J.T. Yorke

Infobox character
colour = #000080
colour text = #FFFFFF
series =
name = James Tiberius Yorke


caption =
first =
(episode 1.01)
last =
(episode 6.11)
cause = Murder (knife punctured aorta)
creator =
portrayer = Ryan Cooley
episode = 105
nickname = J.T.
alias =
born = 1989
death = January 2007
specialty =
occupation = * Student at Degrassi Community School
* drug store clerk
* Host of children's show
title =
callsign =
significantother = * Mia Jones (girlfriend until he died)
* Liberty Van Zandt (ex-girlfriend & mother of his child)
* Manny Santos (ex-girlfriend)
children = A boy with Liberty Van Zandt
relatives = Ms. Cooney (Grandmother)
residence = Toronto, Ontario
religion =
nationality = Canadian
imdb_id = 0031206

James Tiberius "J.T." Yorke is a fictional character on the TV show "" who is portrayed by Ryan Cooley.

eason 1

He is first seen in "Mother and Child Reunion" Part 1, having just removed Joey Jeremiah's old fedora from a box of "Degrassi Junior High"/"Degrassi High" memorabilia at the school, days before beginning his first semester at the school, and put it on. As the scene suggests, throughout the first season, he figuratively "wears the hat" of the short, slender class clown with loud shirts. Upon spotting his best friend Toby Isaacs from summer camp, registering for school, J.T. introduces him to his life-long friends Emma Nelson and Manuella "Manny" Santos. The four are the only "Next Generation" students shown in the first episode (although two others are also briefly shown in Part 2).

His immaturity leads him to get Toby's step-sister Ashley Kerwin in extreme trouble when he brings an ecstasy tablet to her house party. This season was also the beginning of Liberty Van Zandt's crush on J.T., although she is the girl to whom he is least attracted at the time. He goes so far as to pretend to be a homosexual in an effort to disuade her pursuit of him.

eason 2

With the introduction of Joey's stepson Craig Manning, J.T.'s role as the 'new Joey' begins to lessen, although the parallels continue.

At the beginning of season two, J.T. develops a huge crush on Paige Michalchuk and he vows to make her his girlfriend. J.T. constantly tries to woo Paige, but she constantly insults him and shoots down his advances. However, when Spinner and Hazel offer Paige money to go on a date with J.T., Paige accepts the offer. However, Paige has a surprisingly great time with J.T. on the date. A few seconds later, Spinner and Hazel appear on the scene and gives to Paige the money she earned. J.T. is angry that Paige only went out with him for money, so Paige walks out on their date. The next day, Paige apologizes to J.T., tells him that he'd be her type if he was older, and then kisses him on the cheek, leaving him satisfied. The date-dare plot device is remarkably similar to the start of Joey and Caitlin Ryan's relationship in "Twenty Bucks" ("Degrassi Junior High" ep. 310).

When JT insults her, Liberty Van Zandt uses a red permanent marker to scribble on his locker and several others next to his. That in turn gets him into trouble with Mr. Raditch, the principal. Later when J.T. was about to start cleaning the lockers with a bucket of soapy water and a toothbrush Liberty admits that she marked on the lockers so that J.T. didn't have to go to private school. At the end of the school day, J.T. calls Liberty "cool". Liberty maintains her crush on him.He proved that he was still the class clown by getting Toby into trouble with Spinner when he bought condoms for Toby to be prepared with , Toby's girlfriend and Spinner's adopted sister.

J.T., among other male students, has a big crush on science teacher, Ms. Hatzilakos. One day, he misbehaves in class, and Ms. Hatzilakos gives him detention. She makes him care for a few guinea pigs, including a pregnant one. However, they develops a student-teacher bond and Ms. Hatzilakos advises J.T. to stop wasting his intelligence by always being the class clown.

At the end of the school year, J.T. has every intention on asking Paige to be his date to the year-end dance. However, when he asks Liberty for help on passing the final exams, she only agrees to do so if he takes her to the year-end dance as his date. J.T. reluctantly agrees and he never gets the chance to ask Paige.

eason 3

As soon as Manny's plain and innocent style of clothing changes to sexy and trashy, J.T. starts to look at her in a way he never has before. He and Manny flirt with each other, but he gets his heart broken when she chooses Sully, a popular upperclassman, over him. After breaking up with Sully, Manny begins a long, wrongful romance with Craig Manning. She and J.T. don't begin dating until the end of season 3.

