Jimmy Darling

Jimmy Darling is the illegitimate son of Dell Toledo and Ethel Darling. He is a character in Freak Show portrayed by Evan Peters. His condition, ectrodactyly, earned him the stage name "Lobster Boy."

Born in 1928, Jimmy's deformity has been exploited all his life, beginning with paid admission to witness the spectacle of his birth. (However, his prosthetic hands resemble the ones he had before they were cut off.) His entire life was spent going through different freak shows with his mother Ethel. While they went from the different shows, he had seen Ethel drinking, causing him to vow to not become an alcoholic like her. However that changed when his father Dell entered his life after abandoning him and Ethel died. He also has his lobster hands because his father Dell's parents had them.

Jimmy is an attractive young man with intense dark brown eyes and short, dirty blonde hair. He favors wearing a white tank top with overalls or motorcycle leathers.

Jimmy is very charming and has a strong affection for his fellow freaks and is loyal to those close to him. However, he despises those who see his kind as nothing more than freaks and fights for their acceptance as regular people. He also dreams of being able to leave the freak show and live a normal life.

The 'monsters' of Elsa's freak show consider themselves family but that had a more literal meaning for Jimmy, with his strongman father, bearded mother, and hermaphrodite stepmother. He was handsome and rebellious. With gloved hands, he was quite the charmer of young women. Ungloved he supplemented his income by offering unique sexual services to desperate local housewives.

He was disappointed in the failing sideshow business and angered by society's treatment of his kind. He wanted to leave the carnie life and live off the land. However, after saving Bette and Dot Tattler from arrest by slitting the throat of a detective, he rallied the carnies into a greater bond.

With the police on high alert for one of their own as well as the one responsible for a spree of murders and kidnappings, Jimmy became worried about covering up his crimes and remorseful about taking a life. He began to consider a more compassionate and civil approach to seeking society's acceptance. With the aid of Paul and Eve, he enters the detective's dismembered body for incineration and secures the policeman's badge to find another means of disposal.

Jimmy shot down Dandy Mott's desire to join the troupe by assuring him that it wasn't the life for him and expressing envy for Dandy's affluence and lack of deformity. He was far more encouraging to Dot whom, after Bette revealed her inability to carry a tune, he encouraged to overcome stage-fright and sing with a voice that made both her sister and employer turn green with jealousy.

In his efforts at societal integration, Jimmy brought his fellow freaks to Jupiter, Florida for lunch at the local diner. This didn't go over well with the staff and patrons, and things just got worse at the arrival of Dell, who chastised them for the public spectacle's detriment to box office. Jimmy's recalcitrance only resulted in him getting publicly beaten by Dell. Humiliated, Jimmy sought the aid of Elsa in taking Dell down. He secured her trust by confessing his murder of the detective to protect the twins and played to her vanity by revealing the subordinate billing Dell gave her on the show's flyer. They conspire to frame Dell for the murder by planting the badge in his trailer. Unfortunately, the strongman figured out the plan and turns the tables, resulting in the arrest of Meep. The geek's arrest, subsequent murder in a jail cell, and disposal at the fairgrounds leave Jimmy's spirit broken.

After the arrival of fortune teller Maggie Esmerelda, Jimmy appears to be smitten with her. He attempts to kiss her but she denies his advance. Embarrassed, he chastises himself for hoping that a normal girl, especially one so beautiful, could love a "freak" like him. In the following episode, "Bullseye", when Maggie asks him to run away with her, the two kiss and he agrees to go anywhere with her, but only after he visits Dandy.

Jimmy visits Dandy Motts' house where he sees the twins, who are eating a banana split on the couch. Gloria states that the twins can leave whenever they want. With this in mind, Jimmy tells the twins that they know something isn't right with Dandy and that they should come back to the Freak Show with him. Bette, who is in love with Dandy, doesn't want to leave as she has been living luxuriously. Dot convinces her to leave and they leave with Bette saying "I choose my sister, always."

Back at the Freak Show, Jimmy performs a song for Elsa which he demands be in the show. Then after Elsa says, "Remember who you're talking to," he replies, "I know exactly who I'm talking to, a liar." He confronts her about the twins and Elsa says they "ran off" but Jimmy is quick to remark and says, "We heard your story, I think it's time we heard theirs." The twins walk out and tell Jimmy he misunderstood them and that Elsa did it as a favor for them.