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"It’s not just a poem." Abi Standing up For Laura is the Most Underrated Abi Moment in The Quarry.

I also posted this on reddit. If Abi is still alive after Laura arrives, and if you are unconvinced by Laura's reasoning as Ryan, then Abi will stand up to him. It's scenes like these that make me wish we had more character development from Abi.

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top 5 dynamics per character: → emma nelson

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Is Emma Really THAT bad?

(A Degrassi Essay about Emma Nelson)

Part 1

As of last September, I've been a member of Reddit, and, in traditional Reddit fashion, I have joined subreddits in topics of my interests. Suffice to say, I am all UP in that Degrassi community. It's a drama party in the best way. If you're out in the Degrassi wild too, you may have noticed that there are a handful of characters that the fans love, and I mean LOVE, to hate. There's a rotation of girls that get most of the heat, which I will refer to as "The Unholy Trinity". As the name suggests, this Trinity consists of three most disliked Degrassi girls, who are the following:

Ashley Kerwin

Emma Nelson

Clare Edwards

Honorable mentions go to Ellie, Becky, and Maya. There is also an occasional Liberty disdain for those who feel brazen enough to criticize a black character even when they are not represented well in the show (not to say that fans aren't allowed to criticize black characters: all is fair game in the fictional universe). This post will focus on Emma. I will say, that, out of the three girls mentioned in the trio, Emma probably gets the least amount of hate, though honestly between her and Ashley it's a toss up depending on the season. What inspired me to write this essay was a YouTube compilation video entitled, "Emma nelson being the worst Degrassi Character for 5 minutes straight" by NysClips, which I will link here.

First things first: I'm not coming after the uploader of this video, nor do I know her personally, so this is NOT an attack on her. In fact, I like this video: the editing does what it should do in a compilation video. She includes the set up to the line, the punchline (or action), then cuts to the next clip. This person also doesn't ruin the humor by smothering the scenes in a bunch of memes and annoying sound effects, which I appreciate a LOT. She understands the concept of less is more. I am simply analyzing what the author deems as Emma's worst moments and will determine for myself whether I believe each moment in the video is truly that bad. Keep in mind that I am only being half serious, so hopefully the tone of the essay reflects as such. This is just a fun little argument with me disagreeing with the "Emma is the worst" stance that fans tend to take. It goes without saying this is an opinion piece, so you don't have to agree with any of my takes. Now that that's out of the way, let's take a look at all of the moments in the video. There's a lot to cover, so I will space them out in multiple posts.

1. "Liberty, shut up for once!"

We're coming out of the gate hot! Emma is completely over Liberty's blabbering and was rude to the poor girl as a result. This is from the epsiode "I Want Candy" (3x20). Emma is in the B plot, and here she believes that her stepfather's chemotherapy has failed him, and, as a result, she is on edge...until Alex's meddling pushes her over the top (a story for another time). Needless to say, with her belief that Snake was going to die soon, she wasn't in a healthy state of mind, so when Liberty is perky and geeking out over their Canadian Geography class, Emma is just not in the mood for it, so she snaps at Liberty in the hallway. I felt bad for Liberty at this moment. She didn't deserve that XD. Was Emma being rude as hell? Absolutely. Was it the worst thing ever? Nah.

2. "You're dressing like an idiot."

This moment is from season three's "U Got the Look" (3x03). In one scene, Emma is being supportive of Manny's change in her image, and in the next scene, she tells her friend that she's "dressing like an idiot". While it seems like Emma is talking out of both sides of her mouth, what's missing, however, is the context. Manny is trying to impress Sully, her current crush, and after her conversation with Paige, she was convinced that the only way to get boy attention was to alter her image to a more revealing style of wardrobe. Emma responded positively to it because it hadn't gotten to Manny's head at first. Then Manny seemed to be stringing J.T. along, doing a test trial on her new image to see if it would work on her actual crush, not realizing that J.T. was taking a genuine interest in her, and that he was hurt by Sully shooing him off. In addition to that, the principal had advised her about the dress code and how she wasn't allowed to have her undergarments visible over her clothes, but instead of changing her outfit, she simply removed her underwear altogether. She was sporting low riders with no panties. Keep in mind that this girl is only supposed to be fourteen, and the actress herself was even younger! Emma was simply calling Manny out for her inflated sense of self. In my opinion, Emma was not being a bad friend here: she was being honest with her.

3. Frappes & Paige > Manny & Liberty

This is from the episode "Mercy Street". Paige invites Emma to hang out with the grade elevens at The Dot after Emma tells Paige that she can organize a protest to drive Rick out of the school. I have an entire essay series dedicated to this topic, so if you want to read about my takes on the Rick content, start there. Here, we're looking at Emma's remark to Manny and Liberty as she walked past them in the girl's bathroom. "Gotta go sip a frappe with Paige. Have fun in your hot tub." Again, context is key. Manny and Liberty have iced Emma out since Emma was being unkind to Liberty again in the episode "King of Pain" (4x03). Basically Emma broke up with Chris, and Liberty took an interest in him, but Emma thought that by Chris dating Liberty after Emma, Emma would somehow look bad. Manny told Liberty about it, and Liberty told Emma off as a result. As a way of getting back at them, Emma gloats about being able to hang out with the cool kids in an unsolicited comment. It was totally unnecessary, but at worst it's a scoff and an eye roll. Sadly, this moment in the girl's bathroom is not enough to give her a prison sentence.

4. "Next time can we try asking before trespassing?"

Can you believe that little twelve-year-old Emma was talking to her mom like that? This was funny to me. Emma's mom, Spike, and Kaitlyn are using the computer in Emma's room, and Emma, clearly a grown up lady in the seventh grade, does not approve. This is from the series premiere of The Next Generation "Mother and Child Reunion" (1x01). I don't have much to say here: Emma was being a typical rude twelve-year-old who was out of pocket with her mom, but Spike quickly took care of it by basically telling her not to be rude. The end, lol.

5. "You're wrong. I don't care, Sean."

I'll just come out and say it: this moment doesn't belong in the video XD. This is taken from "Here Comes Your Man Part 2" (6x02). Sean had just committed a hit and run and was looking to find refuge at Emma's place. Emma wasn't going to protect him from the law after committing such a serious crime, and Sean wound up being turned into the cops after what happened. She made the right call here. Sean needed to take responsibility for his actions and to stop running away from them. Keep in mind that Emma, even though she had made out with Sean, was in a relationship with Peter, though they were currently on a break. We know Peter is not quality boyfriend material and frames Sean by planting drugs in his locker, causing his expulsion from Degrassi. This is a moment that infuriates me still, which I'm sure those of you fans can also relate to. The fact still remains that the decision to street race was also Sean's, not just Peter's, and it was a stupid one. This was intense to watch, but I was proud of Emma for standing her ground here. This moment doesn't come close to the other shady things she's done.

6. Emma Trips Rick at The Dot

Again, I'm focusing on the Emma side of this scenario. I have ten other posts dedicated to Rick, so read those if you want to learn about my takes on him. This moment is from the episode "Mercy Street" (4x04). Quick context: Emma created a protest to try and pressure Rick out of the school; Rick approached her later in the hall to try and donate over five hundred dollars to the cause in hopes of being forgiven; his donation is ultimately rejected by Alex; Alex then tells Paige of the moment in the hall, causing Paige to accuse Emma of feeling sorry for Rick. In order to prove to Paige that she was on her side, Emma ignores Rick as he's greeting her at The Dot, then goes on trip him as he's holding a coffee cup, causing him to fall and spill hot coffee over himself. This was absolutely a douche move, but I wouldn't say that this was her worst moment, even if Rick wasn't causing any trouble during this scene. It all boils down to the fact that Rick had been a terrible person in the past, and everyone was making him pay for his actions as a result. Karma!

7. Who Was There for Emma in the Hospital?

This moment combines scenes from episodes "True Colors" (6x03) and "Our Lips Are Sealed Part 2" (5x16). As a side note, the two-part episode covering Emma's E.D. is so heavy to watch, especially considering that the actress, Miriam McDonald, and her sister were suffering/had suffered from eating disorders in real life. From episode 6x03, Emma says to Manny at the masquerade dance that she shouldn't care about Sean's imprisonment the way she does when it was Peter who was there for her during her darkest time. Then we cut to the scene in "Our Lips Are Sealed" showing Manny beside Emma's hospital bed. This was tastefully done, I must admit, and I know that the YouTuber was being humorous here, but if Emma was hospitalized for having a panic attack brought on by her not eating, it's safe to say she stayed in the hospital at least a few days. That's a long enough time frame to assume that Peter had come in and visited her to support her. We as the viewers just didn't see this moment. Also, as the name "True Colors" suggests, this is the episode where Emma learns the truth about the drugs found in Sean's locker and how fans find it distasteful that Emma would be with Peter after everything he did to her best friend Manny. We're still not discussing until later.

8. But What will they Think of her?

Ah, a classic from the episode "King of Pain" (4x03). If we're thinking of Emma's worst moments, this one is near the top. In old fashioned mean girl behavior, Emma tries to interfere between Chris and Liberty's flirting with each other. Her reasoning is that people won't think highly of her if Chris started dating Liberty after Emma. The implication being that Liberty is an upgrade from Emma--a thought that mortifies our Mary Sue of the franchise. "You wouldn't be [embarrassed]?" Emma would go on to say to Manny. "What are people gonna think of me if Chris goes out with Liberty next?" Yowch. What did Liberty ever do to you, Em? I'll answer that: nothing! This marked the beginning of Emma's mean girl era, and what a time it was. She was definitely a jerk here, no questions asked.

