James Palmer

**James Palmer** is a main character from South Bay, the American version of the popular Australian soap opera Southland. He made his first appearance in January 2013. He is the younger brother of Andrew and Michael, the youngest son of Roy and the father of Chloe. He is portrayed by Brett Dalton.

The youngest of the Palmer brothers, James arrived in South Bay in 2013, to help rebuild his father's business following the hotel collapse, that lead to the death of Justin Nilsen. The supposed 'prodigal son', he quickly took the lead on many projects, much to the chagrin of his older brothers. Though initially arriving on a temporary basis, he ended up staying in South Bay following his father's heart attack, to help run the businesses and has remained in the town ever since.

## Early Life

James was born in 1985 to Roy and Sarah Palmer in New York, where the couple lived with their family. Not long after he was born, James' mother died from a short battle with cancer, which caused Roy to coddle James, wanted to assure he got the necessary attention he never received from his mother, spending less time with his other two children. This lead to an animosity between the brothers from a young age. James often got away with things his brothers didn't, which caused his brothers to act out as teenagers.

At the age of sixteen, James realised he was gay and has a brief relationship with one of the families male cleaners. Unbeknownst to him, his father had seen the pair together and paid even closer attention to insure James would 'turn out the right way'

After school, James went to business school and eventually went to work in his father's office in New York. When his father moved to California to assist in the running of the West Coast office, James took over business in the East Coast.

## 2013: Arrival in South Bay

James arrives in South Bay in January 2013 when his father decided to go on vacation to take a break after the fallout from the hotel collapse in August 2012. Quickly, he irritated his brothers, who weren't happy to have their little brother hanging around, but James ignored them and their attempts to get him to make a mistake, making a good impression on the residents of South Bay, unlike the rest of his family. He was even able to convince Amber Nilsen, Justin's widow to settle her lawsuit against the company out of court.

James was also happy to reconnect with Travis Smith, his father's personal assistant, who James had known for a long time and it was quickly revealed that the two had a fling in the past. In South Bay, James was quick the rekindle their fling, but Travis was hesitant as he believed James to be engaged. James assured him it was over and the two reignited their fling, under the assumption it would only be for a short while.

When his father returned to South Bay, James was all set to leave, until he found out that his father had a heart attack whilst on vacation. Roy asked James to stay longer to help with the business and James agreed.

## 2013-14: Wedding and Coming Out

In April 2013, James and mostly Travis were in for a shock when James not-so-ex-girlfriend Angela arrived and revealed her and James were still engaged. Travis confronted James, who made excuses, but Travis refused to hear him out and demanded they keep their relationship professional or he'd report him for sexual harassment.

James kept his head down after that, working hard and navigating his relationship with Angela, which he clearly wasn't happy with. He regularly fended questions from his father about when him and Tara would tie the knot, but James kept putting it off. Meanwhile he continued to find an excuse to spend time with Travis, the two having a few near misses, but Travis refused to forgive James.

At a low point, in September 2013 James sought out the company of a male prostitute, but ended up getting arrested. He called Travis, who arrived to help him cover up his mess. On the way home, James broke down in the car and blamed Travis for his current situation. Getting angry, he told him he couldn't stop thinking about him, before trying to kiss him, but Travis pushed James away, saying he couldn't do it anymore and decided to take a long-overdue vacation.

Left on his own, James threw himself into work and his relationship with Angela, trying to make himself love her, but they were having problems in the bedroom as James struggled to consummate their relationship. Angela tried her best spice things up, realising something was wrong. Eventually, in January 2014, James broke down in the bedroom and confessed to Angela that he was gay. Much to his surprise she revealed that she already knew but was determined to marry him anything, mostly for the money. James agreed to this sham arrangement, which pleased his father.

