Siddhartha Pakam

**Siddhartha "Sid" Pakam** is one of the main characters in Netflix's *Grand Army*. He is portrayed by Amir Bageria.

## History

### Biography

Siddhartha is an 18 year old first generation American from Jackson Heights, Queens. His family is originally from New Delhi, India. They speak Hindi and English at home fluently. He is also a closeted gay guy and doesn't come out until episode 7 or 8. He has a sister named Meera Pakam.

## Throughout the Series

### Season 1

During the lockdown, the swim team jocks decide to put together the “bomb pussy list” ranking the hottest girls at Grand Army High School. They start pestering Sid, asking for him to choose a name for the account, but he ignores them off, busy texting his sister and girlfriend and making sure they’re both okay. In response, they threaten to put his younger sister on the list unless he choose a girl's name.

Sid ditches his friends to go find his sister, but instead on the way to her classroom, he runs into Leila, who is crying in the hallway. Struggling to adapt to ninth grade, feeling like she was better off in eighth grade. She tells him how she was adopted at a young age after being born in China and envisions finding her birth parents someday. But that makes her feel guilty because she loves her adopted parents. He tries to comfort her and invites her to join him in Meera’s classroom. Later George texts him again and demands a name or his sister ends up on the list. He then sends Leila’s name.

At the party, he an Flora get interrupted by Leila while they getting hot and heavy and he immediately slams the door in her face. He can’t bring himself to have sex with her for some reason. Initially, he makes it seem like he’s upset about the bombing, but there's more to it.

The next day according to his college counselor, his personal essay isn’t exactly personal enough. She tells him about Victor who has a knack for college essays.

Later on he grabs coffee with Victor and Victor offers him some college essay insight. He wonders whether he should write about the bomber from Friday, and “how it feels when someone who looks like me blows himself and four other people apart just feet from my fucking school.” Victor praises the idea and tells him it will be okay, and he notably looks at Victor’s lips as he sips his cappuccino. Victor leaves when is girlfriend shows up.

In the night at home with a chair propped up in front of his door, he switches from a news website to Pornhub searching for gay porn. He’s then interrupted by a call from his dad, asking how work is going.

He's at a diner working on his Harvard essay. He’s interrupted by Flora, who shortly soon after starts venting about how porn is made for the male gaze. Just moments later, he abruptly breaks up with her and she leaves the booth crying. Sid in his room continues to writes his essay about being gay and downloads Grindr.

He meets with his college counselor about his new essay, and she suggests therapy. He blows her off and decides to hook up with a random guy from Grindr in a dressing room.

On Friday in the bathroom he Googles search orally-transmitted STDs that people can get from oral sex. Afterwards, he runs into Victor, who wonders why he never reached out about his essay. At that moment, George shows up and mocks Victor with a high-pitched voice. He gets distracted by his sister, who getting touchy with Bo.

In science class, Victor becomes his lab partner, but Victor comes bearing unfortunate news. A nude of Meera's breasts is floating around the school sent by Bo. His first reaction is to text Meera and she he tells him she doesn’t need his judgment.

Later Sid and his coach meet to discuss options for an upcoming relay. Their conversation gets interrupted by Victor, who brings him his backpack after he left it behind in class. He then take a look in the bag if his personal essay is still in the bag. His coach tells him that Harvard scouts will be at the relay, so he needs to think carefully about who he wants to swim with. His best option is probably Orlov the coach tells him especially how George and Luke are no longer on the team. Obviously, that’s the last thing he wants to hear after the Meera incident.

Sid heads toward Bo in the locker rooms and calls him out for disrespecting him and his sister. Bo gives him a somewhat half-hearted apology and he tells him that he's gonna be his relay.

At Meera's feminist art show, Flora surprisingly shows up to support Meera. He sees her and in the heat of the moment, he says he misses her. They then have sex in the bathroom of the venue.

