41. Morrie the Genius
A discussion on exceptional characters.
By David Hilder | April 29, 2022
A discussion on exceptional characters.
By David Hilder | April 29, 2022
Some of the most popular characters in fiction have something in common. From Sherlock Holmes, to Superman, to Mr. Spock, to Dr. Strange, they’re not ordinary people. These kinds of characters have incredible intellects or superhuman powers. They do the extraordinary and make it seem easy. They are exceptional. Characters with skills that we can only dream of are all the rage these days. Just look at the Avengers. Ordinary characters, though, have their place as well. Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee do not have the magical powers of Gandalf or the fighting prowess of Aragorn. In contrast to the exceptional characters, the hobbits can better be described as “everyman” characters—people more like us. Exceptional characters, whether they’re wizards or superheroes or Jedi knights, are not like us at all in their abilities.
Adventures in Odyssey has a number of exceptional characters, the latest of which was supposed to be Morrie Rydell, the computer whiz kid who is no match for school computers or U.S. embassies. Named after the brilliant criminal mastermind Professor Moriarty, the nemesis of Sherlock Holmes, Morrie has big shoes to fill.
Now, does Morrie live up to the hype? Judging from the fan controversy surrounding his saga so far, the answer is clearly no. Rather than setting up a cohesive story arc building to a clearly defined conflict and satisfying conclusion, episodes in the Rydell saga seem irregular, disjointed, and unnecessarily convoluted. The moral messages of each individual show are often unclear and Mr. Whittaker seems unsure, even misguided, about how to handle things. The episodes’ common thread is that they feel strange. Does Morrie have a master plan besides playing games and manipulating people for his own pleasure? It’s hard to tell. You certainly can’t trust anything Morrie has to say about it. Granted, the Rydell saga/story arc doesn’t appear to be over yet. Morrie is a character who has created a lot of unresolved tension, both in the show and the fandom, and that tension needs to be dealt with.
Morrie isn’t the first exceptional character to appear on AIO. It turns out a number of prominent characters on the show can be placed in this category. The main character after all is John Avery Whittaker. I don’t have to remind you how amazing Whit is. His groundbreaking inventions, including hyper-realistic virtual reality (the Imagination Station), possible artificial intelligence (Mabel), and a top-secret military program (Applesauce) were all introduced early on in the show and are far ahead of their time. And the interactive portraits gallery introduced in Album 50, which allows kids to have conversations with historical figures akin to the magical portraits in Harry Potter, has continued Mr. Whittaker’s artificial intelligence project. Whit may appear to be just a kindly, grandfatherly shopkeeper to some, but his work speaks for itself. Whit is a genius inventor.
Eugene Meltsner, of course, is a genius in the more stereotypical sense. His geeky sensibilities are on display for all to see as he computer programs his way through life. His bespectacled appearance and his superlative vocabulary never leave you in any doubt. Mr. Whittaker is one of the few who can understand what Eugene is saying half the time. Eugene’s genius leads him down the inventive route as well, bringing him into some hot water with Novacom’s goons over his brain waves research.
Renee Carter is a more recent addition to Adventures in Odyssey’s club of intellectuals. Named after Descartes, the genius mathematician who invented Cartesian coordinates, Renee pursues mathematics as if it was the only way to truth and meaning. Her passion for computers and mechanical engineering rivals that of Eugene’s. But she’s not exactly like Eugene. According to an October 2016 Official Podcast interview with AIO co-creator Phil Lollar, you can compare Whit’s End to the USS Enterprise from Star Trek. If Eugene is the equivalent of the logical, science-minded Mr. Spock, Renee is the equivalent of the engineer Scotty, and Whit as the leader is like Captain Kirk. Connie is Dr. McCoy, not because she has any medical expertise—she doesn’t—but because she bickers with Eugene in the same way the opinionated Dr. McCoy gets a thrill out of arguing with Spock. Time will tell how prominent Renee becomes on AIO.
