Marco Del Rossi and Spinner Mason have been close friends since Grade 9. Their friendship began in the second season of Degrassi: The Next Generation.
Friendship History[]
Overview[]
They first met when Marco began attending Degrassi Community School as a freshman in 2002. In the early days of their friendship, Spinner tended to bully the less aggressive Marco, especially with regards to his sexuality. Spinner's disdain for homosexuality worried Marco, as he was coming to terms with the fact that he was gay himself, and didn't know how to come out to his friends. When Marco finally came out in Season 3, his friendship with Spinner came to a halt, as Spinner wanted nothing more to do with him. Eventually however, Spinner managed to accept Marco's homosexuality, and the two rekindled their friendship. When Spinner was ostracized by his friends after the shooting in Season 4, it was Marco who reached out to Spinner first. Spinner and Marco still remain close friends.
Season 2[]
Marco teasing Spinner.
In Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, Spinner commented that Marco (who is introduced in this episode, albeit without any lines) was a talented dancer and that he "gets all the girls." He and Jimmy Brooks wanted to beat him in a dance competition. The prize for the winner was tickets to the Toronto Maple Leafs game. They tried to sabotage each other but this only allowed Marco to win.
Prior to Drive, Marco began hanging out with Spinner, Jimmy and Craig Manning and they are becoming fast friends. Marco, Spinner and Jimmy were discussing the impossibility of getting Kid Elrick tickets. Spinner believed that Marco would be able to get them as his mother Louisa Del Rossi was in the music industry. However, Marco told him that she was in fact a piano teacher. Craig invited the three of them and Sean Cameron to stay over at his house while his stepfather Joey Jeremiah was away for the weekend. However, Jimmy, angry that Sean was invited, did not attend.
The weekend initially proved to be far more boring than the boys had predicted. While they were in a store, Spinner bought spray cheese and told him that they should have a race to see which of them could spray it into his mouth in the quickest time. Marco sarcastically said, "Do you get crackers?" and Spinner called him a loser. Later that day, Marco, Craig and Sean watched Spinner spraying it into his mouth and unenthusiastically chanted his name.
When Sean and Spinner learned that Joey had allowed Craig to a drive a car, they suggested that they "borrow" it and take for a drive. Marco advised against it but Craig ignored him. When they broke into Joey's office at the lot the next day, the phone rang and Marco screamed, which caused the other boys to scream. Spinner said, "Shh, man, you gave me a heart attack." While Marco was nervous when Craig was driving the car, he did have fun and was delighted when they won four Kid Elrick tickets and were able to evade the police. Marco enthused, "Pull up right next to the cops. That part was so cool." Spinner teased him by saying, "Now you say it's cool. Before you were crying like a little baby." Marco told him that he was crying because of the smell of his cheese farts. Craig then ruffled Marco's hair. When they brought the car back to the lot, a furious Joey told Marco, Spinner and Sean to go home. Joey grounded Craig for three weeks and ripped up the Kid Elrick tickets.
In Careless Whisper, Spinner and Marco played basketball with Jimmy and Sean. Marco lied and told Spinner and the guys that he and Ellie had been intimate, though the lie is in vain as everyone laughs at him, knowing that he is not telling the truth.
In Fight for Your Right, Marco was impressed by the clothes that Jimmy's father Jermaine Brooks had bought him as a belatedly birthday present and jokingly asked him if his parents would adopt him. Jimmy told him that they already had another son, Spinner, who had "worn serious grooves" in his couch. Marco then said that if Jimmy's parents did love Spinner so much, they should take him clothes shopping too since he had seen him wear the same shirt "like 600 times."
During science class in Tears Are Not Enough (1), Craig told Spinner to shut up as he was trying to listen to Ms. Hatzilakos. When Spinner accused him of being a browner, Marco said, "Someone is just in a bad mood." An irritated Craig responded, "Someone just wants to pass his science exam, alright?"
When Jimmy and Spinner started arguing about which of them would be voted luau king and queen in Tears Are Not Enough (2), Marco told them to do it later. After Spinner left, Marco said, "Okay Jimmy, give it up. He and Paige would make an amazing luau king and queen."
