on terri, toby, time stands still, and the degrassi black hole
i’m not exactly sure why christina schmidt left degrassi, or if there was a specific reason why toby was demoted on degrassi (i suspect it’s because he never really did blossom into a ‘leading man’ type), but i think that had the show utilized these characters more following the school shooting, some really interesting things could have happened on degrassi.
i’ll say that i think the show did a great job handling the aftermath of the shooting because it wasn’t a plot point that vanished–we saw sean deal with the traumatic event, witnessed a great change in emma, spent multiple seasons of spinner seeking redemption, and jimmy struggling to come to terms with his disability. in more recent seasons, with the notable exception of cam’s death, events never have such a great, direct, and lasting impact on events in future episodes let-alone in future seasons.
essentially, i think the show’s writing and ability to sustain a storyline was at its peak, but a few characters were sadly lost in the shuffle, namely terri and toby. these characters were always neglected: relegated to taking abuse from ashley and standing in the shadows of their more popular friends. but after the shooting, we barely saw them again. in terri’s case, she was gone for good.
but both had very important relationships with rick. people seem to forget that toby was also confronted with the gun in 'time stands still,’ even if he wasn’t explicitly the target. he witnessed his friend’s DEATH while confronting the possibility of his own. and of course, rick beat and emotionally abused terri. i was re-visiting “time stands still” the other night and i kept wondering whose duty it was to tell terri that her ex boyfriend, the young man who put her in a coma, had crippled one of her best friends and had been killed in the standoff (since questions remain whether sean shot rick or rick accidentally shot himself). even though rick had hurt her immeasurably, he was still her first boyfriend–the only boyfriend she’d had at that point. she cared about him a lot, and i wish we could have spent some time with terri as she made sense of everything that happened since rick put her in a coma. i’m not sure if she was at the same hospital that jimmy wound up staying at, but it would have been inspiring to see two people injured by rick band together, recover, and try to forgive rick.
and although the show teased us at the end of 'time stands still’ that we’d see a lot of toby’s reaction to the shooting and death of his friend, we never saw that at all, save a few scenes at rick’s funeral that focused more on building JT’s character than exploring toby’s loss. it really would have made a lot of sense for toby to have had the main POV after the shooting because if you recall, toby has always cared a lot about jimmy, idolizing him as an older brother figure and admiring him as a more worldly friend. i could see toby feeling very guilty about mourning and caring for rick, since rick was responsible for crippling someone he cares so much about and threatening other friends.
but instead, we never saw terri again, and shortly after season 4, we scarcely saw toby as anything more than an accessory to jt or liberty. but isn’t it interesting to think about how the show might have been different in focusing on these characters instead of or in addition to those it revolved around following 'time stands still’?