#jonathan black

Alas, you are 100% up to date on this series. I love them dearly, but it always winds up being depressing working on them because one season of this gift of a show we were roooooooooooooooooobbed - but have a random snippet anyway:

Jonathan eyed the new anklet GPS tracker dubiously. “You would think with technology these days, these would get smaller over time. Why can’t I just wear a Fit Bit? It does the same thing.” He rubbed his ankle against the back of his leg. “And chafes less.”

“A Fit Bit does not do the same thing as an electronic monitoring anklet issued by the federal marshals,” Mike pointed out.

“It tracks my movements and doesn’t electrocute me when I get more than fifty feet from Agent Kay,” Jonathan quipped. “I’m not seeing the difference. Except a FitBit would help me out with my cardio goals and chafe less.”

Cameron snorted, and Jonathan smirked.

Kay rolled her eyes. “You want the difference? You can’t remove the GPS anklet, which means this was approved by the Federal Marshal Service, and the FBI. While less helpful with health goals, I can only assume you prefer to be out of prison instead of in one. And if it makes you feel better, the radius isn’t set to me this time.”

“It’s not?” Cameron and Jonathan said at the exact same time.

Kay shuddered. “Don’t do that.”

“What?” they echoed.

Chapters: 1/3 Fandom: Deception (TV 2018) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Cameron Black/Kay Daniels, Cameron Black & Kay Daniels, Jonathan Black & Kay Daniels Characters: Cameron Black, Kay Daniels, Jonathan Black (Deception TV 2018), Mike Alvarez, Dina Clark (Deception TV 2018), Jordan Kwon, Gunter Gustafsen Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Partners to Lovers, Character Study, or an attempt, Hurt/Comfort, Canon-Typical Violence, Jealousy, Slow Burn, help i'm still at the restaurant 

Summary:

She remembers the look on his face when he said it, the hard set of his mouth. No more promises. But it wasn't him. It was Jonathan who said that. Jonathan she'd caught leaving, Jonathan that she'd spilled her heart out to.

Jonathan, who had put a stake through it.

She finally looks at Cameron; really, fully. Watches his shoulders drop a bit, easing up.

"Hey..." He leans forward conspiratorially, eyes flicking to the door and back. "I get the feeling you're upset with me. I know that I probably deserve it. I'm sorry that I didn't talk to you before I went to... you know..."

"No." She says quickly. "No... you're fine."

.

If Deception had aired in 2023 or 2024, "You Can't Catch Me Now" by Olivia Rodrigo would've been the song in the finale.

Think I'm coming into the fandom a little late

While yes, Jonathan has been convicted of a crime, it was for INVOUNTARY manslaughter. It was something that happened, and that something was very serious and needs to be punished. But the average sentence for involuntary manslaughter is 10-16 MONTHS! This is because the jury understands that it was not premeditated. That it wasn’t even a crime of passion where someone could get so upset that they lose complete control of themselves and can become a danger to those around them. It was making a dumb choice, like drinking alcohol in this case, where another person loses their life. Honestly, by the time the show started, Jonathan should have already been out or close to it at this point. And yet Jonathan was convicted for 10 YEARS! This is not justice, this is retribution. The sentence doesn’t fit the crime. The most likely reason is because he ran, but still, that is an insane amount of time just for panicked running from the scene. I’m sure the prosecutor made Jonathan out to be a horrible person because he hid from the world for 30 years. That he was hiding because it gave him time to torture animals or something equally ridiculous. But Jonathan was not the only one hiding. Cameron, Dina, Gunter, and Jordan were all complicit in that. They just hadn’t broken any laws and therefore no one could punish them. No one wonders if they’re trustworthy because of the lying that they did. Cameron was a part of the secret for as long as Jonathan was.

