Sean Cameron

Sean Cameron is a fictional high schooler on the television show Degrassi: The Next Generation. He is portrayed by Daniel Clark. He left the show in season four, but returned for season six.^[1]

Personality

Sean is the token bad boy at the school. His reputation in the first season is just that due to a fight in Wasaga Beach where he deafened another kid by sucker punching him in one ear. His parents were drunks in Wasaga and he was known to be a juvenile delinquent there. His attitude is mostly considered anti-social, due to his constant way of starting fights or to be reckless. However, he is sincere and loyal to his friends.

Storyline

Season 1

Sean Cameron starts out his second year of seventh grade late and as a bad boy. He gains this rep due to a fight where he sucker punched a guy in his ear causing him to turn deaf. He starts having feelings for good-girl Emma Nelson and befriends Emma's friends to gain a closer relationship with her. Unaware of his delinquent past, Emma decides to say yes to Sean's dinner date proposal. The date doesn't go so well, but Sean is convinced that his feelings for Emma are true so he continues to pursue her until he is finally successful. Two episodes later, a fight ensues between Jimmy and Sean in which Emma attempts to interfere. This leads Emma to break it off with Sean.

Season 2

Sean befriends new student Craig Manning, and along with Emma, helps Craig to get out of his abusive home. However, Sean struggles to move on from Emma and briefly considers dating Ashley; but Sean realizes that Ashley is more concerned with what others think than doing what she wants to and he stops pursuing her. Prior to the wedding of Spike & Snake, Emma's best friend Manny wants to invite Sean to the wedding even after Emma insists her relationship with Sean is over. After much consideration, Emma puts her objections aside and ends up inviting Sean herself when she realizes she still has feelings for him, with the two sharing their first kiss at the reception. Their relationship hits a yet another bump when Sean begins drinking to make himself relax around Emma's family. Despite feeling inferior to her and ruining a budding friendship with Jimmy, Sean ultimately learns that he isn't a failure and doesn't need alcohol. Emma continues dating Sean.

Season 3

Sean starts the ninth grade at Degrassi with a new gangsta look and attitude. He also shows an interest in cars and auto shop. Things get very slow between Emma and Sean while Emma is deals with her parents' new baby as well as Snake's cancer. Sean witnesses Jay Hogart, Towerz, and Jay's girlfriend Alex Nuñez breaking into a vending machine at school and stealing candy. This consequently gives Sean an urge to recede back to his old, bad ways. After Jay "mad dogs" him in auto shop class, Principal Raditch pulls him out of class and interrogates him about the theft from the vending machine. Sean then attacks Jay in the front of the school and the two fight. Sean later falls in with Jay's gang and, after a fight with Emma, steals Mr. Simpson's new laptop in revenge. After Jay's nagging about Emma, Sean decides to break up with her.

Over the next few months of the ninth grade, Sean and the gang display notorious behavior such as getting in fights, stealing, and partying. While Emma is recovering from the breakup, she notices Sean with a hickey on his neck, obvious that Sean was meeting new girls. Sean enters a new relationship with a girl named Amy, and after Emma sees the two in math class making out, she becomes more jealous. Emma also notices a DVD player missing from school and hears rumors around school that Jay and Sean are stealing items from school. While on a date with Chris Sharpe, she witnesses the gang stealing candy from local hangout, the Dot. When Emma confronts Jay, he asks her why she is in everyone's business and implies that they stole the laptop so that Emma would get Sean in trouble by asking Mr. Raditch to search Jay's car, ultimately framing Sean who had the laptop in his possession. While this was a failed attempt, Sean did end up with two months of Saturday detentions for telling Raditch to "go to hell."

Sean and Ellie start dating when they begin trusting each other with secrets (Sean stealing from school; Ellie's cutting scars). While on a date with Sean, Ellie brings along her best friend Marco, who is gay, and during the date Sean keeps his distance from Marco. Ellie believes Sean is homophobic and after Sean physically pushes Marco away at lunch, Ellie considers dumping him but finally believes that Marco is taking it too seriously. Ellie approaches Sean, who thinks that the relationship is over, and tells him that she wants to start over. He tells her that he doesn't hate Marco because he is gay, he just wanted to spend time alone with her and is not homophobic. The two then kiss and revive the relationship. Their relationship is tested again when Sean's brother gets a job in Alberta and wants Sean to move with him; Sean doesn't want to move because he would have to repeat the ninth grade and had already repeated the seventh grade. With the help of a teacher, he is able to stay at school by going on student welfare. However, he almost loses it when Jay starts to use his apartment to throw wild parties. After Amy gets alcohol poisoning, Sean, with the help of Ellie, finally put a stop to the parties. He also admits to Snake that he stole Snake's laptop. Snake, initially hurt, eventually forgives him when Sean offers to fix his broken car for free labor to make up for his past behavior. The ninth grade ends with Sean in a better place than he was in the previous months, realizing his wrongdoings.^[2]

