Reflections on Greek Season 1

Warning: The following post contains spoilers for Season 1 of the ABC Family Show: Greek. The Author is not responsible for anyone who reads this and learns things they don’t already know about the show.

A brief overview of major characters:

Rusty: Rusty is the lead character on the; the series follows mainly his development since the beginning of Freshman year of college at Cyprus-Rhodes, located in Ohio. Rusty is a nerdy science major who decides to pledge a frat.

Cappie: Cappie is the president of the Kappa Tau frat, which is similar to the frat shown in Animal House. He dated Casey, Rusty’s older sister in his freshman year: he is currently a junior.

Evan: Evan is the president of the Omega Chi frat, which is primarily made up of preps. Evan is also Casey’s current boyfriend and the heir to a million dollar corporation run by his father.

Casey: Casey is Rusty’s older sister who is, at the beginning of season one, Rush Chair for her Sorority Zeta Beta Zeta. Casey is the girlfriend of Evan.

Dale: Dale is Rusty’s roommate and comes from an ultra-conservative Southern Baptist southern family. He is also a science major and the “moral” influence in the show.

Ashleigh: Ashleigh is friends with Casey, her partner in crime so to speak. She is an airhead who merely cares about her appearance. She is dating a guy at Brown University at the beginning of Season 1. She is also a member of ZBZ.

Rebecca: Rebecca is a pledge of ZBZ and sleeps with Casey’s boyfriend Evan in the Pilot episode. She is the daughter of a successful and prominent Senator.

Calvin: Calvin meets Rusty on Rush night when potential pledges visit each house so that the frat or sorority can decide who they wish to pledge their house: Calvin pledges Omega Chi. He is also gay.

Jen K.: Jen K. is Rusty’s girlfriend and also a pledge for ZBZ. She is a legacy for the sorority and so is automatically accepted. She is a journalism major.

Frannie: Frannie is a minor major character who is President of Zeta Beta Zeta at the beginning of Season 1. She and Casey are friends at the beginning as it was Frannie who recruited and molded Casey into what she is at the beginning of the show.

At the beginning of the Pilot we see Rusty who is your typical nerd, scrawny armed 18 year old male. His older sister Casey is your topic hot chick who seems to only care about her hair, and her clothes in the beginning. Dale is introduced next and the first thing noticeable with Dale is he asks Rusty “Where are you from?” and when Rusty replies “Chicago” Dale says, “Ah, a Yankee.” Dale is the stereotypical deep southern. He has a crucifix on his wall and promptly displays the Confederate Battle Flag for the whole world to see. It is clear from the beginning that we have three character types who are each going to influence each other in some major way over the course of the season.

When we meet Casey we also meet Ashleigh and Frannie, both of whom seem to only be concerned with their clothes, makeup, and hair. It is unclear why Casey later on remains friends with either of these characters. Casey’s boyfriend Evan meets Rusty and it is clear that Casey has never before mentioned that she has a brother. Rusty’s decision to pledge a fraternity comes down to one simple fact; he wants a real college experience. Casey rightly points out that he isn’t fraternity material using his major as the prime example of how he will be laughed out of the system. Nevertheless Rusty swears he will become a pledge for a fraternity. On the night of the house visits one might think that Rusty will pledge with Omega Chi, namely because his sister’s boyfriend is the president. Yet then he visits the Kappa Tau house and we meet the very drunk Cappie for the first time. Cappie is astonished to find out that Casey, whom he dated freshman year, has a little brother and we find out immediately that Cappie knows Casey in the “biblical” sense. Rusty acquires his nickname while visiting the Kappa Tau house when he performs his first body shot with a very beautiful young woman. Rusty who has never had tequila before spits the liquor back into the girl’s face only to face the wrath of her boyfriend. Rusty wittingly inquires of the man, “you’re upset that I spit in her face but licking her stomach is ok?” This is Rusty’s first taste of the moral ambiguity that the show possess. What makes it ok in the mind of this boyfriend for random men to lick salt from his girlfriend’s body but he gets upset when Rusty spits the tequila back in her face? It is from this incident that Rusty acquires the nickname “Spitter.”

Leaving the Kappa Tau house Rusty returns to the Omega Chi house to engage in some partying. He finds Evan upstairs in his room getting ready to have sex with a beautiful woman we later learn to be Rebecca Logan, the daughter of one Senator Logan. Rusty is perplexed for the remainder of the episode as what to do about his sister’s boyfriend’s infidelity. Evan attempts to silence Rusty by offering him a bid to pledge Omega Chi, which it seems Rusty accepts. Ultimately Rusty visits his sister to inform her of what he saw the previous night, devastating Casey. Casey, whose immediate reaction to break up with Evan is calmed down by her friend and sorority President Frannie. Frannie’s reasoning is that how is it fair for Casey to give up her dreams based on one indiscretion by her boyfriend. Frannie waves the Presidency of the sorority in front of Casey arguing the only reason she would get it is by dating Evan. Ultimately Frannie tells Casey to “do what will make it right in your own mind.” Subsequently Casey decides to sleep with her ex-boyfriend Cappie for “revenge” on Evan. This is an interesting logic that is brought on by Frannie, and not by Casey. Frannie is the one who manipulates Casey into not breaking up with Evan because Frannie loves the fact Evan is a millionaire. Casey’s biggest flaw is agreeing with Frannie that it is unfair for Casey’s dreams to suffer for what Evan’s mistake. She is later called out on it by her brother as she picks him up from the police station.