Paige, Hazel, Spinner, and Jimmy, four of Degrassi's most popular students, take an interest in J.T. and befriend him, especially Paige, who gained a ton of respect for J.T. after he confronted Dean for raping her the previous year. J.T. and Spinner had a brief, minor feud that was quickly resolved. Toby, however, was still considered an unpopular nerd and J.T. seemed to be ditching him. To pay J.T. back, Toby reveals an embarrassing secret to J.T.'s new friends...he had a wet dream about Liberty. They quickly make up and remain best friends in the end. Also that year J.T. did a commercial but it was childish, causing him to receive the wrong kind of attention.

Towards the end of season 3, J.T. wants to ask Manny to the semi-formal. With encouragement from Liberty, who had dismissed her three-year crush on him once she found a love of her own, J.T. decides to ask Manny out. However, when he sees her talking to Craig, he jumps to the conclusion that she's trying to reconcile with him. Manny gets angry with J.T. for making such an assumption, but she forgives him the following day and accepts his invitation to the semi-formal as his date.

eason 4

J.T. is now going out with Manny, but there appears to be a lack of chemistry. Manny is turned off by his immature ways such as farting and acting like a clown. Liberty hosts a little get-together in her backyard, chatting, sipping lemonade, and relaxing in the hot tub. As a joke, Danny, Liberty's brother, pulls J.T.'s trunks down, revealing his private parts. J.T. is embarrassed and Manny is surprised. After seeing Craig's penis in the locker room, J.T feels inadequate. Danny and Toby help him get a penis pump and J.T decides to use it when he plans to have sex with Manny that night (coincidentally, the same night she planned to break up with J.T. for being on a different maturity level than her). Manny catches him using it, and she dumps J.T. the following day for being so immature.

Since Toby was friends with Rick, J.T. starts being mean to Toby for being his friend and hangs out with Danny. When Toby tells Manny about J.T., she tells him that she remembers why they broke up because he couldn't be the bigger man. J.T. then later apologizes to Toby at Rick's funeral.When J.T. and Liberty work on a school play inspired by the school shooting episodes earlier, he realizes how blind he was for all of those years and he finally returns her love when they shared a kiss in detention. They continue going out throughout Season 5.

eason 5

After dating Liberty for several months, Liberty learned that she is pregnant and J.T. was the father. J.T. soon broke up with Liberty, because she was too controlling on a job that he needed to take. J.T. decided not to abandon Liberty, because his own father abandoned him. J.T. and Liberty both tell J.T.'s grandmother, who did not take the news well and questions if he will be like his father. Before telling Liberty's parents, J.T. and Liberty get an apartment (Liberty's parents tell her to stay with them and forget J.T.; they don't like him because he got her pregnant). Liberty wanted to stay with J.T. He got multiple jobs, including being a clerk at a drug store and being "PJ J.T." and Counter Boy, a host of a kid's television show which he soon quits because there is no payment. Even with all the jobs, J.T. couldn't afford an apartment that he and Liberty were trying to buy, so with the advice from Jay Hogart, J.T. decided to sell oxycodone to a drug dealer. When Liberty found out, she hit J.T. and told him to return the drugs and confess. While trying to get the drugs back, J.T. was attacked by the drug dealer he had been supplying the pills to. When J.T. went to give the dealer the pills, he took a handful of the oxycodone pills for himself and overdosed; Jay is with J.T. when he blacks out at the drug dealer's party and is the only one to take the initiative to help J.T. While in the hospital, Liberty questioned his reasons for attempting suicide and decided to put the baby up for adoption. From then on, Liberty avoided J.T., and he was only able to see his child for a brief time after he was born.

eason 6

In his senior year of high school at Degrassi, J.T. decided to date 16-year old single mother, Mia Jones. After finding out about her child, he then took back his old TV job to get her attention and to spite Liberty who wouldn't pay attention to him. It worked, and the two began to date. Doing this caused his ex-girlfriend Liberty to become jealous and angry with him.