Connie Kendall is the most prominent Adventures in Odyssey character not to fall into the exceptional category. Like Frodo and Sam, Connie is an “everyman” character. She may not have the knowledge, skills, and expertise of Whit, Eugene, or Renee. But she’s down-to-earth and relatable. I don’t know if you’ve invented any virtual reality devices lately, but you probably remember the last time you were late for work or school, or dropped a dish of ice cream on the floor. For many adult listeners of Adventures in Odyssey, Connie is the most relatable person on the show. You may not have a Eugene in your life, but you probably know someone in your life like Connie, or you might even identify with her personally. As I’ve said in a previous editorial, Connie is one of us.
Jason Whittaker, a cross between James Bond and Indiana Jones, is another main character who happens to be exceptional. Though he did inherit some of his father’s inventiveness, Jason’s brilliance lies more in his expertise in spy craft. His work with the NSA and the FBI lead to the capture of several criminals, including the Whisperer and Mr. Grote. His adventures take him around the world, from London to Switzerland to the Middle East. It’s not your average character that can navigate the world of international espionage. Like the heroes of Mission: Impossible, Jason does the impossible that we ordinary citizens can only dream of.
In terms of villains, Dr. Regis Blackgaard stands out as exceptional. With his skills in deception he manages to fool the NSA into thinking he’s a good guy and then fakes his own death in A Name, Not a Number (Album 22). With his skills in rhetoric he’s able to easily explain away his various misdeeds, leading Connie to accuse him of having “more loopholes than a spaghetti strainer.” But it’s his skills in manipulating people as pieces in his game that makes him such as threat. From his control of his pawns Richard Maxwell, Philip Glossman, and Jellyfish, to his exploitation of Lucy in Album 5 and then manipulation of Aubrey Shepard in Album 33, Blackgaard is an evil genius who you definitely wouldn’t want to come across in real life.
Exceptional kids have featured on Adventures in Odyssey as well, though they have been more rare until recently. The Potential in Elliot (Album 19) features one-time character Elliot Richie, a boy genius with a penchant for dangerous science experiments. Trent DeWhite is a more mainstream character who is placed in a gifted class in Potential Possibilities (Album 43). But Trent is probably better known for his wild imagination than above average intelligence. Nicholas Adamsworth, on the other hand, comes closest to being a proto-Morrie, especially with his later appearance in The Power (Album 17). In this episode Nicholas uses his computer expertise to change grades and school attendance records, as well as hack into the library. Sam Johnson worries that Nicholas may be able to access government and bank records and ruin people’s lives as he chooses. Nicholas says, “Computers are the gateway to the future, the pathway to advancement for kids like me.” Well, another kid like that has arrived: Morrie Rydell.
Morrie combines the technical expertise of Nicholas Adamsworth with the manipulation tactics of Richard Maxwell and Dr. Blackgaard. Morrie knows how people think and how to influence them, whether they’re voters in an election for student body president or employees at a U.S. embassy. Maybe Morrie and Blackgaard got their degrees in psychology from the same school.
Just as Blackgaard served as a foil to Whit, challenging his methods of reaching out to kids with his own shop full of arcade games, Morrie is another foil. And not just because both Morrie and Whit were precocious as children. Morrie makes the argument that he and Mr. Whittaker are actually very similar in their methods. He says that they both want to influence people to do what’s right, or what they think is right. For Morrie, that means manipulation when necessary. The ends justify the means. And he doesn’t see how Mr. Whittaker’s methods, like using the Imagination Station and the Room of Consequence to help kids make better decisions, are so different from his own methods. As of yet, Whit has not offered a proper rebuttal to Morrie’s argument.
This challenge to Mr. Whittaker presents an interesting opportunity for the writers. It challenges everything Mr. Whittaker has been doing to help kids since Whit’s End was created. And it has deeper significance too, because it’s a challenge someone might just as easily level against Adventures in Odyssey itself. A non-Christian might accuse AIO of manipulation, of trying to indoctrinate kids with Christian values. It’s a challenge that shouldn’t be dismissed. It deserves a thoughtful answer.
