Jeff….

Ok I’m probably gonna get a ton of backlash for this, but I really don’t get why a lot of people dislike Jeff.

Jeff at his worst is simply just a misguided man. Let’s break this down a little bit. In high school he was cheating on Jackie with Shauna, an awful thing to do yes, but Shauna was not only a willing participant in this relationship, but it’s implied that she was the instigator of it, Jeff in episode 1 when she’s in the car with him says “I didn’t think we were going to do this again”. Meaning he might have been having some regrets about what he had done with Shauna prior. Not to mention, when you’re that age, you do all sorts of dumb stuff. They were both teenagers, and this sort of thing happens with dumb teenagers all the time on both sides.

Then, when Shauna got back from the wilderness, he seemingly wanted to be there for her, and he actually started a true relationship with her. An asshole would’ve just fled the second she told him about what happened to his son out in the wilderness, and never have spoken to her again. The child didn’t survive, so as bad as it sounds, he no longer had any obligation to be around when it came to Shauna. But it seems as if while it’s somewhat implied it was out of guilt, he was a decent enough human being to try and make the best out of the situation, and actually try and support Shauna.

Then in his adult life, Jeff has truly for the most part tried to be the perfect husband. He has his own business, he supports Shauna and his daughter, he also seems to be a very good dad overall, as Callie seems to be very close with in season 1 actually. And was he justified in the blackmail of Shauna’s friends? Absolutely not. That was an awful thing to do. But even that had a bit of innocence to it. He didn’t do it out of malicious intent or anything, his furniture store was struggling, and he wanted to be able to financially support his family. As dumb and misguided as it was, in the end he was doing it for the sake of his family and their wellbeing, to not have them lose their house or all their money.

Let’s also not forget at Jackie’s birthday dinner with her parents, when Jackie’s mom tried to spite Shauna and basically all but say to her “you should’ve died instead, and your life right now is worthless”, Jeff who that family still probably views him as the man Jackie should’ve ended up with, stood up for Shauna vehemently and said how much of a good person she was. A bad person doesn’t do that sort of thing.

And when Shauna literally cheated on him in their adult life, he was upset, but he forgave her. He wanted to actually work through it. Not to mention when Shauna told him about her murder of Adam and he’s confronted by the cops, he actually tries to claim that he was the one who murdered him. All in an effort to protect Shauna, because despite everything she had done, he still truly loved her. And he was literally willing to go to prison to protect her. And let’s not forget that even in season 3 already, he was willing to let Lottie stay with them. He could’ve put his foot down and in all honesty Shauna probably would’ve listened to his decision, but instead he seemed willing to let her be around because he felt bad for what had happened to her.

And that in the end I think is the worst part about it all for Jeff. No matter how hard he tries, Shauna is just a broken woman. She went through such traumatic experiences, she has suffered so much in her life, that she will never truly love him. I think she appreciates the things he does at times. I think she realizes Jeff is a decent human being, but she can never allow herself to love him or anyone else. She is this exact same way with Callie as well. Despite it all though, he has never stopped trying.

This whole post isn’t me trying to say Jeff is my favorite character on the show or anything, but I want you to realize that despite what people may try and say about him, when you break it all down, Jeff is not a bad guy. He’s a little misguided, maybe a bit naive and too trustworthy, but he’s certainly not bad.