'Boots' Recap (Episodes 1-8): Is Ochoa Dead? Did Cam Become A Marine In The End?

After considerable delays because of the Covid-19 pandemic first, and then the Hollywood strikes, Boots has finally been released on Netflix, and it feels like the thrilling boot camp films from yesteryear, but much more fleshed out and effective in its stance. Adapted from Greg Cope White’s memoir, “The Pink Marine,” the 8-episode series is centered around Cameron ‘Cam’ Cope, who joins the US military almost on a whim, along with his best friend, Ray McAffey, but quickly realizes that the struggles of boot camp are all too much for him. Overall, Boots makes for a fun and often intense watch, and is recommendable to any fan of the coming-of-age genre.

Spoiler Alert

What is the Netflix series about?

Boots  begins at a US Army recruitment office in 1990, where the protagonist, a teenager named Cameron “Cam” Cope, sits and talks about why he should be accepted into the service and be selected for the grueling 13-week-long boot camp, which is supposed to turn young boys into professional army men. As Cam talks about the need to bring in several changes in his life, which he believes getting into the army will help him do, we are given a brief glimpse into his past and mostly into his troubles with family and schoolmates. Due to his choices and preferences being starkly different from the usual hormonal teenage boys at school, Cam is incessantly bullied by his schoolmates. His vocal love for the all-girl pop group, Wilson Phillips, has even had him face the extreme humiliation of the boys pushing his head into the toilet. 

Back at home, his mother, Barbara, and younger brother, Benjy, hardly ever understand him and almost never give him any useful advice about how to cope with these difficulties. The only person he can discuss these matters with is his best friend since childhood, Ray McAffey, who had signed up for the US Navy a few months back but has now made a return due to some eyesight-related problems. Thus, when Ray tells Cam about his next plan—to join the US Marine Corps—Cam is also immediately interested, especially in the “buddy system enlistment,” which promises to let friends who sign up together attend boot camp together. Believing that it is not going to be too different from summer camp, Cam happily visits the army recruitment office and tries to convince the selector he and the army will be helped by one another.

Once selected, Cam leaves home, without even seriously telling his mother about this new development. Together with Ray, he goes to the Marine Corps Recruitment Depot in Parris Island, South Carolina, and his life does take a drastic and quite unexpected turn. Although he had known that life as a young recruit would be tough and difficult, Cam could have never prepared for the strict and often demeaning nature of the sergeants and instructors, or the intense workout sessions and tasks that they are made to go through. By the end of just the first day, he has a breakdown and believes that he has made a grave mistake by joining the Marines. Most of all, Cam is scared that his secret will be exposed—he is a gay man who has just signed up to be a recruit at boot camp, at a time when the US Army did not allow homosexuals to serve in the armed forces.

Does Barbara really not care about her son?

For the most part of Boots, Cam’s mother, Barbara, really acts indifferent to his situation, and she even tries to capitalize on his absence. Busy with her difficult profession as a saleswoman for a cosmetic company, Barbara had not even taken Cam’s statement about him joining the army seriously, and her only response was to ask him to bring milk for the family whenever he returned. As she found out that her son had genuinely left, Barbara confronted the recruitment officer and ended up sleeping with him to fulfill her own carnal desires. Then, when she met with the mothers of other Marine officers and told them about how her son was ‘gone,’ the women misunderstood that as Cam having passed away while in service. Instead of correcting them, Barbara simply chose to capitalize on their sympathy and tried to sell them cosmetic products.

All of this made it seem like Barbara did not care about her son at all, while the reality was more complex, as we later learn in the series. Before anyone else, even Cam himself, figured it out, Barbara had realized how her son was much more sensitive than other boys, and yet very resolute and determined in the smallest of matters. When he had been bullied by some brash older boys at a very young age, she had chosen to not console and comfort him because she wanted the boy to learn how to deal with such bullies. As a single woman having to raise two sons by herself, Barbara had experienced how most people in the world just want to take advantage of those in need, and how life is all about power plays. Therefore, she found it more appropriate to let Cam deal with his problems by himself, instead of helping him through them, just so that he would grow tougher. 

This sort of indirect and confused style of parenting stuck, and Cam’s relationship with his mother kept growing distant over the years. She has arguably not been a great mother, which is evident in how Benjy simply lazes around at home playing video games, without trying to help the family. As Cam grew up and felt that his mother did not care for him, Barbara interpreted the distance to be proof of how she had already failed as a mother, and so she simply gave up trying to mend the bond. However, she does genuinely love and care for her son, which she too comes to admit through the literal absence, and the mother-son relationship does get a lot better by the end of the series, although it is not completely healed.

Who is responsible for Ochoa’s death?

The most upsetting and concerning situation that Cam and his fellow recruits face at boot camp is when one of their compatriots, Eduardo Ochoa, suddenly dies in the most unexpected manner while at camp. At first glance, it looks like Ochoa is unable to take the extreme physical and mental stress at boot camp, but there are really more nuances to it. Among a group of youngsters who all have their individual reasons to have signed up to serve in the army, Ochoa dreams only of building a modest but stable life with the money he will earn as a Marine and settling down with his beloved girlfriend, Gloria. As none of the recruits are allowed to speak to anyone over the telephone under ordinary circumstances, Ochoa is absolutely thrilled when an opportunity arises—the recruit with the best shooting score will be allowed a single phone call back home.

