Netflix’s Hold Tight ending, explained — Is Adam guilty?

Hold Tight

The latest television adaptation of Harlan Coben’s mystery novel Hold Tight is now streaming on Netflix. The 6 part limited series follows the classical Coben writing style with two major plotlines; Anna (Magdalena Boczarska) trying to find the truth about her son’s involvement in his friend’s death and the killing spree of Natan (Jacek Poniedziałek) and Wiera (Justyna Wasilewska) to find a hidden recording. The series ends with the plot offering closure on one plotline and making the viewers deduce the findings of the other. 

Not to fret though, this article explains what happened at the end!

Warning: Major spoilers ahead!

Anna installs spyware on Adam’s phone while Marianna is kidnapped

The season starts with Anna, an orthopaedic doctor installing spyware on the phone of her son Adam (Krzysztof Oleksyn). She suspects that something is up with Adam after his friend Igor had died of a drug overdose. 

Meanwhile, Natan and Wiera kidnap Marianna and demand to know about a tape. At Adam’s school, a teacher called Tadeusz jokes about Jasmina’s facial hair, and all her friends start bullying her. 

During that night, Adam disappears with Gajo after messing up his party. Anna goes to find Adam and sees his purse fallen with blood near a nightclub. The nightclub refuses her entry.

Natan and Wiera kidnap Marianna’s friend Renata who was searching for her and asks about the tape by threatening to kill her son.

Both Marianna and Renata are killed while another is kidnapped 

A body is found near the nightclub that Adam went to, and the police later identify it as Marianna. Nathan and Wiera also abduct another schoolgirl called Nika and asks her about this mysterious tape.

Meanwhile, Adam is still missing and while Anna and Michal ask around the whereabouts of Adam from people near the nightclub, a bouncer reveals that Guru, the recurring name that keeps popping up on Adam’s phone happens to be a youth centre nearby. 

Michal and Anna approach the youth centre and they are greeted by Joanne, a youth counsellor. She reveals that Adam was here the night before, but he had left afterwards. 

During the investigation of Natan and Wiera, Nika manages to free herself and goes straight to the police to reveal what had happened. However, when the police arrived, the place she was held hostage had been burnt and the police finds a charred body. They later identify it as Renata. 

Adam’s true identity is revealed

After running tests on the blood found on Adam’s wallet, the police conclude that the blood is Adam’s. However, Adam’s DNA is not a match to Michal’s. The series later reveals that Anna had been raped a month before her wedding, explaining Anna’s overprotective tendency towards Adam. 

The police also finds out that Anna had been giving psychotropic drugs to many patients and schoolkids who doesn’t need them. When Anna is confronted, she says that the prescriptions are not in her handwriting, and she suspects some foul play going on. Anna comes home to see her prescription pads are missing. 

Meanwhile, the series reveals that Adam is alive, but taken hostage by Gajos and Blazej. However, Adam manages to take his burner phone and phones home, but his captors arrive just as Michal picks up the call. He hears the scuffles over the phone and he and Anna both go to the police station.  

Michal and Anna manage to find Adam

The police cannot do anything since the call wasn’t recorded and they cannot track the number due to it coming from a burner phone. The police call a press conference and reveals details about the two killings that happened in the city. 

After the press conference, Tadeusz, the teacher who mocked Jasmina meets with Natan. Tadeusz had been in the military with Natan in Afghanistan and had saved his life during an operation. Tadeusz wants Natan to stop his killing spree, but Natan declines. 

Meanwhile, Igor’s mother finds a strange wallet packed with Czech SIM cars and shows them to Michal and Anna. They realise that this has something to do with Igor’s death and they visit the CEO of Aerotel, a telephone company. The CEO owes Michal a favour and tracks down the numbers to reveal one belonging to a phone used by Guru.

At Guru, Adam breaks free and confronts Joanne and tells her that he will reveal the truth about the prescription pads and blames her for the death of Igor. When Adam threatens to go to the police, Joanne’s accomplices start to shoot Adam. Just then, Michal jumps in and takes the bullet which strikes his hand. 

The truth behind Igor’s death is revealed

Adam had recorded secret conversations with her and reveals that she is behind the drug trafficking ring. She had locked Adam up when he threatened to go to the police and tell the truth. However, Adam doesn’t reveal anything about his captors Gajos and Blazej, since they are his school friends.

The series then reveals that Igor had been in a scooter accident a year ago and had got a drug addiction. He had struck a deal with Joanne to hack into Anna’s computer and get her prescriptions to Joanne who would then give him the drugs. Adam reveals that Igor had told Adam about the operation, and he had stolen Anna’s prescription pads. 

However, Anna realises that this story couldn’t be true because she always locks the prescription pads inside her safe. Igor couldn’t know about the combination and Anna understands that Adam is behind this too. 

Anna also suspects that Adam, Gajos, and Blazej were present when Igor died of a drug overdose but did nothing to help him. But she keeps quiet without vindicating her son, denying justice for Igor’s death.

What happened to Natan and Wiera?

The couple breaks into the house of Marianna’s ex-husband Janusz and starts searching for the laptop. They encounter Janusz and while in a scuffle, Jasmina manages to shoot Adam in the chest, killing him.

It was later revealed that Marianna had slept with Jasmina’s teacher Tadeusz and had blackmailed him to stop bullying her daughter. Tadeusz had then hired Natan to recover the sex tape. However, the season ends with Jasmina admitting that it was she who threatened Tadeusz by leaking the tape through her mother’s tablet.  

The ending of Hold Tight fails to deliver a punching blow after its great start with a plot filled with holes. The series left was promising at the start but started to gradually decline in quality towards the end, receiving a 6.1 rating on IMDB. But this would be worth watching for a Coben enthusiast. 

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