The Puppet Master

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The Puppet Master is the fourth episode of Season 1 and the fourth episode overall. It was released on September 24th, 2015.

## Synopsis

The return of a mysterious person has the teens on their toes. Jasper makes an unpleasant promise to Jenna. Lynette,Shirley and Galen become concerned about Jasper's relationship with Jenna.

## Recap

As promised, Lynette went out for a coffee with Shirley. They went to the
local café called 'Steamy Bean'. They ordered their coffee and sat down to a
table by the window. It was probably the best spot in the café, it was the only
one with couches instead of regular chairs. Seemed very comfortable, no wonder
they sat there. The girls talked a little bit about school and how they spent
their summer breaks. 'I have a confession to make.' - Spoke up Shirley. 'I went
back to the woods yesterday.'. Lynette quickly hushed her to speak more
silently. 'Sorry!'. Shirley took a breath and started to explain what happened.
'So I went there and it was pitch dark, I couldn't see much. Although I found a
pair of odd looking footprints, I didn't think it was any of ours.'. She showed
Lynette the pictures. 'Where did it lead to?'. 'I couldn't tell. Like I said,
it was dark and the rest of the prints were probably gone already anyway.'.
Lynette looked back at the picture and shook her head. 'You are right, there's
something odd about this pair. Anything else you found?'. Shirley seemed to
hesitate a little bit, but then she spoke up. 'I think... there was a person
watching me.'. Lynette looked stunned and upset at the same time. 'You THINK
someone saw you standing...' -she looked around before continuing- '...standing
by the grave of a girl who was never found? The girl we...'. 'I know, it's bad.
But it was dark, perhaps they didn't recognize me either.'. Lynette rolled her
eyes seeming very upset. 'You better hope so. This could ruin everything.'.
Shirley looks very sorry that she went back there. She looks down at her mug.
'Listen, I'm sorry about.... about telling Kyra and Madison that you are my lab
partner. It's just... they don't look at one's personality. They only see the
appearance. The hair, the clothing, the make-up, the...' -Shirley interrupts
her - 'I get it! I know what girls like them are like, but I don't think you
are like them.' Lynette seems to wonder whether she agrees or disagrees with
Shirley. 'Sometimes I don't even know who I am.'. Shirley looks at her phone . 'Oh
damn it!' - she speaks up - 'I promised Noelle I would give her the car, she's
going out of town with some friends.'. She stands up. 'Sounds fun.' 'Sure, if
you consider sitting at the town square and laughing at the outfits of other
girls fun. Do you need a lift?' Lynette gets up as well. 'Yeah, if you don't
mind.' They leave the café and as they head for Shirley's car they bump into
Galen. 'Hey speedy girls. I was trying to reach you Lyn. Didn't you get my
messages?' - he asks. 'Oh, I had my phone on mute.' - she replied. 'Well can we
talk? It's kinda important.' 'You guys feel free to talk, but I gotta go. I'll
see you at school.' - says Shirley as she leaves. Lynette smiles at Galen.
'What's up?' -she says. 'You tell me. I get home to my mom being estatic that
our loan was paid by our guiding angel.'. Lynette smiles. 'I'm very happy for
you, Galen. I knew everything was going to work out!' -Galen smiled at her and
raised one of his eyebrows. 'Did you really think I wouldn't know it was you?
You and Karma were the only ones who knew and after not holding up my end of
the deal I get a feeling Karma wasn't up to playing Santa.' Lynette didn't
answer, Galen turned more serious. 'Look, words can not express how thankful I
am, how thankful we are. I am going to pay you back every cent of it I swear
it. I just need some time.'. 'Don't.' - said Lynette. 'When we spoke about...
my problems, you said you would always be there for me. Something nobody has
said to me in a long time. Not since Jasper said it and now he doesn't give a
damn about me. I really felt like I had a true friend by my side and I wanted
to do the same for you.' Galen smiled and giggled. 'You know Jasper is an idiot
for throwing away the jackpot.' 'That's what I've been saying for the last few
months.' They both laugh and then hug before leaving together.