He immediately tries to convince his fellow recruits, many of whom are friends by now, to give him the chance to talk to his girlfriend if they win, agreeing to do whatever they want in exchange. As an average soldier with no special skills, Ochoa does not expect to win, but his opinion changes after the first day of shooting exercises, when he and the world realize that he is an exceptionally talented sharpshooter. Despite an unsettling pain in his shoulder from all the recoil, he does not report the pain in fear of being disallowed from participating in the second day’s exercises and ultimately wins the grand prize. Ochoa is exhilarated to talk to Gloria, who had agreed to his proposal when he was selected in the USMC and had promised to marry him when he would return home from the service. However, when Ochoa finally gets to make the call, his world comes crashing down, as he realizes that Gloria has found a new lover, who has even moved in with her, and possibly married her as well. In a fit of rage, disappointment, and extreme grief, the young man ends up verbally and physically attacking Sergeant Howitt. An absolute meltdown follows, which ultimately leads to Ochoa suffering a heart attack and dying on the spot.

Multiple factors caused the death of the young man, beginning with the infidelity of his girlfriend, who had not just betrayed his trust but had seemingly dumped him to start a life with a different man. But Boots  leaves room for us to wonder whether Gloria had also been in a desperate situation, trying to find financial and social stability in her life through a relationship, or if she was simply having an affair in her boyfriend’s absence. It is perhaps the difficult situation all around that ends up causing the most damage, and the constant stress and humiliation at the camp also play a significant role. While Ochoa had been tolerating all of it to facilitate his dream of living with the love of his life, her betrayal ultimately crushes him and pushes him towards the fatal meltdown. The authorities officially claim that Ochoa had hidden a medical issue with his heart, which had caused his death, but it seems more like a cover-up than the genuine reason.

What Happens To Joshua?

Joshua is the new recruit who joins the boot camp after Ochoa’s death, and he is allotted the bunk bed above Cam. This is particularly unsettling for the protagonist, because he immediately realizes that Joshua is gay as well, and more importantly, that Joshua is aware of his interest in men. It does not take long for Joshua to make advances towards Cam, which can be considered romantic, sexual, or simply friendly, and for some time it seems like a romantic relationship might bloom between them. However, quite the opposite happens, as Joshua Jones has his own secrets. While receiving training under the CRIP platoon at boot camp, Joshua had been under monitoring for an apparent sleeping disorder. 

He is known for sleepwalking and getting himself into strange and even dangerous situations. But the medical evaluation carried out earlier could not determine whether Joshua really suffered from a serious sleeping disorder or if he had been simply faking the condition to be discharged from service. As much as his habit of sleepwalking, his extreme desire to be discharged was also known across the camp, and the authorities were aware of how he was willing to take great risks just to be expelled from camp. It is Sergeant Sullivan who takes advantage of this situation ultimately, as he tells Joshua to beat Cam up during their combat training exercise so that a feeling of tremendous animosity grows between them. In return, the sergeant promises the recruit that he will be discharged from camp after carrying out this secret mission.

Sullivan’s plan works, as Cam feels let down by his friend and potential lover, and he beats Joshua up horrifically out of rage. Joshua apologizes for his behavior the next day while also revealing why he had betrayed Cam, but on that very night, he goes missing. As the whole camp had traveled to the forests as part of the final training exercise, called the Crucible, Joshua had sleepwalked from the sleeping tents into the nearby swamp and was found only a day later. Because of his extremely injured state, Joshua is deemed unfit to continue, and he is rushed to the hospital. Joshua Jones gets his desired discharge from the army, meaning that he does not finish the course to become a Marine, and it is left unclear as to whether he genuinely suffers from a sleeping disorder. Given how the young man is ready to do just about anything to get sent home, he probably fakes it and intentionally goes to the swamp to injure himself, especially since Sergeant Sullivan refuses to expel him even after he completes his mission.

Why is Sergeant Sullivan on the run?

Sergeant Robert ‘Bobby’ Sullivan is outright the most complex character in Boots, who initially seems to be an evil homophobe hell-bent on hurting Cam in every possible way and on torturing him into changing his sexual orientation. However, his reasons become clear as the plot progresses, for Sullivan himself has been going through the unbearable emotional pain of being a gay man in the US Army. An experienced soldier with a decorated service history, Sullivan had been posted at Naval Base Guam in Apra Harbor when he grew close to a fellow soldier, Major Aaron Wilkinson. It seemingly did not take long for Sullivan and Wilkinson to get romantically close, as they were both closeted homosexuals, but their high ranks in the army also meant that they had to be very careful to hide their affair.

