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Mithun Balaji’s psychological drama, Stephen, is centered around a serial killer who surrendered himself to the police after killing nine women in a row. He confessed to the murders, but the bodies remained undiscovered. Apparently, Stephen used to dump the bodies in the forest, and he never found them at the same spot the next day. It was an open-and-shut case since all nine girls went missing after they went to his house for auditions, but Inspector Michael couldn’t help but wonder why Stephen confessed to the crimes. Stephen could have attempted to run away, and if he wanted to surrender, he could have done it before, so what triggered Stephen to admit his crimes? Was there an ulterior motive? Michael collaborated with psychiatrist Seema to find out the reason behind Stephen’s actions.
Spoiler Alert
Was Stephen mentally unstable, or was he pure evil?
The film, for the longest time, attempts to convince the audience that Stephen was a victim of abusive parents and his mental health was impacted by his childhood trauma. He heard voices in his head that made it impossible for him to live a normal life. Stephen convinced Seema and Michael that the voices in his head told him to kill his parents and later his girlfriend and eventually the nine missing girls. They were all aspiring actors who’d responded to Stephen’s audition announcement. He made them enact the role of a girl who had found out that her partner was a serial killer and had called the cops on him. We later discover a similar incident that happened in real life between Stephen and his partner, Krithika. He’d confessed to her about killing his parents, and he feared that she might tell the cops about it. He followed her regularly to her workplace to ensure that she didn’t share his secret with anyone. Krithika promised that she still loved him and she had no intention of handing him over to the cops, but Stephen refused to trust her. When, one night, she told him that she planned on visiting her grandma for a couple of days, Stephen freaked out. He was convinced that she had informed the cops and was trying to get away from him. He failed to realize that he suffocated her. When Stephen heard the police siren, he accused Krithika of calling the cops, and this time she didn’t even deny it. She was tired of defending herself, and she’d realized that no matter what she said or did, Stephen would never have complete faith in her. Stephen stabbed her, only to realize soon after that the cops were not after him and the siren had become distant. He recreated the scene with the aspiring actors and killed them all except one, Mary. She was the only actor who objected to the script because she believed that a woman who was in love wouldn’t surrender their partner, even if they were a serial killer. Stephen was reminded of Krithika and the love that they shared. He realized his mistake, and that was why he chose to confess his crime to the police. This was the version of the truth that Michael and Seema believed, and they assumed that Stephen felt guilty for his actions. They also deduced that he was mentally unstable during the murders, and therefore there was some hope for him if he received regular counseling and proper treatment. In reality, Stephen was pure evil. The ending of Stephen revealed that everything that Stephen had told Michael and Seema was part of his grand plan. He was simply a cold-blooded serial killer who enjoyed murdering his victims and didn’t regret his actions.
Were Stephen’s parents abusive?
Stephen convinced Michael and Seema that his parents tortured him. He portrayed his father as an abusive alcoholic man who was extremely rough with his wife and son. He’d narrated a childhood incident of how his father ruthlessly killed a puppy he’d brought home. But in the end, it is disclosed that Stephen was the one who had killed the puppy. As a child, he used to quench his thirst for blood by targeting animals; later, as he grew older, he yearned for something a bit more adventurous, and that was when he figured that he must kill humans to feel a sense of fulfillment.
Stephen’s father had been accused of secretly recording female students at his school and later circulating the explicit videos online. The daughter of the then SI had attempted to die by suicide out of embarrassment, but thankfully she survived. Stephen’s father was attacked by the victims’ parents, and he ended up in a hospital, but according to Stephen, his father had no regrets. In reality, Stephen was the one who’d secretly recorded the students, and his father took the blame for his son because he knew that it could permanently damage Stephen’s life. But instead of being grateful to him, Stephen became all the more reckless. When his mother figured out that her son was turning into a murderer, she punished him, but it was impossible to stop him. He later used her method of discipline against her and framed her as this terrible woman who tortured him and his father. He lied about his mother adding drugs to her husband’s tea to keep him under control. His parents were neither abusive nor toxic. They loved him, and his mother worked day and night to build her bakery business to support her family. His father was an alcoholic, but he wasn’t hostile towards his son. Since both his parents were dead, Stephen was free to come up with his own version of his childhood.
