Maya & Campbell: How The Story Of Their Short-Lived Romance Perfectly Continued To Be Told In Death – And How It Transcribed Maya As A Suicide Grief Survivor

As of late, couples have been the subject matters of the latest articles on this blog. Moreover, we’ve been talking about Degrassi lately. First there was the blog post Allie Bhandari and her abusive relationship and marriage to Leo, and then there was Jenna Middleton and her very boring, but very healthy and mature relationship with Connor. Here, we’ll be continuing the conversation of a Degrassi couple; a very short-lived couple on the show, but most probably the most important couple on the show. That is Maya and Campbell.

Maya is first introduced as Katie’s little sister, and the polar opposite of her older sister. Katie has her heart set on playing soccer, whereas Maya is a virtuoso cellist. But they’re both up for new experiences, adventures, and challenges. We see both girls go through their own set of challenges throughout their respective time at Degrassi high school. After suffering a knee injury, Katie is forced to go to rehab after she intakes her mother’s pills to avoid missing out on her important soccer games. While she’s in rehab, Katie gets cheated on by her boyfriend, Drew. It seemed like her world was turning upside down. She was devastated. Drew was the boy Katie lost her virginity to. Of course it meant something to her. More than what it meant to Drew.

Though what Katie had endured was absolutely awful, I think it’s safe to say that it was nothing compared to what Maya had lived through, and starting at just 14 years of age. Her first boyfriend, Campbell, committed suicide. It was a very confusing time for Maya, as well as for the rest of the students at the school. Everyone showed different sort of emotions. Some felt guilt. Some felt sadness. Some felt confusion. Maya felt nothing. She wasn’t the one who found him. Mr. Simpson, better known as Snake, broke the news to Maya and Katie the day after Campbell’s suicide.

Reactions to suicide

It was Eli, Claire’s boyfriend, that found Campbell’s body at school. He didn’t even know Campbell. He never met him when he was alive. They’d never crossed paths, which made complete sense as when Campbell died, he was in grade 9, and Eli was in grade 12 and about to graduate high school. Nevertheless, finding Campbell’s lifeless body affected Eli greatly. At first, we, the viewers, think he had such a hard time with the aftermath of finding a dead body because it’s just assumed it’s traumatizing to find a dead body for anyone. Mr. Simpson was traumatized when he found Claude’s lifeless body in the school bathroom when he was a student at Degrassi.

But there was a much deeper meaning to his grief. When he’s at Mr. Simpson’s office with his father to talk about his behaviour at school, particularly being found by other students, first in the changing room showers and then later in the school hallways running around completely naked. It’s in his office that Eli revealed that the reason he’d been taking Campbell’s lifeless body so hard was because it could’ve been him the previous year. Eli was a young, bright man who’d been struggling with bipolar disorder and was struggling with the aftermath of the death of his girlfriend several years prior. This was very eye opening to men’s mental health, and the shame around mental health in men. In hindsight, that shame was what caused Campbell to commit suicide in the first place.

Campbell was part of Degrassi’s hockey team alongside Luke (he was mentioned in the previous post on Jenna and Connor’s ‘interabled’ relationship) and Dallas, Allie’s future boyfriend and Drew’s best friend. Yes, the same Drew who cheated on Maya’s older sister. Dallas is your typical hockey player macho dude. He’s strong, and, at the same time, sensitive. He’s very serious about his hockey playing career, to the point where I don’t quite think he actually cares about school. With that said, teamwork has always been important to him. Failure wasn’t an option; not from hit and not from his teammates, including Campbell.

Dallas was very hard on Campbell. He didn’t understand what he was going through. No one did. Whenever Campbell tried to tell someone, anyone, what he was feeling, they brushed him off telling him he was just sad and that he’d get over it. Dallas didn’t seem to care about anything that Campbell was trying to tell him. He was just thinking of the game. When Campbell told him he wanted to quit the team, Dallas, in turn, almost enraged, told him to stop being a baby and just play. It was only after Campbell died that Dallas realized that Campbell’s problems were much more severe than he thought. He felt that he wasn’t there for him as he should’ve been. He felt that he failed Campbell.

Seeing Dallas grieve Campbell’s death was something extraordinary and cathartic, in a way. That was the first time ever that we saw him be so emotional about anything. He was so distraught over it that he contemplated ending his own life, but he had something to live for. As we later learned, it was his son that he had at 15 that he had to live for. Campbell’s death certainly changed Dallas as a person. He became more empathetic towards those around him. He became more involved in his son’s life. He wasn’t afraid to show his emotions and say exactly what he feels. He begins to understand emotional intelligence really is, which is why Allie caves after a year of him trying so hard to court her unsuccessfully.