But when Sullivan’s best friend, Rob Maitra, informed him about a rumor going around about Major Wilkinson, he feared his own secret being exposed and decided to end the relationship. Not only did he break up with Wilkinson, but he even reported his lover to the authorities, just to ensure that he would not be suspected of being gay. At the time, it was illegal for homosexuals to serve in the US military, and if found out, they would be discharged and barred from any public service. Thus, Sergeant Sullivan had saved his own position by sacrificing his lover, who is mentioned to have been arrested as well. Sullivan, on the other hand, has been fleeing, in an indirect way, after having transferred away from Apra Harbor to now serve as a sergeant at Parris Island. 

Ultimately, Sullivan gets stuck in a very difficult situation, as the guilt of having ratted out Wilkinson keeps eating away at him. This is why he tries to ‘fix’ Cam from the very beginning, or at least save him from all the trouble that might follow if he gets romantically attached to any of his fellow recruits. Sullivan knows the feeling of giving in to one’s emotional and physical needs and getting involved with a fellow soldier, only to experience heartbreak when the plans of any shared future fail, and he wants to protect Cam from this very feeling after realizing that the young man is gay. Sullivan’s superior at Parris Island, Captain Denise Fajardo, assures him that she and the entire unit will protect Sullivan if the authorities try to persecute him, since his connection with Wilkinson is not difficult to uncover because of the matching tattoos that they had gotten. 

However, Sullivan ultimately gives in to his dark thoughts of sabotaging his own career as a soldier, and he gets involved in a bar fight, leaving a civilian almost dead and in a coma. The civilian’s family presses charges, and Fajardo informs Sullivan that he will soon be punished by the law. But Sergeant Sullivan cannot bring himself to face the consequences of his actions either, and simply runs away into the forest at the end of Boots, becoming a fugitive. Whether Sullivan will be found by the police will remain a mystery, unless the series is renewed for a second season, but it is for certain that the sergeant will forever be haunted by the ghosts of his past, metaphorically and literally, and unfortunately will not be able to rest easy at any time.

Is Cam able to complete boot camp?

While Cam had originally come to boot camp in order to change himself and his world, the experience actually helps him realize his true potential and improve himself in every possible way. Despite having initially hated the place, his sheer determination to cling on and complete the rigorous 13-week-long program brings about a significant change in him. While the rest of the recruits complete the Crucible, which is the last exercise before their completion of the course, Cam is away in the forest rescuing Joshua. Captain Fajardo herself picks the boys up in her van, and Cam asks her permission to complete the Crucible officially so that he can finish boot camp and earn his Marines badge. At the end of Boots, Cam successfully completes boot camp and graduates, becoming a part of the US Marine Corps. 

Does Ray become the Honor Man?

Ray McAffey’s only dream at boot camp was to be awarded the best recruit title, officially called the Honor Man. Being the son of a veteran Marine who had served in the Vietnam War, Ray had been raised to see every situation in life as a mission to complete, but his time at boot camp taught him the importance of making emotional connections. Therefore, he is not very disappointed at not being named the Honor Man at the end of the camp, with the designation going to fellow recruit Isaiah Nash instead. In fact, Ray even helps Nash out in the later stages of the camp, a change from being extremely competitive even against his best friend, Cam, at the beginning, which is the most important attribute of a Marine. Despite the constant pressure to be the very best, life in the Marine Corps is more about bringing out the unity and the brotherhood in one’s respective unit. Thus, Ray accepts his fate and is instead rewarded by his father’s soft but assuring congratulations, which means the world to him. Alongside this accomplishment, Ray also finally gets the number of the young woman recruit training in the female unit, meaning that a romantic relationship between them is evident in the near future.

Does Cam continue to serve in the US Marine Corps?

There is one last surprise awaiting Cam at the very end of Boots, as he suddenly learns that he will not be able to serve in the Marine Corps despite being selected. This is because his mother, Barbara, reveals that she had once lied about Cam’s age in the official documents, making him a year older, for convenience’s sake at the time. But this means that Cam is now 17 and not 18, which makes him a minor and therefore unable to serve in the army. All this can be put to bed if Barbara signs a waiver form, though, and ultimately Cam asks her to do so. Despite having to hide certain significant parts of his life or put them away in some aspects, Cam decides to continue as a soldier, for he has genuinely found his calling and his identity through his experiences at boot camp. 

While it is possible to look at his decision as a somewhat cowardly act of repressing his sexuality in order to fit in with society, his decision is driven more by his desire to explore more sides of himself and not just be restricted to the identity of a closeted gay man. His life will surely be filled with adversities, perhaps just like Sergeant Sullivan’s even, but Cam is more interested in learning to deal with them than to never face them at all. Since Barbara had come to help her son out of the mess and not to restrict his life, she agrees to sign the waiver form, assuring Cam that she will always love and support him no matter what he chooses to do in life. Thus, it is a happy ending for Cam, and at the very end of Boots, he and the other new Marines are seen watching news of President George Bush announcing his decision to deploy troops in Iraq to bring an end to Saddam Hussein’s aggression. Cam realizes that he and his friends will soon be sent overseas to fight in the war, but he does not flinch at the situation anymore and instead looks rather ready to serve his country.  

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