Grizz Visser

## Gareth "Grizz" Visser

**Gareth "Grizz" Visser** is one of the main characters in the first season of *The Society*. He is a member of the Guard, and plays a prominent role in the governing of New Ham, especially under Allie's rule. He is portrayed by Jack Mulhern, whose role in the Society is his first on-screen performance.

Grizz is one of the only LGBT+ residents of New Ham and is currently romantically involved with Sam Eliot. They have both expressed their feelings for each other.

## Early Life

Little is known about Grizz's history, other than his sensitive nature and love for tap dancing. Grizz revealed that his mother disapproved of his sensitive demeanour deeming it effeminate, and signed him up for football, fearing that he was gay. Despite this, Grizz enjoyed football, and he fit in easily given his natural talent. He revealed that after graduation, he planned to cut ties with his friends and classmates and finally come out as gay once he was at college somewhere far away from Connecticut. However, due to the circumstance of being trapped in New Ham, this was prevented.

### Season 1

Prior to the disappearance of their parents, strange things had been happening in West Ham. A noticeable smell was in the town, though the cause unknown. One day, Grizz and his friends see graffiti spray-painted onto a red-brick building façade. Grizz is able to translate the words, which are an Aramaic phrase from the apocalyptic Book of Daniel that translates to: *"You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting"*. Grizz thinks it's strange, but everyone else does not take too much concern upon it. The teenagers in the town are about to head out for a school camping trip that will take them away from the town for a week. However, it's short-lived. The road to the camp is blocked, causing them to return. The class quickly discover that everyone, aside from them, has disappeared from the town.

The next day Grizz notices that the writing he saw on the wall earlier in the day is gone. The kids try to go back to their normal lives as best as possible, but it's harder on some than others. Luke suggests that he and Grizz will go to the forest to discover what is outside New Ham, and they go along with Emily, Gwen, and two others. Emily gets bitten by a snake, causing Grizz to take control of the situation. He appears to have knowledge on the subject of nature, animals, and survival, skillfully tying a tourniquet. Due to Emily being allergic, they cannot save her. Grizz carries her body back, somewhat blaming himself.

During prom, Grizz approaches Sam and the two have a conversation about sign language. Grizz admits that he doesn't know how to communicate. Despite the prom being an attempt to lessen tensions in town, someone kills Cassandra afterwards.

Shortly after Cassandra's death, Gordie, Will, Becca, Sam, Luke, and Grizz force Allie into taking on Cassandra's role in leading the town, despite her being scared that she'll end up dead, too. When The Guard plan to arrest Greg Dewey, Grizz responds that he has actual handcuffs, earning odd stares. Grizz along with Luke, Clark, and Jason all take part in a "Pre Dawn Raid" to arrest Dewey. During this raid of Dewey's house, Grizz stops when he sees a girl, Carla, asleep on the first floor. It is unclear what his relationship is with Carla.
In Dewey's trial, he admits that he killed Cassandra, and Allie declares the penalty of taking a life is death days after, taking on the "eye for an eye" proverb.
Grizz along with Allie, The Guard, Will, and Helena take Dewey out into the forest and tie him up in a chair. The Guards are all given a gun, some without bullets, so when they shoot no one will know if they were the one to actually kill Dewey. The first time they fire, they miss. Dewey, meanwhile, begs for his life which affects Grizz greatly that he steps away and throws up. He is unable to attempt it again, disgusted and afraid of committing the act of murder. Allie takes his place instead, and the second time they fire, Dewey is killed. Grizz breaks down to Allie and they cry together.

Thanksgiving is approaching, but before they can even focus on the holiday, Will has some upsetting news: he's retallied the food and realizes that the food they have will last them through the upcoming winter and spring, but by summer they're going to run out. Grizz and along a few others plan an expedition to find land. On the same day, Luke's declarations of love has Grizz wanting to act on his own feelings. In the library, Grizz talks to Sam, secretly having learned sign language so he could communicate. However, Grizz accidentally learned British Sign Language instead of American.

After spending a day going over farming techniques together, Grizz eventually asks Sam how to say "kiss me" in sign language, causing Sam to kiss Grizz. They sleep together afterwards. Grizz admits to Sam that he is gay, and that he had spent so long pretending to be straight he sometimes didn't even remember. Whilst they sleep together, Becca begins to feel unwell and attempts to contact Sam. Grizz notices the several texts on Sam's phone, and Sam leaves immediately. Later, Grizz sees Sam and Becca in the hospital and finds out about the baby they share. Sam explains that he and Becca would often have sleepovers, and that they were lonely and decided to sleep together. Grizz dismisses this and their relationship ends.

People are shocked to know that Sam and Becca are having a baby together, as Sam is well known to be gay. When Kelly confronts Becca about her pregnancy and Becca names Sam as the father for the first time, Kelly accepts Becca's answer, though rather doubtfully. From then on, just about everybody else does the same. Only Grizz is upset by the idea of Sam having slept with his best friend, since he and Sam just had sex themselves. Rather than Sam defending himself to Grizz that he's not really the father, Sam holds firm on his promise to Becca, refusing to deny his role in the baby's life.

