Warning: The following contains spoilers for the first three episodes of Daisy Jones & the Six. Proceed at your own risk!

What the Pete?! Prime Video’s adaptation of Daisy Jones & the Six made its debut on Friday minus one member of the band.

In Taylor Jenkins Reid’s novel of the same name, the Dunne Brothers-turned-the Six also included Eddie’s brother, Pete Loving, as the group’s bassist, although he remains mostly off-the-page as he doesn’t have much to say in the book’s oral history. The series, however, combines Pete and the novel’s guitarist, Chuck Williams (who tragically dies in Vietnam), into one character: Chuck Loving, who leaves the Dunne Brothers to go to college and pursue dentistry. Meanwhile, Eddie — who no longer has a brother — is renamed Eddie Roundtree.

“We knew from the start that we wanted to give fans the chance to step more fully into some of the supporting character stories, the other people in the band,” co-showrunner Will Graham tells TVLine. “And we knew that in order to do that well, we needed to have a manageable number of characters. So we did a little consolidation. For anyone who loved Pete, we’re sorry, but we got to spend so much more time with Teddy, and so much more time with Eddie, and so much more time with Simone, and really realize full arcs for those characters. So that was kind of the root of that decision.”

Plus, with Chuck Loving, “the spirit of Pete” is inside that character, Graham adds.

Even Reid is on board with the change in the band lineup. Looking at the transition from the written page to the screen, “there’s a very specific reason that Pete exists in the book that is unnecessary for the adaptation,” Reid notes. “So I feel bad, but we don’t need Pete. If you miss Pete, the book’s right there for you.”

Eliminating Pete from the show also allowed for Camila, the girlfriend-turned-wife of lead singer Billy Dunne, to become an honorary member of the band and to have a more meaningful role in its rise. In Episode 2, when Karen suggests they rename the group the Six, Eddie points out the obvious: There’s only five of them. But the keyboardist subtly nods at Camila, who mouths, “Thank you.”

Not only does aspiring photographer Camila help convince Karen to join the Dunne Brothers, but she also does mail and phone outreach, trying to get music execs to check out the band’s shows. (A future episode reveals another significant contribution on Camila’s part to Daisy Jones & the Six’s legacy.)

“I do like to think of Camila as the glue that holds it all together,” her portrayer Camila Morrone says. “There is a very silent, powerful energy to her. You don’t realize how essential her character is in the forming of the band and of the continuation of the band until kind of Episode 10, when things take a turn. That was what really attracted me [to the role] was, like, wow, this girl that’s in the background and is not on the forefront all the time is really the thing that propels this group of people.”

What did you think of the premiere of Daisy Jones & the Six? If you read the book, did you miss Pete? Hit the comments with your thoughts!

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