Morrie’s challenge might help explain why Mr. Whittaker continues to be so standoffish. Rather than trying to control things, he’s held back. Morrie’s accusation that Whit tends to manipulate things basically sends this message: “Back off, Mr. Whittaker. If you interfere and help Emily, it proves you’re only a manipulator just like me.” Maybe this is part of the reason Whit hasn’t stepped in to guide Emily in this situation as much as we would like. The problem, though, is that this would mean Whit implicitly agrees with Morrie’s argument. To offer advice, or to shut down Morrie’s schemes, would be to manipulate, according to the argument. By staying on the sidelines, Whit is playing into Morrie’s twisted game. And that only leads to people getting hurt. If there was a time for Whit to step in it was during the nightmare escape room where Matthew and Emily thought they were going to die due to a lack of oxygen. They were forced to make to make the life and death decision about who would get the only oxygen mask. We learn later that Whit supposedly knew about Morrie’s escape room scheme, but allowed it to play out anyways. Preventing children from experiencing that kind of trauma would not have been manipulation on Whit’s part. It would be what we’d expect from the Mr. Whittaker we know and love.
Now, the fact that this challenge to Whit is coming from a kid is unusual. Having kid villains is definitely an interesting change from the regular, but it does come with an added layer of complication. Adult villains who are up to nefarious deeds is one thing. But when it’s a kid you’ve got to ask the question: Where are their parents? When you’ve got Morrie and Suzu running roughshod with no adult supervision, flouting the rules when they see fit, you don’t just have a villain problem. You have a breakdown of the family structure and proper parent-child relationships. I’m glad this was at least acknowledged in The Rydell Revelations (Album 69), with Whit making the point that it’s not good for Morrie and Suzu’s father to be absent from their lives. Morrie and Suzu’s actions are more understandable considering how they were raised. But if Whit is going to be their guardian now, you’d expect him to be more present in recent episodes of the saga.
When I think of Morrie and Suzu, I have to think of the type of kid characters we find in Harry Potter: brilliant, powerful, and impervious to adult intervention. They’re constantly taking things into their own hands rather than confiding in parents or teachers. And Harry Potter of course falls into the category of exceptional characters we’ve been discussing. He’s a boy wizard who the biggest, baddest wizard out there is afraid of. But does that mean Harry is above the rules? Just because he’s the chosen one, does that make is okay for him to sneak around in the Forbidden Forest or practice unknown spells on his classmates? Just because Morrie is a genius who says he wants to bring out the good in people, does that mean he should be allowed to do whatever he wants?
One might make the argument that exceptional characters deserve more latitude. They don’t have to follow the same rules as everyone else. With great power comes great leeway. (Isn’t that how the saying goes?) Mr. Whittaker himself makes a similar statement during the Rydell saga. He says that Morrie, Suzu, and Emily are “special” and “gifted”, which allows him to treat them differently. He compares them to himself as child and says he was granted the freedom to experiment and try things out for himself.
But there are rules for a reason. Kids are not adults. When you’re training up a child, they need definite rules if they’re going to be guided in the way they should go. And adults need rules too. A leader who sets themselves up as above the rules quickly becomes a tyrant. I’m reminded of Uncle Andrew from The Magician’s Nephew, C.S. Lewis’s Narnia prequel. He believes that rules are all right to have for ordinary people, the everyman characters so to speak. But not exceptional people such as himself. Uncle Andrew says, “Men like me who possess hidden wisdom, are freed from common rules.” The White Witch says the same thing later in the book. She says, “You must learn, child, that what would be wrong for you or for any of the common people is not wrong in a great Queen such as I. The weight of the world is on our shoulders. We must be freed from all rules. Ours is a high and lonely destiny.”
When you put it that way, it’s obvious how people with exceptional abilities can abuse their position. But when you’re placed in a less-than-ideal situation, it’s true that doing the right thing isn’t always so clearcut. For example, we know it’s wrong for us to lie and deceive. But what about for an international spy like Jason Whittaker? This is where things get complicated. I’ve discussed this issue at length in Editorial 35: The Spy Who Lied to Me. Being a moral spy requires hard choices. Sometimes there is no perfect solution. Lying can be a necessary act for spies in the same way that killing is necessary for soldiers. But that doesn’t make it good. In this situation, practice does not make perfect. Rather, prologued exposure to such a practice takes a heavy toll.
Over time these necessary acts numb and confuse us. That’s what leads Jason down a dark road in The Labyrinth (Album 55). He begins to lose sight of what’s right and wrong. Jason briefly considers going along with Agent Billings’ plan to kill Mr. Grote when they have him at their mercy. An earlier version of the script had Jason doing that very thing, before it was changed to have Jason prevent the killing. Jason’s adventure brings him to his limit as he questions everything he’s been doing as a spy, living in lies in order to save the truth. He asks, “How’s a man supposed to do that? I mean, even for a good cause?”
