"Baby Reindeer" tells the true story of aspiring comedian Donny Dunn (Richard Gadd), who finds himself being stalked by an older woman, Martha Scott (Jessica Gunning), after he gives her a cup of tea in the pub where he works.
The show is written by Gadd, based on his experiences of being stalked for four years over a decade ago by a character similar to Scott. "Baby Reindeer" was originally a stage show that Gadd performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2019, and is now a limited Netflix series.
Gadd told Tudum that the show "is not your conventional stalker storyline," which is clear in the way it explores how the stalking becomes intertwined with how Dunn deals with being sexually assaulted by a prominent TV producer.
And rather than painting Scott as a villain, it focuses on the emotional impact of stalking on both the stalker and their victim.
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Gadd said he wanted it to be clear that he sympathizes with his stalker, who he believed did not get the help she needed because public services in the UK are at a "crisis point" as a result of budget cuts.
He told The Independent: "I really did feel quite confronted with just how kind of how much lack of resources there seemed to be — how the police have been gutted. Like, why wasn't she being helped in some way? I left with more questions than answers."
Scott is sent to prison, but Dunn obsesses over why she stalked him in the first place
Shortly after Scott starts harassing Dunn's parents in episode six, she leaves him a voicemail where she threatens to start stabbing people if he doesn't pay attention to her.
She's charged with harassment and stalking and is given a nine-month prison sentence along with a restraining order, and although she expresses remorse for her actions, Dunn never sees her again.
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Shortly after Scott's sentencing, Dunn becomes obsessed with figuring out why she stalked him in the first place. In one of the countless voicemails she leaves him, she mentions that she used a cuddly reindeer toy to comfort her while her parents violently argued.
"Well, you are the spit of that reindeer. The same nose. Same eyes. Same cute wee bum. It means so much to me. You, you mean so much to me," Scott tells Dunn in episode seven.
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Scott's life was already in tatters when she first met Dunn in the pub because she'd previously been convicted of harassment and was fired from her job as a lawyer. The implication in the show is that she latched onto Dunn because she was looking for something positive to keep her going, just like the reindeer toy.
Dunn tries to get closure by returning to Darrien's flat
Dunn tries to move on from his ordeal with Scott by moving back in with his ex-girlfriend's mother, Liz (Nina Sosanya).
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But in his old room he finds the script that he worked on with TV producer Darrien (Tom Goodman-Hill), and Dunn realizes he needs to get closure over being sexually assaulted by him.
Dunn returns to Darrien's flat to confront his abuser, who in turn offers him a job working on a new TV show. However, being back at the place where he was abused initiates a trauma response in Dunn, and he gladly accepts the offer.
It's clear that he doesn't actually want to, but he does so to cope with the stress of being around his abuser again.
When he leaves the flat, Dunn realizes what he's done and starts to break down — until he listens to Scott's voicemails to calm him down, as if they're a podcast. Yes, the stalking negatively impacted Dunn's life, but he's become dependent on Scott, in a way, because her attention was a constant presence in his life.
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Gadd told GQ that the moment Dunn confronts Darrien is "the most truthful scene of the entire show."
He explained: "I don't think it was a cynical ending, it was showing an element of abuse that hadn't been seen on television before, which is, unfortunately, the deeply entrenched, negative, psychological effects of attachment you can sometimes have with your abuser."
The final scene brings everything full circle
Dunn tries to stabilize himself after the stress of seeing Darrien again by going to a pub but realizes he hasn't got his wallet with him when he orders a co*ke.
The bartender spots that Dunn has been crying and is clearly struggling with something, and gives him the drink for free in a moment of kindness.
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It's the same thing Dunn did for Scott when they first met, and it brings their whole story full circle. Instead of Scott stalking Dunn, he uses her voicemails as a source of comfort in his troubled life, just like her baby reindeer toy.
Gadd expanded on the ending to Tudum, saying: "I just think there's a deep psychology to it that I really like the idea of. Someone being so lonely and so isolated that they decide to listen to their old stalker's voicemails."
