“My Life with the Walter Boys”: All the Changes from Book to Screen

The new hit Netflix series is based on the 2014 book of the same name by Ali Novak

Warning: This post contains spoilers from all 10 episodes of My Life with the Walter Boys.

My Life With the Walter Boys is the newest book-to-screen adaptation to take the internet by storm, as a love triangle between brothers takes center stage amidst a house of nearly a dozen boys — and it all happens with some jaw-dropping scenery in the background.

The ten-episode series, which premiered on Netflix Dec. 7, is based on the 2014 book of the same name by Ali Novak, but, as with all adaptations, the show took on a life of its own. It's still the story of 15-year-old Jackie Howard (Nikki Rodriguez), who, after tragedy leaves her an orphan, moves from New York City to Silver Falls, Colorado to live on a ranch with her mother's best friend, Katherine Walter (Sarah Rafferty) — and Katherine's enormous family.

The story explores Jackie's life after tremendous loss — in the first episode, she receives news that her mother, father and older sister, Lucy, were killed in an accident — as she establishes herself in a new small town and navigates a tricky dynamic with two of the Walter boys, former football star and resident bad boy Cole (Noah LaLonde) and sweet, earnest Alex (Ashby Gentry), neither of whom she can stay away from.

As showrunner Melanie Halsall told TheWrap, she was always planning on leading viewers down a winding road with the series. “I wanted to blow all that up. That was always my intention, to lead the audience down a certain path and then blow it all up.”

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Between the addition of some new characters and the chance to expand on some familiar faces' storylines, there were some major changes made for the show, which topped the streamer's charts almost immediately after its release.

Here's everything you need to know about some of the key differences in Jackie and the Walter family's story reflected in the hit Netflix series.

There are less Walter boys

In the show, the Walter family is comprised of Katherine and George (Marc Blucas) and their ten kids: Will (Johnny Link), twins Cole and Danny (Connor Stanhope), Nathan (Corey Fogelmanis), Alex, Isaac (Isaac Arellanes), Lee (Myles Vincent Perez), Jordan, Parker (Alix West Lefler) and 5-year-old Benny (Lennix James).

However, in the book, there are 11 Walter kids – 10 boys and one young girl, Parker — as Jordan (Dean Petriw) is also a twin. Showrunner Melanie Halsall told Entertainment Weekly that it was a deliberate decision to cut one of the sets of twins when adapting the book for the screen, though she didn’t elaborate on why exactly one of the boys got cut.

“The TV series takes off a little bit from the book — there are fewer boys in the family, for a start. Two of the twin sets became just one, and that's quite a big change I think people will notice,” she told the outlet.

New characters, new drama

There's a host of new characters introduced in the show that help expand the Silver Falls community.

High school guidance counselor Tara (Ashley Tavares), who is one of Will's fiancée Haley's close friends, is one of the newly introduced characters. She's a source of constant support for Haley as her relationship with Will faces some ups and downs, and also finds love herself with new teacher Nikil (Mobeh Jindran), though things end with the status of their relationship still up in the air in episode 10, as she seemed to be crushing on Jackie's Uncle Richard (Alex Quijano).

Cole and Jackie's first kiss

In the book, Cole and Jackie kiss long before the ending scene. During a game of of truth or dare, which was recreated in the show, Cole is dared to kiss Jackie — and he does.

In the show, though, at the exact moment Cole starts to lean into her during the game, the alcohol she's had hits her all at once, and she pukes on him and runs off. Viewers instead have to wait until the finale episode to see a kiss between Jackie and the older Walter brother.

Alex and Cole's fight

In both the book and the show, tensions between Alex and Cole are as high as ever once Jackie comes to town. The brothers have previously been involved with the same girl, Paige, and the experience left Cole with a target on his back, though he insists that he didn't intend for the overlap to happen, as he was away all summer and didn't know about Alex's relationship with Paige.

In the show, though, as Alex starts dating Jackie, and rumors begin to fly around the school about both the Walter brothers, their tension comes to a head and they brawl in the middle of the school day. Danny, Nathan, Isaac and Lee all rush to separate the fight, but all six of the Walters end up with suspensions as a result — and the release of the pent-up tension does nothing to ease the strain on Alex and Cole's relationship.

