(6) A Degrassi Essay Series About Rick Murray

 See the last five preceding blog posts for more.

Part 4

Spinner, Alex, and Jay react as Rick reveals that he vandalized their cars (4x07).

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. After learning the details about Rick's abuse towards Terri and learning that he basically gets off from suffering any consequences, we have a better understanding of why Rick had many enemies. In part 2, we started with 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 is reserved only for the students who antagonized Rick.

Spinner

Spinner and Jimmy decide to torment Rick on the way home from school (4x07).

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

 Rick confronts Paige about what happened last year (4x04).

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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, though 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 tells Rick that "Nobody wants [his] guilt money" (4x07).

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. His motivations are even more difficult to understand than Emma's.

Jay

Jay, wearing Rick's glasses, mocks his speech patterns outside of The Dot (4x04).

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 (3x06); J.T., who decides to steal drugs from the pharmacy at which he's employed and sell them to dealers on the street (5x08); Spinner, who lies to Rick about Jimmy being responsible for the paint and feathers prank and winds up indirectly responsible for Jimmy's fate (4x08); 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 (4x14). 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.

Jay, stealing Rick's glasses (4x04).

(5) A Degrassi Essay Series About Rick Murray

 Originally posted on Tumblr. See the preceding installments for more.

Part 3c.

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

1. Could Raditch have prevented tragedy from happening? (Yes, he could have and should have.)
2. 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!" This is why this essay exists. 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. Four factors come into play here: (1) lack of evidence; (2) no witnesses; (3) the locations of Rick's abuse; and, most importantly, (4) Terri's failure to report the abuse as it was happening. In this essay, in order to examine the details in which the abuse occurred, I will be recapping events that occurred in episodes "Whisper to a Scream" (3x08), "Never Gonna Give You Up" (3x10), and "Don't Dream It's Over" (3x17). Buckle up, buttercups: this is going to be a long one, so make sure you carve out some time to read.

How it Began

 Our introduction to Rick's character happens way back in episode 3x08 "Whisper to a Scream". He is portrayed as the shy but endearing hopeless romantic who is also Terri's love interest/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 due to her own insecurities. 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. 

The Abuse

The following events all take place in episode 3x10 of Degrassi

Incident #1

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 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]."

Rick, offended by her tone of voice, takes matters into his own hands quite literally. He grabs Terri's wrist and twists her arm around. He proceeds to tell her, as he's squeezing her, that he doesn't like her tone and that it makes him feel stupid. We then cut to a shocked and frightened Terri pleading for Rick to release her hand.

Details:

On or off School Grounds?: Off

Any physical Evidence?: Yes: the bruise on Terri's wrist.

Were there additional Witnesses?: No

 Incident #2

Terri approaches Rick in the gym as he's striking the set for Marco's play. It's the day after Rick assaults her for the first time, and they have since made up. She asks for his permission to go to Paige's girls exclusive party. Rick then slaps his girlfriend across the face after she tells him he's being crazy for not wanting her to go without him: a boy. I can attest that he is definitely being unreasonable here.

Details:

On or off School Grounds?: On

Any physical Evidence?: Yes: the cut on the corner of Terri's mouth

Were there additional Witnesses?: No

Incident #3

Terri is storming home from Paige's place when she encounters her boyfriend along the way. Rick apparently wanted to profess his love for her, which was the reason why he waited for her to get home, or so he claimed. Then we learn the real reason why Rick was lying in wait for Terri: he wants to set a rule that only applies to her. If she agrees to his terms, she can only see her friends during school hours. Terri ignores this, walking past Rick and saying that she needed some time to think. Rick accuses her of wanting to leave him, which Terri denies. She claims to love him, but says that he's suffocating her. This is when Rick pushes Terri into the cardboard wall back first. After this incident, Terri has finally had enough of being pushed around, and she dumps Rick on the spot.

Details:

On or off School Grounds?: Off

Any physical Evidence?: Inconclusive, though we can infer that her back had been bruised

Were there additional Witnesses?: No

We can conclude that Terri told her friends all about Rick as the final scene in this episode shows her talking to 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, especially after she made it clear that she wasn't just going to take him back after all that he did. We learn in episode 3x17, however, that her own dad was left in the dark about Rick's abuse, let alone the principal. It's great that Terri found comfort in confiding into her friends and that she handled the situation quite well for a fifteen/sixteen year old girl, but this should have been the time where she informed some adult in her life about what Rick had done to her. Nonetheless, the bruises fade, the only evidence that proved that Terri was abused, and life goes on as if she never met him. 