Following the events of the day Rusty decides to go to the local bar “Dobbler’s” where the Omega Chi will do the pledge ceremony. He confronts Evan by telling him that he informed his sister of what he saw, only to get into a fight with Evan. Rusty ultimately finishes the fight by hitting Evan in the face with one of the pledge paddles: Evan orders Rusty be taken to jail. Rusty is amazed to hear that Casey will stay with Evan after what he has done and she becomes defensive. Using the same logic used on her earlier from Frannie, Casey justifies staying with Evan. She tells her brother that college isn’t black and white like high school, from here on out it is shades of gray. Certainly this might be true, college is more complex than high school is and if you treat high school and college the same then Casey says you’ll become a “social piranha.” This becomes a central theme to the show, whether or not one can still maintain a moral code that there are no shades of gray or if there are indeed situations that are.

Season one continues with Rusty acquiring a girlfriend named Jen K. and finding out that Calvin is gay. Meanwhile he fights with Dale over his situation with Jen K, whom he wants to have sex with by Dale will not tolerate happening in the room. Ultimately Rusty has to accept he and Dale are good friends and he has to appreciate him. Dale appears to be the only character who does not wish to accept that there are shades of gray, maintaining his belief in the black and white. Rusty walks the moral tight rope, trying to discover whether or not he can adhere to his sister’s assertion or whether Dale is right. Rusty ends up cheating for his Physics midterm because he is unable to teach himself the five chapters assigned for the test. This leads him to the conclude that college isn’t about learning, it’s about getting by and that college was suppose to be for him the last bastion of knowledge. But it is clear based on his physics class and professor that the school doesn’t care if they learn anything, or at least doesn’t care to teach him anything and that if he wants to find knowledge he has to seek it out for himself.

By being involved in Greek life on campus, Rusty is able to test his beliefs and acquire knowledge not found in the classroom. He is able to put what he has learned in the classroom to use in real life. Ultimately Rusty is faced with an article about the Greek life written by his girlfriend Jen K. He struggles with whether or not to break up with her as a result of her misleading him throughout their relationship. Everyone urges him to break up with her because she has betrayed the Greek system. Rusty does decide to end his relationship with Jen K. because he doesn’t know if she can be trusted. In a similar fashion, Evan breaks up with Casey because he thinks she is only dating him to get ahead in life. Frannie, who is ousted as President of Zeta Beta Zeta for allowing the problems that come up through the season to happen. Frannie, drunk, informs Evan that she was the reason Casey was still with him because she reminded Casey that Evan was her key to success. Evan, disillusioned by what Frannie has told him goes to Casey and breaks up with her.

All the events of Season 1 bring up an interesting question, Rusty wants to change who he is and it is not clear whether or not college is the place to do it. Casey wants to be successful within the Greek system; she is concerned with her public image. At the end of Season 1 Rusty doesn’t appear to have changed that much and Casey, after being appointed interim President doesn’t appear to only care about her public image. In fact, she goes to the National representative sent to investigate the article to tell her everything in it is true (90% of the “deeds” mentioned in the article involve Casey.) Fully expecting that she will be kicked out, or so she says, she is stunned when the representative names her President. It is unclear if the house will truly be able better with Casey in command come season 2. Rusty, who loved Jen K. has to deal with losing her over her misleading. Rusty and Casey are left at the end in a state of limbo. We are still left with whether or not one can change in college, and whether or not one can learn only by book learning or only by experience. Dale is the only example we have in the show who takes book learning over experience. Rusty, whether he is right or wrong believes he can learn a lot from experience but struggles with maintaining a balance between the two. Casey, Evan, Ashleigh, and Cappie are all convinced that Greek life is the best thing they can have. By the end of season 1 Casey has achieved her goal of becoming President of ZBZ and Cappie appears to be leaning towards the belief that there is more to life than sex and drinking. Evan is still struggling with becoming more than just the son of a millionaire and Ashleigh is trying to discovering who she really is and not simply defining herself with who she associates with.At this point it appears that for Rusty neither Dale nor Casey are right, there are certain things which are black and white but there are also things that are shades of gray. Ultimately the ends don’t justify the means all the time for Rusty. He does end up having sex, but not with a hot slut who wants to take his virginity but rather with his girlfriend whom he thinks he loves. He does steal a property of the Department of Defense to help fuel a model volcano, with the help of Dale nonetheless. At this point in the season it appears that Rusty only chooses Dale’s method when it affects him, but chooses Casey’s for all other situations.