9. "He Does Go For 'Girls Like That'"

Moment from the episode "Venus Part 1" (5x01). This was directed at Manny and not in a flattering way. While it wasn't Emma who said it, she was hanging out with the girl who did, and she did NOTHING to stand up for her friend. Emma Nelson, the girl with a strong moral compass, who has a backbone, just stood there and let her best friend be insulted like that? All because she was intimidated by the idea that her crush, Peter, liked Manny better at the time? Noticing a common theme here? I don't have much to say here, since it's a no brainer that Emma was the jerk by being the bystander and letting her friend get put down, especially since she is written to be the one to stand up for what's right. Emma let Manny down here. Now after that moment, Emma does ask if Manny was okay "Manny, what is going on? Have you been crying?", so it isn't like she walked away from Manny after she let her get insulted, but still. Not a good look for our little Blondie.

10. "I Asked Him, and He Said he Didn't do that!"

This clip is also from "True Colors" (6x03). Emma is talking about Peter and the drugs at this point. Sean is trying to tell Emma that Peter planted the drugs in his locker, yet Emma is having a hard time believing it. I get that she wants to think that the guy she's dating wouldn't be so slimy, and I would empathize with her if the guy she was with wasn't Peter, aka, the guy that leaked a video of her best friend's bosom all over the internet for the world to see. When it comes to this kid, Emma's brain leaves the building. At this moment with Sean, while she is being extremely naive, I wouldn't call her a jerk since she wasn't the one who planted drugs in Sean's locker, nor was she responsible for landing him in prison. It still doesn't make her look good, though.

To prevent this from becoming an extremely long post, I will stop at the two minute mark of the video. Of the ten moments I featured in this post, I only take issue with numbers two and five as I consider both these moments for Emma to be in character for her and standing up for what she believes in. For numbers seven and ten, Emma was being naive about Peter's nature, so they're not terrible moments from Emma, tho considering that she knows how Peter treated Manny makes her look shady. The others are fine for the topic of the video, though some moments are worse than others. That means that out of the ten clips we covered, Emma was a nuisance eighty percent of the time. So far not bad. More to come in the future.

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A hauntingly sad story. EDIT: A lot of people compare Rick Murray’s tragedy to Carrie's, both seriously and unseriously. This is due in large to the fact that they were both humiliated on stage in front of their peers after experiencing a moment of glory, causing them both to snap soon after. There is one crucial difference that sets them apart, however: for Carrie, it was too late to intervene; for Rick, it wasn't. In Rick’s case, there were plenty of moments when someone could have done or said the right thing to stop tragedy from striking Degrassi. Rick’s problems were largely exacerbated at school and less about the problems he was having at home if any (that isn't to say the way in which he was raised was irrelevant).

Carrie is such a good tragedy cause. It was already too late from the beginning. Even if the love was there. That teacher? She fucking loved that girl. The girl who had her bf take Carrie to prom? Sure she was a dick at first but she really did wanna help. Even the bf seemed to really enjoy himself.

But it doesn’t matter cause the problem is at home. Carries mother is insanely abusive and manipulative towards her, keeping her unaware, childish and afraid. The teachers and principals are aware of this, but as of the 70s and Carrie almost being an adult they didn’t do anything. And that’s the tragedy.

If someone stepped in before, took her away from her mother, had her live a normal life without the Christian guilt, this wouldn’t have happened.

It’s her mother, after all, who tells her they will all laugh at her.

Even when they weren’t. Save for a few, the laughing Carrie hears is a hallucination. Everyone seems quite awestruck and sad. They were happy for her for a moment. Everything was okay for a moment.

But it wasn’t enough. The love was there but it was too late. Carrie is long past her breaking point. The girl she wanted to be, was so desperate to be, has already had her light snuffed out by her mother. Carrie White the monster burned with her mother that night, but Carrie White the girl died on that stage.

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A Degrassi Essay Series About Rick Murray

(Part 7)

In the last essay, I mentioned that it was difficult to have an unpopular opinion about the Rick debate. In this essay, I'm closing in on one specific question: how could one feel sorry for Rick, a woman beater? This question still boggles most Degrassi fans today. After all, it's a valid opinion to not feel sorry for the guy. Once you put all of his wrongs in writing, it proves even more difficult to empathize with him. Consider all of the following of which Rick is guilty:

Domestic violence: he attacked his girlfriend three separate times.

Aggravated assault: this resulted in landing Terri in a coma. If she had died, he would have been possibly charged with third degree murder.

Vandalism: he spray painted a giant "X" on Spinner's and Jay's car windows.

Possession of a deadly weapon: He brought a gun to school. This is exacerbated by the fact that Rick is also a sixteen-year-old adolescent/minor.

Attempted murder: he shot Jimmy Brooks in the back. If he had succeeded in killing him, he would have been charged with second degree murder. He later found Emma and aimed the gun at her face. If he hadn't been stopped by Sean, he would have killed her instantly.

It goes without saying: on paper, Rick is a classic, S-tier douchebag. Heck, one could probably expand on this list. And yet...some people feel for him? Why is that? Obviously there is contextual information missing from the list that would explain why Rick was driven to make many of the decisions he did. It's not like he woke up one day and decided that he wanted to kill everyone at Degrassi. In Rick's mind, he had tried everything: he tried to make amends with Terri's friends; when that didn't work, he tried to mind his own business; when that didn't work, he began to retaliate. When he finally got the chance to show the school how valuable he was, he was pranked on camera, and everyone that previously cheered him on began to laugh at him. In Rick's mind, the school betrayed him. Nothing else he did was going to work. The only way Rick was going to right the wrongs done to him, the only way he was going to earn respect, the only way he was going to fend off his bullies--in his mind--was if he used violence. Rick bringing a gun to school wasn't premeditated: it was his last resort. You see after his interaction with Paige that he goes from intending to shoot her to immediately concealing his weapon after he realizes that Paige wasn't there to give him a hard time. He reconsidered his choice after that single conversation. He put his backpack in his locker afterwards, a clear indicator that Rick didn't want to harm anyone if it wasn't necessary. Of course, after "overhearing" Spinner and Jay, he receded back into his violent ways for good. In the beginning, Rick was looking for a second chance. In the end, he wanted to avenge his suffering. Ephraim Ellis, the actor who played Rick, talks about the psychological whiplash that Rick undergoes in the span of a second: after he is doused in paint and feathers, Rick goes from the best day of his life to the worst instantaneously. After all of the hell he had been through, that was just a devastating blow for him.

Degrassi fans aren't shallow: crimes 3, 4, and 5 would be better understood if Rick also wasn't responsible for committing crimes 1 and 2. Rick's abusive past, and a recent past at that, is the point of contempt with some Degrassi fans when it comes to exploring the school shooting plot line. For one thing, high school shooters in real life typically didn't have records of domestic violence against women, though some definitely had some misogynistic overtones. For another, it makes it difficult to sympathize with the bullied victim when the victim himself has been cruel to his own girlfriend. Why couldn't the writers have chosen another character, one who was innocent beforehand, to explore the school shooting story line with? If Rick was innocent of any crimes before the extreme bullying, there would have been a chance to make him relatable to the audience and for more people to garner sympathy for him. This is the perspective that these fans are coming from, and I can understand and appreciate their reasoning.

I can also see why the producers decided to go with Rick's character, this former abuser, to tackle the gun violence topic. From a casting perspective, the Degrassi crew saw the actor playing Rick, Ephraim, as a talented young man, so they knew after his performance in season 3 that they wanted him to be back for Rick's tragic end in season 4, which is half of the reason why Terri's abusive boyfriend and the bullied school shooter are the same person. The writers have been wanting to do a school shooting episode since season 1, but they knew that they needed to "earn" that experience before they did so; they had to wait until the actors, who were all very young in season one, were old enough and experienced enough to pull off such a heavy and demanding role. Ephraim, playing a recurring guest role, exceeded the creators' expectations, so they decided to give him the most difficult part: he had to play the school shooter. Considering that fans still are appalled by Rick's character today, I'd say that Ellis successfully played the role.

I also understand this decision from a moral standpoint. I mentioned this in part 6 of this essay series: the writers were wanting to demonstrate the vicious cycle of violence and the ripple effect it can leave on a community for years after the fact. They wanted to show teens that solving violence with violence only creates more violence in the end. We see this when Rick almost kills Terri; when the students bully Rick relentlessly; and lastly when Rick brings a gun to school and essentially gets himself killed because of it. Nothing was solved in the end. Only pain, guilt, trauma, and devastation remained. The creators were implying a lesson to their teen audience: don't bully, even if the bullied deserves it. I think this is more powerful to teach kids than if the school shooter was just a cut-and-dry, loner nerd. I also think it was a more realistic way to introduce Rick's bullying problem, which was initiated by characters we care about who traditionally aren't bullies save for Spinner and Jay. You can understand why they did it. If the victim was innocent, it would be harder to understand the motivations of the bullies, and the story would be very black-and-white obvious. As I mentioned before, a lot of the main cast aren't written as bullies, so it would be strange to see these mostly good kids decide to torture one kid for no real reason. In this case, the kids had a legitimate reason to hate Rick, so the writers used that conflict to explore school shootings. Degrassi is about the nuance, and boy did Rick's arc have a bunch of that. You may not have liked him, and it's okay if you didn't sympathize with him; he wasn't designed for you to feel sorry for him. However: right is still right, and wrong is still wrong. It doesn't matter if Rick wronged Terri in the beginning, that he wasn't the "perfect" victim. He was still wronged by the school and his parents afterwards, and in the end, Rick committed the ultimate wrong. This whole tragedy is summed up in one sentence by Snake at the end of episode 4x08: "None of us took Rick's bullying seriously enough."

