The ‘Clickbait’ Finale Explained: Here’s Why Viewers Are Losing Their Minds

Warning: Major spoilers for Clickbait on Netflix. Seriously, we’re revealing the entire ending.

If you thought you were going to be able to predict the ending of Netflix’s latest original series, Clickbait, then you were dead wrong. LOL, dead.

Yeah, as we knew from pretty early on, Nick Brewer (Adrian Grenier) doesn’t survive his turn as Twitter’s main character after being kidnapped and held hostage in the Clickbait premiere. Here’s the premise: After a seemingly perfect father of two is captured, his kidnappers post a video to the internet claiming Nick has been abusing women. If the video reaches 5 million views, he dies. Naturally, it doesn’t take long for the hostage tape to go viral, leaving his sister, Pia (Zoe Kazan), and wife, Sophie (Betty Gabriel), desperate to find him and prove his innocence.

But instead of telling a story about a man with dark secrets or the vicious nature of the internet’s mob mentality, the series finale pivots drastically to a story about catfishing. It turns out, Nick wasn’t even killed by his kidnappers! 

After Sarah (Taylor Ferguson) dies of suicide after being dumped by her online “boyfriend,” her brother, Simon (Daniel Henshall), kidnaps the man he thinks is responsible: Nick. But there’s a twist: In reality, Nick’s lonely coworker, Dawn (Becca Lish), used his likeness and details from his life to catfish a string of women on the internet in a desperate attempt to feel loved and seen.

Once Simon realizes Nick issn’t his man, he lets our guy go. However, instead of going straight to the police, Nick tracks down the source of all his trauma: Dawn. When confronting her about her toxic online behavior and promising to expose her, Nick is murdered by her husband, Ed (Wally Dunn). Nick was completely innocent and the real villain was some bored housewife and her husband. 

Since landing on Netflix, Clickbait creator Tony Ayres has been bracing himself for criticism for this unpredictable ending. “I would stand by why we did it and what we have to say in doing it. The key to this format is it gives us an opportunity to really get in the skin of the characters and to understand why people do what they do,” Ayer told Entertainment Weekly. “I think that there is something interesting and valid in talking about the invisibility of older women. I think there’s something interesting about why Dawn does it. But I’ve got my bike helmet on, so I’m ready for the response.”

So what did people think? Well, it’s fair to say they didn’t see it coming. 

While a twist ending doesn’t necessarily mean a show is well-written (how can you guess the ending of a show that leaves you no legitimate clues?), it seems fans of the Netflix thriller weren’t too disappointed. Ayers can probably take the helmet off.