#eric atlee

After 43 eps of amazing character growth, Dillon Simmonds leads Phoenix to victory as they take the Cup and afterwards scores a personal triumph as he gathers the courage to come out as gay to Elliot. It’s hard to understate what a bold move this is for the show, to have a main character who’s been there right from the pilot, who was hated by the audience and is now a fan favourite, to now have him come out as gay. For a show that is targeted towards young boys this is an especially important move as it tears down stereotypes about gay people and it confronts the audience with the question of whether they’ll stop watching Dillon’s story now just because he’s gay. And kudos for the writers for not saving this for the final season, with at least one more season left they’ll have no choice but to develop this story line further

The reception on social media seems mostly positive and the CBBC to its credit has been promoting Dillon coming out with gay abandon. There are quite a few heartbroken Duby shippers but they really should have jumped ship after Ruby point blank said that she was over Dillon in 5x01. To be fair, I do get why Dillon being gay would come as a surprise; there really were no hints that Dillon was gay until S4; I don’t it’s a coincidence that S4 sees Dillon’s mom replaced with his homophobic dad and little brother. Which in all likelihood is because the writers never planned for Dillon to be gay until then. And S4 does end with Ruby still clearly crushing on Dillon and Sienna suggesting to her that Dillon likes her back which is then promptly dropped in S5. Most likely the writers didn’t have permission when writing S4 to go the route they’ve gone now and were planning to use Ruby to be the catalyst in Dillon’s coming out story by asking him out or something

Luckily we get to see this much more interesting story line. I have to blindly hope that the promo for next week is misleading and that Elliot isn’t going to out Dillon to Ruby. Fwiw someone commented on the CBBC insta post about Dillon coming out and said that they really hope Elliot wouldn’t out Dillon because that would go against the message the CBBC and the show is pushing about respecting people’s coming out journeys and the CBBC liked the comment. And even if Ruby found out Dillon was gay it’s not like she’d go and tell his dad that Dillon was hanging out with Elliot

I’m agnostic on the future of Delliot. I can’t ignore the built in escape hatch the show has with Elliot just being in town until his mom recovers; it’s not like a kid getting to go back home with his mom isn’t a happy ending. On the other hand it does seem somewhat pointless to have given Elliot a fleshed out personality and hobbies and to have given him and Dillon a connection if Elliot is just supposed to be Dillon’s gay Sherpa. The show has also really not done much in the way of ships but then again they had no problem having Dillon briefly date Indira and also be somewhat romantically linked to Sienna. As it looks like Dillon will end up at Foxborough it seems likely that S6 will delve into homophobia in sports and unless Dillon gets publicly outed there would have to be something that spurs him coming out; it’s not like his dad would spread that news around. Dillon wanting to date Elliot and not wanting to keep that part of his life a secret would be a good reason for him to come out. In conclusion, the future of Delliot is a land of contrasts

Jamie was really living up to Dillon’s old description of him as a sullen kid with a rubbish haircut. I’d say that he was treating Boggy like a dog but I don’t think Jamie would yell at a dog like that #justiceforboggy. Idk Jamie I think your deadbeat dad might be the one to blame for the accident. He really needs a wake up call and hopefully Boggy’s anxiety story line will see Jamie realizing what a great mate Boggy has been and will see him trying to make amends

Zoe made strides in being a better teammate with Kat but the longer she puts off returning the pendant the more it’s gonna blow up in her face when she does

Liam cheering for Foxborough over Phoenix was ruthless but very funny

It really is fascinating how little Jamie we saw this ep and how he’s not even shown in the promo for next week. There must be some difference in how tv contracts are structured in Britain compared to America because this would never happen on an American show. It’s great though and allows Jamie Johnson to be a true ensemble show, which will help greatly in S6 and hopefully beyond as the older kids will no longer all be playing on the same team

I’m not shocked that the show introduced a straight ship to balance out the gay story line but I am shocked that it was with Eric of all people. I’m not sure what the long term plan with it is but we’ll see what happens