That still doesn't answer the main question. Sure the majority of fans have no empathy for Rick, but there are still a few who do. Why is that? How can that be possible? Considering that there is not much in the show's writing to suggest that Rick should be pitied, except when he was humiliated on stage, all of the credit goes to his actor, Ephraim Ellis. In order to make a character believable, whether they are playing a good or bad person, the actor himself has to find a way to relate to the character he is playing. Ephraim put in the hard work and had to internalize Rick's inner world so he could deliver an amazing performance. That is very difficult to do, especially when Rick becomes violent and sinister in the end. There is an interview Ellis did for Popgurls magazine twenty years ago that I recommend you take a look at. It may seem bizarre to reference such an out of date interview, but that era of Ephraim Ellis has fresh memories of playing Rick as he shot the episodes for Degrassi just months prior. You will get a better idea of what was going through his mind as he played Rick during the date of the publication, which was December 5th, 2004. In this interview, he discusses finding common ground between himself and Rick in order to connect to the character, and he says that they were both theater nerds and hopeless romantics, which is how I think Ellis was able to make Rick believable. He bridged the gap between his conscience and Rick's with what they shared, and then went from there. Consider the following which was said by Ellis:

"...when the character grew more in Season Four, when [the audience] learned there was a lot more to him than just this evil abusive person and that underneath he was just a kid with a problem who sincerely wanted to change – that’s when things got a lot more interesting for me as an actor. I had my run-ins with bullying throughout middle school and such, but it’s unthinkable what Rick had to go through, despite his past."

This was how the actor saw the character he was playing: "just a kid with a problem who sincerely wanted to change". This puts things into perspective. I get that this was in 2004, and Ellis is now twenty years older, but, as mentioned before, this is him talking just after he finished playing Rick. I remember reading this interview when I was younger and being impressed by how Ellis was able to sympathize with a villainous character, but then I reminded myself that he's an actor. It's his job to connect to the character he's playing; that's how you sell the part. That is what every actor is required to do: they have to make you believe that their character is real, and in order to do that, they have to be able to connect to certain parts of the role. Obviously he doesn't have to relate to everything that the character stands for, especially in Rick's case, but imagine if Ephraim looked down on his character and didn't take his psychosis seriously. It would show in his acting or lack thereof. Yet Ellis encapsulated the role of Rick. He was a natural at the part.

It makes sense from an acting standpoint to connect with Rick, but what about the average viewer? It is never confirmed in the show that Rick was "sincerely trying to change" apart from Rick's declaration. Did the viewers believe him? Is that why they were more apt to feel sorry for him when bullying didn't let up? That appears to be the correlation.

Since the first essay I published about Rick Murray, I have been using hashtags that I deem relevant to the series. One of them is #Degrassi confessions. In case you were wondering what that meant, here is my confession: I can't get through "Time Stands Still" part 2 because my head canon can't help but believe that Rick never fired his gun. Up until the moment he decided to shoot Jimmy, I was a believer in Rick's repentance. I didn't want my bias to shroud the integrity of this essay series because I wanted to give validation to all sides of the debate, but there was something about the way Ephraim played his character in season four, with a complete change in his demeanor, that I couldn't help but root for. There's something to be said about him not hitting any of his classmates back in "Mercy Street" (4x04) even though many of them had no problems with pushing, shoving, or punching him. Some argue that it was because he was more intimidated by guys than he was girls, but girls were also hitting him, yet he turned the other cheek constantly. If this kid has anger issues, poking the bear would bring them out, but Rick kept his head down and didn't retaliate during the ribbon campaign, keeping his temper in check.

No, I don't think he is blameless: I've laid out my case in all of the preceding essays. Everyone is to blame for participating in the cycle of violence, including and especially Rick Murray. He was deeply flawed. He was terrible at reading the room; he underestimated the difficulty it would take to earn forgiveness; he couldn't take a hint that Emma wasn't into him; and he was wrong in assuming that it was okay to force a kiss on her. It also goes without saying that it was disturbing for Rick to decide that Emma was worth killing because she didn't reciprocate his feelings for her (though I've made the argument before that at this point in his arc, no one feels bad for Rick). Still, before the shooting, I genuinely believed that Rick was making an effort to improve, however poorly he went about demonstrating this. He still had a lot to learn, but he never once, since returning to Degrassi, said or believed that the students were overreacting to what he did to Terri last year. He never denied what he did. He knew he was in the wrong, which was why he was putting in the work to be right. Maybe a different school or juvenile hall would have been a better fit for this transformation, but I do believe that Rick was trying to change. The fandom's perception of Rick's intentions has shifted throughout the years, but even so, I still find myself wishing that things turned out better for him. The whole story is just tragic all around because, despite what happened, there were many opportunities for this to have gone the other way. As I said before, this was the story the writers wanted to tell the audience. Rick wasn't meant to have a happy ending, but there were plenty of chances for him to get one. He sealed his fate the moment he thought it was justified to shoot his classmates. It's a tragedy that Rick had to lose his life, but he was a threat, and he needed to be stopped by any means necessary.

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A Degrassi Essay Series About Rick Murray

(Part 6)

What proves that Rick Murray is such a nuanced character is that there is no such thing as an unpopular opinion about him. Because these are valid thoughts:

As are these:

And these:

And this:

And even this:

All of these comments and more can be found under Dontorious' video titled "Everyone Bullying Rick", which can be viewed on YouTube. There are also many comments like these in the Degrassi subreddit, and though you will find that most tend to be in the "No Sympathy" camp, there are a few who will pick up the empathy flag and wave it on Rick's behalf. You get my point: if you find yourself nodding along with all of these comments and understanding each perspective, then it's probably a position you've heard before or agree with. Frankly, none of these comments are jaw-dropping, "I can't believe you just said that!", kinds of opinions, so I better not see any of you writing stuff like the following examples:

"UNPOPULAR OPINION: The bullying with Rick went too far." (Yeah, no duh)

"Am I the only one who doesn't feel sorry for Rick?" (Darling, have you been on any Degrassi discussion board ever?)

"I can't be the only one who thinks it's the principal's fault for letting Rick back into the school." (Not even close)

I promise that someone has voiced your sentiments many times before. Degrassi fans have been discussing this moment for over twenty years. Heck, even my essays have reiterated common talking points on the subject. My goal with this series is for people to consider all sides of the debate and demonstrate the shades of gray it entails. Degrassi fans should understand that just because others react to the Rick arc differently than they do, it doesn't make them bad people (or naive depending on what opinion you have). This is something to take into account in all areas in life. If you share a common goal with someone you know, and you have different ways of reaching that same goal, then you and that person are not enemies.

On that note I will say this: it doesn't matter if you feel sorry for Rick or not. Empathy or lack thereof doesn't stop school shootings. It is perfectly okay to have no empathy for Rick; he has a wrap sheet of sins that he has to answer for, but if you were the kid in the situation, sitting back and letting the bullying occur would still bring about the tragedy. Some argue that Rick was a ticking time bomb and state that nothing that anyone did could have prevented the school shooting. That couldn't be further from the truth. In most tragic cases, there were moments where someone could have stepped in and taken action, but nothing was ever done until it was too late. There were many times in episode 4x07 where if someone had made the right choice (Rick, Spinner, Alex, Jay, Raditch), things would have turned out very different. You may think that Rick deserved the bullying, but it was the bullying taken to the extreme that set him off. Doesn't matter if this has been supposedly debunked in the years after these episodes were made. This is the story of Rick that the writers wanted to tell: it is about perpetuating a cycle of violence. It began with Rick; it was continued by the student body; and it ended with Rick. The show made it clear that, under no circumstances, Rick got an excuse for resorting to a gun. Some people include this in their reasons not to feel sorry for Rick, but they miss the point that this is when everyone loses their sympathy for him. It goes without saying that the moment you start to shoot innocent people, it proves difficult to take your side. Similarly, no one in their right mind would justify any of the abuse that Rick afflicted on Terri. It's after the therapy, seeing a change in Rick's demeanor, and recognizing that the bullying went too far where the window of empathy begins to open for him. It is immediately slammed shut again once we see him reach for the gun.

Imagine those who ever felt sympathy for Rick in the format of a bell curve. When we're first introduced to Rick being abusive, we want him to be stopped. When he returns to Degrassi, we don't care. When it becomes clear that the punishment has dissolved into constant bullying, our sympathy is on the rise, and finally, at the end of his arc, when he brings a gun to school and shoots Jimmy, there is no more sympathy left to give.

As stated before, that is beside the point. This is about doing the right thing regardless of whether or not you think the victim is a saint. After all, this is a show for teens. Innocent or not, it would not be very responsible for the writers to advocate bullying. Remember these episodes aired five years after Columbine, and all we knew about school shootings at the time was that the killers claimed to have been bullied profusely. We also have to remember that Rick is not a full-grown adult here: he's sixteen like the rest of his peers who detest him. There is plenty of opportunity for growth and change in a sixteen year old. One cannot say with absolute certainty that this was an inevitable outcome, especially if you're one of those who argue that Rick shouldn't have been at Degrassi the following year. Here you are making an argument that the shooting wouldn't have happened had Rick chosen another school, and that may have very well been the case. Maybe he would have gotten along with peers at another school, gotten himself in trouble and suffered the consequences of his actions, thus forcing himself to actually change now that his record has been soiled. Even at Degrassi, if Jay and Spinner hadn't have lied to Rick about the prank, there was a possibility Rick would have just gone home and canceled his plans that day. We don't truly know, but boy there were many chances for this to have gotten better. One fact, however, remains indisputable: the blame all falls at Rick's feet. He made a choice, and that choice cost him his life in the end.

[spinelli-gemelli]

A Degrassi Essay Series About Rick Murray

(Part 5)

In the last post we looked at those students who antagonized Rick in their interactions with him. Let's now focus on those who served as his allies in what was otherwise a miserable school environment for him. This will be a fun post to write considering all of the following characters have different reasons for why they're interacting with Rick, yet they all seemed to have left a strong, positive impact on him.