The Weekend Trip

A few months later, the Grade Ten Circle is having a weekend getaway. Paige’s folks are out of town and left her the car keys, and so far it's a double date with Paige/Spinner and Hazel/Jimmy. That Saturday, all four friends are at The Dot when, to their dismay, Terri catches up to them...with Rick right behind her. What was presumably the day before, Rick apologized to Terri after class for his behavior and said that he missed her. His delivery was convincing enough for Terri to take him back. After all, Terri didn't want to be the fifth wheel on her friends' roadtrip.

While Rick and Terri are dining off separately, the other four deliberate on whether or not they should include Rick on the road with them. 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 Terri, who would most likely stay behind if Rick did. Spinner was actually the first one 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 one time in the entire Rick arc where Spinner thinks with his head instead of his fists.

The party of four is now six, but that doesn't stop Paige from being hostile. When they arrive at the park, Rick sits on the front of Paige's van and encourages Terri to do the same, but 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. You can see all the other guys, who were just sitting on the bench seconds before, move away once Rick saunters over. The message is clear: no one outside of Terri wants him there. 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 end 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 Hazel, 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 says to 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. They go back and forth for a bit, until Paige goes in for the kill, hurling the worst insult in her arsenal for Rick at Rick. "Well I'd rather be that than a psycho!"

We can see that she hit a sensitive spot with him. 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. This leads us to the fourth and final incident.

Incident #4

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 infamous 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.

Details:

On or off School Grounds?: Off

Any physical Evidence?: Yes. Her head injury.

Were there additional Witnesses?: No: not at the moment of impact.

Here's a Recap of what Happened:

Number of times Rick abused Terri: 4

Number of Times Terri sustained physical injuries: 3/4

Number of times the abuse happened on campus: 1/4

Number of times there was a third party to witness the abuse: 0/4

What's the Point?

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 there being no evidence that holds up, no witnesses, and the locations of most of the abuse being off campus, especially the coma incident. The closest any third party comes to being a witness is with Paige and Spinner; however, they only showed up after it happened. They correctly fill in the gaps in their minds about what went down before they arrived, but unfortunately having a strong hunch isn't enough to prove that someone is guilty of aggravated assault. The biggest reason why Raditch couldn't pin Rick to his crimes is the fact that the victim, Terri, did not advocate for herself, which appears to be a major plot hole. I believe it has everything to do with the fact that the writers were done with Terri's character, and they used this storyline as a way to write her character off. 

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 have seen what Rick is capable of. Terri's friends know what he's capable of, but they have no evidence to support their claims. It's one thing if the victim is coming forward; it's another thing if only the third party is coming forth. 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. 

Alas Terri did not report Rick because she physically could not report Rick as she was in a coma. If her head injury didn't knock her into unconsciousness, there was a great opportunity for Terri and her father to go to the cops, report him, resulting in Rick getting this crime on his record, thus preventing Raditch from enrolling him in the following academic term. Sadly, that's not how the events played out. Because both 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's recovery was prioritized over ensuring Rick suffered any consequences, which makes sense. It also appears that Terri's dad never went to law enforcement from what we've seen on the show, which again, seems unlikely given how upset he was to learn that Rick had struck his daughter many times before. Again, this is probably due to the fact that the writers were done with Terri storylines after this. My prediction is that Rick's parents helped Terri's dad pay for any necessary expenses surrounding Terri's injury to smooth things over. I also imagine Rick's parents to be the kind of people who had connections in high places and pulled some strings in order for their son to avoid any institution time. Sadly it is Terri who gets the short end of the stick as she is the one most affected by the aftermath above any and all of her friends. It's noble for them to advocate on her behalf, but there truly wasn't much Raditch had to work with in order to keep Rick out of Degrassi. Like we learned in a deleted scene, Terri, the person whose life was most threatened by Rick's presence, no longer went to Degrassi. If this were straightened out in an actual episode, I feel like fans would have more closure about why Rick could return to school. We'd still be enraged that Rick got away with aggravated assault, since his only consequences seem to have been taking therapy sessions. We don't truly know about Rick's socioeconomic status, but if his parents can afford him therapy, it's safe to assume that he comes from a decently privileged background.

An Alternate Solution

That's not to say that there wasn't anything Raditch could do. He could have had a meeting with Rick and his mom, explaining to both of them that if he were to continue his education at Degrassi, he would be at odds with the other students. He could have expressed to the Murrays that he may have had a harder time getting on with his pupils because of last year's events. He could have also sat down with the students who opposed Rick and sympathized with their feelings, clarifying that he understood where they were coming from, even if he was going to allow Rick to enroll in classes at Degrassi. Something as simple as taking the grievances of his students seriously, coupled with threatening disciplinary action if they decided to harass Rick, would have been a step in the right direction and could have prevented this tragedy from happening. Though while he certainly wasn'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, unfortunately, life is never fair.