[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers through the season finale of Clickbait, “The Truth.”]
The Netflix series Clickbait is not Collider’s favorite show of the year, but it does contain at its core a tricksy little mystery that does inspire a desire to know what happened. Let’s say, hypothetically, that you started watching the first episode one evening a couple of weeks ago — you too might have been inclined to binge the rest of the season that same night, simply to find out what the hell had happened.
The show begins with messy-but-goodhearted nurse Pia (Zoe Kazan) finding out that her brother Nick (Adrian Grenier) has been abducted by unseen forces, who have forced him to star in a soon-to-be-viral video declaring that Nick hurts women, is responsible for one person’s death, and will be killed once the video hits five million views.
While Nick’s body is discovered soon after his disappearance, not even the identity of his killer answers all the questions raised by this show. Here’s a breakdown of the show’s biggest questions, along with the answers — because Clickbait is pretty thorough when it comes to explaining all of its biggest twists.
Table of Contents
Why Was Nick Abducted?
This is the show’s original core mystery, and it’s solved surprisingly earlier than you might have expected: Nick was abducted by a Sacramento-area man named Simon (Daniel Henshall) and his friend Daryl (Jamie Timony), after Simon identified Nick as the man who had been communicating with his sister Sarah (Taylor Ferguson) prior to her death by suicide. Sarah’s death came after some harsh texting with Nick online,
Here’s the catch — whoever Sarah was communicating with, it wasn’t the real Nick. As seen in flashbacks, Nick is able to convince Simon that he wasn’t involved with Sarah at all, and Simon eventually lets him run away into the night…to his inevitable death.
What Was Going On With Sophie?
While Nick’s own fidelity was in question, it was revealed that his wife Sophie (Betty Gabriel) had been having an affair, with her now-former colleague Curtis (Motell Gyn Foster). Security footage of Nick at a local bar revealed that Nick had had a confrontation with someone in the lead-up to his disappearance, but while that man was Curtis, Curtis ultimately had nothing to do with Nick’s ultimate fate.
How Bad Was That Episode With the Reporter?
Not really the most pertinent question here, but I did want to take a moment to say: Ugh, so bad. One of the worst on-screen portrayals of journalism in a long-ass time. The only thing that could have made it worse is if Ben (Abraham Lim) had tried to have sex with one of his interview subjects.
Who Was Actually Talking to Sarah (and the Other Girls Nick Was Dating Online)?
Once we learn about how Simon’s scheme backfired, the show’s new focus becomes the answer to this question. As we learn, someone who wasn’t Nick was using Nick’s identity — different names, but the same photos and biographical details — on a number of different online dating services, engaging with a number of different women. These women, including Emma (Jessica Collins) (who lives in Los Angeles but travels north to Oakland to attend a memorial and indulge in a little light stalking), all believed they were in serious relationships with Nick, despite never meeting in person.
Who was pretending to be Nick on these sites? The show tips its hand pretty hard towards the person responsible being Matt (Ian Meadows), Nick’s friend and fellow coach. Clickbait even goes so far as to include the reveal that Matt had been involved with a complaint from one of the team players. So, of course, the answer ends up being someone else entirely: Dawn (Becca Lish), the administrator who works with Nick at the athletics center.
So Seriously, What Happened to Nick?
Well, it turns out that Dawn had a pretty involved addiction to catfishing young women as Nick, something which her loving husband Ed (Wally Dunn) found out about and tried to get her to stop doing. She did give it up, but not before Sarah died — causing the chain of events that led to Simon’s abduction of Nick.
Nick had never once cheated on his wife, to the best of our knowledge. So, in talking to Simon, Nick realized that the only person who could have been impersonating him (due to both opportunity as well as the information she had about Nick’s life) was Dawn. So, after his initial escape, Nick ran to Dawn’s house to confront her — and Ed, determined to protect his wife, dealt Nick the head wound which caused his death, then dumped his body in the woods.
What Happens to Dawn and Ed?
Nick’s son Kai (Jessica Collins) is able to figure out that Dawn is involved somehow in this mess (thanks to his older brother’s own snooping), and when he goes to confront them, the couple abducts him and takes him to the woods. In the ensuing standoff with the police, Dawn is arrested and Ed dies by suicide as well, using the gun he’d been threatening Kai with.
Did Anything Ever Happen to That Other Coach?
Matt was reported for being a creep to at least one player, though this is glossed over to some degree. He was not involved in what happened to Nick — just one of many red herrings dropped over the course of the season.
What’s the Message Here?
Social media is evil? Don’t catfish people? One of those things is pretty good advice, but may not make you feel any better about watching this show. So many lives ruined, because of the internet.
Clickbait is streaming now on Netflix.
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