‘Ripple’: The ‘Degrassi’ Star Cameo You Might Have Missed & Sweet Meaning Behind It
What To Know
- Jake Epstein, known for his role as Craig Manning on Degrassi: The Next Generation, makes a cameo in the Ripple Season 1 finale.
- He shares a scene with Vanessa Smythe, who plays Claire in the series.
- Epstein and Smythe have an offscreen connection.
If you were basically recreating the Leonardo DiCaprio pointing meme while watching the Ripple Season 1 finale, then you’re not alone. For all the Degrassi: The Next Generation fans out there, Jake Epstein (aka the one and only Craig Manning) pops up briefly in the finale episode of the new Netflix series.
After Claire (Vanessa Smythe) accidentally burns her window curtain, the fire department is called to her apartment building. While she’s outside waiting, a new tenant named Jack (played by Epstein) walks up beside her. It’s his first night in the building.
Jack doesn’t give Claire a hard time for the fire department fiasco. “The good news is I get to meet my first neighbor,” he says. When he realizes they won’t be getting back inside anytime soon, Jack asks Claire to join him in grabbing a slice of pizza down the street.
Even though her marriage to Nate (Ian Harding) didn’t work out, things are already looking up for Claire. Her burnt window curtain created her own ripple effect. Now that’s what we like to call fate.
Netflix
This Degrassi cameo is all the more swoonworthy when you couple it with the fact that Epstein and Smythe are husband and wife in real life! They first met in high school and started dating then. Following a breakup, Epstein and Smythe reunited and married in 2018. They welcomed their first child, son Miles, in 2023.
If Ripple were to get a Season 2, we’d need to see what happens after Claire and Jack grab that slice of pizza together! Claire deserves a happy ending.
After the show’s release on December 3, Smythe posted a heartfelt message about her experience shooting Ripple. “I could tell you about how great it was to shoot this, how I felt dream-scenario-supported on set, continually inspired by these amazing actors and directors, or how each new script I read moved me to tears, but I guess I wanted to tell you how it feels when my real life son signs me ‘I love you’ or ‘more’ or ‘thirsty’, and how it too, is but a small ripple effect of something inherently sacred and lovely and nice,” she wrote on Instagram.
Ripple, Season 1, Streaming Now, Netflix