It was believed that his father had killed his mother before dying by suicide, but later, Stephen confessed to killing his parents. He reasoned that his mother didn’t allow him to leave for Chennai even after he got a job, and he stabbed her because he was tired of constantly living under her control. He thought he and his father would live a comfortable life, but soon his father’s monstrous side started to surface, and it triggered Stephen. So, he ended up killing his father. The SI was the first to arrive at the scene, and although he knew that Stephen had killed his father, he buried the truth because he didn’t want a young man to spend the rest of his life in prison for killing a monster.
In Stephen’s ending, we learn that the titular character killed his mother because she knew about his true intentions and had tried to intervene. He convinced his father to call the cops and take the blame for his wife’s death, but while he did as Stephen had asked of him, Stephen wasn’t completely sure if he could be trusted, so he killed his father as well. Stephen figured out that Michael and Seema would surely have a word with the SI, and they would eventually discover that he had killed both his parents. So, to win their trust, he admitted the truth, but they didn’t realize it was all planned. Also, he had only partly confessed the truth; they remained forever unaware of his cold-blooded nature. They thought all the crimes he committed were rooted in pain and fear, but clearly that was all fabricated.
Why did Stephen kill Krithika?
Stephen killed the nine girls simply because he could. He had already stabbed Krithika, and he was apparently ‘missing’ her, so he decided to arrange an audition to find the ‘love of his life’ in the strangers who played Krithika’s role. And he stabbed them because they reminded him of her. He believed that his urge to kill was impossible to suppress, and he didn’t really care about who was on the other end. He thought that the girls were insignificant, and it was only the pleasure he experienced by killing them that was worth all the risks he had taken. Krithika was Stephen’s childhood best friend, but she never really saw him for who he was. He made her believe that his parents were vicious people who didn’t care about him. After the death of his parents, Stephen started to live with Krithika in Chennai. They were living their best lives, but then one night Stephen confessed to killing his parents, and Krithika suggested that he surrender himself to the cops. She promised that she would wait for him, but Stephen was convinced that she was lying. He couldn’t believe that instead of trying to protect him, she was ready to expose him. And that was why Stephen had killed Krithika, though he told a completely different story to Michael and Seema. He wanted them to believe that Krithika had always tried to protect him and it was insecurity and the voices in his head that compelled him to kill her.
What does the final scene suggest?
Stephen chose to let go of Mary because he wanted the cops to chase him, but only when he wanted them to. He had asked Mary to make a sketch of him for the cops, and when they would desperately search for him, he would walk into the police station to confess his crimes. This way, he wouldn’t be killed in an encounter, and he would have a chance to fabricate a believable narrative. He made up one story after another, and he was proud of successfully fooling Seema and Michael. Stephen didn’t feel guilty or remorseful; he thought that to survive in this wretched world, one had to be evil. Stephen was proud of having deceived the entire system, and his compelling story convinced the judge to spare him the death penalty, resulting instead in a double life sentence. Although he technically would be behind bars for a minimum of twenty-eight years, Stephen was confident that he would bring it down to ten years with impressive conduct. He was merely twenty-five, so he was certain that by the time he turned thirty-five, he would walk out of prison a free man, and he would once again get the chance to do whatever his heart pleased.
In Stephen, the image of the Ferris wheel is repeatedly shown, and it can be interpreted as this jolly ride that Stephen never wanted to stop. He first saw the ride as a child; there was something evil about the setup, but once he boarded the ride, he was both scared and excited. The Ferris wheel can be interpreted as his constant desire to kill; at first he didn’t know how to deal with this confusing feeling, but gradually he started to treasure it. Stephen lacked empathy, and considering he had a very vivid imagination, it’s not too far-fetched to comment that he wasn’t mentally stable, but at the same time, he was too smart to fool the system and deny any help that came his way. He didn’t think there was anything wrong with him, and he took pride in his presence of mind. Since he had already killed too many, he knew that the police would eventually track him down, so he accepted his reality and instead focused on convincing the system that he deserved another chance.
