Formatia trans sicere educatorum

Warning: The following post contains spoilers for Season 1 & 2 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.

Relationships, human nature is based on the desire for relationships with our fellow humans whether they be sexual, familial, brotherly, platonic or other. Humans are by nature social political animals which means we crave to be with others of our kind. The one aspect of ABC Family’s hit television show Greek that is best representative of real life is the desire for relationship. There are multiple relationships within the TV show including: Casey and Rusty,, Evan and Casey, Evan and Rusty, Rusty and Cappie, Cappie and Rebecca, Rebecca and Casey, Rebecca and Evan, Frannie and Casey, Frannie and Rebecca, Rusty and Jen K, Rusty and Calvin, Evan and Calvin, Ashleigh and Calvin, Cappie and Evan, and Casey and Ashleigh.

The first of these relationships is a familial relationship between brother and sister, though these two couldn’t be any more different if they tried. Rusty is a science geek while Casey is the social butterfly of the Greek system. From the feel of the show we can inquire that Rusty is probably the child every parent would want while Casey has a rebellious side to her. At the beginning of the series Casey ignores her brother’s call when he is trying to find his dorm. When Rusty finally goes to the ZBZ house to find Casey she tells him that she will set up a monthly brunch, a nice way of telling him to go away. While rushing Rusty meets Evan and Cappie; only Evan knows of Rusty but its clear from the show that it has only been a recent discovery while Cappie is astonished to know that his former girlfriend has a brother. In season two we discover that when asked if she has siblings Casey dodges the question. The two have to build a relationship now that they both matriculate at Cyprus-Rhodes and Casey has to learn to become the older sister she never was. Without mommy and daddy around to guide and watch over him, Rusty has to receive guidance from someone and who better than his own sister to help. Rusty feels a sense of honor towards his sister, which is what leads him to tell her of Evan’s indiscretion against her and ultimately to engage in a fight with Evan over Casey’s “honor.” Typically for a brother and sister that are at most 2 1/2 years apart in age this is quite strange that they are so distant from each other. It is clear that they do not understand each other and come from different circles. The most interesting relationship to watch is that of Rusty and Casey because they are brother and sister and it is the one relationship that they can never ignore.

With that we leave behind the familial relationship to enter into the platonic friendly relationships specifically between Rusty and Calvin, Cappie and Rusty, Ashleigh and Casey and Ashleigh and Casey. Rusty and Calvin’s relationship is tricky; Rusty has a lot to learn from Calvin and Calvin has a lot to learn from Rusty. Their relationship from the beginning is built around the idea of a friendship of necessity; both know that they have something the other needs and are willing to give what they can. This is most evident by Calvin’s willingness to assist Rusty in the rushing process. As the show progresses so does their relationship as Rusty becomes the one person Calvin is comfortable telling his secret (he is gay) to. The closest relationship outside these two that resembles it the most is Cappie and Rusty. Cappie, the “big brother” of Rusty within the KT fraternity could be seen as only trying to get to Casey’s heart through little brother. Of course this doesn’t make too much sense seeing that Rusty and Casey are still attempting to define their relationship. Ultimately Cappie sees a little of himself in Rusty and wants to try and help Rusty break out of his shell. Their relationship borders on that of a true fraternal, brotherly, relationship because Cappie does look out for Rusty as a brother would. Likewise, Casey and Ashleigh have a sister-like friendship. Casey and Ashleigh have been friends since freshman year and pledge ZBZ together and are now roommates in the ZBZ house. They are able to go to each other for anything and can always rely on the other but when when disrupts that balance and attempts to make it all about them the relationship begins to shake. Ashleigh and Calvin appear to be of the same type of friendship as what might happen in those circumstances with Ashleigh and Casey. Calvin is a pledge with Omega Chi and offers to assist in the shopping process for the first mixer of the year. Unknown to Ashleigh, Calvin is gay and he feels he is forced to conceal his homosexuality from her. He selfishly, wanting to escape the constant girl loving frat bothers, to assist Ashleigh and in turn she uses him whenever she is in most need of help; specifically in regards to her boyfriend. When Ashleigh discovers the truth of Calvin’s homosexuality she freaks namely due to the one problem that exists between guys and girls, it is difficult to be friends.The most blatant friend of necessity and pleasure in the show is that between Rebecca and Frannie. Frannie is attracted to the idea of adding a Senator’s daughter to the list of members of ZBZ. Rebecca recognizes that she can use her status to influence Frannie in her on going battles with Casey. This relationship has no true merits and is doomed to fail from the beginning because it is only founded upon the idea of mutual assistance.

These first two relationships are the most basic relationships within the show and help to precipitate the events regarding the other relationships. For the most part they are the relationships we strive for day in and day out with those whom we are related to and those whom we aren’t. Greek does a great job of demonstrating the difficulties within life in attempting to build these everlasting ties that make us human. Without familial and friendly relationships we would be hallow shells of what we are suppose to be; these two relationships are by nature. Ultimately they are stronger than the sexual relationships we form between the sexes, but there is a cautionary tale at the end of the road that demonstrates the frailty of these relationships.