Morrie wants the good, or at least that’s what he says. But none of the convoluted scenarios Morrie sets up are necessary acts. You don’t get to use the defense that you’re in a less-than-ideal situation if you were the one who specifically designed that situation. And Morrie’s methods are twisted to the point that I doubt his intentions are good. If he wants what’s good, wouldn’t he show more remorse after putting Emily and Matthew through the escape room? Wouldn’t he recognize the negative effect he continues to have on Emily? Unlike Morrie, Jason is sensitive to the cost and consequences of his actions. He has a reckoning as he realizes that his elevated position as a spy doesn’t mean he's off the hook for his choices.
Jason isn’t the only exceptional AIO character to be humbled. Eugene’s faith journey helps him discover the limits of his scientific knowledge. He realizes how his abilities can only take him so far and he surrenders himself to God. Renee is on a similar faith journey that has yet to reach its conclusion. Dr. Blackgaard sees his exceptional abilities fail him in the climax of Album 25. Despite all his efforts to pursue his own freedom and power, he can’t escape God’s justice. Nicholas Adamsworth reaches his limit too. He’s in the middle of hacking some financial records when a power surge fries his computer and sabotages his scheme.
And Mr. Whittaker himself has been put in his place multiple times over the course of the show. In terms of finding the limits of his technical abilities, The Mortal Coil (Album 16) is most relevant here. Whit’s Imagination Station program on the afterlife is so powerful that it makes him want to stop living. It almost causes his own death. Whit later recognizes that in his inventive fervor he did something he shouldn’t have done. He went too far with his talents and abilities. It turns out there are rules you can’t break, no matter who you are. Being exceptional doesn’t mean everyone follows the rules except for you. Tom Riley was there to challenge Whit in that episode, but sadly that is no longer an option. So who’s left to correct Whit when he’s wrong? Wilson Knox comes to mind as a candidate, but unfortunately he’s been nowhere in this saga.
Our exceptional AIO characters may have tremendous abilities, but eventually they always run up against limits which humble them and put them in their place. Sometimes it puts them on a new path towards a responsible use of their talents. And other times it brings their journey to an abrupt end. In my previous editorial I talked about how the Chairman of the Novacom saga needs to have a day of reckoning. There needs to be a limit placed on his nefarious activities. Now, I’m not saying Morrie is the equivalent to the Chairman. The reality is that we all need a day of spiritual reckoning, a moment when we realize that we’re not the arbiters of truth and justice—God is. It’s God who gives us our talents, and therefore God and the principles he’s laid out in the Bible should determine how we use those talents.
Morrie Rydell has still not experienced his reckoning. In his case I’m not necessarily talking about a conversion to faith. He hasn’t experienced a reckoning which has put an end to his current path of manipulation. For that to happen he needs to experience the consequences of his actions and show some genuine remorse. The Rydell Revelations (Album 69) served to reveal many of his misdeeds to the audience, but it doesn’t appear to alter his behaviour very much. He’s back with his old tricks again in Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off (Album 70) and The Team (Album 71). He deliberately arranges things so that Emily must rely on him and his sister Suzu to solve the problem of Cooper’s blackmailer. This is all in an effort to put the pressure on Emily to join his team of exceptional people, a team that apparently has free reign to go behind the principal’s back and break into his computer. Morrie hasn’t learned his lesson. As far as we know he has no regrets about the harm he’s done to Emily. In fact, he’s still trying to manipulate and push her around. And he’s still unnecessarily resorting to his shady methods to bring about his desired outcome, all without parent supervision.
If Emily decides to bow to the pressure and join Morrie and Suzu’s team, then I think a day of reckoning is coming for all three of them. And for Mr. Whittaker too. And that’s not a bad thing. When exceptional characters face a reckoning, they become more relatable just like the “everyman” characters. We see them confronting their flaws and changing course. It’s hard to tell if Adventures in Odyssey will be willing to go there after everything we’ve been through in the Rydell saga. It would force Whit to deal with his own missteps, reversing course from his previous attitude. But I think we have to go there. Emily has lost her trust in Mr. Whittaker after all. That’s not something to gloss over. Their reconciliation could humanize Whit to a degree we haven’t seen on the show before, which could possibly redeem the Morrie arc in the eyes of fans. Can Morrie himself be redeemed? Time will tell. But it starts with Morrie recognizing how his trust in his own abilities steered him wrong, causing real damage. Even exceptional characters have their limits. It’s time Morrie learned his.