Then there’s Zig. We see him grieve Campbell’s death and take it really hard. It wasn’t because they were friends. They were far from it. They were in a love triangle with Maya, and the day before his suicide, Zig angrily told Campbell to ‘go away forever.’ He felt responsible for Campbell’s death; like he was the one who pushed over the edge. That might’ve been true, but Campbell was suffering long before that ever happened. Campbell passing away gave him a chance to finally be with Maya without interference, but he was willing to wait for her and give her the time she needed to grieve Campbell’s death. Spoiler alert – they do get together, then break up, and get back together. But more on that later.

Maya’s grief

Maya’s grief was unspoken. Mostly, it was because she didn’t want to speak about it. She didn’t want to be, as she put it, ‘the girlfriend of the dead guy.’ But it affected her in more ways than she led on, even in the years that followed. The grief she was going through was affecting the course of her life, at least in her reminder high school years that we got to see. It was affecting her romantic relationships that followed. It was affecting her relationships with her family, particularly with her mother and Maya. It was affecting her relationships with her friends; particularly Tristian, her gay best friend. We initially thought that she first began struggling with depression following her surviving the fateful bus crash that happened on ‘Degrassi: Next Class’, but she actually began showing symptoms of depression much earlier.

When Campbell was still alive and he and Maya were in a relationship, Campbell tried to tell her of his demons. But because she was so unaware of how severe his emotional demons were, and because she had absolutely no clue what depression was in the first place, she brushed his feelings off, smiled, and said to him that he was just sad. In the long-run, this affected her greatly, though it was never said out loud. Maya felt that she could’ve helped more and that Campbell’s death could’ve been avoidable. With that said, Maya NEVER said ‘You’re just sad’ in any future situations that she’d witnessed her loved ones had endured. It was the opposite, actually. She went above and beyond at making sure her loved ones and the people she cared about were okay, and she wouldn’t stand down until she knew herself they were okay. At times, she’d meddle and cross boundaries that shouldn’t have been crossed in the first place.

The first guy Maya dates following Campbell’s death was Miles. He was introduced as a new student in season 13 when they both went on a school trip to France. It was the same trip where Allie Bhandari met her future abusive ex-husband, Leo, and it was also a trip that Jenna and Connor went to together. Maya and Miles’ relationship was filled with turmoil. And just like it was with Campbell, their relationship was interfered by a third-party, Zig. Eventually, Maya and miles broke off their relationship, but Maya never stopped caring about him. She went above and beyond for him in trying to aid him when she saw signs of trouble; mental health troubles in him. At one point, Maya even has a nightmare where Miles is trying to hurt himself the same way Campbell did. It was thereafter that Maya told Campbell that he was ‘just sad.’ Though not said out loud, that moment haunted her in the aftermath, and it showed in the nightmare she had about Miles trying to hurt himself as it mirrored Campbell, except in the nightmare, Maya was there trying to stop Miles from hurting himself.

While she was still dating Miles, Maya couldn’t help herself but help Zig even though she knew Miles had a big issue with it. She didn’t seem to care that he did. She only cared about helping her friend, though her friend never asked her to help him in the first place. As they followed Zig on a random Tuesday (assumingly) after school, Maya and Miles found him living in an abandoned house. It was then that Maya realized Zig was homeless. His mother kicked him out of the house after he stole from the grocery store that she owned. Maya’s family was kind enough to let Zig into their home and live there. It was then that Maya develops real feelings for Zig.

As I mentioned before, Maya’s grief for Campbell didn’t just affect her romantic relationships, though, but her friendships too. Particularly, her friendship with Tristian. Tristian is openly gay. But unlike his brother Owen, who also went to Degrassi as a student. Tristian is a good kid. He’s kind and caring, and he’d never deliberately try to hurt anyone. But he also feels like a loser, especially compared to his brother, who’s a popular jock. He feels like no one likes him, particularly in a romantic way. When Tristian goes to Owen for advice, Owen tells him, ‘The world is full of sharks, Tris. Unless you can adapt, you’re gonna get eaten alive.’ It was a great life hack; not just for high school days, but life in general.