Looking Ahead:

Mr. Simmonds telling Liam that he has the perfect role model in Dillon is pretty funny considering what we as the audience know about Dillon and about his father. Of course, Dillon and his journey to being a better person really is the perfect role model for Liam on his own redemption arc. It seems like Liam tells his dad that Dillon was hanging with Elliot instead of training but I’m not sure if Liam overhears their conversation and outs Dillon to their dad or if the dad somehow figures it out some other way or if Dillon comes out for whatever reason or if their dad doesn’t find out yet. It’s almost impossible to imagine him being supportive when he does find out and I wonder what that arc towards acceptance looks like for Mr. Simmonds

It’s going to be great to see two gay kids discussing their sexualities, it’s something that has still yet to happen on Disney since Love Victor was moved to Hulu. After next week all of Dillon’s scenes from the S5 trailer will have been shown with the exception of some clips of him playing a soccer game in a blue uniform at night against a team in red. You’d think the red team would be Foxborough but so I wonder who the blue team is (could be a dream sequence)

Looks like Liam also ends up with Eric for a bit. I’m sure that Liam will play an important role in Dillon’s coming out story and likely ends up defending Dillon to their dad but who knows how it all plays out, we’re in uncharted waters now

Dillon finally went home tonight after what was probably a couple of weeks. The show continues to do great work with Dillon’s sexuality. Graham begins to make amends by coming of his own accord to the Walker-Cotton house and apologizing to Dillon but he hasn’t magically become a good person. He wants Dillon to keep his sexuality a secret which Dillon pushes back against but as loathsome as Graham can be he does have a point that being openly gay could very well derail Dillon’s football career; after all it’s the same conclusion that all the gay professional players in Britain have reached. This whole story line has been surprisingly nuanced especially for a kids show. Shaun Duggan mentioned that Graham would have a journey of his own and I would assume we see more of it in the final eps 

One thing I do think the show has failed to do is include Dillon’s mom. Presumably they don’t have the actress this season but we really needed to see her support Dillon on screen when his dad and brother are homophobes. Hopefully they bring her back in S6 (and bring back Elliot)

It’s a minor detail but I really liked that when Alba comes into the living room to share her news that through the window we can see Graham walking towards the front door; it shows a real attention to detail on the part of the production team. Also the ‘’We Are Family’’ poster with the rainbow on the kitchen wall while Dillon and Graham talked was an inspired touch

The small moment when Dillon asked Becky and Dawn what he should do was really cool; seeing adult lgbtq people give advice to kids dealing with their sexualities is rare on tv in general, on kids tv it’s virtually unheard of; Cami and her gf trying to help Bobby on Doafp being the only example that comes to mind. The show did a great job normalizing lgbtq parents and families and there was an excellent implicit contrast drawn between the loving and supportive ‘non-traditional’  Walker-Cotton family and the cold and strained ‘traditional nuclear’ Simmonds family

I’m so glad that Ruby and Alba have finally been adopted and the photo album Becky and Dawn made was very sweet. I wonder if they stick with Osborne as their surnames or start using Walker-Cotton

Dillon being second in the credits? We love to see it folks

Zoe gets a recruitment montage for a heist soccer game so her and Kat can have one last chance to impress Geri Seddon who apparently doesn’t work very hard at her scouting job if she’s missed all these players. In the first good deed Jamie has done in weeks he calls up Jack and she gets Archfield to play against Zoe’s ragtag team. To the show’s credit Archfield pretty easily wins the day at Goodfield as they realistically should. Zoe and Kat get into Hawkstone though and Alba gets flagged as a future talent so all’s well that ends well

Zoe vaguely apologized for being an ass to Jack and she finally did the right thing with Kat and returned the pendant which which Kat promptly lost again. Zoe treating other girls as the enemy has been a core part of her story since she joined the show back in S3 and it looks like that’s behind now as her and Kat are real friends

