Derry Girls: 7 Nastiest James Moments (& 6 Most Touching) | Pretty Reel

Warning: The following contains spoilers for Derry Girls Season 3. in a variety of ways, always hilarious. The fact that one of the full members of this group is, in fact, a boy is never taken into account, as neither the show nor the viewers seem overly concerned with technicality. That is, until Michelle said at the end of season two, “it doesn’t matter if your tracks are different from mine. It’s a state of mind. »

The obvious differences between Jame and the girls are so obvious you get used to them. His character who flies under the show’s radar, doing everything girls do and retreating so naturally into scenes that viewers barely notice that, yes, of course, they consider him a Derry Girl. However, the girls’ relationship with James is still, to say the least, unique.

Updated October 13, 2022 by Amanda Bruce: Derry Girls ended with Season 3 and a special concluding episode, in 2022. With that ending came the end of James Maguire’s time with the Derry Girls at the screen. Until the end of the show, his cousin Michelle and her friends were alternately caustic and kind to him. While James may still have been the butt of several jokes, there’s no doubt that he’s remained an integral part of the friend group.

James’ nastiest moments at Derry Girls

Michelle doesn’t want to hear James breathe

In Season 3, Erin’s family takes her friends for a trip to an amusement park. They have to get there by train, and when the girls are bored, Erin tries to get them all to have a normal conversation instead of playing a game. Michelle, however, is also bored with it and laments that the James’ breathing annoys her.

Although James is offended by his very annoying breathing from his cousin, Erin agrees, and James has to go sit away from them to keep them happy. It’s a pretty low moment considering all the other heartbreak they’ve put James through.

James is put in danger for concert tickets

A Halloween festival sees Fatboy Slim as a headlining DJ, and the band just has to get tickets. When they are accused of queuing for the last batch of tickets, however, the man who wants them offers to fight James for the tickets to make it fair.

While James is appalled that a grown man wants to fight him, the girls encourage him to do so. It’s not hard to see then why James would just tear up the tickets and run off in a panic instead of a fight. Of course, the group ends up making it to the festival (dressed as angels), but James could have ended up in serious danger.

Everyone denies James a bathroom

James walks into the show’s premiere and is instantly mocked — for being English, for sounding feminine — and spends the rest of the episode begging to use the bathroom. Although he’s quickly becoming one of Derry Girls’ friendliest characters, no one wants to help him.

Not a single person on the show offers her to go to the bathroom, not even the head nun of the school. Every time James inquires, he is dismissed as a needy pest.

The group forgets about James with the travelers

The girls spend an episode skipping school and attempt to travel to Belfast to attend their favorite band’s Take That gig.

During the ordeals to get to town, the girls realize that James hasn’t been with them for a while and have to stop and reconsider where they could have left him. It’s incredibly insensitive to completely forget someone you’re with, like they’re not worth remembering.

The girls are mad that James doesn’t like frying

A recurring gag in the series is the town’s obsession with the local chip shop. Every family goes there regularly, queuing to tell the owner the order of their whole family, and the owner everyone knows by name.

The love of frying is taken for granted until James is asked what he would like, and he confesses, much to the horror of everyone present, that he thinks frying is “too much”. greasy”. This opinion made everyone quite angry with him.

The girls are disgusted that Katya likes James

The girls regularly state their opinion that James is an unattractive person. They say this as if it were an obvious fact to be accepted and not disputed – something that is made even more ridiculous by the fact that James is clearly a beautiful person.

So when exchange student Katya takes a liking to James, the girls act like the world has turned upside down. Their disgust at Katya’s interest in James is incredibly overblown.

James is constantly harassed for being English

It’s another running joke that anyone James meets in Ireland will understandably hate him at least a little due to the fact that he’s English.

When James is mistaken for being gay on several occasions, which was not as accepted at the time, it is even joked that his homosexuality might “offset the English thing”, a way for the series to highlight before its pro-gay themes while heightening tensions between English and Irish.

James’ most touching moments in Derry Girls

The group panics when James is knocked out

Sister Michael sends the friends to her aunt’s house to clean up for a wake, and she gives James the school van to drive them there. A flat tire and the van not being placed in park means that during the trip, James ends up being briefly knocked unconscious.

The girls freak out because they’re so worried he’s getting badly hurt — not just because they might get in trouble. They carry him to the house they believe belongs to Sister Michael’s aunt and are fully prepared to find him a doctor and risk getting in serious trouble when James wakes up.

They all wear eyeliner

Miss De Brun starts working at school and quickly becomes the icon of all students.

The girls all start applying eyeliner in the same style as Miss De Brun – black eyeliner on the tops of their eyelids ending in wings at the corner of their eyes – and James waltzes down the hall in the same style and the same look of proud association as the others, a sign of his growing unity with the group.

Erin and James go to the dance

James shows little interest in the school dance as he has other things he’d rather do – which the girls make fun of, of course – but when Erin’s date gets her up and her mum calls James to pick her up, he shows with a smile on his face, telling Erin that she’s more important than he had to.

It’s a moment where the veneer of everyday banter is cast aside and James’ value as a friend shines through. Of course, that’s also a clue to her developing feelings for Erin, but that’s not the focus of her taking her to the dance so they can all have fun together.

James Bonds with Father Peter

Father Peter becomes the subject of everyone’s admiration – except for the often tongue-in-cheek Sister Michael, of course, who openly admires no one – and James is particularly fond of him.

James has very few men to interact with and, more importantly, very few people who don’t treat him with disdain. However, Father Peter pretends to be cool and understanding, and James instantly clings to him as a role model.

Michelle begs James to stay in Derry

The most touching of all the scenes involving James doesn’t occur until the end of Season 2, putting into perspective how undervalued James has been throughout the series, but when the girls’ true feelings for James are forced to the surface, it’s well worth the wait.

In one of Derry Girl’s best lines, Michelle, the toughest of them all, insists that James stay in Derry instead of leaving with his mother. His assertion that his mother is bad for him shows Michelle’s genuine concern for James’ well-being, and she is eventually brought to admit that she enjoys having him around.

James proclaims he’s a Derry girl

It’s truly heartwarming how offended the girls are without James when Derry Girls chronicles President Bill Clinton’s actual visit to the small town. In the first two seasons, James is a sidekick the girls take for granted, but once they’re suddenly without him, they don’t know what to do with themselves.

James coming back and shouting from the rooftops that he’s a Derry Girl, and having the girls celebrate with him instead of teasing him for once, is a beautiful and fitting ending to Season 2.