In season 13, Tristian finally gets someone to like him and actually want to be with him. There’s just only one problem – he’s a student teacher at the school; an authority figure. It’s a forbidden romance, and Tristian has no issue with it. In fact, he’s quite excited about it. One person that had an issue with it was Maya. She promised Tristian that she wouldn’t tell anyone, and he made it clear that if she did, he wouldn’t speak to her anymore. She promised him she wouldn’t tell, but did it regardless. She told Mr. Simpson, otherwise known as Snake. The student teacher was suspended with an impending investigation taking place, and as promised, Tristian ended his friendship with Maya for meddling in his personal life. They eventually make up, but their friendship never was the same afterwards.

Maya’s ‘Next Class’…

Maya’s story continued throughout ‘Degrassi: Next Class’, which aired on Netflix between 2016 and 2017. She was the main protagonist of the series’ 4 short seasons. When the show started, she was finally in a good place following a year filled with anxiety and fear. She was in a long-term relationship with Zig. She was in love. She was focusing on her music. She was finally at peace with herself. She was finally in a good place after struggling silently for so long.

As Maya was concentrating on her path in music, her relationship with Zig deteriorated. He became jealous and felt threatened of her budding success. He eventually cheats on her, and when he tells her, he blames her for it, as though it was her fault. She breaks up with him. As much as he tries to get her to forgive him, nothing works. He’s the typical guy who can’t stand seeing his woman be her own person outside of her relationship with him. With that said, she continued living after the breakup. Zig did too. Zig began a relationship with newcomer, Esme.

Esme is the villain in Maya’s story. Though Maya puts on a strong face in public following the break up, she’s obviously struggling watching Zig with another girl, and she obviously still has deep feelings for her ex. But she also knows that she can’t trust him, and she can’t forgive him for betraying that trust. Nevertheless, it gets harder and harder for her to see Zig happy with a someone else. But Maya only sees their ‘cute moments’. What she doesn’t see, though, is the private weirdness that goes on in their relationship.

As the series progresses and we get to know Esme more, we learn that she’s very troubled. In season 1 of ‘Next Class’, she dates Miles. We see her behaviour becoming obsessive really quick. When Miles breaks up with her, she goes as far as pretending that she attempted suicide to get him to talk to her again. She’s afraid to lose the people in her life; to the point that she’ll go miles to get them to stay in her life. She’ll go the distance to get them to stay in her life. The instance with Miles was just the beginning of her story, and just an introduction to her troubles.

Esme’s troubling behaviour only escalated with her relationship with Zig. She’d do anything, literally anything to make herself look more interesting and pleasing to the eye just so that he wouldn’t leave her. She even got into a three-way relationship with Frankie, a fellow female student at Degrassi that she befriends for her own gain and purposes. We later find out that Esme’s mother died by suicide and that she was the one that found her. This revelation to Zig gives more of an insight into who Esme really is and why she is the way she is. It also saves Maya’s life. On one random Tuesday, Esme and Zig were kissing on the school’s rooftop. Just as things were heating up, Esme found Maya lying on the ground after a suicide attempt. Her hatred towards Maya was all a thing of the past for Esme, even after Maya kissed Zig previously, as she desperately tried to save her life. She wouldn’t let her have the same fate as her mother.

Surviving the suicide attempt was a pivotal moment for Maya. She wasn’t herself following that fateful bus crash. Suddenly, the girl who was always helping everyone needed help herself. Her battles mirrored those of her dead ex-boyfriend, Campbell, years prior. When she finally did ask for help, no one would listen. No one ever told her that she was just sad, but they did push her aside because she became unbearable with her mistreatment of those she used to call friends. After she cheated death, however, Maya finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel, and she finally started working on herself and her mental health. Her friends were there along the way too to guide her.

One of those friends was Zig. Though they were no longer together, he was never fully out of her life. Esme felt threatened by it, and in a much more dangerous way than Zig was back when Zig was dating Maya. Zig was very patient with Esme, especially considering her history. He was kind and empathetic towards her, and he didn’t care that his friends were vocal about not liking her. His final straw, though, was when Esme pretended to have an asthma attack to get Zig’s attention. The breakup only escalated Esme’s troubling behaviour though. Zig began developing feelings again for Maya. Esme saw their budding romance blossom again, and couldn’t handle it. She couldn’t handle someone else besides her having Zig, especially Maya. She kept trying to get Zig to agree with her that they needed to get back together time and time again, but no avail. They were together for a year, which is an eternity in high school years. It’s also an eternity considering Esme’s obsessive behaviour and mental health crisis.