On the day of the wedding in February of that same year, James was all set to go through with the marriage, until Travis returned. Travis questioned James, believing he was genuine. The conversation made James realise he couldn't go through with it, but Angela refused to back down. The pair walked down the aisle, but upon seeing Travis leaving, James couldn't get through his vows and publicly revealed that he didn't love her and that he loved Travis, shocking everyone. Angela called him names as he ran out of the hall and searched for Travis, but he was chased by his dad who attempted to strong arm him into marrying Angela, revealing he'd known for years that he was gay. James got angry at his dad and stormed upstairs, where he found Travis and told him that he loved him. The pair had sex, before heading in the shower. Moments later, Angela stormed in and found a discarded condom. James found her in the room and told her to leave. She did, taking the condom with her.

After the chaos from the wedding had died down, James and Travis stayed at the motel for a while as he tried to smooth things over with his family. As word spread about James' actions, Roy was furious at his son, especially when his wife Jane took James' side.

Roy began proceedings to remove James from his company, but was stunned when James threatened him with a lawyer for unfair dismissal. Furious, Roy turned his attention to Travis, blackmailing him that if he didn't sign a statement that James had sexually harassed him, he'd make Travis' mother homeless. Travis refused to sign and decided to instead leave South Bay to protect James and his mother, which devastated James. After Travis' departure, James soothed his pain with booze. Angela made an attempt to reconcile with him, causing him to insult her in the bar in front of everyone. Furious, Angela went home and took a pregnancy test, realising she was pregnant. Angry at James, she left South Bay without another word.

## 2014: Betrayal and Chloe's Birth

After that, things were tense between James and his family. When his father and brother Michael made work difficult for him, James considered quitting. The only reasonable person was his step mother Jane, who was on the verge of divorcing Roy. In May 2014, whilst going through some of Travis' things, James found a parting gift from Travis - bank statements and paperwork showing Roy had been hiding money and not following legal proceedings. James made one last ditch attempt to smooth things over with his dad, but when that failed, he decided to give the documents to Amber, who leaked them to the press.

This caused a media circus for the company, which Roy was left to pick up. Immediately, he blamed James, punching him in the middle of the street, leading to even more bad press. His reputation in free-for-all, marriage in tatters and facing jail time, Roy took a vacation to Hawaii. Whilst his father was away, Michael and Andrew convinced James to help them with the company, pulling it out from their fathers control. Together they did a good job building things up back up.

A few weeks later, just as James was moving on with his life and had started dating again, he was stunned when Angela returned almost eight months pregnant and revealed she was having his baby. Though he didn't initially question it, he soon realised the timing didn't add up and Angela revealed that she had used the condom. Unsure how to react, James initially wanted nothing to do with her, but Andrew convinced him otherwise and he and Angela agreed to be civil with one another.

A few weeks later, saw the return of his father, with his new girlfriend Bobbie Fisher, who he'd met whilst on his break. James and his brother questioned their father's decision making and health, using it to challenge his competency to lead. It would turn out that Roy was paying Bobbie in an attempt to make Jane jealous. Roy was shocked but happy to hear about Angela being pregnant and told James this was an opportunity to straighten things out. The pair argued, as James assured his father that he was in fact, still gay and that Angela knew that. But later that week, it became apparent that she didn't as Angela tried to kiss James. After confirming his sexuality, he stormed off, leaving Angela alone running after him. She ended up going into labour and was rushed to hospital. James arrived just in time for the birth of his daughter and on October 24th, 2014, Chloe was born. As she was premature, Chloe stayed in hospital and it was revealed that she was deaf. James and Angela agreed to be strong for their child, which worked for a while, but Angela couldn't take the stress and walked out in December 2014, a week before Christmas.

James planned to spend Christmas just him and his daughter but was surprised when his father invited him to spend a family Christmas at the mansion. James agreed and things went well, until Roy got up and made a speech about how he was planning to shake up the business, which included closing Michael's department and lowering salaries. His brothers tried to get James on side, but James by this point agreed to stay out of business to focus on Chloe and simply left them to it.