Season 4

When the tenth grade begins, Sean and Ellie remain close. Ellie stays at his apartment with her alcoholic mother on the warpath. When Sean stands up to Mrs. Nash, and Ellie is allowed to move into Sean's place. Sean's life changes when Rick Murray, an emotionally unstable and often bullied student, returns to Degrassi with a gun to exact revenge on those that have mocked him. He shoots Jimmy and runs into Sean, Emma, and Toby. He blames Emma for pretending to like him for his actions. Sean tries to talk him out of pulling the trigger, but Rick still has it squared at Emma. Sean and Rick fight briefly and the gun goes off. Rick is killed and Sean is declared a hero. All of Degrassi struggles with the shooting. Sean can't handle being treated like a hero and openly mocks the emotions on display. Sean becomes angry when he learns that a reporter has interviewed his estranged parents. He and his parents haven't spoken in a long time and Sean decides to finally confront his past. He, along with Jay, Emma, and Ellie drive to Wasaga Beach. Sean meets his parents and the boy that he deafened years before. Tyler, the boy, mocks Sean's involvement in Rick's death, but in the end the two reach an understanding that the past is the past. Sean also makes up with his parents, leading him to stay and work on his relationship with them. He tearfully says goodbye to Jay and Emma, and tells Ellie that he loves her, who is hurt that Sean isn't returning. Sean stays in Wasaga and does not return for almost two years.^[3]

Season 6

Sean returns to Degrassi unexpectedly. He moves in with Jay with new plans for his life to get his diploma and to open up his own car shop called "Cameron's Custom Cars." He begins to street race with Jay. With Peter dating Emma now, Sean begins to hang out a little with Peter and helps him mod the new car that Peter got for his birthday. After Peter races Jay, the police arrive but everyone runs from the scene, and Sean and Emma run away together in Sean's car. While sitting in the car together, old feelings return and the two kiss. Peter then realizes that Emma has feelings for Sean after Emma breaks up with him. The next day, Principal Hatzilakos pulls Sean out of class to search his locker and finds marijuana which was planted by Peter. Sean instantly realizes that Peter is the one who planted the drugs, so he challenges Peter to a street race. During the race, Sean hits a jogger on the sidewalk and calls the cops. Sean realizes because of his age, he will serve hard time in prison for manslaughter. He runs away, but after seeing Emma, she tells him she can't care about him anymore if he flees. Sean then tearfully turns himself in. Sean is thrown in prison and is miserable, even being jumped by an inmate in the chow line, leaving him physically scarred. Emma cuts all ties with Peter when she realizes that he set up Sean in the first place. Sean is released and stays with the Nelson family. He learns that Emma and Jay hooked up while he was gone, which he struggles with. But Sean forgives Emma when she helps Sean to finally accept himself and realize that no one is perfect. Soon after, Emma decides to take the next step with Sean by giving him her virginity. On the night that they had hoped to have sex for the first time, Manny convinces them to throw a party. It's at this party that J.T. is killed by students from Lakehurst. Sean mourns the death of J.T. with Emma, Manny, Toby, and Liberty. He helps lead a protest of Lakehurst during an inter-school cheerleading competition. He also denounces Manny when she starts seeing Lakehurst student Damian Hayes. Sean decides that to accomplish anything in his life, he needs to get himself in order and enlists in the army. This presents a problem when Emma believes she might be pregnant. Though a false alarm, Sean still leaves Degrassi at the end of the first semester, but he and Emma keep their relationship intact.^[4]

Season 7

Sean returns briefly on leave from the Army. He comes to terms with the fact that he and Emma are no longer close. Snake had spent his suspension from school primarily lounging and Sean offers to train him to get him into shape.

References