Darcy

I'm starting with little Miss Edwards because she is the most neutral towards Rick out of everyone on the list. She agreed to kiss Rick for five dollars, Toby being the one to pay her. Because she's a freshman, or as they say in Canada, in Grade 9, she is unaware of who Rick is and why everyone at Degrassi hates his guts. It's her inquiry about Rick's reputation that earns her the five dollars to begin with. We watch this minor scene unfold in "Islands in the Stream" (4x06) as this ninth grader gets Rick's attention while he's walking past her in a hurry and compliments his glasses, causing him to pause and face her. For someone so young, Darcy was very smooth in her delivery. It helps when you don't care about the guy you're being paid to kiss. This prompts Rick to tell Darcy about the "game" he and Toby are playing. Darcy, armed with meta knowledge of the game already, asks what she can do to help him win, and that's when Rick replies with, "A kiss." He tells her he doesn't need a lips or a cheek kiss, but before he can finish his sentence, Darcy stretches up and smooches him on the cheek, and we cut to see Rick grinning from ear to ear afterward. Hell, his face is even a soft shade of pink. After all, he was losing this game in a humiliating (and honestly hilarious) defeat, so that kiss must have felt like heaven to him. It kind of shows us as the audience that Rick wasn't all there since he had the audacity to believe that women would be a fan of his after what he did to Terri and after the ribbon campaign that was launched against him just a few weeks ago. I mean c'mon, dude. I guess he assumed that just because the head organizer of the campaign softened her defenses against him, he believed that every other girl would too. Think again!

Here's a fun fact behind this scene. The actress who auditioned for Darcy (Shenae Grimes) read her Darcy lines while a woman in the audition room, who I'm assuming was Linda Schuyler, read lines for Rick. Grimes' audition was an extension of Darcy's scene with Rick. As Darcy is walking away after having kissed Rick, "Rick" (played by Schuyler) asks for Darcy's name, which she has no problem telling him. When Darcy then asks for his name in return, Rick is awkward and can only respond in verbal pauses. "Uhhh...d-uhhh...". It's as if Rick didn't want her to know who he really was for fear of her hating him too. Darcy closes out the scene with the line. "Guys are so weird." No, Darcy. It's just that guy who's weird. The rest of them are simply stupid (lol, just kidding).

Jimmy

Jimmy started off much like Spinner: he was understandably hostile towards Rick in the beginning, then began using every opportunity he could to meddle Rick at school after the protesting died down. We get the famous foreshadowing scene in "Anywhere I Lay My Head" (4x05) where Rick shows up to the Spirit Squad car wash in his mother's black Volkswagen. Jimmy walks up to the driver's window after he notices Rick talking to his girlfriend, Hazel, and threatens to shoot him with the water hose, telling him to "bounce." As Rick is driving away, Jimmy sprays the water gun at the back of Rick's car. Jimmy is also the one who is with Spinner as they both throw him in the dumpster in "Time Stands Still" (4x07).

Something happens though. By fate, Jimmy is Heather Sinclair's replacement on the Whack-Your-Brain team after she falls ill with mononucleosis. Now that they are forced to work together, Jimmy realizes that Rick isn't the worst person on the planet. Rick even gives Jimmy a compliment, as awkward as his speech mannerisms are. "Futility perfected." Rick says to Jimmy during practice drills the day before the finals. Now that Jimmy notices that Rick these days is just minding his nerdy business, he sticks up for Rick in front of Spinner, Jay and Alex.

What a shame that Rick assumed that Jimmy was the culprit behind the paint and feathers prank based on what Spinner and Jay told him. The scene in which Rick approaches Jimmy in the hallway with every intention of shooting him regardless of what Jimmy said is a mixture of frustration and dread. Jimmy, being the bigger person, decided to set aside his differences with Rick and move forward with the seemingly not bad person he was during the time of "Time Stands Still". He was the biggest supporter to Rick on stage as he answered all of the trivia questions correctly on stage. Maybe they wouldn't have been buddies in an alternate future, but similar to the crew that was featured in "The Breakfast Club Episode" of Degrassi (3x16), they would behave civilly towards each other. They would come to an understanding. Jimmy would defend Rick against the bullies in the halls as he promised to Rick before he decided to shoot him. "...and if those guys give you anymore problems, I got your back." Jimmy Brooks being the classic good guy. Sadly it cost him his legs, though none of it was the cause of his own doing. Rick was quick to believe the lie he had been told since Jimmy did resort to plain old bullying like Spinner and Jay after the protesting died down, and that was the Jimmy Rick had in mind as he approached him slowly, blinded by his incorrectly perceived injustice and rage. To Rick, in that moment, he was a fool to believe that Jimmy would really want to be his friend. He should have known it was too good to be true, and in his mind, it was. Jimmy betrayed him.

Emma

Yes, we're talking about Emma again. After she leads the charge against Rick, puts an end to it, sets the record straight about how she feels about him, Rick and Emma tolerate each other as classmates. After all, they seem to share at least three classes together as both of them are in grade ten. Then something happens in "Islands in the Stream" that changes the tone of their relationship. In a bet where Rick and Toby each try to get a kiss from Emma in order to win, she winds up kissing both of them. There's just a bit of...inconsistency in her behavior here. If you're a girl who learns from the upperclassmen about how Rick Murray beat his ex-girlfriend, organized a campaign to get rid of him with said upperclassmen, would you not be disgusted at the thought of kissing him? Being a woman beater is a major turn off. It's one thing if you buy into Rick's repentance and believe that he is different from last year. It's another if you just put up with the fact that he's around, like Emma originally did.

"Things got out of hand, and I stopped it." Emma tells Rick at the end of episode 4x04. "It doesn't mean I like you, and it doesn't mean we're friends." Then, two episodes later, she has no problem pecking him on the cheek? Maybe this was the moment Rick believed that Emma was into him. If you take away this scene in his character arc, then yes it seems like Rick developed this delusion of Emma flirting with him out of thin air, but the fact that she decides to kiss him suggests at the very least she can't dislike the guy the way she implied at the end of "Mercy Street". To Emma, perhaps her motivation to do so was that she didn't want Toby to believe that she was into him, which is why she discretely kissed him on the cheek. Isaacs then went and blabbed about it to his new friend, so Emma, being annoyed that Toby didn't follow her lead, evens the score by kissing Rick. "This is so you're not lonely." She says to Rick before she leans in to make her move. Her attempt to not show any favor towards either boy had the opposite effect on Rick. He seems to think that the fact that Emma kissed him does mean she likes him. She did make it clear two episodes ago that she wasn't his fan. Maybe he's making the implication in his mind after she pecked his cheek--and we're talking a smooch so light and so fast that if you blink, you'd miss it.

Ironically, he doesn't respond to Darcy's kiss the same way he responds to Emma's. In NotaVampyre's video essay, the uploader points out a small detail at the end of episode 4x06. Toby and Rick are plot B of that episode, and in it they have a little competition to see who can get the most girls to kiss them by the end of the day. We learn that Toby wins, managing to get eleven kisses that day, but Rick only had one, which was Darcy, and even that was only because she was paid to do so. In Rick and Toby's final scene, Rick says that Darcy's kiss has given him all of the confidence he needs before strutting down the hall with his supposed new confidence. When Toby asks "To what?", we see Rick's "confidence" is short-lived as Jay looms over him, successfully intimidating Rick to turn the other direction. Rick never goes into an explanation about what he meant, but NotaVampyre suggests that the confidence he's speaking of was meant for asking Emma to be his girlfriend. This suggests that Emma's affectionate gesture towards Rick meant more to him than it did to her. This explains why Rick thought that Emma being more pleasant towards him during episode 4x07 meant that she returned the same feelings he had for her. It wasn't just that she was being nice to him in this episode, but also because of the kiss she gave him in the previous episode. As I write about this, it sounds as if I'm creating a mountain out of a molehill, but from Rick's perspective, this is exactly the point. Any minute, friendly gesture that Rick receives from the opposite sex is inflated in his mind. Hell, the same is true with members of his same sex as we saw in his interactions with Jimmy.

I believe what began Rick's crush on Emma was that in the beginning, she was the only person who rushed to his aid as the protesting got out of hand. It is also suggested that Rick is into blondes after we see his list of his "Top Twenty" crushes at the school (episode 4x06), with Emma and Ms. Hatzilakos both being in his top three. This puts Emma in an impossible situation. She's trying to do the right thing and help support Rick on the Whack-Your-Brain team, but because she's smiling at him and being nice to him, Rick assumes that she's now into him, which encourages him to make the moves on her...if you want to call it that. Anyone with eyes would find Rick's advances to be cringe, awkward, creepy, and uncomfortable. After Rick is humiliated on stage, Emma famously goes after him in the hallway to console him, but unfortunately, Rick misreads her actions yet again. He decides that this is the time to make his big move--he grabs her face and kisses her on the mouth, which causes Emma to pull away from him, shocked, repulsed, and upset. Rick says to her, "I thought you loved me." It's this simple line that lets us know as the audience that Rick doesn't have it all together upstairs. Emma scoffs at him, telling him to get a clue, that she only felt sorry for him.

Before Rick winds up resenting Emma for not reciprocating his love for her, Emma seems to come full circle in her interactions with Rick. This seemed to be very healthy for him until, of course, he was humiliated on stage, and his delusions of Emma flirting with him were shattered when he was forced to face reality. It makes me wonder what would have happened if Rick hadn't been pranked on stage and was still rejected by Emma. Would it have hurt as much if he got to win the tournament and receive positive feedback from all of his pupils? I'm inclined to believe that while, sure, he would have been hurt, he wouldn't have resorted to a gun. Emma's rejection was simply the straw that broke the camel's back, the icing on the cake of despair.

Toby

Toby's character becomes something of a glorified extra in season three all the way to season seven where he actually becomes a recurring guest role in season six. Sadly in t.v. shows that feature a large ensemble cast, some members get thrust into the shadows. The writers don't do this intentionally; however, it is hard to give equal screen time to multiple characters, especially when you're restricted by a tight budget and twenty-two minutes of showtime. That isn't to say that they don't have any significance. In this case, I'm referring to Toby's friendship with Rick. Toby is also the only character in the whole show who Rick remained friends with all the way to his tragic end. I don't believe Rick ever meant to hurt Toby. He was just unfortunate in being caught with one of Rick's targets: Emma.

