If you watch Found you know that the character that no one trusts (second to Sir) is Jamie. Now, while I am fully aware that is a bold statement, it is one that I would stand behind as a viewer. I know that I may be alone in being a person who yells at my television every time he enters the scene.
Stop lying and tell them something, I scream.
Get your s*** together, I’d say, rolling my eyes.
Jamie is a character that makes no sense and yet makes all the sense in this world. He was kidnapped as a child – but he’s not fully aware of that. He’s trying to rectify the things that Carrie told him versus what Margaret tells him.
Jamie is searching for answers.
But so are we. We being me and whomever doesn’t get just who Jamie is. We’re looking to figure out and understand the character. Who better to do that with than Parker Queenan, who plays the misunderstood character.
Zoom lets me into a room with publicists and a fresh-faced young man. Parker Queenan smiles, and I realize I need to turn on my camera. Having rolled out of bed (I have a chronic illness, don’t judge me), I quickly grab a sweatshirt to hide the skulls that are all over my top.
I smiled back at him and dove right in. Ten minutes seems like forever, but when you have a ton of questions and you aren’t sure how involved the answers will be, ten minutes isn’t enough.
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I am not one to ever sugar coat (even though I should), and so before I tell him that I can’t stand Jamie, I ask what is the biggest misconception about Jamie. And it makes me feel a little less alone as he hints that he’s been asked this many times, “The biggest misconception about him, I’ve been saying that I think it’s that why he does the things that he does. People, I think they take his actions and they take the fact that he is really slow to open up and really slow to confess and to come forward as evidence that he’s in some way guilty, or that he’s in some way hiding something very significant to the show.”
Now, I do think he is hiding something significant, but what that is, time will only tell. I don’t believe that it’s nothing. There has to be a reason that Jamie came back the way that he did and when he did. But Parker snaps me right back into the conversation as he says, “I think that that’s more to do with him and his trauma, and where he comes from, than maybe something that he’s an ulterior motive, or a secret agenda that he’s holding behind. There’s a lot about him that’s not written on the walls. It’s very thinly veiled in his character, and why he’s interested in coming to M&A, and why he’s interested in Gabi, and why he’s interested in this place and being part of this team, and why he’s also–.”
He trails that answer off and I am not sure if it was on purpose or if it was because he lost his train of thought. I lean forward, ready to pounce on the moment, but he quickly says, “There are certain triggers that he has that send him flying, and he doesn’t really want to go into certain places. I think that also has to do with the second thing that you pointed out, which is why he’s reluctant to open up, and the trauma that he has. I would say it’s probably, like an upheaval of your entire understanding of life, like an existential crisis in a way where everything that he knew to be true is suddenly told him to be false, so suddenly he’s like, “Well, is everything else I know false as well? Is this false? Can I open up to these people, or will they do the same thing to me that happened to me in the past?” I think that takes a while for someone to overcome that.”
And suddenly, a character that I can’t stand, because I don’t understand him, makes a little more sense. But there are a few more things that I need to understand before I give him that pass. For instance, his fascination with M&A. I think that it’s something nefarious, but he’s quick to shut that down.
He says, “I think that the interest makes them want to get to know him, maybe a little bit better on top of the fact that he’s, of course, Margaret’s son. There’s something about him that might be quiet and a little sneaky and a little crafty, but also sincere at the same time. There are a lot of instances where he does something that leads them to think that he’s not either who he says he is or that he’s lying to them in some way, but ends up revealing that he was actually doing it with an interested intention.”
But his interest in M&A, it does seem disingenuous. Parker, though, he’s quick to make you look at that a different way, “Well, for him, he’s got this big albatross on him, this weight that he doesn’t really know what to do with, and he doesn’t understand. He finds a group of people that all came from a very similar place that he did and found a way to transition that and become upstanding citizens and good people, and also people that were generally speaking okay. I think that he looks at them and thinks, ‘Well, how did you get there? What happened with you guys?'”
