That military comedy-drama Boots has become a global sensation, landing in the Top 10 for four weeks and counting, is no surprise: The series weaves together a dizzying array of sharp, character-driven plotlines, along with some captivating big-picture questions that linger over the entire season. Created by Andy Parker and based on Greg Cope White’s memoir The Pink Marine, the show takes place in a fictionalized version of the real-life Marine Corps Recruit Depot on Parris Island in South Carolina, which operates as a boot camp for new enlistees.
Cameron Cope, played by 13 Reasons Why star Miles Heizer, is a high school-aged New Orleanian who impulsively enlists in the Marines to escape a troubled family life, and to find purpose and direction. It’s also the 1990s, and Cameron is gay.
Despite the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy forbidding openly gay troops from serving in the armed forces, he decides to follow his best friend Ray (Liam Oh) into service, hoping it’ll offer him a chance to reinvent his life and find new meaning as he enters adulthood. The rest of the season follows Cameron and Ray — plus an entire crew of new recruits — as they try to best the challenges of bootcamp under the watchful, punishing eye of drill instructor Sgt. Sullivan (Max Parker), who is keeping a painful secret of his own.
Does Cameron make it to the end of bootcamp? Does his friendship with Ray remain intact within the pressure cooker of Parris Island? And what of the cliff-hangers — like whether or not the recruits will be deployed, and can Cameron finally build a life as an out gay man? — in the season finale that leave us at the edge of our seats waiting for more? Below, an answer to some of these big questions — and a look at some of the exciting uncertainties that remain.
From the very first moment Cameron arrives on Parris Island, he begins to question his decision to enlist. Cameron’s inner dialogue is locked in struggle: Can becoming a Marine provide space for him to be a fully-realized gay man as well? Will he be outed and kicked out of the service? Is he too soft for the hard world of the U.S. Marines?
Towards the end of camp, Cameron faces the ultimate test: the Crucible, a 54-hour test of endurance on everything the recruits have been taught throughout their training, fortified by minimal sleep and food. Only when the Crucible is finished can a recruit call himself a Marine. But Cameron hits a snag: his bunkmate, Joshua Jones (Jack Cameron Kay), disappears into the woods, and Cameron feels the need to find and rescue him. Eventually, he and Sgt. Sullivan find Jones, and Cameron completes the Crucible, earning a standing ovation from his fellow recruits.
As the season progresses, we slowly learn why drill instructor Sgt. Sullivan — played with steely stoicism by Max Parker — was transferred to Parris Island to begin with. Sullivan is under investigation by the NCIS, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, for being gay. Due to a past romantic relationship with Major Wilkinson — a relationship he betrays, ultimately getting Wilkinson court-martialed — Sullivan is suspected of violating the Marines’ pre-“don’t ask, don’t tell” rules against homosexuality. He’s filled with so much pent-up anger that he initiates a fight at a local bar and is sued by the victim’s family, leading to serious trouble with his commanding officer.
Sullivan spends the entire season picking on Cameron, sensing a kinship with the recruit that leads him to both torture and try to toughen up the young enlistee. But, by the time the team embarks on the Crucible, Sullivan is on Cameron’s side, violating orders to help him find his missing bunkmate. Fearing retribution for his infractions once Jones is found, Sullivan decides to face an uncertain future: he disappears into the swamps, risking Unauthorized Absence (UA), and leaving audiences wondering what will happen next to this tragic figure. “My job was to train you. I may have been too hard on you. I was just trying to prepare you the best I could,” Sullivan says to Cameron before going full AWOL. “I’m sorry I let you down, but you don't need me anymore. You’re ready, Cope. You’re a Marine now.”
Cameron’s mom Barbara — played brilliantly by Emmy and Oscar-nominated actor Vera Farmiga — has been something of a wild card this season. She’s the neglectful parent who was so self-involved she didn’t even know her son had enlisted until he’d already shipped off to Parris Island. She’s also a savvy operator who implied to a support group of fellow Marine moms that Cameron died so that she could elicit sympathy and sell them beauty supplies.
By the end of the season, she’s decided she wants to rescue Cameron from the Marines, worried he isn’t tough enough to withstand the pressure. And so, in a shocking twist, she reveals to Cameron’s superiors that, years prior, she had lied about Cameron’s age to secure him a place in pre-K. Meaning that when Cameron signed up with the Marines, he was 17, not 18 — he’d have needed her to sign a parent’s waiver to allow him to enlist. After everything he’d been through during boot camp, Cameron defiantly tells her he wants to remain in the Marines, and she hesitantly agrees to sign the waiver for him. “No matter what you decide to be,” she tells him, “you’ll always be my son.”
Ochoa (Johnathan Nieves) is Cameron’s anxious but lovable bunkmate. Episode 5 gives him a spotlight, revealing his surprising talent as a marksman in rifle training — even as he’s torn by the idea of ever taking another human life. Already tightly wound, Ochoa calls home hoping for comfort, only to learn that his beloved wife Gloria has been unfaithful. Devastated, he lashes out at his drill sergeant, Howitt, who punishes him with relentless push-ups. In the chaos of the moment, Ochoa’s long-hidden heart condition suddenly betrays him — and he collapses, dying on the spot.
When Jones is transferred to Cameron’s troop late in the season, the mysterious recruit catches Cameron’s interest right away. Eventually, Cameron finds out that Jones is himself gay, and, in contrast to the repressed Sullivan, refuses to suppress his sexuality just to fit into the Marines. At first, Cameron senses an opportunity to explore something romantic with his fellow recruit. But Sullivan, suspecting both of them of being gay, pits the two of them against each other, leading to a nasty physical altercation that leaves Jones bloody and bruised.
Still, when Jones goes missing amidst the Crucible, Cameron feels an obligation to help rescue him. And once he does, it sets both of them free: Cameron has proven his strength as a Marine, and Jones is discharged entirely, ostensibly allowing him the opportunity to go off and live life as an out gay man.
Ray and Cameron arrive on Parris Island the best of friends, but, even though Ray is determined to protect Cameron, the pressures of boot camp drive them apart. Ray is the son of a Korean mother and a white Marine father, and he suffers from serious anxiety all while having to deal with racism he encounters at boot camp.
In order to prove to himself and the world that he has the mettle to make it in the Marines, Ray is dead set on achieving the “Honorman” designation, given to the recruit who shows the most strength during the harsh Crucible test of abilities. But while he doesn’t ultimately receive the honor, he does prove his friendship with Cameron can withstand the pressures of the Marines — and makes his demanding father, who he’s been desperate to please, feel proud of him all the same.
The ultimate cliffhanger at the end of Season 1 involves a real-life war that took place in the early ’90s: the Gulf War between Iraq and the United States. Celebrating his achievement at the end of the Crucible, Cameron happens to catch a news story playing on TV at a local bar indicating that the U.S. will engage in military operations in Iraq. And as Season 1 closes without a definitive resolution, audiences are left wondering what that means for Cameron and the rest of the troops, including Angus O’Brien as Hicks, Kieron Moore as Nicholas Slovacek, Brandon Tyler Moore as Cody Bowman, and Dominic Goodman as Isaiah Nash.
To stay in the loop on what’s ahead for Cameron and his fellow recruits, make sure to follow along on Tudum and stream all of Boots Season 1 on Netflix.
