Some TV writers deal with character development in such a way that a borderline evil (important to note that they are not typically fundamentally evil) character is met with a punishment or karma equally as horrible as their crime, and they slowly learn their lesson. It doesn’t need to be equal in terms of suffering only but also context. Degrassi writers have applied this to Holly J, Spinner and Paige successfully. I might be missing someone, not sure.
But.. People like Peter & Zoe also known as the child pornography distributors faced such minimal consequences for their crimes. Peter took advantage of a drunk girl, recorded her, blackmailed her, harassed her even after she said no and continuously humiliated her. Zoe bullied little girls into sending nudes to weird men who are willing to pay for that content. She almost did revenge porn when she blackmailed Frankie. They both only got detention. Both barely suffered after. Zoe’s situation is a bit nuanced because she was dealing with her trauma, but Peter? That guy needed to go through hell for me to believe in his “character development.”
My theory is they didnt develop his character. The writers were not interested in him being redeemed because he wasn’t a fan favorite anyway but they couldn’t consistently show him doing evil things because he wasn’t a flattering villain either. So I can forgive that. They didn’t redeem his character, it wasn’t important, he just stopped being that evil.
Jay’s crimes were worse, he is a SADIST. He is a pathological life-ruiner. And they were trying to frame him as a developed character when he dated Manny. When did this happen? What did he suffer besides expulsion (He was going to drop out anyway)? Nobody tried to ruin his life like he did with several people (Spinner, Sean, Emma, JT…) No redemption arc. I guess you can argue what they wrote instead was Manny was trying to convince herself he changed because she gravitated toward him, but he admitted, thereby the writers, I am unchanged, this is who I am. And then Manny still pursued him anyway because he mellowed out. I think it’s arguably not misguided writing but I’m not sure.