Elsewhere, Jasper and Jenna are in her bedroom, just cuddling on the bed.
Jenna brings up how a couple of nights ago Jasper, very suddenly, cancelled
their date. 'Where were you that night?' - she asked. 'I just had to do some
business.'. Jenna sat up and looked at him smiling and raising her left
eyebrow. 'Business, is what your father does. Why can't you tell me where you
were?'. 'I was just helping out a couple of friends with something. No
biggie.'. 'A couple of friends?' - asked the girl. 'Galen, Shirley.... and
Lynette.' - he said. Jenna, seemingly very upset hearing Lynette's name, stood
up and walked to the window. 'We spend one night apart. One. And who are you
hanging out with? Your ex! Of course! I mean that is completely normal,
right?  You know Jasper, I don't expect
you to tell me every detail of what you do, but I don't know how I feel about
you spending time with her.' - she complained. 'Well why is that SUCH a big
problem? We are still friends. We have always been there for eachother.' Jenna
kept quiet for a moment and then looked at Jasper. 'Old flames die hard. I
don't want you talking to her anymore.' 'What?!' - he yelled. 'It's the only
way I know for sure that I won't lose you.' - she walked up closer to him and crouched
down beside the bed. 'I love you too much for that.'. 'Jenna, I love you. Not
her. You have nothing to worry about.'. 'Perhaps then, it won't be a sacrifice
too big to make for me. Would it?'. Jasper seemed annoyed, he looked away and
said: 'I suppose not.'. Jenna rubs his arm and then kisses him on the lips.

Next morning, Galen and Shirley are walking to school together, like they
usually do. Shirley was filling Galen in on how Noelle has been making her life
a living hell lately. 'She came home and complained that I didn't fuel the car
before giving her the keys.' 'And you did?' 'Of course I did! I filled it all
up! She came home with the tank almost completely empty. I know one thing for
sure and it's thatI am not going to be the one paying the fuel next time.'.
'Heh. Sounds like spending some time away at college didn't change your sister
at all.'. Shirley giggles. 'Tell me about it.'. A car drives up in front of the
school, it seemed familiar to both of them, but they couldn't tell why. A
handsome looking guy got out of the car, one guy they wish they didn't know.
'Nigel...' - said Galen. 'Speaking of spending time away...' - spoke up Shirley
- '.. do you think Ciera's boyfriend found closure?'. They look at eachother as
Lynette shows up. 'Hey guys! What is it that caught your attention so much?'
She didn't need them to answer. She spotted Nigel, and she was just as stunned
as her friends. 'I didn't think he would even come back from boarding school. I
mean, wouldn't all the memories here about her be too much to take?' - said
Shirley. 'I don't think his feelings are what we should be concerned about.' -
said Lynette - 'What has me on edge is whether he's back for himself or....' -
she didn't finish her sentence. 'Something tells me we are going to find out
sooner, rather than later.' - said Galen. Before entering the school, Nigel
looked at the three of them, and it wasn't the warmest look they have ever
seen. 'Oh hey, there's Jasper!' - said Shirley. Jasper and Jenna looked at the
three of them, Lynette waved at Jasper, but he just looked away. 'Okay is it
just me or did he just completely ignore me?' - asked Lynette. 'I don't know
about you guys, but I'm not sure how I feel about him dating the best friend
of... Ciera.'- spoke up Galen, saying her name very quietly. 'Yeah, you're not
alone.' - said Shirley - 'That girl is trouble and no more, and I hate what
she's doing to him.'. 'Couldn't agree more...' - said Lynette, before saying
bye to her friends as she had to get to class.

While heading to class, Jasper and Jenna bump into Chad. 'Hey man!' -he
greets his friend- 'We got water polo practice today!' - he says. 'I know that,
Chad.' - says Jasper while holding hands with Jenna, who seems rather annoyed
by Chad. 'So when do your classes end? I'll wait for ya at your locker so we
can go together.’ 'That won't be necessary, Chad. I'm not going.'. Chad seemed
unsure whether Jasper is joking or not. He never skips practice. 'What are you
saying, man? Why wouldn't you come?'. 'Because we have plans together.' - says
Jenna, trying to hurry up the conversation. 'Let's go, Jas. I don't wanna be
late.' - she says. 'See you later, Chad!'. Chad looks after them quite
confused. Jenna has him completely wrapped around her finger.

