Daisy Jones & The Six is my favorite book (& a pretty solid television series that I will be referencing a lot, as it does a great job of exemplifying the points I am aiming to depict). A book of a 70s era rock band full of drugs, sex, & rock & roll that’s written in the style of a documentary? AND it’s written by Taylor Jenkins Reid? I couldn’t be more sold.
Due to the fact that she is the titular role, it is obvious that Daisy is seen as the main character (along with the other band members, The Six, even though there are only five of them). An argument could even be made that Billy, the frontman of the band full of tumultuous relationships, is as much of a main character as Daisy. While the novel wouldn’t be what it is without these two at the forefront, I have a different opinion on who holds the heart of that show.
Camila Alvarez.
Listen, I adore Daisy. She isn’t the muse, she’s the somebody. And she SHOULD be. A free love badass with the voice of an angel & the songwriting skill of the gods deserves to be in the spotlight (& I would be remiss to not acknowledge how iconic it is to have Daisy Jones played by Riley Keough, a literal descendant of Elvis himself). That being said, I can’t sit back & pretend that Camila doesn’t deserve the same amount of credit just because she’s backstage, not on it.
Of course, I’m not the first one to acknowledge her importance. I love the way Denise Petski explains it in her 2019 article by calling Camila “girlfriend of lead singer Billy Dunne & the band’s center of gravity.” Billy himself calls her a North Star. While Billy & Camila meet at a bar in the book, I feel like the show does a slightly better job at exemplifying the point I'm trying to make, so I'm going to discuss that meeting instead (team book all the way though, I promise). The grounding quality that draws people to her is noticeable immediately, considering a meet cute at a laundromat turned into a marriage between her & Billy. Not impressed with Billy’s band status, Camila clocks Billy for living with his mother & using songwriting as a pickup line. She immediately knows how to put him in his place.
Camila has strong faith in Billy & the band (which at this point is called the Dunne Brothers) from day one, with the show depicting her taking pictures & videos for them & telling her parents that she is confident that Billy will be able to use music to pay the bills one day. In the book, a badass keyboardist named Karen (if Taylor Jenkins Reid, or TJR for ease of typing, knows how to do one thing, it’s write a strong, tough woman), joins the band while they are still in Pennsylvania. After touring around for a bit, the band decides to move to California to persue their music careers. Being the strong, independent woman that she is, Camila originally denies the idea to go with the band when they decide to pick up & move to LA, which happens after touring around in the book, but comes earlier in the show. In a move that I adore, the series shows Camila as she tells Billy she can’t just pick up & change her life for “some boy.” Moments before the big move, Camila shows up with a change of heart, one in which shows her true confidence in Billy & the band. In the novel, she breaks up with Billy before going back to reunite with the band later. The moment she agrees to join them is just another instance of her steadfast faith in the band's success. When Billy tells her he misses her & that they should be together, he asks if she would marry him if he had a record contract. Instead of focusing on the man she loves proposing marriage, Camila is first & foremost concerned in whether or not the band got a record deal. It requires a strong faith to follow the people you love across the country to fulfill a Hollywood dream, & it’s impossible to say what Daisy Jones & The Six would have become without her support.
In the show, Karen joins a bit later. She is called & begged by the band before their California move, but only accepts the offer when Camila confirms that these boys are worth the risk. TJR doesn’t need to explicitly state the trusting, grounding aura Camila emits to make it obvious to the reader. It’s obvious through the way the other characters view her. This moment is just the beginning of a deeply meaningful friendship between two admirable women (a friendship so amazing that I wish it was nonfictional & set in 2025 so I could be part of these two’s lives).
Around this time, the band changes its name from the Dunne Brothers to The Six. In the book, there are six people in the band. In the show, when Karen questions why the band is still called the Dunne Brothers (considering only two of the five are related & she is, very obviously, not a brother) she suggests a name that acknowledges Camila’s importance to the band, whether she has ever picked up an instrument or not: The Six (I feel like this fact in & of itself proves the point I’m trying to make here). In the book, the band is named The Six due to its six members, though this number eventually turns into five. The name itself seems to foreshadow the inclusion of Camila as one of the band's own.
Finding a cheap, rundown place in Los Angeles, the five band members are officially musicians trying to make it in California, with Camila along for the ride. The messy house is fine because, as Camila says, it simply takes two to make a home. In the show, Camila continues to prove her loyalty to Billy & his band, being the one to call a record producer to invite him to the first big gig of the band. Continuing to mail out information about the band & singing every word to every song, Camila is as concerned about the success of the band as any of the members, if not more so. She takes it upon herself to handle the financing & budgeting of the group, allowing them more time to focus on the music. These details aren't all showed in the novel, but they aren't hard to imagine when you take Camila's character into consideration.
I’m not trying to summarize the entire novel or show here (besides, nobody is reading this in general, let alone anyone that doesn’t care about the novel) so I’m going to make this part quick: The Six records an album & is about to go on tour when Camila tells Billy she is pregnant & they get married that same night.