I see some people say online that one of Toby's worst offenses was befriending Rick: a known abuser. I disagree. Throughout Toby's time at Degrassi, he and his closest friend, J.T., have been growing apart since the beginning of season 3. It is even mentioned in Google's episode description of "Gangsta Gangsta" (3x06), which reads "...while J.T. leaves Toby behind by spending more time with Paige and the popular kids". In season 4 you see the pair of them, along with Manny and Liberty, hanging out in Liberty's hot tub in her backyard, but it is still suggested that J.T. prefers to spend his leisure time with Danny Van Zandt over Toby, and since the cool kids reject Toby, he sees something of himself in Rick. It has nothing to do with the fact that he put Terri in a coma. Some fans say that Toby should have condemned Rick for what he did to Terri rather than form an allegiance with him, which I think is absurd. He's a teenage boy, for one, and adolescent boys don't make for very good activists of any kind. Again, Isaacs related to Rick being a loner, not an abuser, and Rick has since acknowledged how terribly he treated Terri in the past. They were both nerdy outcasts with shared interests in role playing dice and computers. Toby certainly doesn't condone what Rick did last year, but rather accepts who Rick is in the present day as good enough of a friend as he can get at this time. I think that Toby knew that something was off about him after he visited Rick's house the day of the Whack-Your-Brain finals and heard him inflate the truth about their relationship with Jimmy and Emma. Still: it isn't his duty to be Rick's moral teacher. He's a kid who just needs a friend.

I've seen another voice online saying that people underestimate the impact that Toby's friendship had on Rick, a statement that I agree with. While it was certainly a tragedy what Rick did, who knows how much worse it could have been, how much further he could have spiraled, how many more lives he could have devastated, if not for the presence of Toby. It would be unthinkable to bear the brunt of being bullied completely alone with nothing but your private thoughts to console you. There was a moment in episode 4x06 where Jay slams Rick into a locker, and shortly after he does, Toby is right there to offer Rick a hand. Something as simple as helping someone off of the floor after they've been knocked down can make a huge difference to a bullied victim.

It also tells you something about Toby’s character, someone who is boastful about his victories, that he goes out of his way to make sure Rick isn't humiliated at his own game. In this case, Rick deserved to lose in such a mortifying way. A guy with an abusive history needs to keep his ego in check. Still, Toby has a heart and wants Rick to get some satisfaction out of participating in their silly bet, so he pays Darcy to kiss his friend. He even lets Rick believe that the kiss happened organically as Rick is reminiscing about it the next day. Since Jay is around to witness this ordeal, he decides to punish Toby for it by shoving him into a locker. Fun fact: we get another bit of foreshadowing in this scene. Right before Jay pushes Toby into his own locker, he explains to Jay why he did what he did. "Look. Rick’s my friend. I was just trying to save him from humiliation." How sneaky of the writers to tell us what was going to happen to Rick in the next episode! Sadly, Toby wasn't able to save Rick from humiliation when it counted the most.

Rick has also stood up for Toby. We see this in part one of "Time Stands Still." Jimmy has just joined Whack-Your-Brain and is still at odds with Rick at this time. Jay and Spinner come after Toby in an attempt to find Rick. When Toby refuses to give away his friend's whereabouts, Jay punishes him by slamming his face into the water fountain he is drinking out of. When Toby meets up with Rick, Emma, and Jimmy in the gym, he has a bloodied lip. Both Rick and Jimmy know Toby had been attacked, and Jimmy tries to pry information from Toby. Instead, it is Rick who responds to Jimmy, challenging him to see the error of not only his ways but also the ways of his friends. The most poignant part of the dialogue is when Rick says, "Toby doesn't deserve this. Nobody does." This tells the viewers a couple of things. One, it shows that Spinner, Jay, and Alex are actually bullies at this point in the story since they've reared their aggression towards Toby, a kid who, unlike Rick, has done nothing wrong. Secondly, it shows that Rick is thinking of more than just his own suffering, as he is visibly upset at the fact that his bullies came after his friend. I point this out because people tend to say that Rick's return to Degrassi in search of forgiveness is only for the sake of his ego, arguing that he doesn't take into account anything else except his own problems and his own suffering. This scene with Jimmy proves that he is capable of feeling sorry for more than just himself. Abuser or not, Rick’s display of sympathy for Toby proves that he's not the "psycho" that everyone has branded him. Notice that Rick doesn't say "I don't deserve this," which takes the focus away from himself, but rather says that no one deserves to be tortured by other humans, and he is right. Granted, he does say right before how he has "...been suffering for weeks," which suggests that the viewers should garner empathy for Rick's situation, but nonetheless, Rick has the moral high ground for the first time in the series.

While this essay was dedicated to those who showed kindness towards Rick that most would argue he didn't deserve, it's a tragic irony that two of the people on this list are the ones he targeted at the end of his character arc. I remember watching the "Time Stands Still" two-parter and feeling a mix of emotions from indignation, to anxiety, to sadness. Toby could only watch helplessly as his friend was determined to kill his other friend since seventh grade. Before Rick pulled a gun, Toby tried to convince Rick to stay home after the prank, but Rick insisted that that was the one time he wanted to be at school. Toby tries to talk Rick out of it, but Rick isn't hearing any of it. The cold, malicious glare he gives Emma the entire time Sean tries to deescalate the situation is so unnerving. It's like he doesn't even see Toby standing in the halls with them, or doesn't care. Although Rick felt like he was betrayed by Jimmy, Toby was truly betrayed by Rick. I can't imagine being the person associated with a dead school shooter because I was friends with him. Rick might not have aimed a gun at Toby's face, and Toby might not have wrestled for the gun the way Sean did, but he was just as impacted by the shooting as Emma and Sean.

[spinelli-gemelli]

Thanks, Jay

[spinelli-gemelli]

Would love to hear your thoughts about Toby's involvement in the story line!

Ohhh yeah, I'm working on it. Thanks for reading ;)

[spinelli-gemelli]

A Degrassi Essay About Rick Murray

(Part 4)

We've covered a lot of ground so far: Rick's motives for returning, what the principal could or couldn't have done, and students' reactions to his return. Specifically we examined Emma's initial interactions with Rick as he made his reappearance in "Mercy Street". We will now take a closer look at other characters and their motivations for their behavior towards Rick. This post will focus on antagonists only. We will save his allies for the next post.

Spinner

Spinner has an obvious personal motivation to antagonize Rick, but he goes through a remarkable character arc. Spinner was the one, along with Paige, to find Terri lying on the ground unconscious. I can only imagine what thoughts must have flashed through their minds; their own versions of how Rick landed Terri in the coma. That's something that will stay with them for the rest of their lives, though this event might be overshadowed with what's to come in season four, dare I say. In "Don't Dream It's Over", Spinner sees Rick sitting in his mom's car and confronts him, and he rears up to punch him, but Paige intervenes, quickly followed by Rick's mother, who pulls Spinner away from her son. A moment later we see him retreat, and Paige pursues him. In this moment he's sobbing, saying he's "just like [Rick]", but Paige insists that he's different. It's one of the first times we see a vulnerable side to Spinner, who's either been portrayed as a dense bully or Paige's loyal boyfriend wrapped around his girlfriend's finger. Anyone who is able to extract such a tender moment from Spinner is bound to end up being resented by him, which I believe the seeds for Rick had been planted as early as the end of season three. When Paige and Spinner's relationship takes a hit in season four, with the drama of the Dean trial and Paige crashing Spinner's car into her rapist's car, the previously softened, dull Spinner returns to his bullying roots, which is only amplified when Paige splits from Spinner. He soon joins forces with Jason Hogart, embracing full antagonist mode in the plotline against Rick. Originally he takes part in the ribbon campaign as a way to avenge Terri's injustice, but soon it just becomes a favorite past time of his, along with Jay, to torment Rick. It's not like anyone would come to his defense, at least anyone who could fight him off. He gets a rude awakening when he realizes in season four that his actions have consequences, not only for himself, but for those he cares about. Gavin Mason hits the ground hard this season, and it will take more than just apologies to bounce back from this.

Paige

Paige, like Spinner, found Terri lying on the ground out at the park with Rick hovering over her unconscious body. As Spinner runs to grab his phone for emergency services, it's Paige that reaches down to touch the back of her friend's head, only to get a handful of blood. That's something that stays with you for life: the stuff of recurring nightmares. Her motivation, like Spinner's, is personal. She collaborates with Emma to bring justice to her friend, but, unlike Spinner, she doesn't go as far as bullying Rick, but she fully believes in the power of social ostracization. This is different from her usual mean girl vibe: this is justified in her mind. Rick needs to be punished for what he did, and no one seems to be doing anything about it, so why not take matters into her own hands? We see her tease Rick right before he goes on stage for the Whack-Your-Brain finals (4x07), but the matter in which Rick replied to her taunting (quick and witty) lets the viewers know this isn't the first time she had given him a hard time, though her meddling of Rick never becomes physical. Paige is a dynamic character, and we see that, when Rick is publically humiliated in front of the entire school, she has a conscious and expresses her empathy for Rick when she encounters him in the cafeteria after it happened. She even goes as far to acknowledge that they aren't on the greatest terms, yet she didn't let that stop her from reaching out to Rick. It's in this instance that we are reminded of the power of words. Just by expressing her sorrow, Rick felt seen and heard, and he almost went back on his plan to seek revenge for his mortification. This is what I like about Paige's character, which makes her fun to watch in scenarios like these. She knows when it's time to make jokes and when it's time to be serious. She's emotionally intelligent. We see similar interactions in earlier seasons, where she tries to relate to Ashley about having a gay family member, when she consoles Emma who gets her period in class, or the time when she reminds Manny to ask the right questions before engaging in intercourse.

