The friendship between J.T. Yorke and Toby Isaacs began before the first season of Degrassi: The Next Generation. The two met each other at camp during the summer of 2001 and were reunited upon arriving at Degrassi Community School. Throughout the series, the two have proven to be best friends, despite their differences. Their friendship ended when J.T. was murdered by Drake Lempkey in Rock This Town. His death took a huge emotional toll on Toby, among others. It took a long time for Toby to truly accept that J.T. was dead.
Friendship History[]
Season 1[]
In Mother and Child Reunion (1), it is the end of the summer and the students (and parents) are taking a tour of Degrassi Community School. J.T. is accompanied by his lifelong friends, Emma Nelson and Manny Santos, when they all run into Toby. It turns out that Toby has become J.T.'s best friend over the summer, so J.T. greets and exchanges a special handshake with him that they learned at summer camp. After that, Toby is introduced to Emma and Manny.
In Mother and Child Reunion (2), it is revealed that Toby is highly computer savvy which comes into great use when J.T. and Manny come together to save Emma from making a possibly life-threatening mistake. Fortunately, Toby hacks into Emma's email to find the location of the online person that she was supposed to be meeting up with. Next, he, J.T. and Manny hurry to find Emma's mother and Snake to inform them of Emma's whereabouts. Thanks to Toby, J.T. and Manny, Emma is saved from danger.
In Family Politics, Toby isn't getting along very well with his new stepsister, Ashley Kerwin, whom is running for student council president. So, he convinces J.T. to run a joke campaign against her. When it surprisingly begins to appear that J.T. has a stronger possibility than Ashley of being elected. The latter recruits Jimmy Brooks and Spinner Mason to track J.T. down for her. The boys drag J.T. into a discreet room in the school where Ashley offers him fifty dollars to drop out of the election. Each time J.T. procrastinates, Ashley keeps raising the price until it reaches eighty dollars and J.T. accepts the deal. Toby is disgusted when he finds out that Ashley bribed J.T., so he threatens to expose her for the fraud that she is. Ashley feels awful for what she did, so she begs Toby not to tell the entire school about it. It takes a while but she successfully convinces him to cut her a break. As promised, J.T. quits the election, thus, allowing Ashley to give her speech and subsequently be elected as student council president.
In Eye of the Beholder, J.T. and Toby decide not to attend the school dance with Emma because they wanted to view pornography instead. While Toby's father and stepmother are out of the house, he and J.T. spend a couple of hours or so surfing adult websites. Suddenly, Toby's parents come back home and catch them both in the act.
In Parents' Day, Toby and J.T. begin to dread the thought of the upcoming Parents' Day, especially after knowing how Toby's parents behave when they're together, and the fact that J.T. has bad grades.
In Wannabe, J.T. talks Toby into helping him win a contest hosted by the Pringles company. Together with Spinner and Liberty Van Zandt, they manage to collect the winning cans. But when it's discovered that J.T. actually had two of the same cans, Spinner angrily walked away while Toby and Liberty shoved him into his locker.
Season 2[]
In Shout (1), J.T. and Toby have problems with keeping their locker organized and get in a fight about it, which was resolved by Mr. Raditch.
In Mirror in the Bathroom, Toby is sick of feeling invisible to everyone and being known as a geek, so to restart his image he tries out for the Degrassi wrestling team. At first, Toby's weight division puts him up against Sean Cameron, and Toby loses badly. He enlists the help of J.T. to train him, but when this proves ineffective, Toby starts taking laxatives and stops eating so he can drop weight and go down a division. Toby makes the team, but doesn't have much energy after purging meals and not eating. Ashley and J.T. get worried before Toby has his first wrestling match, and they were right to worry, as Toby faints on the mat. He is then kicked off the team for losing too much weight and not being healthy enough. Afterwards, J.T. tells Toby that everyone showed concern for him, proving that he wasn't as invisible as he thought.