Made to be a mom, Camila immediately steps into the caretaker role & stays behind during her pregnancy while The Six hit the road. Getting sick of only speaking to her husband through her phone, Camila surprises Billy at a motel, where she is instead surprised by him in compromising positions with women other than his wife. While this would be the end for many women, it isn’t for Camila. After yelling at Billy about his sexual escapades & drug use, she tells him that she refuses to let him ruin their lives or the baby’s life & that he can do whatever he wants in the meantime, but after that he’s going to show up. She words this thought process beautifully, saying “I think you have to have faith in people before they earn it. Otherwise it’s not faith, right?” She doesn’t ask him if he’ll show up, she explicitly tells him what she needs & what he will do to meet those needs. May we all be so bold in what we require from a partner.
Going to rehab the day of his daughter’s birth, Billy leaves Camila to care for their daughter, Julia, on her own for the first period of her life. Getting released from rehab, Billy decides to quit the band & focus on being a father & husband. When he suggests they move back to their hometown, Pittsburgh, Camila reminds him that she moved to California with him, not for him. She reminds him of the hurt he caused her & the fact that she still decided to stay. That’s the thing about Camila. She won’t give up on you, but she won’t let you brush things under the rug either. She explains it to Billy’s bandmate, Eddie, saying you don’t stop being in love with someone just because it gets hard.
Billy’s absence from the band doesn’t last long, with him coming back with the song “Honeycomb,” a song dedicated to Camila, which turns into the duet that brings Daisy Jones into their lives. Of course, this addition sticks, causing them to be called Daisy Jones & The Six. Daisy is immediately hard for Billy to be around due to drug & alcohol use, not to mention creative differences & an undeniable, complicated attraction between the two. During this time, Camila is once again pregnant, this time with twins. She continues to be the band, & even Daisy’s, number one fan while being too smart to ignore the tensions between Daisy & her own husband. While Camila is aware that Daisy is falling in love with her husband (& that her husband is falling in love with Daisy), she is supportive of the fact that Daisy is what The Six need to continue to become stars. Camila is a woman of impenetrable faith in the music & Billy himself, even when he doesn’t deserve it.
During all of this, Karen becomes pregnant after sleeping with Billy’s brother, Graham. She immediately knows she wants an abortion, never having had a maternal instinct. Though Camila is a loving mother & very open about her innate desire to be so, she accompanies Karen to her abortion without question or judgement. Her own feelings about motherhood never once clouded her judgement when it came to her friend needing help. A woman being a friend to a woman, no questions asked. No answers needed. As if you couldn’t love Camila more.
Going back to the band, Daisy realizes she is in love with Billy & Billy realizes he is falling in love with Daisy, though he will never break up his family. I’d like to take a second to acknowledge that this realization happens during a Daisy Jones & The Six Saturday Night Live performance. I love to imagine this realization hitting Daisy & Billy while Gilda Radner & Bill Murray watch from side stage. In this moment of clarity, Daisy asks Billy to help her get sober. Unfortunately, this is a request that she recedes when they hear of the passing of their producer (a choice that I commend TJR for, as it gives Camila another chance to cement her heart & care for the band, including Daisy herself).
During a particularly low moment, Daisy finds her drug-addled self in Camila’s care. Camila expresses a desire for Daisy to get clean, acknowledging that she knows what’s going on between Daisy & Billy. She tells Daisy that her husband will never leave his family, & the smart move for her sobriety & emotional health is to leave the band. But here’s the kicker. Not once is Camila mean to Daisy. Not once does this seem like a selfish choice on Camila’s end to have Billy all to herself & break up her husband’s band. Even as Camila influences the end of the band she so desperately wanted to see succeed, it is due to a true care for Daisy, a woman in love with her husband. Yes, it’s sad that this was the end of Daisy Jones & The Six. But it wasn’t the end of Daisy. It wasn’t the end of Camila & Billy.
If you didn’t already love Camila enough, you come to the end with a plot twist that exemplifies what I’ve loved about her all along. Realizing the documentary’s narrator is Camila & Billy’s daughter Julia, the audience learns that Camila has passed away since the filming of her interviews. Camila is shown to look back on her life, her family, & her husband fondly, having finished a life she loved with a man she stuck by against all odds. Always looking out for Billy & even Daisy, Camila passes away with the message that Billy & Daisy owe her one more song. Always being the selfless woman she is, she pushes Daisy & Billy together when she knows she will no longer be in the picture. A dying wish representative of the way she lived: with a faith in love & a desire for happiness in those she cared about, even when it didn’t make sense to others.
I’m new to the world of writing thoughts for the Internet to read, so it is inevitable that some of this didn’t flow well or was written poorly. So be it. I hope anyone reading this that is a fan of Daisy Jones & The Six leaves this article with a stronger appreciation of Camila Alvarez. If not, oh well.
“No matter who you choose to go down the road with, you’re gonna get hurt. That’s just the nature of caring about someone. No matter who you love, they will break your heart along the way.” - Camila Alvarez in Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
References
Petski, D. (2019, November 23). “Mickey and the Bear” star Camila Morrone joins Amazon series “Daisy Jones & The Six.” Deadline. https://deadline.com/2019/11/mickey-and-the-bear-star-camila-morrone-joins-amazon-series-daisy-jones-the-six-1202793503/
Taylor Jenkins Reid. (2019). Daisy Jones & The Six. Ballantine Books.
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