In the episode Eyes Without a Face, Pt. 1 Liberty started to show a vibe of jealousy when she saw her ex, J.T. asking Mia out for ice cream with Mia's daughter, Isabella. Her jealousy over Mia and J.T. escalated when Liberty told Mia all of J.T.'s dark secrets, jeopardizing their relationship. During a Student Council meeting, she turned down J.T.'s idea of having a daycare at Degrassi without even hearing J.T.'s pitch, saying that it would only benefit his girlfriend. Mia stood up and said she wasn't alone. J.T. finally lashed out at her telling that she was being selfish, reminding her that he supported her throughout her entire pregnancy even when she gave up the baby that was also his, and accused her of wanting J.T. to be as miserable as she is.

J.T. ended up in a serious rivalry with Lakehurst after his brief, yet violent confrontation with a Lakehurst student, Nic. As the tension mounted, J.T. agreed to a street fight with them and convinced Derek, Danny, Peter and others to join in the fight. Toby refused to participate, and begged J.T. not to do it. Mia arrived before the Lakehurst gang and convinced J.T. and friends to leave. When J.T. didn't show up, however, Nic and his thugs found Toby and beat him up, which left him wearing a cast on his arm and a neck brace. J.T. is shocked and ashamed about what happened. He angrily states that he wants payback for what they did to Toby, but Toby pleads with him not to pursue the rivalry any further. J.T. reluctantly lets it go.

In the episode "", Emma and Manny hold a birthday party for Liberty at Emma's house. J.T. later talks with Toby about his cravings for both a meatball sub (Mia) and a bowl of oatmeal (Liberty). Toby says that Mia is a good person but Liberty has always been there for him.

He goes outside to attempt to find Liberty, only to find two Lakehurst boys. Drake and Johnny. Johnny is peeing on J.T.'s car. J.T. remarks that he couldn't find a toilet, to which Drake smugly replied he did. J.T. sarcastically replies, "You guys slay me with your humor" Annoyed, Drake pulls a switchblade knife out, runs up to J.T. and stabs him in the back. Then Drake and his lackey run off.

Liberty sees them running, goes up to J.T. and finds that he has been stabbed. She panics and screams out for help.

Later at the hospital Sean, Emma, Manny, and Toby are awaiting news. A nurse asks to see a family member to which Toby lies and says that he's J.T's brother. The nurse tells him that his aorta was punctured beyond repair and that he did not survive.

eason 7

The seventh season finale, "We Built This City", ends with the graduation of his former classmates, at which Liberty remarks in her valedictory speech about the journey they have taken together, and that some (J.T.) did not complete the journey, before tearfully cutting her speech short. J.T.'s three compatriots from the first episode (Emma, Manny and Toby) then visit rededicate the memorial cenotaph to J.T. in the school foyer. Harkening back to the first episode's symbolism of J.T. wearing Joey's fedora, Toby places someone's graduation cap next to J.T.'s portrait, and Liberty moves the tassle to the (wearer's) left to symbolically include J.T. in the graduating class.

Relationships

*Manny Santos
**Start Up: "Our House" (321)
**Broke Up: "Mercy Street" (404)
***Reason: Manny believes J.T. is too immature.

*Liberty van Zandt
**First Relationship
***Start Up: "Voices Carry, Part 2" (412)
***Broke Up: "Foolin'" (504)
****Reason: J.T. believes Liberty is too controlling.
**Second Relationship
***Start Up: "Turned Out, Part 1" (507)
***Broke Up: "Turned Out, Part 2" (508)
****Reason: J.T. stole prescription drugs from his job in order to support the baby, then attempts suicide by overdosing.

*Mia Jones
**Start Up: "Eyes Without a Face, Part 1" (605)
**Ends: "Rock This Town" (611)
***Reason: J.T.'s death, although it's hinted that J.T. was going to break up with Mia for Liberty.

References

1. http://www.the-n.com/ntv/shows/characters.php?id=67&character_id=28

2. http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0031206/