I think Mike calling for girl power was the funniest line of the night

This Eric/Aisha/Freddie love triangle is a right mess but I’m finding myself invested regardless. Freddie and Aisha have good chemistry and their commentating was cute. Freddie not knowing Kat’s last name was funny as was Aisha’s observation about Mike’s yelling. Aisha was also right about peanut butter and honey being a delicious combo

We got a refresher on Eric’s sad backstory, brutal that he hasn’t seen his mom in 2 years.  Well I’m sure that Eric’s issues with abandonment won’t come into play as Aisha and Freddie grow closer! Imagine tuning into a livestream for a football match only to hear two 13 year olds get into a pissing contest over a girl they both fancy

Also nice to see the kids be kids and go to the cinema

This show has really done a good job with diversity especially since the series isn’t set in or around London (S1 was filmed in Nottingham and recent seasons have been filmed in Wales). In particular, JJ has avoided having their two black male characters, Eric and Freddie, fall into stereotypes. As much as I can’t fathom why the show needs this love triangle, it is refreshing to see two black kids shown as the closest thing this show has to romantic leads. American kids shows have done a great job with female black characters but when it comes to black male characters things are much worse. Zay on GMW largely fell into the sassy black friend stereotype. As for Walker on Andi Mack, the less said the better about how he was romantically involved with two girls of colour only to lose out to two white boys before being written off as a shoe gifting player in a way that played into harmful stereotypes about black men being promiscuous 

Another ep where Jamie basically just makes a cameo but because the show has such a wide bench it doesn’t hurt the ep at all. Boggy is basically Jamie’s housewife at this point and it’s sad as hell to watch

I think this is the first time Jack has been back where she hasn’t had a scene with Jamie. The official insta account reposted someone asking the show to make Jamie and Jack a couple, we’ll one day learn if that was straight baiting

Interesting to think about how different the show would be if Jack was still a main, would Dillon’s story be getting nearly so much focus? 

Looking Ahead:

Liam thinks Aisha is Eric’s soulmate? I wouldn’t have pegged him for a romantic at heart. I love that he keeps bouncing around the friend trio trying his chances with a new member every week, at the beach he tried with Freddie and now he’s trying with Eric

It seems likely that Eric is denying that he likes Aisha because of his abandonment issues and it looks like he skirmishes with Freddie on the field. I wonder if he’ll be honest with anyone about his feelings

Boggy’s breakdown is upcoming, I really don’t think he’s Jetpac11. Looks like 5x12 is the video game tournament with the Jetpac11 reveal, I still think it’s Archie Royle, but Jethro Stevenson would be a great twist

I lean more and more towards Dillon signing with the Northport Rovers as a way to forge his own path and because he trusts our problematic fave Duncan Jones to stand firm against homophobia. It would also bring Duncan’s S5 story full circle, he was so focused on trying to bamboozle Jamie into signing for Northport that he overlooked the other very talented player he had right in front of him. It seems like Dillon’s story line is trending towards him wrestling with coming out publicly as a professional player in S6 and proving to himself, his father, and the world that an out gay man can be a professional footballer

We finally return to the season’s most important story line, e-gaming. Jamie’s doing pretty good for himself in the virtual world of gaming so much so that he’s clearly willing to throw away his chance at making a full recovery in the real world. Jamie was well out of order this ep, just constantly burning bridges and being a sullen jerk. We’ve seen this play out before where Jamie can be a little shit but they really dialed it up to 11 this ep. In general from what I’ve seen of British TV they’re not afraid to have their characters be more unlikable then most American shows but we really do need to see Jamie act like a good guy at least a few times this season