## 2015-16: Roy's Death

In January 2015, James was settled as a single father, but was encouraged by Angela to start dating again. He met up with a few men, but they were all put off by him having a child. He realised that what he needed was a project, not a boyfriend and was inspired by being a father to start working on a green initiative plan. He later pitched this idea to his father, who surprised him by accepting it and the pair began working together, mending their relationship.In March 2015, James even supported his father's break up with Bobbie and reconciliation with Jane.

Things changed in July 2015, when James discovered his father was using the green project to embezzle money. Furious, he confronted his father before the opening ceremony of the latest development, which lead to a huge argument between the two where Roy used a homophobic slur and also made comments about Chloe. James punched his father and stormed off. Hours later, Roy was found dead, hit over the head and beaten. Quickly, James became the prime suspect because of the fight, despite his assurances that he only hit him once and he became convinced he was going to prison. His brother Michael would later tell police that he had seen his father alive after James' fight, after being prompted to come forward by his then girlfriend, Julia. Michael revealed he had spoken to his father about gambling debts and that he had been the one to empty his bank account to pay them off. Michael was charged, but not sent to prison. The three brothers came together to help one another, each one believed another had done it, so they decided to set up Michael's gambling bookkeeper, who was arrested and charged with the crime as he'd been at the house that day and had confronted Roy. The bookkeeper believed he'd killed him after attacking him. It would turn out that the true murderer was in fact Bobbie, who had shown up after the attack and hit Roy after he slapped her around the face and called her a slut.

After Roy's death, James learned that his father had left him majority control of the business, though he decided to sell his shares to Andrew and Michael, using the money to set up his own green construction business.

## 2016-18: Meeting Alex and The Secret Sister

In May 2016, James met and started to develop feelings for a man whom he ran into at the construction business. The pair got close and spent the night together, but James was shocked to learn he was married with children and the man's teenage son showed up to threaten James. James called the relationship off, resorting back to being alone as he continued to work on his green construction business.

Later that year, in July, he had his first encounter with Alex Connors, when Alex stole his truck to go chasing after his sister's dog Bruno, who'd run off. James called the police and Kelly arrived to find her brother chasing after the dog. James decided not to press charges against him and they went their separate ways. Alex would later apply for a job with James' company, but James was hesitant given his record. Eventually he won him over and he agreed to keep him on a trial basis. However, Alex had some problems at work, even though he tried hard not to. When he cut his hand, he stormed off and James yelled at him for it. Alex refused to tell James the reason, believing he'd fire him. Kelly assured Alex that James would understand because he was gay, which Alex didn't believe. Soon, Alex started noticing things that made him realise she was right and he opened up to James about being HIV positive. James understood and rehired him. After that the two began to get closer, but their relationship still wasn't without it's problems.

In September, Alex started having problems with some old dodgy contacts and they ended up breaking into the construction office and stealing money, damaging the property. Alex tried to lie about it, but James found out and the two ended up in a heated argument, which ended when James suddenly kissed Alex. Alex reciprocated the kiss and they slept together. But things were weird the next morning, especially when Chloe woke up and Alex ran off. Alex later explained to James that he wasn't the domestic, family guy and James informed him that he wasn't looking for any serious and that it wasn't a big deal.Despite both of them agreeing, neither could shake the attraction and after getting soaked by a leaking pipe in November, the pair once again slept together. Shortly after they began an official relationship.

They dated for a few months, until April 2017, when James accused Alex of stealing from the office. He later learned that it had been High school intern Scott, but his attempts to make things up to Alex fell on deaf ears and Alex ended up dating other people. They would reunite in August 2017 when Alex saved Chloe from an accident at one of James' building sites.

Around this same time, James was in for another shock when he discovered he had a secret sister from one of his father's previous relationships. Unlike his brothers, James decided to trust Tara and welcomed her into his life, even siding with her when Michael attempted to pay her to leave South Bay. His trust appeared to be misguided when it was revealed that she was in fact conning the brothers and Roy was not her father, but had been a previous employer of her father who had died after being overworked on one of his construction sites. After being found out, Tara abducted Chloe, causing James and Alex to go after her. In the aftermath of rescuing her, James proposed to Alex.