Alex

Alex Nunez has been a background character all of season three, only playing the role of Jay's girlfriend, but in season four, she's given some dimensions. Initially she appears to be joining the bandwagon of antagonizing Rick (episode 4x04), but then we get a glimpse of her true motivations during her conversation with Emma. In this scene, Rick walks up to Emma and wants to donate a check of over five hundred dollars to her fundraiser. For a fleeting moment, Emma considers it, but Alex appears on the scene and snatches the check out of Rick’s hands, telling him no one wants his guilt money. Rick tries to reason with her, but Alex shuts down that conversation immediately, causing a discouraged Rick to walk off. Emma asks for the check, but Alex tears it to ribbons. Before Emma can accuse her of not caring about the campaign, Alex insinuates that Emma doesn't know anything about it. "You ever ice your mom's lip? Bandage her up? Lay awake at night listening to her cry?" It's in this chilling scene do we learn that she has experienced domestic abuse first hand through her mother. Punishing Rick is her own way of avenging what her mom's boyfriend(s) did to her. She’s more than just Jay's chick. She is deeply concerned about women’s welfare when it comes to relationship abuse, yet another reason why it was a travesty to have the scene with her and Marco talking to Raditch deleted. Once again, we get to learn more about who Alex really is when she pleads with the principal to reconsider letting Rick back into the school. We start to see that there are layers to this girl.

Spinner's, Paige's, and Alex's motives are relatively straightforward and easy to understand. This next character is harder to peg, even more difficult to understand than Emma's motivations.

Jay

Degrassi's resident "bad boy", Jason Hogart ceases any opportunity to wreak havoc on the lives of any Degrassian. While I'd love to say his motive for coming after Rick was for "kicks and giggles", I would like to play devil's advocate for a bit, especially considering that his own girlfriend has had experience with domestic abuse. Maybe she talked to him about it. Maybe Jay visited Alex's house a number of times and had seen it for himself. Maybe he had to protect Alex from the collateral damage that her mom's boyfriend(s) would inflict. We don't know the dynamics of their relationship this early on in the series, so it is hard to confirm. Either way, Jay shows no mercy for Rick as he is the character that jumps Terri's ex at the Dot, drags him to the back alley, and punches him in the gut. He is also the one that is shown throwing Rick against a locker in episode 4x06 "Islands in the Stream" with ease, which gives the audience the feeling that Jay has done this to Rick many times before.

Unlike, Spinner, Jimmy, Paige, and even Alex, who at some point either experience a change of heart towards Rick, feel bad that he was humiliated on stage, or feel guilty about the school shooting, Jay shows no remorse for what he did as being one of the three accomplices in setting up the paint and feathers alongside Spinner and Alex. In episode 5x10, "Redemption Song", a year after the shooting had taken place, Jay says that they "did the world a favor" to Spinner after the latter asks the former if he ever thought about what happened with Rick. It's his reaction to the tragedy that forces me to believe that he didn't really care about getting justice for Terri or the fact that anyone else got hurt. He never goes into an explanation about what he means, either. They "did the world a favor" by humiliating Rick on stage? Lying to him later about Jimmy being the culprit? Indirectly getting Jimmy shot? Perhaps Jay means that they aided in unmasking Rick's true nature of violence, and to half of the Degrassi fans, Rick never truly changed, so to them this is true, though I doubt anyone agrees that this was done in favor of anyone. In the wake of tragedy, everyone loses.

Even in the beginning when everyone was united in the campaign against Rick, Jay was the only one to make a mockery out of the situation. Even as the others detested Rick, no one was seen outright making fun of him (except maybe Spinner). To everyone else, this was serious business. He even got himself expelled from school, and by the looks of things, he never cared or tried to return. If you also take into consideration all of the other characters he would persuade into doing things, they almost always end up worse off than before. We see this with Sean, who would go on to steal Snake's laptop; J.T., who decides to steal drugs from the pharmacy at which he's employed and sell them to dealers on the street; Spinner, who lies to Rick about Jimmy being responsible for the paint and feathers prank and winds up indirectly responsible for Jimmy's fate; and Emma, who Jay preyed upon while she was in a state of shock after the tragedy in order to get her to perform oral sex on him. Hell, the first time we're introduced to Jay is in season three when he calls Paige's brother Dylan "Homo-chuk" (episode 3x04), a reference to him being gay. Given his resume of ruining characters' lives (although only two of these instances occurred before the Rick conflict), it's hard for me to believe that he cared about any justice being served. All of the evidence points to the contrary. Rick was just the perfect outlet for his bullying urge since no one would rush to the kid's aid after what he did to Terri. Jay was just doing what Jay does best: stirring up trouble. In this way, he's similar to an arsonist: he sets the fires and watches them burn.

[spinelli-gemelli]

A Degrassi Essay About Rick Murray

(Part 3c)

We left things off on a cliffhanger in 3b...sort of. Still on the subject of Daniel Raditch, we answered two questions related to him, which I've included below alongside my corresponding responses:

Could Raditch have prevented tragedy from happening? (Yes, he could have and should have.)

Could Raditch have prevented Rick from returning to school in the first place? (Unfortunately, no.)

For those of you that are wondering, "What do you mean Raditch couldn't keep Rick away? He put her in a coma!" Allow me to explain in this essay. In part 3c, and this will be the last of part 3, we will look at Rick's abusive history with Terri in detail in order to better understand why Mr. Raditch couldn't just prevent Rick from enrolling in classes at Degrassi. Three factors come into play here: lack of evidence, no witnesses, and the locations of Rick's abuse.

Any true Degrassi fan would remember our introduction to Rick's character way back in episode 3x08 "Whisper to a Scream". He is portrayed as the shy but endearing hopeless romantic that was also Terri's love interest and secret admirer, the latter unbeknownst to Terri at first.

Rick anonymously tapes roses to Terri's locker for her to receive. Even though Terri wants Rick to be her admirer, she doesn't believe that he is (Poor Terri. Have some confidence, girl!). Finally, she waits after school to find out who's leaving her roses, and...her wish comes true! It's Rick! They kick things off pretty quickly, and by episode 3x10 "Never Gonna Give You Up", they are officially dating. The writers did a stellar job at gradually revealing Rick's true nature to the audience. Bit by bit we see his layers unravelling: from him being threatened by Terri and Jimmy's friendship; to him ordering for Terri at the Dot; to him insisting that Terri should listen to his stage directions and not Jimmy's even though Jimmy is the director. Finally, half way through 3x10, we see Rick's true colors. After Terri takes Rick's poor advice (or a poor interpretation of his advice: whichever), she embarrasses herself on stage the day of the final performance, and everyone laughs at her. We then cut to Terri and Rick walking home behind an alleyway. Rick is perky and quirky, asking about what movie they should go see. He seems to have forgotten about what happened to Terri at school, but Terri hasn't. She's short with him in this scene, curtly asking him to talk about how, thanks to his pointers, she was mortified in theater class. Rick seems annoyed here and doesn't think there's anything to discuss. Terri continues, saying that she "looked like an idiot...because of [Rick]."

"Excuse me?" Rick replies in a tone that resembles "What did you just say to me?"

Terri is still hung up about what happened to notice Rick's change in demeanor. "Everyone was laughing." She says. "I should have listened to Jimmy."

Immediately after the word Jimmy comes out of her mouth, Rick grabs Terri's wrist and twists her arm around. He proceeds to tell her, as he's squeezing her, that he doesn't like the tone of voice that Terri had with him and that it made him feel stupid. We then cut to a shocked and frightened Terri pleading for Rick to release her hand.

Let's discuss the context in which this occurred. Terri and Rick were in a back alleyway, away from the school's campus, and no one else was around. The only evidence that would hold up after the fact would be the bruise on Terri's wrist.

Let's now look at the second time Rick struck Terri. He slaps his girlfriend across the face after she tells him he's being crazy for not wanting her to go to a girls' night gathering without him (Well...yeah, you are crazy for thinking that, Rick). Here Terri and Rick are at Degrassi, in the gymnasium, but no one else is around to witness the ordeal. Again, Terri will carry the physical evidence on her person that she had been hit, but in time it will heal, erasing any proof that Rick laid hands on her.

The third time Rick lashes out at Terri takes place in the back alleyway yet again. The same details hold true: no witnesses outside of Terri and Rick; no evidence other than maybe a bruise on her back after Rick pushes her back against a cardboard wall; and they are, once again, off school grounds. Here he gets angry after Terri tells Rick that he's suffocating her, which is true. After this incident, Terri has finally had enough of being pushed around, and she dumps Rick right there on the spot.

We can conclude that Terri had told her friends all about Rick as the final scene in this episode shows her talking to her friends Jimmy and Hazel in the halls. There seems to be a happy ending here. Yeah, Rick is crazy and abused Terri, but she broke up with him, and if Rick tried anything, her friends would come after him in a heartbeat. It was clear that Terri felt safe around her friends and wasn't worried about Rick coming after her again, especially after she made it clear that she wasn't just going to take him back after all that he did, so what did she need to go to the police for? They didn't need to be involved. Her dad didn't have to know. She handled the situation quite well for a fifteen/sixteen year old girl. Soon the bruises fade, and life goes on as if she never met Rick.

But something happens a few months down the road. Rick and Terri are partnered up in theater class, forced to work with each other as everyone else gets paired up. Rick is assigned to catch Terri in a trust fall exercise. Terri, being self-conscious about her weight and weary around her abusive ex, doubts that Rick will catch her, but he proves her wrong. After class, he apologizes for the way he treated her in their last relationship. We can see Terri having a change of heart during this conversation. After all, Rick seems sincere here: he makes direct eye contact with Terri as he apologizes to her and says that he misses her. Although we can still see a sliver of his arrogance slide through before he apologizes, there isn't a trace of malice about him. Terri eventually lets her defenses down and decides to take him back. It's unclear whether Rick asked Terri out or the other way around. Either way, the next time we see the pair, they walk into The Dot to catch up with the gang: Paige, Spinner, Jimmy, and Hazel.