A couple of days after, down at the school, Grizz is getting ready to head out on an expedition with a group of explorers. Allie stops by to talk to him, and Grizz shares the fact that he's worried about everything, mostly just because he's recently seen some "signs". Trying to put it out of his head, Allie reassures him that everything will be fine, but Grizz still is uncertain. Meanwhile, Sam tries to talk to Grizz, but Grizz is still hurt. In their exchange Grizz admits that he has had sex with girls prior to his relationship with Sam.

The whole town gathers to see Grizz, Gwen, Bean, and Mickey off as they head out in search of suitable land to farm. Sam goes to visit Grizz just before he is about to leave, kissing and telling him that he must come back. Sam also presents him with a book which Grizz is extremely touched by. They hug and promise to see one another again.

Grizz, Bean, Gwen and Mickey head in episode 9 to find farmland. They walked on the 4th of December 2019 and find land days later. Gwen comes into Grizz's tent to warm up, lying beside him. Feeling that she has romantic intentions, he asks about Clark, and she tells him that they broke up. Grizz responds that he is gay, and Gwen accepts him as a friend. The group come back from the expedition in time to see Campbell take over the town from Allie and Will after lying to the townspeople, saying they were planning to rig the elections. Allie and Will are brought in front of an angry mob outside the church. While this chaos is going on, Grizz and the rest of the explorers interrupt by announcing that they've found land, fish, and animals to help them survive.
## Personality

Throughout the series, Grizz is a generally quiet, reserved yet intelligent person. Capable of effortlessly recalling obscure yet relevant information with speed and precision and having a penchant for quoting intellectuals, Grizz contrasts his close cohort of the Guard and is much more sensitive than his friends. Grizz is also very intelligent, possessing knowledge on an array of fields from botany and survivalism to theology and Hebrew, while also being studious and (mistakenly) teaching himself BSL (British sign language).

Grizz is also very loyal and amicable. Perceived positively by the entire "society," Grizz calmly interacts with all facets of the group, making friends easily. However, this is not the case as he can also be awkward around those he is romantically interested in, like Sam Eliot. To avoid this, Grizz would stay away from Sam before the events of the show, revealing his self-awareness.

Grizz has also been shown to be forgiving and mature, forgiving Sam for his lie of omission quite quickly after his feelings were hurt.

## Relationships

### Sam Eliot

*Main article: Sam and Grizz*
Grizz had a crush on Sam and stayed away from him because he was in the closet and wanted to continue being perceived as straight. When Luke explains his love for Helena to Grizz, he decides to act on his crush and goes to talk to Sam. Grizz and Sam become close over the course of Season 1, slowly building a rapport of trust and mutual attraction sparked by a conversation at prom. Grizz takes the initiative to learn American Sign Language in order to communicate with Sam. Later, Grizz admits to Sam that he is gay and that he had spent so long pretending to be straight he sometimes didn't even remember. Grizz eventually asks Sam how to say "kiss me" in sign language and Sam kisses him. After this, they sleep together. However, Grizz finds out about Becca's baby and their relationship comes to a stop. Days later, Sam goes back to Grizz just before he is about to leave on his expedition, and kisses him.

### Allie Pressman

In Episode 4, Allie went down to make tea, and The Guard started talking to her about problems they might face with her, making Allie upset since she just lost her sister. Grizz comforts Allie by bringing her tea and a note, and she thanks him. She later brings him tea outside after waking up one morning. They talk a little about the note he gave her. After killing Dewey, Allie is sitting alone in her bed when Grizz comes in, thanking her for picking up the gun and executing him when Grizz couldn't do it. The two share a heart to heart. In the season finale, Grizz returns with the expedition group to the sight of Allie arrested, a cut on her forehead caused by a rock thrown at her from the crowd. Almost immediately, he asks why she's bleeding, but his question falls on deaf ears.

### The Guard

*Main article: The Guard*
Grizz is a part of the Guard, the makeshift police force made up of the four football players: Grizz, Luke, Jason, and Clark. On the football field, they reenact the wining play from one of their football games and talk about their situation, wondering what happened. At the prom, Grizz beats Jason at drinking a beer can. Right after, Grizz individually hugs each of the boys, saying that he wasn't planning on talking with any of them after graduation. This is possibly because he was planning on coming out as gay either after graduation or during graduation and thought his friends wouldn't accept him anymore.

### Gwen Patterson

Gwen is the second person Grizz comes out of the closet to after Sam. They seem to have been friendly towards each other and have been on both expeditions together. In the last episode, we see them converse for the first time while sharing a tent.

## Appearances

**Season One (10/10)**

* *What Happened?*
* *Our Town*
* *Childhood's End*
* *Drop by Drop*
* *Putting on the Clothes*
* *Like A F-ing God or Something*
* *Allie's Rules*
* *Poison*
* *New Names*
* *How It Happens*

## Trivia

* His full name is "Gareth Visser" as seen on the trophy he has in his room in Episode 8.
* He owns (real) handcuffs.
* He was in favor of executing Dewey for Cassandra's murder.
* He likes tap dancing. According to him, there is a photo of him tap dancing wearing a feather boa.
* He is one of the two only characters to enter the forest surrounding the town more than once.
* He is the only character that knows BSL though he was trying to learn ASL when he learned it.

## Gallery

*See also: Category: Images of Grizz*
* Promotional
* Season 1 Screencaps