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I really like this character, and that's not just because of his
hunksome good looks either. He is a lot stronger than his youth
suggests, and he seems for the most part fearless. When he cares, he
does so deeply, but with all these good qualities come some fairly unpleasant
ones. Cash in the Pilot was great; he embodied the biker 'f**k
society' attitude, and was willing to stand up for his beliefs even when
faced with a tougher more powerful opponent. It boded really well for
the rest of the series, and then it all went horribly wrong.
Sasha.
I generally like a romantic to and fro, a will they won't they play with
both parties flirting until finally the inevitable happens, but in the
case of Cash and Sasha it just bugged the hell out of me. First of all
the Pilot quite obviously has Cash hooked up to a feisty blonde Gangrel
chick and having established Cash as loyal and clancentric, it seemed
odd for him to move right on Sasha the moment he saw her. Perhaps it was
a game to him initially, and maybe it was just a pretty girl he felt he
had to hit on but then the crunch came. Julian put her firmly off
limits. To me it appears that this kick-started Sasha's
interest in Cash, and from this moment on the character of the Gangrel Primogen was
written around Sasha rather than being developed in his own
right. Even before her embrace into the Brujah clan,
Cash seems to treat Sasha alternately like a princess and a whore. One
moment Cash is declaring his love to Julian, and telling him that he
can't live without her, and the next moment he's giving her the cold
shoulder. Part of me thinks that as the one in possession of the facts,
Cash could quite easily have handled the whole thing much better, but it
becomes blatantly clear that he is devoid of maturity when it comes to
Sasha. It
is easy to argue that Cash's bad behavior precipitated the Brujah's
interest in Sasha. If he hadn't rejected her, she would not have tried
to make him jealous by dancing provocatively with Martin. However
it came to be, Sasha was soon Brujah and Cash wasn't able to handle his
girlfriend being part of the clan he loathed. Cash was unbelievably
selfish when Sasha was embraced; instead of considering how scared and
confused she must be, he could only think of revenge and how he couldn't
love a Brujah. It took Sasha practically begging for him to give her the
comfort she needed (Romeo). The pattern of hurting and wooing
each other becomes a theme of future episodes, with Cash dealing with
jealousy when Sasha begins a relationship with Zane (Live Hard) and pledging his
love to her when he might not come back from his mission to hunt Goth and
Camilla (Bad Moon). The way they behave and treat each other
doesn't make me think that they have a great and powerful love, but
leaves me wondering how they can stand to be in the same room as each
other. Nothing about this relationship appears to me to be about love,
but instead a selfish desire to possess and control mixed with the added
bonus that it's forbidden, initially by Julian and then by their
opposing clans. There are other facets to Cash,
thankfully, and his likable qualities certainly outweigh the negatives;
I just wish they'd been played on more. When confronted with the newly
embraced Starkweather (Nightstalker), Cash is more than willing to put
himself on the line in order to help his Prince and the new Kindred. He
is supportive of the Gangrel, both comforting and authoritative when
needed, showing that he is more than qualified to lead his clan. I find
it interesting that when he finds out it was a Gangrel that embraced
Starkweather he doesn't (or isn't seen to) make huge efforts to track
her down. I wonder if this is clan loyalty over riding his duty to
Julian, or just a loose end that the writers never followed up on. Cash
putting his friends before the Prince can be seen more clearly when Zane
makes his presence felt (Live Hard). It's great to see Cash with his
peer group for the first time, though for whatever reason, Zane seems to
be resentful of Cash. This looks like typical sibling rivalry, and gives
a glimpse of how close the two really are. Cash seems oblivious to the
hostility, or at least chooses to ignore it, instead showing how happy
he is at Zane's success. In this relationship Cash
seems like the older, less impetuous brother, trying hard to get his
wild younger sibling to see sense. Even though he knows from the start
who is responsible for Grace's embrace he lies to Julian in order to
protect his friend, showing for the first time exactly where his
loyalties lie. It isn't until all his efforts to change Zane fail that
he reluctantly joins Julian in his efforts to stop him. Interestingly,
although it seems that Sasha is striving to make Cash jealous with her
relationship with Zane he doesn't seem to hold it against Zane, even
though it obviously hurts to see them together. Another
glimpse into Cash's psyche comes when Julian leaves the city with
Caitlin, leaving Archon in charge (Cabin). Although he is probably the
weakest of the Primogens, he refuses to acknowledge the former Prince's
authority as anything more than his peer. He clearly will only stand by
a Prince who has earned his respect and not just the person with the
most power. Others my have thought the same way, but it was only Cash
who stood up for his beliefs. Despite his faults, Cash
remains one of my favourite characters. I love his passion, and that he
isn't afraid to show his emotions. I admire his strength, and
willingness to put himself in the line of fire for those he's
responsible for and those he cares about. He tends to think he has more
control over events around him than he really does, which is
demonstrated in the guilt he often feels (Billy's death and the assassination
attempt on Julian in Rise and Fall being prime examples). I
would have loved to have seen more of Cash in Kindred, it would have
been great to see him interacting with his clan more. I think there was
a real opportunity missed to show how Cash adjusted to his new role and
how the Gangrels related to those changes. Seeing the way Lorraina
reacted to Sasha, both before and after her embrace, shows that they are
a tight-knit and insular bunch and very protective of each other. I
would have liked to see more of that. It would also have been good to
see how Cash interacted with the other Primogens more, as with the
exception of Julian, they seemed to treat him as below them. Maybe this
is due to his age or a wider prejudice against his clan. Either way it
would have been good to explore that aspect. Cash is another
character that would have benefited from a flashback episode. The bond
he shared with his sire is one of the driving forces behind the
character and I would have liked to see that in more detail.
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