A good start would be for Jamie to actually be a good friend to Boggy who’s not doing great. His anxiety is getting quite bad and we can see that he’s desperate for Jamie to talk to him again even though the pressure of being Jamie’s stat man is making his mental state deteriorate further. The only other example of anxiety being tackled on kids tv is Jonah Beck from Andi Mack and while the writers did a very good job in S2 with Jonah’s panic attacks, that story line was abruptly dropped half way through S3 without Jonah ever seeking treatment, telling his parents, or even telling Andi herself onscreen. I don’t expect the JJ writers to make those mistakes and I would imagine Boggy actually gets real help and Jamie does find out

The Jamie and Boggy friendship has become seriously one sided this season. During Andi Mack S3 the friendship between Andi and Cyrus wasn’t really apparent on screen but it just seemed like Andi didn’t particularly care about Cyrus, she was never actively malicious towards Cyrus like Jamie is being with Boggy. We certainly need to see Jamie being there for Boggy but we also need an apology and I hope Boggy gets one #justiceforboggy

As an aside, the writers obviously couldn’t have known in advance but this e-gaming plot would have been ideal for the post covid19 S6 they’ll eventually get to filming

There was a darkly funny moment where Jamie confronts Dillon about being jetpac11 only for Dillon to reveal he’s only texted his mom to let her know he wouldn’t be coming home and Jamie just drops it without asking follow up questions. I hope we get a Dillon coming out to Jamie scene as having Jamie Johnson himself react positively to Dillon coming out would be important in setting a good example for the mostly young audience

There’s been a lot of theories as to the true identity of Jetpac11 bandied about, the one I favour is that it’s Howard Royle’s son. We’ve seen him e-gaming, he has a grudge against Jamie which might explain the use of 11 which is Jamie’s jersey number, and he’d know all about Hawkstone’s strict social media policy which would explain why he got Jamie to post a sexist comment that would surely get him in trouble. Though one strike against that theory is that he might not know enough about Phoenix to correctly guess that it was Zoe who made Jamie take down his sexist comment

I’ve heard Jethro Stevenson as a possibility which would be interesting. He’d bear a grudge against Jamie, they specifically brought up the stolen bike escapade earlier this season, and might have learned enough playing with the Phoenix kids to guess that Zoe would make Jamie take down the post. I’ve also seen it suggested that Boggy created Jetpac11 as a way to get Jamie to need him which would be quite the twist but I don’t know if Boggy is capable of pulling that off at the moment. It seems that Aisha was ruled out as a suspect as she was seen doing other things when Jetpac11 would have been playing

I liked the detail of Dillon still wearing the same clothes he left home in

Nice to see Zoe and Kat being friends and good to see Zoe not just giving up on playing professional football. Her making Jamie write an apology post and then telling him she’d be watching him was hilarious

There were a lot of sad moments this ep but I think Liam bringing his kite to the beach in hopes of ‘’accidentally’’ running into the gang was the most desperate and pathetic moment of the night. He’s burned a lot of bridges and though he has made things right with Phoenix he’s still not in the inner circle. Clearly he regrets outing Dillon and he did have the good sense to wait until him and Dillon were alone to ask when he’d be coming home but he still needs to actually apologize for his actions. I’m excited to see how his redemption arc will play out

Poor Mike, you could see how disappointed he was when he caught Jamie lying  to him. We already knew about Mike’s career being ended by injury but it hammers home that Jamie still has the chance to go pro. It also adds a nice little parallel to Graham Simmonds, Graham wasn’t injured but he had been a talented football player in his youth who never went pro and that drives him to pressure Dillon and Liam to succeed where he couldn’t. Of course, unlike Graham, Mike has never pushed Jamie like that and has always been his biggest supporter 

I don’t know why we needed an Eric/Aisha/Freddie love triangle but I assume it ends with them learning to choose lads over lasses. It already seems that they’re taking this love triangle to a more textual level than they took the Jamie/Jack/Michele love triangle from S2

Looking Ahead:

Jack’s back, wonder if she’ll interact with Jamie at all

I assume the eventual reveal that Zoe has the pendant will put a damper on her friendship with Kat

Graham Simmonds goes to see Dillon in person. That should be an interesting scene to watch

