Baby Reindeer follows Donny who shows a moment of kindness toward Martha, only for it to impact his life significantly. The series is streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary:
Donny Dunn is an aspiring comedian working as a bartender in London. One evening, a woman named Martha walks in and sits down at the bar.
Donny asks her if she needs anything because she looks miserable but she says she cannot afford anything.
He ends up giving her tea for free and begins conversing with her. Once he shows some interest, Martha reciprocates tenfold.
She starts showing up constantly and spends the entire day talking about her life to Donny. She claims to be a bigshot lawyer but always says that she cannot afford anything to drink.
Donny continues to indulge her infatuation but avoids giving her his number. She adds him on Facebook and gets his email from his comedy website.
She begins emailing him incessantly with incoherent language describing her feelings for him.
He goes with her for a coffee on her birthday as a courtesy but she considers it a date. He decides to follow her back to her house and finds a filthy apartment.
Martha comments on all of Donny’s pictures on Facebook and attacks his ex-girlfriend Keely too.
When he googles her, he discovers that she’s been in prison before for stalking her former boss. Donny considers reporting her, but something in him finds her harmless.
During a stand-up show, Martha shows up and heckles him but Donny spins it to his advantage and has a great set.
He makes it to the semi-final of a stand-up comedy competition but is worried that Martha might derail that show too.
Donny joins a trans dating website under a fake name and occupation and meets a transwoman named Teri.
He begins seeing her but schedules their dates for somewhere at the edge of the city because he feels some level of embarrassment about running into someone he knows.
He was also worried about Martha finding out about them because that would cause trouble.
Growing anxious about everything that might happen, Donny ditches Teri on the tube and ignores her for a while.
He eventually apologizes to her and tells her the truth about him and the fact that Martha has been stalking him.
She sends him away after listening to him but doesn’t forgive him just yet. She then shows up for his semi-final act, and Martha shows up as well.
Martha causes a scene so Donny and Teri get out of there. They sit down at a bar later but Martha turns up and assaults Teri.
Donny finally reports her to the police but he doesn’t give them too many details so they turn him away.
He then thinks back to when he started as a comedian in Edinburgh. He meets Darrien O’Connor, a famous comedy writer.
Donny makes a good first impression and Darrien offers to help him with his act. He gives him a ton of advice, but then leaves for London early and Donny is lost once again.
Donny moves to London after getting into acting school where he meets Keeley. He then gets a call from Darrien inviting him over, so Donny goes.
Darrien offers to help Donny with his comedy career, but he actually feeds him drugs and sexually abuses him until Donny finally leaves.
Donny is left traumatized by what Darrien did and that affects his relationship with Keeley. She breaks up with him but her brother soon passes away and Donny stays at their house to keep Keeley’s mother safe.
Now he’s got Martha harassing him and putting Keeley’s mother in danger. He also makes Teri insecure because his bottled-up emotions affect their relationship.
He goes to the police once again and this time, he mentions Martha’s name which grabs their attention.
The police involvement makes Martha back off until she starts threatening his parents back in Scotland.
He goes back to him to file a complaint there but the police aren’t very receptive. He decides to take things into his own hands and it blows back on him.
Donny goes to Martha’s place and says that he’ll ask the police to stop if she sends him an email explicitly describing what she’d like to do to him.
He thinks that he can use this to incriminate her, but Martha records all of their conversations and makes him seem like the problem.
Donny is backed into a corner and Teri breaks up with him because she cannot deal with Martha’s baggage.
Donny also has to move out of Keeley’s place because of Martha, but he does make it to the final of the stand-up competition.
Martha shows up at the bar on the day of the competition and after Donny brings up her criminal past, she smashes his head with a glass tumbler.
He still goes for the final and after bombing through his first few jokes, he has an emotional breakdown.
He sits on stage and pours out all of his emotions, talking about being raped and why he indulged Martha, and how he messed things up with Teri.
Ending explained:
Rise to fame
Donny’s breakdown on stage is recorded and within the next few weeks, he becomes a viral sensation as he is credited for being brave and vulnerable.
His life turns for the better and his career is on the rise as he books more shows and makes more public appearances.
However, the added attention gets quite hectic and he sets up an automated response on his email with his number, which goes out to Martha.
She begins calling him and leaving all sorts of messages and threatening to tell his parents about what happened.
Getting ahead of the problem
Donny shuts off his phone and visits his parents so he can come clean to them and they receive it much better than he expected him to.
His father tells him that he grew up in the Catholic church, suggesting that he might have experienced something similar to Donny.
Donny then spends a few days with his parents without thinking about the troubles of the world and then when he heads back, he’s got a fresher perspective.
An end to the issue?
Donny goes to the police again because Martha has been leaving him countless messages from an unknown number but they tell him that they cannot do anything about it.
One of them tells Donny that he needs to listen to messages and note down things that could incriminate her and help their case.
So he decides to listen to the messages and he gets a bit obsessed. He listens to them day and night to understand how her mind works until she threatens his parents once again.
He reports her, and she is sentenced to prison for 9 months as well and a restraining order is put out for 5 years.
Martha goes to prison, but Donny continues to listen to her messages and charts their entire relationship.
He thinks about Darrien and visits him. They speak for a bit and Darrien offers him work once again, this time with pay, and Donny accepts before leaving.
After leaving, Donny is overwhelmed with his emotions and he heads to a bar. He sits down and orders a drink before listening to one of many messages he hasn’t heard yet.
In the message, Martha explains why she nicknamed him “baby reindeer”. It was after a stuffed toy that comforted her during her very troubled childhood.
He is reduced to tears with this revelation and the bartender serves him his drink.
Donny realizes that he’s forgotten his wallet so the bartender gives him the drink for free in what turns out to be a full-circle moment.
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