## 2018-19: Marriage and Michael's Death

James and Alex got married in January 2019 before heading on a long honeymoon with their new family. When James returned, he was shocked to find his brother Michael had turned to drugs and tried to help him out but Michael was beyond help and ended up stealing from James.

In June 2019, Michael was shot by a drug dealer he had become indebted to. His body was found the next morning, a loss which devastated James and Andrew. Feeling guilty for not doing more, Michael took out his frustrations on Alex and Chloe, even smashing up one of his green building projects. In the midst of all of this, feeling rejected, Alex shared a kiss with an old flame. Michael found out about this and broke up with him. He then began a downward spiral, struggling mentally with his grief. Whilst Andrew made it his personal mission to track down the dealer who had shot his brother, Michael began worrying about the safety of his family and purchased a gun. In October, Alex came over to find Chloe had found the gun and warned Michael. Michael broke down in his arms and was encouraged to start attending therapy and to also get rid of the gun. Through his therapy sessions, Michael realised that he took his anger out at Alex and that he still loved him, but was concerned Alex had already moved on.

In December of that same year, Michael, with the help of Chloe arranged a romantic surprise for Alex which saw him 'propose' for a second time and the pair reconciled once more.

## 2020: Angela's Return

Following his reconciliation with Alex, Michael was happy to have his family back together as was Chloe. In March 2020, Alex was growing close to Chloe and discovered that she was being bullied by some local kids for being deaf, so decided to stand up to them, which resulted in him grabbing him by the shirt. Michael was initially angry at Alex, before Alex told him what had happened and that he couldn't stand to see kids being mean to his little girl. In the end, the situation made them closer as a family, but their bond would be tested when Angela made a shocking return in June 2020, wanting to reconnect with her daughter.

James was initially dismissive of Angela, but she worked to prove herself and eventually he let her see Chloe, though their initial meeting was a disaster when Angela misinterpreted all of Chloe's signs and she stormed off angrily. James was relieved by this, until Alex told him that it was important for them to have a relationship, so he encouraged Angela and Chloe to try again and offered Angela a temporary room. Angela took liberties and quickly outstayed her welcome, so James instead put her up at the motel. Things were going well, despite Angela losing Chloe at a theme park, and James and Alex grew accustomed to this new dynamic.

However, Angela was soon up to her old tricks. In November 2020, after getting in legal trouble and having a fling with Joe Garcia, she fled, leaving Chloe without a mother once again. Though Angela did leave signed consent forms for Alex to adopt Chloe. In response, Chloe began to act out, but James persuaded her that she didn't need Angela, because she had two people that loved her.

## 2021-2022: Medical Malpractice Lawsuit and Threatening Letters

After Angela's dramatic departure in late 2020, James and Alex began proceedings for Alex to adopt Chloe, which were finalised in February 2021. Around the same time, James tried to support his brother Andrew as he took full custody of his teenage children when his ex-wife passed away, which was not easy for him. James tried to be a supportive uncle, but didn't have a great relationship with them.

In March 2022, Alex was injured in when a car crashed into the side of the cafe. At the hospital, Doctor Steven Klein was hesitant to treat Alex due to him having HIV and his refusal to do so left Alex slipping into critical condition. Eventually, he pulled through and Dr. Klein was overheard discussing the incident by Rebecca Schaefer, who informed James and asked if they wanted to file a report. They agreed and James ended up so angry when the hospital didn't take action, that he and Alex filed a lawsuit against Dr. Klein. James used his business savvy to argue their case, though Alex was worried about the potential backlash. Regardless, James pushed on and they won the case. However, a few days later they found 'Dirty F\*gs' sprayed across their front door. Things amped up when they received a brick through their window