Ruby and Alba’s adoption story line comes to the fore again, I wonder if we’l lget more light shed on their past before coming to live with Becky and Dawn

There’s not much left from the S5 trailer that hasn’t already happened. Dillon playing in blue against an adult team in red is the biggest thing. I could buy part of it being a dream sequence but I also think it’s likely that there is a real game he plays in. I wonder if he ends up signing for Northport since he knows that our problematic fave Duncan Jones is stridently anti-homophobia 

 Really impressive work with Boggy’s panic attack. I’ve never had one but the camera and sound work sure made it easy to imagine what it must be like to have a panic attack. Jonnie did a great job with this story line and I can only hope that we get some further development of this plot, if not in the rest of S5 then hopefully in S6

Anxiety and panic attacks are common in real life but it’s very rare to see them tackled on children’s tv; really the only other example is Jonah Beck on Andi Mack. Jonah’s panic attack story line was more spread out but it was also unceremoniously dropped mid-way through the final season. What I really liked about this ep is that the writers specified that Boggy saw a doctor afterwards and was going to see someone in the future. Andi Mack did an excellent job of showing kids how to help someone going through a panic attack but the biggest failing of Jonah’s panic attack story line was that it ended without Jonah ever seeking any kind of professional help for his panic attacks

I also liked that Jamie was there to help Boggy through it and talked to him about it later at Boggy’s house. The second biggest failing of Jonah’s panic attack story line was that Andi herself never found out on the show; when the title character on a show is kept from playing a role in a story line it inherently means that the story line in question will receive less focus and will limit how much can be done with that story line. That Andi never learned about Jonah’s panic attacks is likely because the writers were dead set on not getting her back together with Jonah which obviously doesn’t apply in Boggy and Jamie’s case

Indeed, the Joggy friendship really needed Jamie being there for Boggy. They’ve had a terribly lopsided friendship this season and the writers really need to put more effort into making Jamie a better friend and an overall more likeable character. Jamie did take some small steps forward in apologizing to Boggy for heaping pressure on him and absolving him of blame for the accident. He also made the right choice to not use Boggy’s game plan so as to not raise Boggy’s anxiety and from the promo next week it seems like he’s not reneging on it

That opening with Boggy was super trippy. I liked the symbolism of Boggy’s sleeve unraveling as his mental state deteriorated as well as the small details like Boggy’s room being a mess and him wearing the same jumper three days in a row. As part of Boggy’s recovery he should consider getting a new ringtone imo

Nice insight into Zoe’s life with her mom who also suffers from panic attacks. Poor Zoe having to take so much on at such a young age

Stormzy the dog is such a good football player that Duncan Jones tried to con her into signing a contract for Northport

Stormzy certainly is an adorable dog but that was seriously one of the stupidest moments we’ve yet to see on this show. I also believe this marks the first time we’ve seen a character have a pet

This love triangle better end soon. Aisha is correct that she’s not a prize to be fought over, which is a good message to send to girls and boys, but what did she think was going on here? She said she didn’t know that Freddie liked her like that but does that mean that she did know that Eric liked her? It sure seemed like she was interested in Eric when she first started hanging with him

Poor Alba having her hard work thwarted by her two best friends. Good shot of her alone in the locker room after the match. Also rude of no one to listen to her good news about the adoption

I’ve been surprised at how slow they’ve taken Liam’s redemption arc. He cycles between trying to approach the different members of the U13 trio every week, this week he’s helping to pit Eric and Freddie against each other so he can make good with Alba and save the day before being foiled by a border collie

21 pounds seems pricey for burgers and fries or a pizza but maybe Freddie wants to splurge for Aisha

Just now realizing thanks to Boggy’s exam result envelope that the town itself is called Northport and not just the team

Is Mike not that great a coach? His game plan in the first half seemed pretty bad

Looking Ahead:

Jamie finds out who Jetpac11 is. It seems like Archie Royle is the most viable suspect especially as we see Mike warning Jamie about ruining his chances with academy

The U13′s cleaning out the old changing room and hopefully the end of the love triangle

Liam seems to be talking to either Alba or Aisha asking why she’s hanging out with those two losers (Eric and Freddie). If he’s talking to Alba that seems like a clumsy way of trying to drive a wedge between her and the lads but maybe Liam is getting desperate at this point. If he’s talking to Aisha then I have no clue what his plan is. Though Aisha deciding to drop Eric and Freddie for Liam would be a hilariously awful twist

Dillon goes off to Foxborough with Ruby. I’m pretty sure that Dillon ends up with the Rovers, or another team, and not Foxborough so I’m curious to see what makes him change his mind about signing with his dream team. Some sort of coded or open homophobia? 

5x13 is called Back to Reality which suggests Jamie gives up online gaming and turns back to real world football

Ian slinks back in next ep; he has a knack for turning up when Jamie is on the verge of potentially making a lot of money

Much like Jethro blew up that shed, Jamie metaphorically blows up his life by getting caught lying to Hawkstone

Not a great ep for Jamie, he ruins his chances with Hawkstone just so he can try and show up Jethro. Ian was pretty pathetic tonight, he truly is a noob. Jamie was absolutely savage with Ian tonight but he deserves it after constantly letting Jamie down

Mike’s biggest weakness is his inability to say no to Jamie especially after seeing how Ian has let Jamie down. We saw him covering for Jamie skipping school back in S2 but this time their lie is easily exposed. Doesn’t help that Ian back stabs Mike only to almost immediately after realize that standing up Howard Royle was a bad idea. Though it does speak well to Mike’s character that he tried to console Ian and even tried to convince Jethro not to give up on football. And Mike getting coached on how to play video games by that little kid was cute

Looks like Jamie publicly competing in a tournament under his real name was a bad idea!

Jetpac11 is Jethro Stevenson! Good twist and explains why Miles was featured in a promo skills competition along with Louis and Patrick. It’s been so long since we’ve last saw him but he’s definitely an interesting foil for Jamie. Another talented player who lost his opportunity at Hawkstone but didn’t have the support network or luck to get a second chance so now real football isn’t an option for him anymore

Yikes at those maggots in the old change room!

Strong second embarrassment from Freddie thinking Aisha wanted to talk to him when she meant Eric

A surprisingly mature Aisha and Eric convo. She likes him and knows he likes her but doesn’t want to come between Eric and his friends, correctly noting that he doesn’t want to lose friends like Alba and Freddie. I also like that she drags Eric for having a rubbish way of showing his feelings. Maybe there’s hope for them after all (Eisha? Aric?)

I’m glad Alba went off on Eric and Freddie for being bad mates and got to tell them about her adoption. Also good on her for not using Aisha as a scapegoat for the trio’s recent problems. That group hug was sweet and hopefully the gang will be closer than ever after this

The show has a real Liam problem. Dillon’s redemption took a long time too but he made consistent steps after being kicked out of Hawkstone and his teammates never seemed to have much of a problem with him. Whereas Liam is trying to get in with an already established friend group and coming off as increasingly desperate. I don’t know what they’ll do with him in S6, do they keep have him try to become part of the trio or does he find new mates on the team?

Short but sweet Dillon and Ruby scenes, it’s so refreshing to see Dillon discussing his sexuality so openly and the nuanced discussion of professional footballers and their sexualities 

Looking Ahead:

Dillon talking with his dad and for some reason Phoenix has one last game? He seems to be smiling before going out onto the pitch so I wonder what he’s got planned. I still think him signing for Northport is in the cards as we still need to see Dillon playing in blue at night against adult players

Jamie in London to face Jethro, hope Jack makes an appearance. Not sure if there’s a plausible way to have Howard Royle decide to give Jamie another chance, well at least Jamie has Northport to fall back on

Good on Mike for finally having enough