Season 3[]
In U Got the Look, Craig is no longer grounded and rejoins his band (Downtown Sasquatch) with Marco, Spinner and Jimmy. Both Spinner and Marco were amused by Joey Jeremiah's attempts to jam with the band.
In Pride (1), Marco and Spinner have become very close as friends, though Marco continues to lie about his sexuality. Paige mentions to Spinner that she thinks Marco might be gay, though this seems to annoy Spinner, as he is homophobic. Later, Spinner begins acting awkward towards Marco, but he eventually tries to set him up on a date with Hazel Aden. Marco tries to make up an excuse for not being able to date Hazel, but he panics and tells Spinner that he is gay.
The next day in Pride (2), Spinner tries to act like Marco never told him anything, but when Marco asks if Spinner told anyone, he replies "Maybe I did, maybe I didn't." As time goes on, Spinner grows increasingly homophobic towards Marco, bullying him and purposefully hitting him with a ball in gym class. Craig and Jimmy invite Marco to Dylan's hockey game, which he accepts, though he doesn't want to see Spinner, so he walks there by himself. He ends up getting beat up by a group of gay bashers, and is found by the police and Jimmy. Marco, embarrassed, tells everyone that they beat him up just because of his shoes, which Spinner ignorantly believes. He writes "Marco is a fag" on the bathroom wall (to Jimmy's disgust) and Marco confronts him. Spinner tries to talk Marco into dating Hazel and is confused as to why Marco just won't "try to be straight". Marco ends up confessing that he was not beaten up for his shoes, but because he is gay. Spinner feels guilty about what happened, but tells Marco he "Can't be compared with those guys" to which Marco replies, "Why not?"
In Whisper to a Scream, Marco makes a snide comment to Spinner about likely not making it passed third base, to which Spinner replies "How would you know? You are too busy checking out the bat boy!"
In Against All Odds, Jimmy invites Marco and Spinner to sleep over at his house, though Spinner feels weird around Marco still, but admits he is dealing with his quote, "gay-osity". That night at Jimmy's house, Jimmy puts on porn, which Spinner enjoys until Marco makes a comment about a guy, which makes Spinner choke. When they are all sleeping, Marco accidentally puts his hand on Spinner's chest, and Spinner freaks out and tells Marco he must have a crush on him. Marco gets angered and goes to sleep in the bathroom. The next day at Degrassi, Spinner and Marco talk about Marco's "Crush" on him, and Marco admits to Spinner he doesn't think he is that cute, as his hair and clothes are awful. Spinner laughs and jokes with Marco that he feels sorry for him as he must have bad taste.
In It's Raining Men, Spinner got over his homophobia and helped Marco get a date with Dylan.
In Rock and Roll High School, Spinner, Jimmy, Craig, and Marco are seen rehearsing. Later, they compete in the Battle of the Bands against Ashley's anti-Craig band Hell Hath No Fury and win.
Season 4[]
In King of Pain, Spinner supported Marco's campaign to become Student Council President, volunteering to hang posters.
In Anywhere I Lay My Head, Craig, Marco and the rest of Downtown Sasquatch performed together at the Spirit Squad car wash. In Craig's words, they "sucked" but Ashley assured him that no one noticed.
Before Downtown Sasquatch's recording session in Neutron Dance, Marco sadly told Craig that they would sound better if Jimmy could play with them. Craig said, "I wish he could too." Spinner objected to Ashley's continued presence at rehearsals as she was not an official member. Marco initially believed that Spinner was making too big a deal out of it but realized that he was right when Craig and Ashley completely dominated an interview with Liberty Van Zandt for the Degrassi Grapevine and did not give either of them a chance to speak. Marco and Spinner then issued an ultimatum to Craig: either they went or Ashley did. Craig attempted to tell Ashley that she was out of the band but he instead kissed her.