Adventures in Odyssey has a number of exceptional characters, the latest of which was supposed to be Morrie Rydell, the computer whiz kid who is no match for school computers or U.S. embassies. Named after the brilliant criminal mastermind Professor Moriarty, the nemesis of Sherlock Holmes, Morrie has big shoes to fill.
Now, does Morrie live up to the hype? Judging from the fan controversy surrounding his saga so far, the answer is clearly no. Rather than setting up a cohesive story arc building to a clearly defined conflict and satisfying conclusion, episodes in the Rydell saga seem irregular, disjointed, and unnecessarily convoluted. The moral messages of each individual show are often unclear and Mr. Whittaker seems unsure, even misguided, about how to handle things. The episodes’ common thread is that they feel strange. Does Morrie have a master plan besides playing games and manipulating people for his own pleasure? It’s hard to tell. You certainly can’t trust anything Morrie has to say about it. Granted, the Rydell saga/story arc doesn’t appear to be over yet. Morrie is a character who has created a lot of unresolved tension, both in the show and the fandom, and that tension needs to be dealt with.
Morrie isn’t the first exceptional character to appear on AIO. It turns out a number of prominent characters on the show can be placed in this category. The main character after all is John Avery Whittaker. I don’t have to remind you how amazing Whit is. His groundbreaking inventions, including hyper-realistic virtual reality (the Imagination Station), possible artificial intelligence (Mabel), and a top-secret military program (Applesauce) were all introduced early on in the show and are far ahead of their time. And the interactive portraits gallery introduced in Album 50, which allows kids to have conversations with historical figures akin to the magical portraits in Harry Potter, has continued Mr. Whittaker’s artificial intelligence project. Whit may appear to be just a kindly, grandfatherly shopkeeper to some, but his work speaks for itself. Whit is a genius inventor.
Eugene Meltsner, of course, is a genius in the more stereotypical sense. His geeky sensibilities are on display for all to see as he computer programs his way through life. His bespectacled appearance and his superlative vocabulary never leave you in any doubt. Mr. Whittaker is one of the few who can understand what Eugene is saying half the time. Eugene’s genius leads him down the inventive route as well, bringing him into some hot water with Novacom’s goons over his brain waves research.
Renee Carter is a more recent addition to Adventures in Odyssey’s club of intellectuals. Named after Descartes, the genius mathematician who invented Cartesian coordinates, Renee pursues mathematics as if it was the only way to truth and meaning. Her passion for computers and mechanical engineering rivals that of Eugene’s. But she’s not exactly like Eugene. According to an October 2016 Official Podcast interview with AIO co-creator Phil Lollar, you can compare Whit’s End to the USS Enterprise from Star Trek. If Eugene is the equivalent of the logical, science-minded Mr. Spock, Renee is the equivalent of the engineer Scotty, and Whit as the leader is like Captain Kirk. Connie is Dr. McCoy, not because she has any medical expertise—she doesn’t—but because she bickers with Eugene in the same way the opinionated Dr. McCoy gets a thrill out of arguing with Spock. Time will tell how prominent Renee becomes on AIO.
Connie Kendall is the most prominent Adventures in Odyssey character not to fall into the exceptional category. Like Frodo and Sam, Connie is an “everyman” character. She may not have the knowledge, skills, and expertise of Whit, Eugene, or Renee. But she’s down-to-earth and relatable. I don’t know if you’ve invented any virtual reality devices lately, but you probably remember the last time you were late for work or school, or dropped a dish of ice cream on the floor. For many adult listeners of Adventures in Odyssey, Connie is the most relatable person on the show. You may not have a Eugene in your life, but you probably know someone in your life like Connie, or you might even identify with her personally. As I’ve said in a previous editorial, Connie is one of us.