The next day Shirley was the first one to arrive to the classroom. She
wanted to take her car today so she had to leave earlier, before Noelle took it
again. As she walked inside she couldn’t miss a white giftbox with a red ribbon
sitting on her desk. She wasn’t sure what to expect, obviously this wasn’t from
a secret admirer. A secret staler was more likely. She just hoped it wouldn’t
be a part of Ciera or something as creepy as that. At first she considered
throwing it away without even looking but curiosity got the best of her.
Shirley picked up the lid slowly and removed it. Inside the box she saw a
letter and something brown. She put the letter aside and took the brown thing,
which was in fact a paper bag with two round holes for eyes. Shirley didn’t
understand why someone would give her that so she opened the letter. “Some
people are born ugly. You should wear a paper bag.”, the letter said. It took Shirley
a second to remember what this was all about.

~FLASHBACK~

This happened about two years ago in this same classroom during the second
break. Shirley was sitting behind her desk and going through her notebook as Ciera
and a bunch of her sheep approached her. “Do you have to study even during the
break, nerd?” asked one of the sheep, Jenna. “Oh please Jenna, don’t mention
it, she has bigger issues now.” said Ciera. “What exactly?”, asked another
girl. “Some people are born ugly”, looked Ciera at Shirley, “You should wear a
paper bag.” All of the girls burst out laughing. Shirley just looked up and
decided to ignore this, there was no point in saying anything and she was outnumbered
anyway.

Vibrating from the pocket brought Shirley back from the memory. She opened
the text which came from an unknown number “Wasn’t she a bitch? I’m not
surprised you made her smell the roses from below.”

After their last class, Lynette and Chad walked out of classroom together
towards lockers. Chad was still worried about Jasper and didn’t know whom to
share his concerns with. He thought Lynette might still care, at least as a
friend. He decided to tell her about yesterday, how Jasper brushed him off and
skipped the practice for no good reason. Lynette told him that she didn’t have
feelings for him anymore but that they stayed friendly until Jenna came along.
She told him that Jasper probably changed because of her. Chad nodded in
agreement as the two they were just talking about walked by. They shared a kiss
before Jenna entered the female bathroom, most likely to fix her makeup. Jasper
walked towards Chad, ignoring Lynette. “Hey”, she said anyway “What’s going on
with you lately seems like you are ignoring me?” Jasper nervously looked towards
the bathroom as he said “It’s nothing. You and I have nothing to talk about
anymore.”. “Is this because of Jenna?” Lynette insisted. “Oh my god Lynette why
are you so annoying, just leave me alone.” Jasper yelled, seemingly upset. Chad
looked at his friend with a shock on his face. Having heard all this Galen came
by and asked if everything was okay. Lynette told him that she just wanted to
go home, she said goodbye to Chad without looking at her ex and walked away with
Galen. Jasper looked at them longingly as they walked through the front door.

That evening Jasper and Jenna decided to have a diner at Springford’s
finest restaurant. As they were chatting casually Jenna noticed Nigel and his
family walking in. She said hi to him and so did Jasper, out of politeness
only, as he did not like this guy. Or maybe he just couldn’t look him in the
eye after what happened with Ciera. Jenna didn’t seem to notice this and she
invited Nigel to sit and talk to them a little. Nigel seemed uncomfortable and
said he didn’t want to bother them but Jenna insisted. After all, they used to
hang out a lot when he was dating Ciera so she wanted to catch up a little. Actually
she didn’t care about that but if she figured out why he went away for a year she
would have some juicy gossip to spread around. “Long time, huh?”, said Jasper.
The two were never close but they used to play water polo together last year. “Yeah,
I haven’t really been around ever since… you know.”, Nigel looked down and Jasper
felt bad about reminding him of this. Jenna compassionately asked him how he
had been holding up to which he just told her that he still missed Ciera a lot.
“We all do, don’t we Jasper?” she replied and Jasper obviously agreed with her.
Nigel excused himself and told the two that he needed to get back to his family;
he didn’t want them to order without him. Just as he left, Jaspers phone
buzzed. He read the message which came from an unknown number and said “Do you
really miss her?” Jasper looked up and at Nigel who was at the moment looking
at his phone. Then he looked up at Jasper and smiled.

## Title

The Puppet Master refers to Jenna, as she has completely wrapped Jasper around her finger.

## Main Cast

* Chord Overstreet as Jasper Price
* Melissa Benoist as Shirley McHale
* Emily VanCamp as Lynette Jackson
* Brant Daugherty as Galen Wright
* *Unknown* as Karma
* Arielle Kebbel as Ciera Chesley

## Guest Stars

* Leighton Meester as Jenna Hillsburry
* Zach Roerig as Chad Mullins
* Chace Crawford as Nigel Hicks