Once Cameron started working with the FBI, so did Jonathan. Cam often went and asked for Jonathan’s help on making deceptions work. He helps to put away bad guys who are actual criminals who are purposefully going out and murdering multiple people and selling drugs and just doing truly awful things. The FBI even gave Jonathan special privileges to work in one of the visitor’s rooms to solve Bishop’s codes. And when Cameron went missing, the FBI gave a special allowance for Jonathan to get out and help. All of this clued the other prisoners into the fact that Jonathan worked for the Feds. It’s why they hung a rat in his cell and someone tried to shank him. And the guards don't even care. They're against him because he's a criminal. The criminals are against him because he's helping the Feds. He literally has no one on his side in a very dangerous situation. I have heard that there are special areas in prisons where they put high target prisoners, like ex-cops or criminal informants who are more likely to be targets because they fall a bit on both sides of the law. Yet Jonathan isn't given any kind of extra security. Gunter isn't wrong when he talks about how the entire team, including Jonathan, have done so much to help the FBI and yet they haven't gotten anything in return. During the short time he was out after Cam was kidnapped, they act like he is some master level criminal on par with MW. Like he is just waiting for any opportunity to escape so he can go on some kind of crime spree.

Even if Jonathan was guilty of the crime he was convicted, then it’s still not the worst kind of murder out there. I’m sure there could have been a plea for compassion and safety granted to allow Jonathan to be put on house arrest where no one would actively be trying to kill him for his help. And that for every actual criminal that he helps put away that he gets something like a month off his sentence. But no one ever offers him anything. He just keeps putting his life on the line and gets absolutely nothing in return. I’m sure this is why he snaps at the end of the season. Maybe there’s some underlying resentment against Cameron, but I have a feeling most of it came from the FBI doing nothing and Cameron being the face that always had to convince Jonathan to keep hanging in there. To not escape and go find the evidence for his innocence. Now the FBI has left Jonathan out to dry despite everything he has done and all the horrible things that have been done while in prison. Jonathan just took it out on the only person who represented the people who screwed him over, even though it wasn’t Cameron’s fault.

And something to add is that at the end of the season after MW gets arrested she reveals information regarding Danic, the foreign diplomat. The team comes up with a deception and manages to save Danic and his wife. MW just reveals that Danic was in trouble and then yes she does meet with the bad guy (can’t remember his name) while surrounded by armed FBI agents. She didn’t contribute THAT much. Jonathan did a bunch to help with this particular deception and was treated with a lot of trust, especially after how he was treated last time. (I’m sure because there’s someone even more untrustworthy there and that person is MW!) And yet she managed to make herself useful enough to get into Witness Protection and not even get charged with anything because she proved her usefulness exactly 1 time! While the team still doesn’t have the proof of Johnny’s innocence, Cameron is a witness to multiple counts of illegal activities that far outweigh Jonathan’s INVOLUNTARY manslaughter conviction. Cameron has been held at gunpoint by this woman multiple times. She attempted to steal a $7 million diamond. Cameron was abducted by her. He watched her purposefully kill a man. Any single one of these is far far worse than Jonathan’s entire conviction because she did them all on purpose. And yet she just gets to walk. They still don’t even know her name or what else she actually knows beyond this one tip and yet they just decided to drop all her charges and give her a cushy life for free.

While the team was doing the deception, MW was obviously setting things up for herself. And because she was a prisoner, she had to have an agent reach out to the DA. It could have even been Deakins who did it. Deakins was the one who had to explain to the team why MW was just leaving with absolutely no consequences. Because MW could help put people who were much worse away. Which is what Jonathan has been doing but no one ever offered him a get out of jail free card. Or offered him anything at ALL!

I understand that the Doylist answer is because it kept Cameron and Jonathan sperate so that they weren’t having to constantly have Jack do a split screen. And so that at the end of the season they could have Jonathan off with MW. Also, if Jonathan had been released or was about to be release, then there wouldn’t be this drive for Cameron and the FBI to put everything into finding MW. Of course they would want to clear Jonathan’s name, but if he was free or on house arrest then it wouldn’t be something that was so urgent. When Cameron was kidnapped, yes he would want to get the evidence to free Jonathan, but he wouldn’t feel so desperate to break the law if Jonathan was on house arrest and at least had a modicum of freedom and had already taken a year off his sentence by working with the FBI. But Jonathan still got the short end of the stick.