I was out of the country when the last two episodes of Deception aired (And I’m still pissed as all hell at ABC - and a lot of networks, actually - for cancellations this year).
It’s actually kind of creepy and a little funny how close I was to the mystery plot line when I was just guessing at the beginning of the series. Ask @buckky or @canary-warrior - we had long discussions about it. But I digress.
I now totally have this head canon that Cameron is actually a borderline sociopath, and Jonathan is the one who is the moral compass. Because canonically, Cam is actually pretty callous unless it’s related to Johnny. Or Johnny is how he makes a connection. Why does he start helping the FBI? Because he needs someone with more resources than he has to get Johnny out of jail. The kid with the squirt gun used as a tool to poison people? Cares when he relates it to Johnny being framed and the FBI is still saying it’s the kid’s fault. The fortune teller - cares, but you can actually see the change in him when he falsely gives his brother’s info as his own and she describes the changes he already knows he’s seeing in his brother. He doesn’t even care about himself (literally has no concern for his own life), gets easily distracted, somewhat insulting, can’t weigh the seriousness of a situation, and even Johnny has to tell him what he’s feeling, and Cam is stunned (drops an entire deck of cards) when he realizes his brother is right.
Because don’t get me wrong. I love, love, love “ray of sunshine of a human being” Cameron Black. But I can also see how he’s perhaps not a sociopath, but not neurotypical either. And for him to be so bad on his own is about the only reason I could see Johnny staying in the magic biz, agreeing to not have his own life, to doing performances he has no interest in, for years after Sebastian died. And I can also believe that’s where a lot of Johnny’s bitterness comes from. Everyone loves Cameron because they look at him like a cinnamon roll of a human being - but, antisocial personality disorders don’t come off as people like Johnny, they come off as Cameron. Magnetic personalities. And even when he was only 10, Sebastian says Cameron is the one on stage because he’s the better performer - maybe Cam really is that good an actor, and maybe without even realizing it.
And I don’t for a second buy into the fandom’s idea that Johnny is totally on board with MW. I think Johnny sticks Cam in prison because that’s the only way to keep Cameron out of the way long enough for him to go after MW at her own game. I think Jonathan’s tipping point was when he realizes that MW hates Cameron for things he didn’t do, and things he isn’t responsible for. If she really was so mad at him because of what SEBASTIAN said enough to ruin his life 20 years later, I think Johnny would realize she wouldn’t stop going after him. Johnny knows their dad wasn’t any nicer to Cam than he was to him or anyone else. I mean, the man purposely put Cam in a bank robbery. He locked him in boxes and chains. And the more that MW tries to make a connection to Johnny by insisting they’re the same, I think the more Johnny pushes the other way. Because she’s making the same assumption that everyone does when they find out about them. That he hates Cameron for what their father conditioned him to do from an early age. I think he sees Cameron willing to throw away everything - their whole lives, just to get even with the MW. Once Cameron realizes the FBI fucked them both, he bails. No “I’ll give it a second chance” or “Kay can still help” - it was “go to prison, break my brother out no matter the cost, and beat this bitch at her own game”. He essentially swears off the whole plan the Deception group came up with - going back to their magic show and their lives before and is prepared to fully throw away everything away to help his brother when he realizes no one else will.
And I think that’s when Johnny realizes that no matter what people try to tell him - he doesn’t hate his brother. Because when it absolutely counts, Cameron is willing to give up everything for him. Everything. And he can’t let him.