In White Wedding (1), Toby and J.T. try to sneak into Snake's bachelor party so they can see the stripper that was going to be there. However, when they are not allowed in, the two decide to spy on the party. They had suggested to Craig Manning, whose stepfather Joey Jeremiah was Snake's best man, that a stripper had to be hired in the first place.
In White Wedding (2), J.T. and Toby are spying on Snake's party when they fall asleep. When Emma shows up, she accidentally steps on Toby's hand, causing him to scream. Joey and Snake run outside, and know what Toby and J.T. were up to. Joey pulls them aside and calls their parents.
In Dressed In Black, J.T. convinces Toby to buy condoms because Toby wants to do 'it' with Kendra Mason.
Season 3[]
In Pride (1), J.T. talks to Toby about his new crush on Manny.
In Gangsta, Gangsta, Toby shows J.T. his pictures. J.T. isn't interested; he's just fascinated by Jay Hogart walking by as a tough guy, with his girlfriend Alex NuƱez by his side. Toby watches J.T. flirt with Paige Michalchuk, and wonders aloud to Kendra, if he remembers he's staying at his place tonight.
J.T. has a dream about Liberty serving him drinks and her clothes falling off. Toby wakes him up, and he pulls the covers up around him. Toby figures it out, and laughs a bit. He then says it's time for school, and they're having lunch with the cool kids. J.T. says Toby will not be joining them, and he says he will, unless J.T. wants them to know about his wet dream. At lunch, J.T. leaves Toby out, and so Toby tells them about J.T.'s dream. Hazel Aden asks to change the topic, but Paige wants to know more "juicy gossip."
In Accidents Will Happen (2), J.T. and Toby were both present in the cafeteria when Ashley announced that Manny was pregnant with Craig Manning's child.
In It's Raining Men, J.T. hosts a party at Toby's house after he stars in a commercial for French fries.
Season 4[]
In Mercy Street, J.T., Manny, and Toby are seen at Liberty's house. When Danny Van Zandt pulls down J.T.'s shorts, Toby makes fun of his "stack of dimes". Later, J.T. is seen in the bathroom with Danny and Toby, examining his new penis pump.
In Back In Black, Toby is rejected by J.T. and Danny for being friends with Rick Murray. Then, Manny tells J.T. off, telling him he "out-geeks them all" and that he "Just can't be the bigger man." This causes J.T. to rethink his words, and he then apologizes to Toby for how he treated him.
Season 5[]
In Venus (2), the two are seen watching a funny video on a laptop. Manny thinks it's the video of her flashing her breasts, but it's really a video of a monkey.
In Turned Out (1), J.T. has gotten a job on a local children's show to pay for his apartment. Toby shows up and says that J.T.'s life sucks now.
In Turned Out (2), J.T. asks Toby for money. When Toby refuses to give it to him, J.T. threatens him. Toby doesn't change his tone, and J.T. says "This is why you have no friends!" Toby storms out.
Season 6[]
In Here Comes Your Man (1), Toby, Liberty, and J.T. are walking together on the first day of their senior year of high school.
In Rock This Town, Toby attends Liberty's birthday party, and J.T. confess to Toby that he is still deeply in love with Liberty. Toby tells him, if he does love her, get her back. J.T. tells him he will get her back, and goes looking for her. Sadly, J.T. is fatally stabbed by Drake Lempkey. At the hospital, later that night, the doctor asks to talk to a family member of J.T.'s with a worried expression. Toby steps up and tells the doctors he's J.T. brother and that he can talk to her. The doctor reveals that J.T.'s aorta was punctured and that he has passed away. Toby mourns his death, and it later takes a heavy toll in his life.
Mentions[]
Season 6[]
In The Bitterest Pill, Toby must decide if the secret of J.T.'s feelings to Liberty (how he still loved her) is better left unsaid or if needs to be revealed. Later on, Toby grows closer to Liberty, but Manny tells him to break it off because he knows how J.T. felt about Liberty. At the memorial, Mia Jones asks Toby to play the video she wanted to play, but then Toby tells Mia that J.T. loved Liberty and was going to tell her when he got stabbed. Liberty overhears and allows Mia to play the video.