Jason Whittaker, a cross between James Bond and Indiana Jones, is another main character who happens to be exceptional. Though he did inherit some of his father’s inventiveness, Jason’s brilliance lies more in his expertise in spy craft. His work with the NSA and the FBI lead to the capture of several criminals, including the Whisperer and Mr. Grote. His adventures take him around the world, from London to Switzerland to the Middle East. It’s not your average character that can navigate the world of international espionage. Like the heroes of Mission: Impossible, Jason does the impossible that we ordinary citizens can only dream of.
In terms of villains, Dr. Regis Blackgaard stands out as exceptional. With his skills in deception he manages to fool the NSA into thinking he’s a good guy and then fakes his own death in A Name, Not a Number (Album 22). With his skills in rhetoric he’s able to easily explain away his various misdeeds, leading Connie to accuse him of having “more loopholes than a spaghetti strainer.” But it’s his skills in manipulating people as pieces in his game that makes him such as threat. From his control of his pawns Richard Maxwell, Philip Glossman, and Jellyfish, to his exploitation of Lucy in Album 5 and then manipulation of Aubrey Shepard in Album 33, Blackgaard is an evil genius who you definitely wouldn’t want to come across in real life.
Exceptional kids have featured on Adventures in Odyssey as well, though they have been more rare until recently. The Potential in Elliot (Album 19) features one-time character Elliot Richie, a boy genius with a penchant for dangerous science experiments. Trent DeWhite is a more mainstream character who is placed in a gifted class in Potential Possibilities (Album 43). But Trent is probably better known for his wild imagination than above average intelligence. Nicholas Adamsworth, on the other hand, comes closest to being a proto-Morrie, especially with his later appearance in The Power (Album 17). In this episode Nicholas uses his computer expertise to change grades and school attendance records, as well as hack into the library. Sam Johnson worries that Nicholas may be able to access government and bank records and ruin people’s lives as he chooses. Nicholas says, “Computers are the gateway to the future, the pathway to advancement for kids like me.” Well, another kid like that has arrived: Morrie Rydell.
Morrie combines the technical expertise of Nicholas Adamsworth with the manipulation tactics of Richard Maxwell and Dr. Blackgaard. Morrie knows how people think and how to influence them, whether they’re voters in an election for student body president or employees at a U.S. embassy. Maybe Morrie and Blackgaard got their degrees in psychology from the same school.
Just as Blackgaard served as a foil to Whit, challenging his methods of reaching out to kids with his own shop full of arcade games, Morrie is another foil. And not just because both Morrie and Whit were precocious as children. Morrie makes the argument that he and Mr. Whittaker are actually very similar in their methods. He says that they both want to influence people to do what’s right, or what they think is right. For Morrie, that means manipulation when necessary. The ends justify the means. And he doesn’t see how Mr. Whittaker’s methods, like using the Imagination Station and the Room of Consequence to help kids make better decisions, are so different from his own methods. As of yet, Whit has not offered a proper rebuttal to Morrie’s argument.
This challenge to Mr. Whittaker presents an interesting opportunity for the writers. It challenges everything Mr. Whittaker has been doing to help kids since Whit’s End was created. And it has deeper significance too, because it’s a challenge someone might just as easily level against Adventures in Odyssey itself. A non-Christian might accuse AIO of manipulation, of trying to indoctrinate kids with Christian values. It’s a challenge that shouldn’t be dismissed. It deserves a thoughtful answer.
Morrie’s challenge might help explain why Mr. Whittaker continues to be so standoffish. Rather than trying to control things, he’s held back. Morrie’s accusation that Whit tends to manipulate things basically sends this message: “Back off, Mr. Whittaker. If you interfere and help Emily, it proves you’re only a manipulator just like me.” Maybe this is part of the reason Whit hasn’t stepped in to guide Emily in this situation as much as we would like. The problem, though, is that this would mean Whit implicitly agrees with Morrie’s argument. To offer advice, or to shut down Morrie’s schemes, would be to manipulate, according to the argument. By staying on the sidelines, Whit is playing into Morrie’s twisted game. And that only leads to people getting hurt. If there was a time for Whit to step in it was during the nightmare escape room where Matthew and Emily thought they were going to die due to a lack of oxygen. They were forced to make to make the life and death decision about who would get the only oxygen mask. We learn later that Whit supposedly knew about Morrie’s escape room scheme, but allowed it to play out anyways. Preventing children from experiencing that kind of trauma would not have been manipulation on Whit’s part. It would be what we’d expect from the Mr. Whittaker we know and love.
