Why Ca$h Was Willing To Sacrifice His Freedom in ‘Heartbreak High’ Season 2
Harper’s (Asher Yasbincek) traumatic festival night was at the center of Heartbreak High season 1’s conflict, but she and Amerie (Ayesha Madon) weren’t the only people to be affected by it. Ca$h (Will McDonald), one of the show’s most interesting characters, played a big role in the events of that night, too.
Ca$h was Hartley High’s local drug dealer—he ran with a crew of eshays led by Chook (Tom Wilson), running drugs and hiding stolen goods along with his so-called mates. Ca$h, however, had a harder time with the demands of the “job” than the others, especially once he started a relationship with classmate Darren (James Majoos) and became closer with the other students partaking in the school’s SLT classes.
Just before the start of the school year in Heartbreak High season 1, Amerie and Harper went to a music festival. Once there, they bought drugs from Ca$h and his friends, but in the end, Harper threw them away, deciding that they were better off not taking them. After that, though, Harper and Amerie were separated, and the start of Harper’s harrowing night began.
A few hours later, she woke up in a car with Ca$h, Chook, and the other eshays. Though she hoped they were merely giving her a lift home, their sinister intentions were clear—they had kidnapped her, were driving to the middle of nowhere, and were hyping themselves up to sexually assault her while she was groggy and under the influence of alcohol. At one point, they stopped for gas, and while Chook and the others were busy, Ca$h secretly unlocked the door for Harper, allowing her to flee the car and hide from the other three assailants long enough for them to leave.
In the end, she was forced to walk all the way home in the middle of the night, her best friend Amerie wouldn’t let her stay with her (the result of unfortunate timing and miscommunication), and she was later physically assaulted again by her father when she returned home, who was dealing with severe mental health issues.
How did Cash end up in jail in Heartbreak High season 2?
At the end of season 1, once Harper and Amerie had cleared the air, Amerie convinced Harper that she should go to the police to report the kidnapping and attempted assault. Unfortunately, it was her word against theirs, and she didn’t have any concrete proof. Ca$h, however, stepped up. Despite being the one to essentially save Harper from a much worse fate, he had allowed them to drive off with her in the first place, and he wanted to make it right.
At one point, he stole one of the other guys’ phones and found a video that had been taken the night of the incident. Whilst in the car, one of the boys had filmed them while Harper was still unconscious, making jokes about her appearance and what they wanted to do to her later. Ca$h sent the video to Harper’s phone, giving her the evidence she needed to build a case against the guys who had assaulted her. As such, Ca$h was willing to give up his freedom so that Harper could get justice—he was easily recognizable in the video too, and was arrested along with the others.
Harper did make it clear to the judges that Ca$h was the one who saved her, but the evidence was too compelling, so he was sent to jail while Harper’s lawyers built a case.
Going to jail was a turning point for Cash
Acknowledging what he almost allowed those boys to do to Harper made Ca$h take stock of his life. His relationship with Darren and his grandmother played a big part in that, too. He wanted to be a better person. He wanted to go to class attend the school dance and hang out with his family and friends without looking over his shoulder. He did get the chance to leave that life when Harper decided to drop the case, though Chook certainly didn’t make it easy for him.
Ca$h shouldn’t have let them take Harper to begin with, but at the very least, he got the chance to prove to himself that he wanted to be something more, someone better. Of all the characters in Heartbreak High, Ca$h probably had the most to lose, but he also had the most to gain. Few characters grew as much as he did in both seasons of this messy, compelling, funny, sad, and heartbreaking show, but he deserves to be happy too.
All episodes of Heartbreak High season 2 are now available on Netflix.
(featured image: Netflix)
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