Over the holiday break, I became very invested in the Netflix original series "Sense8." It's an absolutely fantastic show about eight strangers from different parts of the world. These eight people are mentally and emotionally connected because they're all part of the same cluster of sensates. Sensates can communicate with each other. They can also share skills, languages, and knowledge. A group of sensates is known as a cluster. This cluster is fighting to defeat Whispers, a sensate who has turned against his own kind. Every sensate in the cluster has a specific skill which has a clear and defined use... except Riley.
Will, Sun, and Wolfgang can all fight. Capheus drives extremely well. Lito is a fantastic actor. Nomi's a hacktivist. Kala is a wiz with pharmaceuticals.
Riley? She's a DJ. When will anyone in the cluster ever need to scribble scratch their way out of a situation? My friends and I have taken to calling Riley "Box Ghost", which is a reference to the bumbling bad guy from the Nick show Danny Phantom.
During one scene, Sun is being visited in prison by her new "lawyers". Other members of the cluster quickly notice irregularities with this meeting. Nomi notices that the security cameras are down. Lito denotes the subpar lying skills of the "lawyers". Wolfgang correctly reveals that these men are killers. With the help of those three, Sun gets out of the situation. What does Riley do? She yells out "Guards"! In other words, she does something that could've easily been done by any other member of the cluster. This goes to show her lack of useful skills. Every other sensate who helped used their skills to be of assistance. Nomi used her knowledge of technology. Lito used his judgment of acting skills. Wolfgang used his knowledge of criminals. Riley? She just calls for help. Over the course of the season, Riley is the only member of the cluster who doesn't aid another sensate in escaping a dire situation.
It's one thing to watch Riley fail to contribute anything to the cluster. However, she takes it a step further. Riley spends lots of her time actively harming the group. Despite being told to stay away from her native Iceland, she goes back. While there, she runs into the sensate who told her to stay away in the first place. The lady explains to her why Iceland is so dangerous(BPO, who track down and kill sensates, are stationed in Iceland). Normally, when one realizes that their excursion directly places 7 other people in harm's way, they would leave. But this is Riley we're talking about, so she stays in Iceland. Naturally, she ends up in a BPO facility. Eventually, the other 7 members of her cluster help bust her out.
At some point during the hospital escape scene, Will ends up carrying Riley through the hospital. I think that's a pretty perfect metaphor for Riley's dynamic within the group. The other 7 carry Riley, literally and figurately.
