Jamie Maguire

James Patrick "Jamie" Maguire^[1] is a fictional character from Channel 4 drama Shameless, portrayed by Aaron McCusker.

Character overview

Jamie is the oldest son of the notorious Maguire family, the son of Paddy and Mimi Maguire, and recently returned after serving a 10-year prison sentence for manslaughter. Much to his parents' disgust, he appeared to be reformed, rejected his family, got a job as a barman at "The Jockey", began training as a probation officer, and met his Jockey co-worker Karen Jackson, who at first found him perverted and disgusted that he would simply just walk in and get a job just because her manager was afraid of him; they eventually tolerated each other and Jamie proposed to her.

In the last episode of series 4, Jamie revealed that he had admitted his guilt in order to get parole so that he could hunt down his father's three former cellmates, who were planning to muscle in on Paddy's territory and dispose of him. His new reformed life was a sham to cover his murders of these three men. Karen assumed that his courtship of her was part of this pretence, but Jamie claimed that he really loved her and they were married at the end of the episode.

During series 5, Jamie does his best to avoid joining the family business. He and Karen take over The Jockey, and things go smoothly until Karen miscarries early in series 6. She distances herself from him, questioning if she would want to have a child that would grow up in the Maguire family. Eventually, the two separate after Karen refuses put a "Maguire" on the pub's license with her and fires him, but not wanting to feel screwed over again demands a buyout. It is during this time that Karen begins sleeping with Joe to pay off Jamie, able to break it off with her increasingly controlling lover only after she threatens to lie to the Maguires and tell them he continued to physically abuse Mandy, Jamie's sister. Karen eventually rehires Jamie and she soon finds out she's pregnant again, not sure if the father was Jamie or Joe.

Despite being portrayed as one of the warmer members of the Maguire family, Jamie has become somewhat of a dark and aggressive character, possibly due to him taking on the family business while his father was going cold turkey when recovering from drug addiction. Jamie is shown to go to extreme lengths to get revenge, sending one such message to Joe Pritchard (after finding out about Karen's affair with him) by digging up his recently deceased father and leaving him slumped outside of the local shop. He also proves that unlike his two brothers, he is a very effective debt collector and head of the family business, having no qualms about threatening or injuring if it brings results.

Jamie becomes a father in series 7, but afterward witnesses the gradual mental breakdown of his wife Karen, unaware that the overwhelming guilt and self-loathing she carries is eating away at her inside. After Karen's release from hospital, they fall behind on household bills, and Jamie is finding it difficult to cope with his wife's mental illness. He meets a woman named Michelle while on a night out, and has sex with her in the ladies toilets. Michelle runs a male escort agency, and leaves her card in Jamie's pocket, along with some money. They meet later when Michelle offers Jamie a job. Despite his obvious disgust at the thought of working as a "man-whore", Jamie reluctantly agrees to the offer. He services Michelle and other women, needing the money as well as some time away from Karen. When Karen begins to suspect an affair, Michelle confesses her love for him, and Paddy uncovers what he's doing and tries to tell him to stop, Jamie finally has enough. Initially Michelle is reluctant to let him go, but when he introduces her to the virile young Carl Gallagher, she changes her mind.^[2]

During this time, Karen has continued her destructive affair with Joe Pritchard, who seemed to have no concerns about her illness or her erratic behavior. Eventually, Joe announces to Jamie that he's having an affair with his wife, and claims that he is baby Connor's father. As his marriage implodes, Jamie is also trying to deal with a threat to both the family and their business, since his father has left Chatsworth for Ireland.

As series 8 begins, Jamie is in counseling with Karen, who has returned with their son. He beats up a cab driver, erroneously believing the man is Joe, and Karen finally admits Joe is dead, although she does not tell him how he died. She and Connor move back with Jamie into The Jockey as they attempt to make their marriage work. In the meantime, Jamie tricks his brother, Shane, into willingly giving up his attempt to run the family business. When Shane finally realizes Jamie manipulated him into giving up leading the family business and killing a loan shark, he tells his wife, Kelly, that Jamie was born for this, "Scammin', schemin' and killin'." Then Jamie finally accepts Karen back into their marital bed, telling her that he "could tape his stiffy to his belly" after watching her all day. In series 8, Jamie is shown to be scared of clowns since he saw one of them choke to death when he was young. This led to his discomfort with Karen's new business as a party clown, which lasted only until a customer attempted to molest her. Luckily, one of the guns Jamie was selling ended up in her bag, and she was able to shoot the customer and get away, leading to Jamie taking the gun back and soothing her in a hot shower.

After losing to Karen in a card game, he agrees to put the pub back in her name, and the couple are seen looking up at the new sign, showing "Jamie and Karen Maguire" as the proprietors of the Jockey.

References