Miller’s Girl Explained- Did Mr. Miller Have An Affair With Cairo, And Does It Matter?

Teenage girls are dangerous. So is boredom, guilt, and rejection. There’s a reason we should avoid adult relationships as teenagers. As a former teenage girl, I remember the longing, romance, and fantasy of intense crushes. Adults should have relationships with adults, and teens should practice those relationships with other teens who are in similar places emotionally and don’t carry power imbalances with them. Currently streaming on Netflix, Miller’s Girl explores the line between physical and emotional affairs and what happens when people cross boundaries they shouldn’t. Here’s everything you need to know about what really happened between Mr. Miller and Cairo.

Mr. Miller (Martin Freeman) is a high school English teacher. His star pupil Cairo Sweet(Jenna Ortega) is brilliant, beautiful, and obsessed with him. It doesn’t help that he constantly nurtures those feelings and encourages her infatuation. He begins mentoring her one-on-one and taking her to poetry readings after hours. This leads to a physical encounter that he regrets after reading her recent creative writing assignment. It is sexually charged and causes him to realize how wrong he has been. He cuts things off, and she is devastated. She then gave the Vice Principal a copy of her assignment and waited for the inevitable questioning.

It doesn’t take long before Mr. Miller and Cairo are asked about their relationship and inappropriate behavior. After the meetings, Mr. Miller is suspended and will probably be fired pending the board’s investigation. Cairo is vilified for testifying against him, but her reaction directly results from his bad behavior. They were not equals, and she didn’t make up their relationship. Time after time, he behaved in ways he never should. Although Coach Fillmore also misbehaved, he wasn’t as terrible as Miller. Ironically, Fillmore’s behavior laid the groundwork for Miller’s behavior. Both men were deeply flawed and made massive mistakes. Accepting and responding to sexual texts from students is wildly wrong, regardless of whether he ever made any physical advances on any student.

When Mr. Miller rejected Cairo, she turned against him and reported him for misconduct. Mr. Miller crossed lines. He was devalued at home. His wife was a vicious alcoholic viper who constantly belittled him. Once a promising writer, he feels worthless, unaccomplished, and regretful for his life’s direction. When Cairo showed him affection, even hero worship, it was a salve for his psychic wounds. He craved her attention as much as her young body.

Cairo loved him before she ever met him. She was impressed with his writing and already had a crush before landing in his class. When he rejected her, she was hurt and angry and badly needed to be more than a precocious teenager with privilege. She was ambitious and needed an edge to get into her college of choice. Mr. Miller’s naive arrogance and their close relationship paved the way for his demise.

Ultimately, Cairo destroyed Mr. Miller because she could. With its troublesome power imbalance, this relationship was always going to end in disaster. His demise was her “greatest achievement to date.” Her smile as she watched his life burn was pleased, and she should be. He took advantage of her and shouldn’t have been a teacher. This isn’t the 80s or even the 90s when young girls were temptresses who lured innocent men to doom. Lolitas are just young girls who are being coveted and abused.

What is the controversy around Miller’s Girl?

The controversy surrounding Miller’s Girl bears examining as much as who is the villain in the story. The sex scene between Miller and Cairo took place when Ortega was 19 and Freeman was 50. The age gap was enough to skeeve people out, and coupled with the focus on Freeman’s Miller as the victim, a conversation about whether Cairo could be the villain is necessary. Cairo was a child, and Miller was her teacher. Technically, she was supposed to be 18, making her an adult; however, Miller was her teacher. As hellbent on revenge, as Cairo was, she can’t be the big bad. She behaved erratically and may have reported Miller out of embarrassment and rage. Still, she is Miller’s student, and the road to this event was paved when he invited her to after-school events alone, shared cigarettes with her, and went to her house alone.

Did Mr. Miller and Cairo have sex?

We don’t know what exactly happened between them. The events we see play out in her bedroom could have been either one’s imagination or it could have occurred as we saw it. We also have no way of knowing how far things went. It is implied that more than kissing happened. Cairo’s story was full of details, and Miller questioned why she wrote about it. Her answer was to explain that she followed his directions. She says she wrote about what she knew. They look knowingly at each other, making it appear as if they had relations similar to her story. The question of whether they had sex or were physically intimate isn’t entirely answered, though, and it doesn’t really matter.

Miller crossed emotional boundaries before any physical lines were crossed. Cairo was determined to destroy him regardless of what happened. Partly, the seeds were planted when Winnie suggested early in the film that Cairo should seduce a teacher to have something powerful to write about. Did Cairo entice Miller, and when he didn’t leave his wife and broke things off, she reported him because she knew this would be a high-profile event? It’s possible she never cared that much about Miller and wasn’t hurt. She just needed a good story for her transcripts.

In this interpretation, she was a manipulative, emotionally mature young woman who knew exactly what she was doing with her friend and her teacher. She didn’t care about the consequences to others or feel remorse for hurting them. She reported Miller to the board and threatened Winnie because she needed to accomplish her goals. Her cold smile at Miller at the end of Miller’s Girl supports that conclusion.

Conversely, Cairo could have been a woman scorned, and she got her revenge because her young mind couldn’t deal with his rejection. If Miller didn’t want her, he would pay with his professional and personal life. Winnie pleads with her to think before she ruins his life because even though she frequently flirted with Coach Filmore, she wouldn’t have made the same choices Cairo did. This is a slippery slope of an argument that defines how most young girls feel. Miller was wrong. Full stop. He made a series of dangerous decisions that put himself at risk and took advantage of Cairo. What Cairo’s motivations were and whether or not they had sex isn’t relevant.

Finally, it doesn’t matter what Cairo’s motivations were. She could have been calculating and cold, needing nothing but a serious incident to bolster her college applications, but she could have also been a scorned young woman who wanted revenge. Ultimately, Mr. Miller was the villain. It doesn’t matter that he may or may not be guilty of having sex with her. His palpable discomfort during his questioning speaks volumes. He is vague and, at one point, answers a question with a question. Freeman is tremendous in this scene, showcasing his incredible prowess. Obviously, he is hiding something.

Miller was alone and intimate with Cairo, against school policy, and his treatment of her at the poetry reading was selfish at best and grooming at worst. He was the grown-up. Letting her adore and flatter him made Miller feel good but encouraged a relationship that should never have happened.

Those who compare Miller’s Girl to Wild Things from 1998 wouldn’t be entirely wrong. Smarmy older men desperate to recapture their youth and nubile, deceitful young women using all their most potent weapons are shared conceits. Stories like this are countless and, unfortunately, timeless. The moral is always the same. Men are gross pigs, and young women are sirens, tempting the hapless, helpless men to their tragedies. The real takeaway should be that decent people don’t cross boundaries or take advantage of circumstances just because they can.