'The Society' season 2: Campbell the puppet master is at work and no one in New Ham is safe
There is a lot of debate on who is the real antagonist on 'The Society'.
Is it the parents, who seemed to have replaced the lost children of West Ham? Or is it the driver of the bus, who was the last person to see the children in West Ham? Or could it be Greg Dewey (played by Seth Meriwether) who shot Cassandra Pressman (played by Rachel Keller) and left her for dead on the sidewalk? It could be said that if Cassandra hadn't died, things on 'The Society' would have been different.
Or could it be Campbell, played by Toby Wallace, the resident psychopath of New Ham? No matter how you pose the question, the answer has been pretty much in front of our eyes.
For Campbell, everyone else is a pawn and a mode for him to get what he wants. He has time and again proven to the audience that if there is anyone he really cares about, it is himself. Although, he briefly had us fooled when he got together with Elle, played by Olivia DeJonge, and we thought that he could feel like any other person, but boy, oh boy, how suddenly and brutally this facade was ripped off for us.
At the end of the first season of Netflix's 'The Society,' it is Campbell who has the most power. He has held Harry (played by Alex Fitzalan) hostage by getting him hooked onto drugs. And since Harry is already drunk on his power and privilege, it doesn't take a lot of effort from Campbell to get him back on his side. He also convinced Lexie (played by Grace Victoria Cox), who was originally supposed to run against Allie (played by Kathryn Newton) by herself, to join forces with him in order to successfully throw Allie out of power. Towards the end of the first season the Guards are getting restless with their contribution to the new society and recognize the hold they have on the young civilization [as one of the points out that they do all the dirty work on the series], and want to rise in power. They first talk to Allie about wanting to run for power in the first ever democratic elections that the teenagers are due to hold in New Ham, but it is in vain. Almost on cue, Campbell gets in there and even has the Guards convinced that they deserve to be running for the power because they "do all the dirty work."
Wallace does a marvelous job with the portrayal of Campbell – he is highly intelligent and knows exactly what how everybody ticks. He is more than aware of others' weaknesses and is patient to ensure that he attacks them at their weakest and gets what he wants – this isn't new; it is classic psychopathic tendency, but how it plays out in the second season can only be speculated.
Somewhere in the middle of the series when the cat was out of the bag, everyone knew that Campbell wasn't just another high school loner who hates people – he has a dangerous past that hasn't even spared his very own family. When Sam (played by the endearing Sean Beardy) describes in gruesome details how Campbell managed to inflict hurt upon another individual without thinking twice, without wincing, it was a horrifying revelation.
And so, for someone like this to hold power in a new world that the kids of New Ham are building for themselves could only prove detrimental for the citizens.
Considering how Campbell is now at the head of the power triangle that is formed by Harry, Lexie and the Guards, he holds the most power in New Ham. He has Allie and Will (played by Jacques Colimon) imprisoned over false accounts of democracy and votes. But since he has Harry at his disposal, it is possible that through him, Campbell implements rules that will directly affect the social thread on the series. With the Guards on his side too, it is basically like having the military on your team. And with Lexie, there is more to come from their collective manipulation skills.
So to answer the question, it is power who is the main antagonist on 'The Society'. And Campbell has it in his pocket.