“He finds out that part of being a part of M&A is that they find a way to use what happened to themselves to help other people. In helping other people, I think they understand themselves a little bit better, but I think they also learn to overcome their own things. I think that’s what makes him interested. I think he especially sees Gabi, because obviously, she’s the masthead of M&A,” and then continues, “On top of that, she’s particularly interesting to him, of course, because she was kidnapped. She seems very interested in Jamie, and there’s a shared connection between them that’s unspoken.”
Of course, though, Jamie moving forward in any way, feels like he’s going to need help – a lot of therapy to deal with his trauma. If he doesn’t come face to face with the things that he’s been through and work through them, how is he ever going to heal?
Well, Parker says we won’t find out this season, and then adds, “I think that he takes steps, but I think it’s a long journey. There are moments that he has where he takes it upon himself to learn and to seek out closure, I want to say. Maybe, you know what I think it is? I think when people have something really bad happen to them, they feel that they were taken away from themselves, or their agency was taken away from them, or their choice was taken away from them.”
And then he reminds me of something that seems really obvious, but something I haven’t really thought a lot about, Jamie doesn’t really know that he was kidnapped. He believed that he was given away because his Mom didn’t want him. But, then that begs the question, if he went his whole life thinking his Mom didn’t want him, why didn’t he ever go to his Dad.
And Parker has an answer that we wanted to hear, “Well, there are points in the next couple of episodes where I think it gives a little bit more perspective as to his relationship and how it’s different with his mom versus his dad. His relationship with his dad is just different. I think a lot of times it is. This is a complete generalization, but boys are typically– they’re really close with their moms.”
He continues, “There’s something about that where it’s very easy to open up to them. It’s very easy to come back to them. If they don’t really accept you, it’s like, “Well, you could go to your dad.” Jamie’s dad in the show and he don’t have the same kind of relationship that he has with his mom. They go into that a little bit more. Not a terrible relationship, but there’s something very close about the both of them, and of course, the fact that he went missing while she was with him, and up until this point, he believed it was because she consciously let him go and was like, “I’ll let you leave,” kind of thing.”
I find myself staring at Parker, wondering if I buy this answer, but also seeing this look on his face that makes me know he’s thought about this before, “I think until he is able to really address that, I don’t think he would be able to go to his dad.”
As much as I want to question it, I can’t. I can’t because you can tell that he really knows his character and hopes that other people can understand Jamie and look at him the same way that he does.
With love and a want to help him.
As my time is coming to a close, I need to know how Jamie is going to change now that Margaret has had this press conference and his father and sisters know that he is back. Will it affect him? How will he handle that?
“He’d probably become closer to them, I imagine. I think it’s like tasting something. It’s like you don’t really know you’re hungry until you come back to it and you realize like, “Yes, this is what I left behind.” He hasn’t seen it in so long, so I think once he sees them again, it’s one of those things where he’s like, “I do want to stay here.” You find your home, and I think he thought he knew where home was for a while until he realized that he didn’t.”
“Then when he finds home again, he’ll be like, “It might be tougher, but this is the place I want to stay at, and it’s going to take a while for me to bridge that gap with them because they don’t trust me, and I don’t really trust myself, but this is where I want to stay.'” he says before continuing, “I think that Margaret as well in that last episode, and what happens, they’re going to become closer as well because there’s still that bridge to gap, and it probably has to do with admitting wrong on both sides to some extent, and letting something go. They do come to that a little bit more, and I think it’s something they’ll continue to do.”
But my biggest question – as Jamie starts to settle into this new life and all of these truths that he’s never known – is he going to be able to forgive himself?
“Man, you know what, this isn’t even coming from the show; this is just coming from me, I think that that would take a while. I don’t think this season. There are obviously hints of those things. I think everybody takes steps towards something before they fully get there, and I think he takes steps towards that direction.”
And adds, “I think in realizing the truth, ultimately, you’re given a bit more objective perspective, and that objectivity would tell you, ‘Well, this wasn’t really you. This was actually someone else who did this.’ Man, I don’t know if you could ever really fully let go of that guilt. That’s a tough thing. I would be really interested to see if that transpires more and if he fully does come to that realization.”
One can only hope that in his capacity for forgiving others, he finds a way to forgive himself.
Found airs Thursdays on NBC.
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