Now, the fact that this challenge to Whit is coming from a kid is unusual. Having kid villains is definitely an interesting change from the regular, but it does come with an added layer of complication. Adult villains who are up to nefarious deeds is one thing. But when it’s a kid you’ve got to ask the question: Where are their parents? When you’ve got Morrie and Suzu running roughshod with no adult supervision, flouting the rules when they see fit, you don’t just have a villain problem. You have a breakdown of the family structure and proper parent-child relationships. I’m glad this was at least acknowledged in The Rydell Revelations (Album 69), with Whit making the point that it’s not good for Morrie and Suzu’s father to be absent from their lives. Morrie and Suzu’s actions are more understandable considering how they were raised. But if Whit is going to be their guardian now, you’d expect him to be more present in recent episodes of the saga.
When I think of Morrie and Suzu, I have to think of the type of kid characters we find in Harry Potter: brilliant, powerful, and impervious to adult intervention. They’re constantly taking things into their own hands rather than confiding in parents or teachers. And Harry Potter of course falls into the category of exceptional characters we’ve been discussing. He’s a boy wizard who the biggest, baddest wizard out there is afraid of. But does that mean Harry is above the rules? Just because he’s the chosen one, does that make is okay for him to sneak around in the Forbidden Forest or practice unknown spells on his classmates? Just because Morrie is a genius who says he wants to bring out the good in people, does that mean he should be allowed to do whatever he wants?
One might make the argument that exceptional characters deserve more latitude. They don’t have to follow the same rules as everyone else. With great power comes great leeway. (Isn’t that how the saying goes?) Mr. Whittaker himself makes a similar statement during the Rydell saga. He says that Morrie, Suzu, and Emily are “special” and “gifted”, which allows him to treat them differently. He compares them to himself as child and says he was granted the freedom to experiment and try things out for himself.
But there are rules for a reason. Kids are not adults. When you’re training up a child, they need definite rules if they’re going to be guided in the way they should go. And adults need rules too. A leader who sets themselves up as above the rules quickly becomes a tyrant. I’m reminded of Uncle Andrew from The Magician’s Nephew, C.S. Lewis’s Narnia prequel. He believes that rules are all right to have for ordinary people, the everyman characters so to speak. But not exceptional people such as himself. Uncle Andrew says, “Men like me who possess hidden wisdom, are freed from common rules.” The White Witch says the same thing later in the book. She says, “You must learn, child, that what would be wrong for you or for any of the common people is not wrong in a great Queen such as I. The weight of the world is on our shoulders. We must be freed from all rules. Ours is a high and lonely destiny.”
When you put it that way, it’s obvious how people with exceptional abilities can abuse their position. But when you’re placed in a less-than-ideal situation, it’s true that doing the right thing isn’t always so clearcut. For example, we know it’s wrong for us to lie and deceive. But what about for an international spy like Jason Whittaker? This is where things get complicated. I’ve discussed this issue at length in Editorial 35: The Spy Who Lied to Me. Being a moral spy requires hard choices. Sometimes there is no perfect solution. Lying can be a necessary act for spies in the same way that killing is necessary for soldiers. But that doesn’t make it good. In this situation, practice does not make perfect. Rather, prologued exposure to such a practice takes a heavy toll.
Over time these necessary acts numb and confuse us. That’s what leads Jason down a dark road in The Labyrinth (Album 55). He begins to lose sight of what’s right and wrong. Jason briefly considers going along with Agent Billings’ plan to kill Mr. Grote when they have him at their mercy. An earlier version of the script had Jason doing that very thing, before it was changed to have Jason prevent the killing. Jason’s adventure brings him to his limit as he questions everything he’s been doing as a spy, living in lies in order to save the truth. He asks, “How’s a man supposed to do that? I mean, even for a good cause?”