The Grade Ten Circle is going out for a weekend getaway. Paige’s folks are out of town and left her the car keys, and it's a couples hang out day, which is what partially motivated Terri to take back Rick in the first place. While Rick and Terri are dining off separately, the other four deliberate on whether or not they should include them on the trip. After a brief discussion, the group decides it's best to keep their friends close and their enemies closer, concerned about Terri's welfare if they leave Rick behind without any of them being there to look out for her. Spinner was actually the first of the friend group to suggest this, which I was both impressed and touched by. Spinner has always had a soft spot for Terri, it seems, and in the scene at The Dot, he was the one being the most tactful about the situation rather than letting his feelings about Rick get the better of him. This is probably the only time in the entire Rick arc where Spinner thinks with his head instead of his fists.

The party of four is now six, and they all ride in Paige's van to a park. We notice the awkward group dynamic right away as everyone is scrambling to get away from Rick except for Terri. It makes you wonder how long the car ride was, and what it was like to be in the van with all six of them.

Paige certainly wasn't the one spreading joy and good cheer as we see in her interactions with Rick. As he sits on the front of Paige's van and encourages Terri to do the same, Paige rudely tells him that she'd rather not have him do that. Rick insists that he's not causing any damage to the vehicle, but before their little spat can continue, Terri warmly invites Rick to sit on the picnic bench with him. He relents, sliding off the vehicle and accepting Terri's invitation. Once again, you can see all the other guys, who were just sitting on the bench, move away once Rick saunters over. We can see Rick is mildly aggravated by the time he joins Terri, yet his girlfriend consoles him and tells him not to worry about Paige.

Unfortunately this isn't the last of their feud. We cut to a later scene where Rick momentarily separates from Terri to join Spinner and Jimmy, who we see tossing a frisbee back and forth between each other. Paige uses this opportunity to sit and talk to Terri. She gently urges her to come hang out with her girl pals, but Terri politely rejects the offer. Then Paige extends an invitation for her to hang out with the girls later that evening, but Terri is receptive of Paige's real motives this time and insists that there's nothing to worry about. At this point, Paige ditches the pleasantries and cuts straight to the chase. "So what, you've just forgiven Creep Boy for beating you up?" She hurls at Terri. Terri then says that Rick apologized for what happened before. "Of course!" Paige retorts. "His type always does so they can...get another shot in at you."

Rick, of course, overhears the ordeal. It's not like they were exactly whispering. He comes out from behind the van and immediately gets into it with Paige, telling her she's a vicious backstabber among other things.

"Oh I'm vicious?" Paige rises to the occasion, taking a not-so-subtle jab at Rick's nature.

"Everything you say is a judgement to you." Rick goes on to say. "You think you're so perfect!"

Paige is shocked by his audacity and fires back. "Well I'd rather be that than a psycho!"

We can see that she hit a sensitive spot with Rick. He storms off into the woods but not before kicking Paige's van in the process. Everyone around them has stopped what they were doing as they watch Paige and Rick yell at each other. Once Rick is out of sight, Terri stands from her seat and confronts Paige. She takes sides with Rick, saying that she's tired of Paige pushing her around and telling her what to do.

"Fine." Paige says. "If I'm such a bad friend then go after him. Go!" Ironically she proves Terri right: Paige is telling her what she should do yet again.

Terri catches up with Rick, and she finds him...pulling up cinder blocks? Kicking the dirt and pacing in a circle? It's a little strange, I must admit. He's taking out his anger on the soil...for now. Terri apologizes about Paige and politely asks Rick to calm down. Surprisingly he cooperates, then continues to say that he's happy that they're back together. After their small display of affection, Terri encourages Rick to come back, holding his hand and moving back from where they came. In the same instant, you can see Rick closing his fingers around Terri's hand, refusing to go back to the main group, insisting instead that they walk the other way.

Terri isn't interested. "It's really far." She says to Rick, and she's probably right. There's a reason why they drove all the way out to the park. It's completely reasonable to not want to walk back into town, but Rick doesn't see it that way. "She called me a psycho." Rick jerks Terri back towards him, his tone tight. Terri is frustrated that Rick isn't seeing the big picture. "That's just Paige being Paige." She tells him.

The old Rick resurfaces, and he holds Terri in place with a vice grip, his hands now squeezing both of her elbows. "And that makes it okay? Do my feelings mean nothing to you?" I'll try not to reenact the whole scene, but Rick's anger continues to escalate, he accuses Terri of choosing Paige over him, and refuses to let Terri go as she tells him that she wants to return to the group. Rick is so angry that he's stuttering over his words. "You c-c-can't leave, do you understand?" He says in a shaky voice.

"Rick, you're hurting me!" Terri says, and she appears afraid.

Rick yells at Terri in his second most famous moment. "You're not going. You're not! NOT! NOT!" He pushes her back as Terri is trying to pull away, and their combined forces cause Terri to fall to ground, her head crashing back against a cinder block, which knocks her out cold. When Terri doesn't move, Rick's anger is replaced with panic and alarm. Eventually Paige and Spinner make their way towards the two, and Rick, panicking once he sees the pair, runs off deeper into the woods, leaving his unconscious girlfriend behind.

If it wasn't obvious before, Rick's final and near fatal attack on Terri did not occur on school grounds, and, once again, no one was present at the time of the incident other than the victim and the perpetrator, making Paige's and Spinner's eyewitness testimonies look bleak since they showed up after it happened. For all they know, it could have been an accident.

We reflected on Rick's history of abuse in detail to prove that there wasn't much that Raditch could do to prove that Rick was a danger. It all comes down to three things: no evidence, no witnesses, and the locations of the abuse. The principal's jurisdiction begins and ends at school, which means that anything that happens outside of Degrassi is not his responsibility. True, we the viewers know how dangerous Rick is in season three and potentially is come season four. Terri's friends also know, but they have no evidence to support their claims. The only way they can prevent Rick from returning to the school is if they can prove he is guilty of aggravated assault, which would convict him, thus preventing him from enrolling in classes at Degrassi. Because Terri and her friends failed to get adult help when they found out she was being abused by her boyfriend, there was no intervention until it was too late. Terri is the only person that would be able to bring justice to herself if she reported the incident to the police, but because she suffered a traumatic brain injury, it has probably inhibited her ability to remember the events clearly. It also appears that Terri's dad never went to law enforcement, from what we've seen on the show. My prediction is that Rick's parents helped Terri's dad pay for any necessary expenses surrounding Terri's injury to smooth things over. This whole ordeal sucked for Terri, but Raditch doesn't have anything to go off of other than the words of his students, which, unfortunately in this case, is not enough. While he certainly isn't principal of the year, I don't believe that Raditch is to blame for letting Rick return to Degrassi, which is beyond unfair, but life is never fair.

[spinelli-gemelli]

They just had that drip, ya know?

this appeared on my fyp and i was delighted

[spinelli-gemelli]

A Degrassi Essay About Rick Murray

(Part 3b.)

"...One kid who you've personally spoken to twice in the last two days...did you listen?"

In the last installment, we looked at Raditch's role in the tragedy and asked whether or not he could have intervened in Rick's predicament to potentially stop tragedy from befalling Degrassi. There were two questions that we were set to explore: could Raditch have prevented this from happening? Could he have prevented Rick from returning to school in the first place? If this is your first time visiting my essay series, please start with part one. If you're only interested in the topic of Daniel Raditch, start with part 3a, the first installment where we look at the principal's part in Rick's story.

Let's start with the second part of the answer to the first question: could Mr. Raditch have prevented tragedy from happening? In part 3a, I mention there were two instances in the show where we learn that Rick went to the principal numerous times for help, and we already looked at the scene from part one of the famous two-parter "Time Stands Still." The second time this is mentioned in the show is in part two of this episode, aka, episode 4x08. My original plan was to include both of these moments in part 3a, but since I wound up saying a lot about the scene in 4x07, the scene from 4x08 had to be pushed back into this post. I don't want to overwhelm you all with too much content in one post, especially since this is turning out to be a lengthy essay series, so, without further Ado, let's get back into it.

This scene occurs after the tragic events take place. We see that the school is on lockdown. We see our beloved Degrassi, a place that the viewers grew to love for the past three seasons, swarmed with police cars, ambulance trucks and the S.W.A.T. team. Students are forced to stay in the classrooms, and parents are barred from entering the school until the lockdown is over. In one scene, we cut to the M.I. lab where we see Christine Nelson, aka Spike, consoling her teenage daughter, Emma, who is traumatized by what happened. Snake is pacing around the room, awaiting further instructions from law enforcement, his superior, etc. We watch as he sits at the table with his wife and stepdaughter, and a second later, a police officer opens the door for the principal to walk in. Snake is already on the defense after Daniel addresses him by his first name, "Archie?" When the principal calls a teacher by his first name, you know it's serious business.

"No, I am busy here if you haven't noticed." Snake retorts. Raditch apologizes but goes on to ask him if he could get into Rick's email and look for any possible warning signs that could have stopped what he did, a request forwarded by him from law enforcement. This visibly upsets Snake, and he makes a snarky remark about how "the groundbreaking 20/20 hindsight policy" only comes into play after it's too late. He then concedes and stands from his chair to do what he was asked to do, but Daniel refuses to let Snake's comment slide. Biting his bottom lip, he follows Archie to remind him how he has "seven-hundred students and a teaching staff that [he's] responsible for everyday." He then tells Snake not to "get on [his] case because one kid overreacted to some...spilled paint." Snake yells back at him that Raditch personally spoke to Rick twice in the past two days, asking him if he listened to the kid. Raditch insists that he did, but Snake doesn't believe him, doubting that he remembered a word that Rick said to him. Snake, raising his voice, then goes on to say "This tragedy, Dan it could have been prevented if YOU hadn't--" but Spike cuts him off before he can finish. Of all of the conversations that get interrupted, this one felt like the biggest crime of them all. Come on, Emma's mom, let them hash this one out!