In If You Leave, Toby is seen shouting "GO HOME LAKEHURST" as part of Emma's protest, in remembrance of J.T.'s death.
Season 7[]
In Standing In The Dark (1), as Lakehurst students acclimate themselves in their new Degrassi surroundings following a devastating fire at their school over the winter break, a fuming Toby can't contain his anger at their presence so soon after J.T.'s death, and lets his feelings be known through his online podcast. Later, he is seen at J.T.'s grave, "talking" to him. He decides that his podcast was wrong, and decides to make a nicer, friendlier one.
In We Built This City, Toby, Liberty, Emma, and Manny visit J.T.'s memorial, after graduating. Toby places J.T.'s graduation cap on his stone. Liberty turns the tassel to the other side, to symbolize that he has graduated with them.
Degrassi Minis[]
In the Degrassi mini Six Months, Toby appears with Liberty at the site of J.T.'s murder, where he states that he wants to stop waking up and remind himself that J.T.'s gone.
Quotes[]
- J.T.: "Toby?"
Toby: "J.T.? (Toby's first line) - Mother and Child Reunion (1) - J.T.: "Older women, younger men; very hot."
Toby: "Older women, J.T. Yorke; very not." - When Doves Cry (1)
Trivia[]
- Both have kissed Liberty Van Zandt.
- Toby's first line in the series is "J.T."
- This friendship is one of the longest lasting on Degrassi, along with Memma and Calli.
- Both had a crush on Manny, but only J.T. dated her.
- Both had romantic interest in Liberty Van Zandt, though only J.T. dated her.
- Both were bullied by Spinner Mason, but they were later on good terms with him.
- They were both friends with Emma Nelson, Manny Santos, Liberty Van Zandt, Sean Cameron, Danny Van Zandt, and Derek Haig.
- Both of them had been shoved into their lockers at some point in the series.
- Humorously enough, Toby was one of the two people (besides Liberty) who shoved J.T. in his locker.
- In reaction to Liberty's pregnancy, both Toby and J.T. crashed a car.
- Their friendship strongly resembles the Arthur-Yick Friendship.
- Toby knew that J.T. was still in love with Liberty Van Zandt at the time of his death.
- Both were involved in the Degrassi vs. Lakehurst war.
- They both disliked Johnny DiMarco, who witnessed J.T.'s murder.
- In What's It Feel Like to Be a Ghost? (2), Toby unintentionally predicted J.T.'s death, saying Lakehurst was going to take the latter off the "Menu of Life."
- Toby still referred to J.T. as his best friend even after his death.
- At the time of J.T.'s death, Toby said that he was his brother in order to find out his fate.
- Toby suffered a beating due to a conflict between the Lakehurst students and J.T.
- In Season 3, J.T. starts to hang out with the cooler crowd instead of Toby, just like Yick Yu started to hang out more with Luke Matthews than Arthur Kobalewscuy.
- They both made their first appearances in Mother and Child Reunion (1).
- They appeared in all 15 episodes of Season 1, as did Emma and Manny.
- Toby attended J.T.'s funeral and memorial service at Degrassi in The Bitterest Pill.
- They were both members of the Degrassi Drama Department.
- Both were or are in love with Liberty.
- In White Wedding (2), they both attended Archie Simpson and Christine Nelson's wedding in January 2003.
- They were both members of the Rooks & Knights Society.
- These two bear similarities to "The Odd Couple", with Toby being like Felix Unger and J.T. like Oscar Madison.
- According to Toby's computer dating system, J.T. had only a 0.03% chance of scoring with Paige Michalchuk.
- Toby appeared in Kevin Smith's film Jay and Silent Bob Go Canadian, Eh! while J.T. was a member of the film's crew.
- Toby did not know that J.T. had tried to kill himself in Turned Out (2).