One of Us Is Back

Bayview is a wealthy community where privilege is an expectation rather than an exception. This means that families like the Riordans are used to bending the rules in their favor and teaching their children to do the same. The novel emphasizes that using socioeconomic status to manipulate others—including the legal system—is unethical, and the Riordan family’s destruction shows that money cannot buy love or happiness.

Scott, Jake Riordan’s father, is a highly successful lawyer who believes in displaying his wealth through material possessions. The family owns three homes and expensive cars. Scott tells Jake, “All this will be yours someday” (212). At the same time, he places pressure on Jake to be the person Scott wants him to be. Scott encourages Jake to pick friends based on their status and to cut ties with Jake’s previous best friend, Simon Kelleher, who lacks an impressive background. Scott wants Jake to pick a girlfriend who will complement him in looks and wealth rather than in interests and personality. These lessons build in Jake a sense of entitlement that comes not only with wealth but with reinforcement from Jake’s like-minded peers.

When Jake is revealed to be a coconspirator in Simon’s death, an act of revenge for Addy cheating on him, Jake reacts with violence to protect his privilege. When this doesn’t work, Jake is sent to juvenile detention but is freed on a technicality. Jake’s good luck is seen as another facet of his privilege because a less fortunate person would not have had the legal team to examine a juror’s misconduct and fight for a new trial. Even before this, Jake fought his conviction by claiming he wasn’t really trying to kill Addy when he attacked her in the woods. At the time, the local press called Jake’s trial “Privilege on Display!” (8), reflecting the beliefs of the community. It was again because Jake’s family had the money to hire a strong legal team to defend him—a direct contrast to Nate’s pro bono attorney when he was fighting similar charges.

Simon Kelleher grew up middle class and understood that the Riordan family saw him as inconsequential because of his socioeconomic status. The same is true for Chelsea Alton. Chelsea is the daughter of an advertising executive who lived in a modest home that contrasts greatly with the luxury of where Jake was raised. When Chelsea confronts Jake with the truth of her father’s murder—how Jake strangled her father with a kitchen towel—Jake claims “Simon was lying” (328), despite knowing that Chelsea is telling the truth. Jake refuses to take responsibility for his actions and knows he doesn’t have to because his father’s lawyers will get him out of any mess. This sense of entitlement creates in Jake a sense that he can do anything he wants and get away with it. For this reason, Chelsea believes Jake will continue to hurt people and must be stopped. Chelsea doesn’t believe Jake will ever see justice because “they wouldn’t keep him behind bars when he was caught with his literal hands around [Addy’s] neck” (329).

Throughout the novel, the Riordans’ privilege is contrasted with their unhappiness and ultimate downfall. Katherine is not happy with Scott and plans to leave him for the much less wealthy Alexander Alton, who also happens to be Jake’s biological father. The flashbacks to Jake’s childhood show him withdrawn and sullen as his parents argue and he is forced to distance himself from his best friend. The Riordans’ entitlement is what fuels Simon’s bitterness in the first place: They treat him as inconsequential, and though his actions are morally wrong, like Chelsea’s plot, they are intended to bring Jake to justice knowing that he will evade it otherwise.