Later that day at the Dot, Craig excitedly told Marco and Spinner that they were back together but they stormed out as he failed to kick out of the band as he had promised. At their next rehearsal, Spinner brought Manny into the band to play the tambourine while Marco brought an accordion, angrily telling Craig that it was every man for himself in the band. This forced Craig's hand and he reluctantly told Ashley that she was out of the band before the session in the recording studio. However, while singing "Everything's Dust" which he had written for Ashley to apologize for cheating on her with Manny, Craig realized that Ashley meant more to him than the band and went after her. They kissed and resumed their relationship.
In Season 4, Marco and Spinner rarely hung out, but when Spinner's bullying caused Rick Murray's death, Marco, like everyone else, shunned Spinner from hanging out with them.
In Eye of the Tiger, Marco was among the many students present to greet Jimmy at the front of Degrassi when he returned to school after three months in the hospital. The next day, after it became common knowledge that Spinner was responsible for dumping the paint on Rick, Marco confronted him. He told him that he was no longer invited to Jimmy's welcome back party at Craig's house. However, after getting drunk with Jay Hogart, Spinner showed up anyway. Craig angrily told him to leave. Spinner begged for forgiveness but Jimmy ignored him, telling Craig to continue playing karaoke as they had been doing before Spinner arrived. Spinner left but Marco saw that he took his keys with him and realized that he was going to try and kill himself. He and Craig attempted to stop Spinner from driving away but Jimmy moved himself in front of the car. He told Jimmy that he was not going to stop him as he was dead to him already. Craig then confiscated Spinner's keys.
Season 5[]
Spinner and Marco briefly rekindle their friendship.
Spinner protesting Marco's safe sex campaign.
In I Against I, Marco and Spinner finally began to rekindle their friendship, despite Jimmy's disapproval. The two grow close again, however, Spinner's homophobic friend, Linus, convinces him to get Marco to cancel a "Safer Sex" event that gives teens free condoms. Spinner tells Marco what he is doing is sin, and Marco tells him that "Jimmy was so right. I should've never given you a second chance." Later, Spinner, Linus, and some other members of Friendship Club attempt to stop the safer sex event, and Linus makes a snide remark to Marco about going to church. He and Marco argue but it reaches the boiling point when Linus calls him a fag. Marco responds by back slapping Linus. Spinner ends his friendship with Linus and apologizes to Marco at the Dot. They end up becoming friends again,.
In High Fidelity (1), Spinner and Marco are both working on the set for the variety show, and the two talk with Paige about Spinner's issues with Darcy. Spinner later asks Marco to help him with his re-virginizing ceremony for Darcy.
In High Fidelity (2), Spinner tells Marco about his his break up with Darcy and then immediate hook-up with Paige right after. The next day, after getting back together with Darcy and having sex with Paige, Spinner confesses to Marco about his girl problems, as he is freaking out.
Season 6[]
In Working for the Weekend, Spinner and Jimmy open a store with money from Jimmy's academic fund while Marco, Ashley, Paige, Ellie and Dylan stand by their side for support.
In The Bitterest Pill, Spinner and Marco both attended the Degrassi memorial service for J.T. Yorke, who was murdered by a Lakehurst Secondary School student named Drake Lempkey several days earlier.
In Free Fallin' (2), Spinner and Marco sing karaoke together.
In Sunglasses at Night, Spinner, Marco, and Jay are seen playing poker together. Marco and Spinner plan on going on vacation to Mexico together, but the plan falls through when Marco loses all his winnings and is caught having broken into Spinner's store.
Season 8[]
In Degrassi Goes Hollywood, Marco has been texting Spinner, letting him know who got the lead role of Trixie in Jason Mewes' new film Mewesical High. At one point, he tells Spinner that his ex-girlfriend Paige Michalchuk got the part, and he later tells him that his other ex-girlfriend Manny Santos got the lead role.
Season 9[]
In Heart Like Mine (1), Marco comes back to Degrassi as a student teacher. When he first gets to town, he walks in The Dot and is greeted by his good pal Spinner. The next day, Spinner told Marco that he was whipped when Holly J. Sinclair insisted that he still give her an extension on her history essay in spite of the fact that he told the class that everyone would have to hand them in on time. This was the last interaction between Spinner and Marco.