Let's address what Snake said to Raditch. According to him, Rick came to the principal twice in the past two days. That's on average once a day, which are pretty frequent trips to the principal's office to make as a student. I mention in part 3a how it can be difficult for kids to come forward and open up about being victims of bullying. For Rick to have spoken to the principal on average once a day meant that he was in some serious trouble and was looking for outside help. Compare that to what Raditch said to Rick in 4x07: "Richard, I've told you time and time again. It takes two to tango." In this one instance where Rick seeks out help, and Snake's reference of how the principal spoke to him twice in the past couple of days, the audience can infer that Rick has visited Mr. Raditch way more than twice, as "time and time again" implies Rick spoke to Raditch at least two other times before we finally see him make his third trip at least. For the principal of the school to dismiss Rick three times at minimum is appalling. After this scene, the audience can safely conclude that the school staff was neglectful when it came to handling Rick's situation, especially the head of the school.

Let's now explore the second question: could Raditch have prevented Rick from returning in the first place? This one is a tougher question to answer, as this one will call for us to explore Rick's history in detail. In my last installment, I mention a deleted scene in which we see Marco and Alex, student council's president and vice president respectfully, confront Mr. Raditch about allowing Rick to continue his education at Degrassi. Alex insists that "he's a danger...especially to girls", and she's not wrong here. Raditch replies, "...until a student is actually charged [for any crime], he or she will continue to study at my school. Like it or not." Before this exchange, Marco reminds Raditch that Rick put Terri in a coma, to which the principal replies, "To my knowledge, no student has been charged with putting another student in a coma." It's unfortunate that this scene gets cut from the series because, judging by the characters' outfits and the dialogue, this was originally meant to be in the episode "Mercy Street" (4x04). We learn a couple of key details here. For one, we learn that Terri transferred to a private school presumably to get away from Rick. We furthermore can confirm that Rick and his family were never charged for the coma incident that he caused. That whole ordeal is still a mystery to the fan base. After seeing how shocked and angry Terri's dad was in the season three's "Don't Dream it's Over", it's easy to assume that he would take action immediately against the Murrays, yet filing a lawsuit isn't cheap. I don't know all of the odds and ends of Canadian law, but maybe it was hard to make a solid case against Rick due to lack of evidence, though I can't understand why. If Terri had died from hitting her head against that cinder block, officials would surely be forced to open an investigation surrounding the details of her death. Then again, her body would belong to the coroner's office, and they would be able to pick up traces of evidence that Rick was responsible for her condition by conducting an autopsy on her body. Of course, I'm speaking on hypotheticals at this point, which will do us no good here. Terri lived from the incident, so what little evidence that pointed to Rick would have disappeared. There were also no witnesses to Terri's fall except for Rick himself; remember Paige and Spinner showed up after the fact and found Terri already lying on the ground unconscious. At the end of the day, Degrassi focuses on teen drama: it's not a police show, a hospital or a courtroom drama as YouTuber "You'veGotKat" points out in her video essay. The show's focus is on the teens and how they deal with the issues around them. Rick getting in trouble with the law was just another barrier to keep the writers from exploring the shooting plotline. After the actor, Ephraim Ellis, was featured in three episodes in season three, the writers decided that he had the chops to pull off such a serious storyline about a troubled teen resorting to gun violence, so they wrote his character back into season four, who originally appeared to have been "run out of town on a rail" after he hurt Terri, as Ellis would state in multiple interviews and podcasts.

So we looked into how Rick Murray escaped the law, thus giving him the ability to return to Degrassi, but let's get down to the question: could Raditch have stopped him from returning? As unfortunate as this may be, the principal had no jurisdiction to keep Rick Murray away. It's true that the principal was receptive to the students' animosity towards him and was aware of the fact that Rick put Terri in a coma, but this is only based on the words of a student. For all he knew, this could have been a vicious rumor or a misunderstanding on the matter, and, as he states in the deleted scene, since Rick wasn't charged with anything, he had no criminal record. Marco and Alex probably wouldn't have had to talk to Raditch if Rick had gotten into legal trouble, but unfortunately, he didn't. In order to understand why this is the case, we will have to look back at season three during the multiple instances when Rick inflicted abuse onto Terri. There's plenty to go over, so I will save that for the next chapter. Watch out for 3c!

[spinelli-gemelli]

[spinelli-gemelli]

Is there peace in the kingdom?

[spinelli-gemelli]

i REALLY wish more people made youtube videos/deep dives/analysis/retrospective/ video essays about degrassi bc im positive ive already consumed all the degrassi content available on youtube and i need MORE

[spinelli-gemelli]

A Degrassi Essay About Rick Murray

(Part 3a.)

"Do I look like I have time for a chat, Richard?"

In a perfect world, and by that I mean my perfect world, season 4's events would unfold something like this: Rick returns to Degrassi; the school ostracizes him via Emma’s campaign; Rick is tormented everywhere he goes; Emma puts an end to Jay's ballistics once the violence against Rick gets out of hand; Rick would learn his lesson and never lay a finger on another girl again; and everyone leaves him alone while he completes his tenth grade year for the second time.

But this is Degrassi. The drama never ends. Drama is inherently messy. And that ending is way too tidy for drama.

While Emma made it clear that she wasn't going to torture Rick in the halls, this memo doesn't reach the other characters. There are three in particular who constantly jab at him: Spinner, Jay, and Jimmy. At this point, pushing him around is just for sport, and Jay would admit to that if you asked him, I guarantee it. Whether or not Rick deserves it, whether or not you feel sorry for the kid, one has to wonder: where are the teachers when all of this is happening? Has anyone reported this to the principal? In this installment, we will explore another popular talking point in the Degrassi fandom: could Mr. Raditch have stopped tragedy from befalling Degrassi? Could he have prevented Rick from returning in the first place?

Let's begin with the first question: could Mr. Raditch have stopped the school shooting? We the viewers learn that Rick has sought out help multiple times based on two different scenes from the show. The first instance is from episode 4x07, the first half of the two-parter episode titled "Time Stands Still". About a quarter of the way into part one, we see Rick making a visit to the principal's office and asking him to intervene in the Whack-Your-Brain predicament that he was recently forced to face. Earlier that day, Mr. Simpson decided to draft Jimmy onto the trivia team last minute after Heather Sinclair got sick with mononucleosis. At this time, Jimmy Brooks is still giving Rick a hard time at school, and he'd be damned if he let that jock taint the only thing he has going for him at Degrassi that doesn't feel like hell on earth! Raditch is already short with Rick in this scene as he rummages through papers and moves back and forth in the office. "Do I look like I have time for a chat, Richard?" He barks at the student. Fortunately Rick isn't discouraged yet. He goes on to tell the principal that Jimmy "doesn't like [him], and he has no qualms expressing it." Rick doesn't name drop here; he simply refers to Brooks as "a member of the Whack-Your-Brain team".

A Youtuber by the name of NotaVampyre uploaded a video about this very exchange and brought something to my attention. Rick's wording in this scene as he's asking for help...he is being extremely vague. At first he starts off direct after Mr. Raditch asks him why he wants to chat. He says that Jimmy is harassing him. When Raditch asks how, that's when Rick gives his vague response. You can make a case that the principal is aware that Rick was at odds with a large number of kids at school, especially if we refer to the deleted scene where Marco and Alex ask him to reconsider letting Rick return to Degrassi, arguing that "he's a danger...especially to girls" as Alex Nunez would put. Unfortunately, the principal is wrapped up in whatever office task he has in front of him, and Rick's concerns are brushed off hastily.

"Richard, I've told you time and time again: it takes two to tango," he tells the boy. It's from this quote that we learn this probably isn't Rick's first trip to the principal's office. Or second. Probably not even the third. The principal goes on to say that he suggests that Rick tries harder to get along with the other student and to come back if anything serious happens. He dismisses the subject immediately after, leaving no room for any more questions Rick has leftover. The student receives the message loud and clear from Raditch: he is left to face this problem on his own.

To answer the question: yes, I believe the principal could have, and should have, done his due diligence; it could have potentially saved lives. Rick, however, should have also been more ingenious in his approach. Nonetheless, I can understand why Rick wouldn't want to open up about his suffering. I imagine it's much harder for teen boys to admit that they are victims of bullying than it would be for teen girls. Not only is it humiliating for him, though the same could be said about a girl, but there is also the feeling of being emasculated that is unique to the male experience. The teen boy thus suffers a double blow to his ego; first in a crisis of his masculine identity, and the second in humiliation. Men are socialized and hardwired to be tough and competent enough to fight their own battles; any other action or reaction would be perceived as weak and feminine, two things that men neither want nor are expected to be, especially the more masculine he is. I think this is partially the reason why Rick didn't express plainly the ways in which he had been harassed, though not necessarily because he is masculine in the traditional sense, especially since it's been presented in the show that he isn't. Rather, his pride prevented him from being completely transparent, not to mention his distinct, eccentric way of speaking. His flowery language sets him apart even more from the other characters, something that I like about him. It's a sentiment that both NotaVampyre and I share. In this instance, however, Rick's vocabulary works against him as he's not being clear in what he wants from Mr. Raditch.

Even if Rick did come forward, the principal would still have to meet him halfway. Perhaps the other part of the reason why Rick didn't open up about the torment is that he had little expectations for the principal to take action. As we mentioned before: this isn't Rick's first visit to Raditch's office; maybe Rick had told him about a specific incident, such as being shoved against the lockers, before the moment we saw in 4x07 and had gotten nowhere. Maybe deep down, Rick knew nothing would come of confiding into an authoritative figure and didn't bother himself with the details of what was happening to him. Alas, these are only my speculations. We really never know how many times Rick attempted to get outside help, though we can infer that it was at least two. We never know what all Rick told the principal about the bullying he had been facing, thus we the audience are forced to fill in the gaps yet again and make our own deductions about what happened.