims was at fault, and it was all due to his own mind. All in all, Stephen is a serial killer who killed people to achieve satisfaction and feed his own ego and sense of freedom to do anything he wants.
Will Stephen Get a Reduced Sentence? Why?
Stephen plans to get out of prison through good behavior and walk out in ten years. As he imagines all this in the police van, he smiles menacingly. He drinks some water and feels proud of his murders. The narrative establishes the fact that Stephen is an extremely cunning and intelligent man. His meticulous plans, his stories, and his ability to charm others give him an edge in difficult situations. Since he has made a plan to get out of prison in ten years, it can be presumed that he might be able to do so. He is given a double life sentence, which translates to around twenty-eight years, as established in the story. His main objective is to demonstrate good behavior and earn the empathy of the police and the judiciary.
He has already managed to convince the court that he was mentally unstable during the murders. Stephen will most probably stay safe and not get involved in any rebellious activity during his incarceration. He is only twenty-five years old, which, according to him, means that he has his whole life ahead of him to commit other murders. He makes it clear that he will be out of prison by the time he is 35 and will continue killing. The only way this plan may not work is if someone exposes Stephen’s reality to the outside world. He may encounter other inmates in jail and share his story, which could put him at risk of being exposed.
However, his behavior and skills suggest that he will never get caught, unless he chooses to. It can be presumed that Stephen will, in fact, be extremely well-behaved and cooperative in prison, thereby maximizing his chances of being released. Ultimately, while the film doesn’t establish whether Stephen will indeed be out of prison in ten years, his personality hints at this possibility.
How Did Stephen Manipulate Seema and Michael?
Stephen pursued an elaborate plan to convince Seema and Michael that he was mentally disturbed. He also fakes his guilt to establish some connection with Seema. Despite being a forensic psychologist, she is unable to decipher him. He carefully weaves a story about childhood trauma, abusive parents, and a broken home. He actually manages to gain some empathy from Seema and Michael, who have no clue about his manipulation. When he says that he killed his mother due to her domineering personality, he is clearly lying. Stephen also spins a grand tale of love and connection when he talks about his past with Krithika. He finds multiple reasons to justify his actions, but they are all lies. Initially, Seema and Michael wanted to ensure that he faces trial soon.
But his stories kept them thinking about other angles that they would have never thought of had he been quiet. He also brings in the angle of professional independence and career choices in his elaborate lie. He paints his mother as a toxic woman who refused to allow him to go to Chennai for a new job. This gives him the perfect imagined motive to kill his mother, while also appearing to be a victim of circumstances. In conclusion, his manipulation of Seema proved instrumental in his double life sentence and his avoiding the death penalty. He would have probably received a death sentence if not for his psychological hacks and a brilliant storytelling ability.
Who is the Strange Man? Is He a Cannibal?
It is revealed that a few weeks before, a strange man could have possibly “eaten” the bodies of Stephen’s victims after he disposed of them in the forest. The strange man arrives at a poultry farm and examines the bags containing the corpses. This is hinted at as a sequel film titled “Luna: The Night Awakens.” While the story doesn’t reveal more about this character, it provides significant clues that he may be a cannibal. We see a zoomed-in shot of him enjoying a meal while watching the news about the corpses of Stephen’s victims never being found. We see shots of him relishing his meal. A close-up of his eating leaf also reveals that he is not consuming animal meat, but possibly human meat.
Even when he goes to the poultry farm, it is established that he knows exactly where Stephen’s victims are kept. He is most likely to take the bodies one after the other and then eat them. Whether he is a killer or just eats people already killed by others is not established in the story. Evidence of cannibalism is strongly hinted at, especially since the news he watches specifically talks about the bodies of the missing girls. All in all, whether or not the strange man is indeed a cannibal is an answer that only the sequence can give.
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