Degrassi Mini[]
In Roommate Code of Conduct, Ellie mentioned that she, Marco and Spinner stayed up until 3am playing poker.
Rivalry History[]
In Pride, after Marco walked out on a double date with Spinner, Spinner confronted him about his actions, and Marco admitted to Spinner that he was gay. Spinner, unable to accept the idea of his friend's sexuality, refused to speak of the matter to Marco or any other friends. Spinner took his frustration out during a volleyball game when he intentionally spiked Marco in the stomach. He also wrote "Marco is a fag" on the bathroom wall, after which Jimmy defended Marco and took his side of the dispute (and also asks Spinner if he was going to write something about Jimmy being black). After Marco was gay bashed by a group of homophobic men, Spinner attempted to differentiate himself from the guys who hurt Marco, but Marco showed Spinner that he was just as bad as they were (and probably causing Spinner to wish he had accepted Marco for who he was and his sexuality a little earlier).
Trivia[]
- In I Against I, Marco was the first one to forgive Spinner after the school shooting incident. In Sunglasses at Night, Spinner returned the favour by forgiving Marco for having broken into his clothing store after hours to gamble.
- Marco's first line was spoken to Spinner. ("She teaches piano, Spinner.")
- In Against All Odds, Spinner falsely assumed that Marco had a crush on him.
- They were both founding members of Craig Manning's band Downtown Sasquatch.
- Spinner and Marco's respective exes, Paige and Dylan, are brother and sister. Marco is best friends with Paige.
- They are both close friends with Jimmy Brooks. Spinner was once good friends with Marco's best friend Craig but they had a major falling out over the school shooting incident and it is unclear whether Craig ever forgave him.
- They were both originally members of the Class of 2006. While Marco graduated with that class in High Fidelity (2), Spinner was held back in Venus (1) and graduated as part of the Class of 2007 in We Built This City.
- They were both devout Christians.
- Spinner's close friend Jay Hogart disliked Marco because he was gay.
- They both attended J.T. Yorke's memorial service at Degrassi in The Bitterest Pill.
- Spinner was the only one of Marco's friends to have a problem with the fact that he was gay after he first came out.
- They were both friends with Holly J. Sinclair.
- Marco was briefly Spinner's friend Sav Bhandari's history teacher at Degrassi.
- Both Marco and Spinner's wife Emma Nelson attended Toronto University.
- They were both members of Archie Simpson's Grade 9 homeroom class 9F from 2002 to 2003.
- Paige slapped both of them: Spinner in Shout (1) and Marco in Degrassi Goes Hollywood.
- Marco and Spinner's other friends Ashley Kerwin, Holly J. Sinclair and Sav Bhandari all served as Student Council President.
- During the 2015 reunion Shane Kippel and Adamo Ruggiero did an updated version of the scene where Marco comes out to Spinner in Pride (1). With one part having a twist.
- Spinner helped Marco select an outfit for his first date with Dylan in It's Raining Men.
Quotes[]
- Marco: "Even strangers know, Spin. Last night wasn't about my shoes. Those guys, they knew... and they bashed me because they hated it, just like you do."
Spinner: "Dude, that's brutal, but you can't compare me to those guys."
Marco: "Really? Why not?" - Pride (2) - Marco: "You still like stupid movies?"
Spinner: "Dude, the stupider the better." - I Against I - Marco: "You have not changed at all! Except for the hair, thank God for that." - I Against I
- Marco: "What is the opposite of cold, wet, winter, yuck?"
Spinner: "Hot, dry, summer... yum?" - Sunglasses at Night - Jay: "Yo gangsters. What's the happs?"
Spinner: "Just celebrating Marco's big online poker score."
Jay: "You must be quite the shark, Del Rossi."
Marco: "Well, I used to play with my boyfriend."
Jay: "Yes...You're gay...Super..." - Sunglasses at Night