When nothing she did worked to get Zig to fall in love with her again, Esme goes to prom to see him. She wasn’t welcome there as she wasn’t the one graduating. But she knew he’d be there, and she knew he’d be there with Maya. Zig asked her to be his date to prom. When she gets there, she asks to speak to him privately. Despite his hesitations, he goes to speak with her. Things don’t go well for Zig as Esme physically assaults Zig and pushes him down a hill. He doesn’t tell anyone what actually happened. He doesn’t want Esme to get in trouble. It didn’t even end there, though. During graduation, Esme shows up at school with a gift for Zig – a motorcycle. Her obsessive behaviour towards Zig is uncontrollable; so much so that her peers and friends watch her in horror and a teacher is called for help.

That was the last we see of Esme. That was the last we see of anyone as that was the last ever episode of the ‘Degrassi’ franchise, so far at least. What’s next for the characters was left unknown and open-ended. The ending for Maya and Zig was left open-ended and left some questions to be answered – are they back together or are they just friends? Just recently, Stefan Brogren, the actor behind Mr. Simpson, who also produced and directed ‘Degrassi: Next Class’, said in an interview that they did, in fact, rekindle their romance.

I hate this…

I hate this ending for Maya. She deserved better. She deserved the world. She deserved a fresh start. Instead, she was given a full-circle moment that, in the real world, just wouldn’t work. It just wasn’t a healthy decision to be in a relationship again with Zig. And it wasn’t that Zig was a bad guy, because he really wasn’t. He made some mistakes, but who doesn’t? Life is all about messing up, especially at such a young age as in the high school years. Instead, it was because Maya needed a fresh start; a completely fresh start. A blank page kind of fresh start. She needed to see the world without her past getting in the way of her path. She needed to leave high school behind, and everyone else that she knew then too. That would’ve been the perfect ending for Maya in my eyes.

Maya’s life was turned upside down at a very early age; at a TOO early age. You shouldn’t know what real heartbreak is at 14, but she knew exactly what it was. She knew too much about it. Campbell tried to spare her by breaking up with her before he committed suicide, but it didn’t work. In hindsight, it made it all worse. As Maya said herself, he broke up with her by killing himself. Him leaving her this way was what hurt her the most in her life. So much so that she couldn’t even say his name thereafter in the years that followed.

Though Campbell’s time was short on the show, his presence was always felt through Maya’s journey with surviving suicide loss. In a way, he wasn’t really gone. Throughout her entire high school journey, she was grieving that loss. Though never said out loud, she was grieving. She experienced the type of loss as a child that so many people can’t handle in adulthood. Statistics show that those who’ve lost loved ones to suicide are more likely to commit suicide themselves.

Throughout the years, Maya kept asking the same question. ‘Why?’ Why did Campbell have to leave this way? The clear answer to that is…there really isn’t one. Suicide is very complex, and it’s never just about one thing. There could be so many things contributing to the action. Even if someone attempts suicide and survives, they won’t have a clear answer as to why they chose that route. Most people who do commit suicide struggle with depression, anxiety, and/other mental disorders. Campbell did struggle with PTSD, and he did try to get help. But no one would listen. He was just told that he was just sad, he’d get over it, and that he should stop being such a baby. On one of his last days alive, he told Allie, who tutored him, ‘I wish I went to sleep and never woke up.’ Right at that moment, she should’ve went to Mr. Simpson to get Campbell the help he needed. But she didn’t think it was that serious.

When he finally committed suicide, Campbell wasn’t thinking of Maya, or his family, who he was very close with, and how they’d feel if he died. He was thinking of himself. He was thinking that life wasn’t worth living anymore and he’d be much better off if he wasn’t on this earth. To many, suicide seems selfish. Others might feel guilty because they feel they could’ve stopped their loved one from ending their own life. Maya felt a mix of emotions following Campbell’s death. All of those feelings were valid. She’s a suicide grief survivor. Esme is also a suicide grief survivor. Her feelings were valid too. Maya isn’t a bad person. Esme isn’t a bad person. They both struggle with deep emotions that they don’t know how to cope with.

There’s no right or wrong way to cope with grief. It’s about coping with it in the best way that’s right for you, individually. What could work for Maya might not work for Esme, and vice versa. Grief is a moving river. You don’t ever fully get over it. When the show ended, Esme was obviously deep in her grief following her mother’s suicide. Maya is on her path to recovery. We see her finally be in a good place in her life. The bus crash, and the depression she faced thereafter, and then her own suicide attempt was pivotal in her dealing with Campbell’s death. I just wish that she had a different ending. That’s why in my mind, Maya went off to college as a single woman, finally happy, finally free, and finally ready to move forward with her life. She’s gone off to college leaving her past behind her. She’s off to college excited for a fresh start, making new friends, dating new boys, and making new memories with people who know nothing of her past.