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Financial troubles on the ranch

A major stressor for Katherine and George in the latter half of the series is their financial troubles, as a disease spreads through the trees on their expansive Colorado ranch. George tries and fails to secure a loan from the bank to help tie them over, and then ends up meeting with a developer as he and Katherine consider selling the land entirely.

At one point, Jackie overhears the couple's conversation about how tight money is with how many mouths there are to feed, and considers moving back to New York City with her Uncle Richard, though she doesn't end up doing so — at least not at that point.

During the season finale, though, with his wedding looming, the oldest Walter boy, Will, seems to have some tricks up his sleeve as he meets with Richard and they discuss the possibility of opening up a resort on some of the ranch's land, seemingly a way to both solve his parents' financial problem and give him and Haley a new business venture to focus on.

Katherine's award — and the ensuing moment of reckoning for Cole

One of the perks of adapting a book into a television series is there’s a whole lot more time to spend diving into the storylines of characters. In Walter Boys, more of the Walter parents’ lives are explored, and Katherine’s career as a vet is one of the arcs that gets more airtime.

In episode 8, Katherine’s work as a vet is highlighted as she’s given a state award, and the award ceremony brings Cole’s bad behavior in light of Jackie and Alex’s budding relationship to a climax of sorts. He arrives late to the ceremony and walks in drunk, making a scene with the waiters almost immediately as he asks for more alcohol. Then, in the middle of his mom’s acceptance speech for the award, he stumbles to his feet, knocks into a waiter and causes a scene, interrupting Katherine’s speech and prompting boos from the crowd.

Will and Jackie both drag Cole outside to allow Katherine her moment on stage, and tensions pique between both Cole and his older brother and Cole and Jackie, as Cole admits, "I don't know what I'm doing or who I even am anymore."

As Jackie offers to help Cole, he drunkenly tells her (and laters claims not to remember it) that he wishes she never came to Silver Falls, to which she replies: "Well, I want my family not to have died, so I guess we both want the same thing."

The conversation leaves Jackie's frustration at an all-time high and creates problems with both brothers, as Alex says she chose Cole over him, and she resorts to avoiding Cole after he claimed not to remember the hurtful comment.

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The fate of Jackie's love triangle

Perhaps the most consequential change made to Jackie and the Walter boys’ story comes in the finale episode, where, after a stressful few days planning Will and Haley’s wedding, Jackie finds out that Cole glued her sister’s teapot back together after it broke several months before.

With Alex passed out from too much champagne at the wedding — he told Jackie he loved her on the dance floor, which left her startled and speechless — Jackie heads out to the shed to confront Cole about the teapot, and the two finally kiss... a few times. (Talk about a slow burn!)

In the book, Jackie admits her feelings to Cole and Alex overhears the conversation. With no fighting – physical or otherwise – involved, Alex and Jackie talk and decide that they're better off as friends, leaving the door open for romance between her and the older Walter brother.

She spends the summer in New York City in the book, and as she's on her way to the airport with Danny, Cole stops them and confesses his love for her on the side of the road – and in the pouring rain. The book ends with the promise of possibility between Jackie and Cole, and seemingly no bad blood with Alex, but the show leaves things off ripe for chaos and conflict, as Jackie instead flees Silver Falls for New York City after her kiss with Cole, leaving only an "I'm sorry" note on her bed.

Episode 10's ending leaves most questions unanswered. Halsall confirmed to Tudum that Alex and Jackie "don't split up," but noted that “they may end up splitting up because of what happens with Cole at the very end.”

She told EW that she hopes the show's ending will come as a shock to fans of the book.

“What happens at the end will surprise people because that is different than the book, but I'm hoping that gives the audience, both the audience that loves the book and the new audience, a bit of a surprise.”

As for what Jackie herself thinks, Rodriguez told Tudum, “I understand Jackie’s dilemma.”

“Alex is more that puppy love, that friendship, that safe [relationship], but you just love them so much,” she said of the love triangle. “But the Cole one is more the passionate one, the one you shouldn’t love.”

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My Life with the Walter Boys is now streaming on Netflix.

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