He and Victor meanwhile work on their science project in Sid's room, which involves testing stimulus and reactions. They test each other’s reflexes and their responses to stimuli. It results in Sid getting an erection, which makes things quite awkward between the two of them. Victor even offering to note that an “uncontrolled variable” in the experiment might be that Sid is more comfortable in his bedroom. Victor changes tactics by pointing out a photo of Flora on his wall. He interjects that they broke up, but are now back together.

Later, Victor he offers to take over as test subject and tells Sid about when he came out as bisexual at school. He tells him that it was easier for him at school than at home.

At his relay Orlov makes a mistake that results in a loss for the team. He and Bo almost come to blows over it in the locker room thwn their coach breaks things up and tells him that the Harvard scouts are interested in seeing him. They’re impressed with his speed. In a rush to get ready, Sid leaves his laptop open, and an angry, bitter Orlov takes notice.

Sid is walking home when he’s intercepted by Meera, who looks heartbroken. She asks him if he hasn't seen the pictures. But he tells her that his phone died resulting in him being out of the loop when his entire personal essay online got posted online outing him to the world. His first concern is his parents, but Meera talks him down, explaining that there’s no way they’ll find it, because the don't have social media. Then, she says, “You know I love you no matter what, right?”.

In his bedroom, he and Meera discuss in the dark about his recent event. Meera is doing her best to comfort him in the wake of his essay being published online. She doesn’t think it’ll be a big deal at school unless he makes it one. He is most concerned with their parents finding out and thinking they failed, but Meera assures him that they are technologically inept and won’t find out.

In the halls he gets distracted to find Victor, who he immediately accuses of posting his essay on Instagram. Victor says he would never out someone. Victor walks away leaving him alone looking guilty. Eli Greenberg approaches him in class and offers him a flyer for a Gay-Straight-Alliance meeting.

Leila approaches him next and offers him her support because he was there for her when the bomb went off. But he doesn’t really appreciate her half-hearted apology.

Sid visits his counselor to discuss the essay. He asks her if she knows how the essay got out and basically accuses her of leaking it since she had the only copy. His counselor tells him he needs to figure out how to move forward at this point and should try to be cautious of pushing people away who care.

He shows up at the BSU fundraiser and meets up with Meera. He feels like everyone is watching him. He’s nervous and antsy when Orlov approaches him with a smug expression on his face. He starts to realize what must have happened and chases after Orlov. Sid shoves him and Bo punched him in the nose, landing him in the hospital.

Sid’s dad shows up at the ER and wants to call the cops, thinking his son was the victim of a hate crime. The only way he can get his dad to calm down and not call the cops is to tell him the truth, that he’s gay, and the essay was about his sexuality. His dad responds with disbelief.

Later, Flora arrives and she and Sid talk about his sexuality, with Sid saying that being with Flora made him feel “normal” and like who “he wanted to be”. Flora asks him if he has ever tried anything with a guy whilst they were still together, to which Sid admits. She asks him if he used a condom, to which Sid says no. Flora leaves, angry and hurt.

Sid catches up with Geo and Luke, uncomfortable by the remarks they made about his sexuality, to which he responds by making a remark about them assaulting Joey in the cab.

He then goes to his counselor, awaiting to see his Harvard results with Meera, and he finds out he got in.

Sid finds Victor, telling him about his acceptance into Harvard, and they kiss.

## Physical Appearance:

He is about 5'10, has black hair and brown eyes with medium brown skin.

## Personality

Sid is insecure, trying to maintain his persona of being “one of the guys”, scared that his sexuality will harm his reputation. He is protective over Meera, as a typical big brother.

## Relationships

* Flora Mejia‎‎ - ex-girlfriend
* Random Guy - Grindr Hookup
* Victor Borin - Boyfriend; kissed

## Appearances

Season One
* *Brooklyn, 2020*
* *See Me*
* *Relationship Goals*
* *Safety On*
* *Valentine's Day*
* *Superman This S\*\*t*
* *Making Moves*
* *Spirit Day*
* *Freedom*