Morrie wants the good, or at least that’s what he says. But none of the convoluted scenarios Morrie sets up are necessary acts. You don’t get to use the defense that you’re in a less-than-ideal situation if you were the one who specifically designed that situation. And Morrie’s methods are twisted to the point that I doubt his intentions are good. If he wants what’s good, wouldn’t he show more remorse after putting Emily and Matthew through the escape room? Wouldn’t he recognize the negative effect he continues to have on Emily? Unlike Morrie, Jason is sensitive to the cost and consequences of his actions. He has a reckoning as he realizes that his elevated position as a spy doesn’t mean he's off the hook for his choices.
Jason isn’t the only exceptional AIO character to be humbled. Eugene’s faith journey helps him discover the limits of his scientific knowledge. He realizes how his abilities can only take him so far and he surrenders himself to God. Renee is on a similar faith journey that has yet to reach its conclusion. Dr. Blackgaard sees his exceptional abilities fail him in the climax of Album 25. Despite all his efforts to pursue his own freedom and power, he can’t escape God’s justice. Nicholas Adamsworth reaches his limit too. He’s in the middle of hacking some financial records when a power surge fries his computer and sabotages his scheme.
And Mr. Whittaker himself has been put in his place multiple times over the course of the show. In terms of finding the limits of his technical abilities, The Mortal Coil (Album 16) is most relevant here. Whit’s Imagination Station program on the afterlife is so powerful that it makes him want to stop living. It almost causes his own death. Whit later recognizes that in his inventive fervor he did something he shouldn’t have done. He went too far with his talents and abilities. It turns out there are rules you can’t break, no matter who you are. Being exceptional doesn’t mean everyone follows the rules except for you. Tom Riley was there to challenge Whit in that episode, but sadly that is no longer an option. So who’s left to correct Whit when he’s wrong? Wilson Knox comes to mind as a candidate, but unfortunately he’s been nowhere in this saga.
Our exceptional AIO characters may have tremendous abilities, but eventually they always run up against limits which humble them and put them in their place. Sometimes it puts them on a new path towards a responsible use of their talents. And other times it brings their journey to an abrupt end. In my previous editorial I talked about how the Chairman of the Novacom saga needs to have a day of reckoning. There needs to be a limit placed on his nefarious activities. Now, I’m not saying Morrie is the equivalent to the Chairman. The reality is that we all need a day of spiritual reckoning, a moment when we realize that we’re not the arbiters of truth and justice—God is. It’s God who gives us our talents, and therefore God and the principles he’s laid out in the Bible should determine how we use those talents.
Morrie Rydell has still not experienced his reckoning. In his case I’m not necessarily talking about a conversion to faith. He hasn’t experienced a reckoning which has put an end to his current path of manipulation. For that to happen he needs to experience the consequences of his actions and show some genuine remorse. The Rydell Revelations (Album 69) served to reveal many of his misdeeds to the audience, but it doesn’t appear to alter his behaviour very much. He’s back with his old tricks again in Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off (Album 70) and The Team (Album 71). He deliberately arranges things so that Emily must rely on him and his sister Suzu to solve the problem of Cooper’s blackmailer. This is all in an effort to put the pressure on Emily to join his team of exceptional people, a team that apparently has free reign to go behind the principal’s back and break into his computer. Morrie hasn’t learned his lesson. As far as we know he has no regrets about the harm he’s done to Emily. In fact, he’s still trying to manipulate and push her around. And he’s still unnecessarily resorting to his shady methods to bring about his desired outcome, all without parent supervision.
If Emily decides to bow to the pressure and join Morrie and Suzu’s team, then I think a day of reckoning is coming for all three of them. And for Mr. Whittaker too. And that’s not a bad thing. When exceptional characters face a reckoning, they become more relatable just like the “everyman” characters. We see them confronting their flaws and changing course. It’s hard to tell if Adventures in Odyssey will be willing to go there after everything we’ve been through in the Rydell saga. It would force Whit to deal with his own missteps, reversing course from his previous attitude. But I think we have to go there. Emily has lost her trust in Mr. Whittaker after all. That’s not something to gloss over. Their reconciliation could humanize Whit to a degree we haven’t seen on the show before, which could possibly redeem the Morrie arc in the eyes of fans. Can Morrie himself be redeemed? Time will tell. But it starts with Morrie recognizing how his trust in his own abilities steered him wrong, causing real damage. Even exceptional characters have their limits. It’s time Morrie learned his.
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