A Stitch in Time

A Stitch in Time is the third episode of Season 1 and the third episode overall. It was released on September 17th, 2015.

Synopsis
Galen and his family face financial issues. Shirley investigates. Lynette proves herself to be a great friend.

Recap
At the Price mansion, Jasper is getting ready to go out with his girlfriend Jenna. He carefully styles his hair, makes sure it's flawless. He puts on his $800 suit and his tie and heads down to his father's (Kenneth) office to say bye. As he arrives in his office Kenneth is reading something at his desk. Jasper tells him he's not going to be late and they quickly say goodbye. They don't seem to be too close. Kenneth is a businessman, most of the time he is out doing.... business. He doesn't see his son too often. He divorced Jasper's mother years ago and they haven't heard from her since. Jasper leaves the office, closes the door and when he leaves the mansion the huge doors closing can also be heard. Lynette climbs out from under the desk, saying 'I don't think I can do this anymore'. 'Sure you can!' - he says. He starts kissing Lynette on the neck, she seems very uninterested and rather disgusted. 'I have been doing this for a long time now. Can't you just leave me alone already?'. Kenneth looks her in the eyes and says: 'Well I can. But then you better get used to seeing mommy through bars.' He gets back to kissing her. Lynette looks very upset and even sheds a tear.

Galen is home in his kitchen having dinner with his 10 year old brother, Tim. After they finish, their mom, Teresa finally arrives. Galen tells her he's been worried about her, she's always home by this time.Teresa explains that she was trying to win themselves a few more days to pay the loan, as they are already 5 days late... They have been told that if they don't pay it in time, they will lose their house.She tells Galen that she managed to extend the deadline a little more. Galen asks how long they have towhich Teresa tries to calm him down, telling him that she's got it under control. Galen doesn't give in though and demands to know when the timeline is. Teresa hesitantly tells him that she got them an extra day. She goes upstairs, leaving Galen quite worried, his mom can't possibly get all that money in one single day, now can she? Tim calls for Galen to tell him that he finished his dinner. Galen tells him to go upstairs and play while he cleans up. He does so and right after he leaves, Galen's phone buzzes. He checks and sees that he got a text, from a blocked number. He opens it and the text reads: ''Want to keep your house? Burn someone else's. - Karma''. There is also a picture attached, which shows Lynette and Kenneth making out in his office. Galen cluelessly looks up. He really wants to help out his mother, but how could he expose something that can completely ruin someone else's life? Especially when that someone is his friend. Also, how could he know if Karma can really arrange their loan to be taken care of??

Shirley couldn’t stop thinking about the grave they all found dug out the other day. Every day she anxiously expected the police to come banging on her door, cuffing her hands and throwing her in jail. She knew she had to do something to calm herself down; she had to go back to the grave and check again what the hell happened there and was it in fact an animal. Yes she was that desperate, grasping at straws. It was 1 in the morning and the rest of her family were finally asleep when she snuck out. She wanted to take her car but it wasn’t in the garage. “Damn it, Noelle”, she whispered angrily. Noelle, Shirley’s older sister was a total opposite of her; she got into trouble all the time, and let’s not even mention school. This used to be her car but last year she got arrested for drunk driving so parents took it away and gave it to Shirley instead. “Ugh, I have to do this the hard way”, Shirley said and started walking toward the forest. Over half an hour later she finally arrived. The woods were pitch- black and if Shirley hadn’t taken her flashlight she wouldn’t be able to see anything and this trip to the forest would be in vain. Soon after the accident Shirley started watching a lot of crime shows, she kinda wanted to see what they were up against if the body gets discovered. And now, she knew what to look for in this place. First she looked down for the footprints, trying not to step in any more of them. Now obviously some of them belonged to her and her friends. There was a pair that stood out though. They seemed to belong to really odd shoes and Shirley didn’t think any of her friends wore anything like it. Still, she took a bunch of photos for them to compare to their own. She looked for any sings that something dragged a body out of hole, but there were none and it was unlikely that an animal would pick up body and carry it. Sure, though, if it was a bunch of hungry animals they could have eaten it right in the hole. But when Shirley took a look down there was just sand and a few drops of blood. No leftover bones, and no mess that animals would leave behind. All this evidence pointed to a human grave robber and just assured Shirley of what she already knew. As she stood up to go home, she spotted a dark figure in the distance, but when she aimed her flashlight at it to take a better look, there was nothing but trees.

Kyra and Madison had just left Lynettes place and she didn’t have any further plans so she decided to give a go at studying some history for an upcoming test. She opened her book and started reading, didn’t even finish the first two lines when her phone made a sound. Naturally, she had to open the text, see who it was from, and what if it was an emergency? “Go visit your friend at 108 Pine Street, Springford.”, the text read, sent from an unknown number. Now, this sounded really sketchy and Lyn was reluctant to go, but she really wanted an excuse not to study. “Maybe that’s where they took Ciera” she told herself “and anyway, I will just look around, I dont need to go inside.” She knew where this street was but she never actually went there before. After a quite long walk Lynette found herself standing in front of an old grey house with a broken window, beside which the number 108 was written. Somebody was walking out the door so she pretended to be just walking on the street. She looked back, hoping to see the psychopaths face but what she saw was nothing of the kind. Walking outside that ancient place was Galens younger brother, what was his name, Tom, Tim? She wasn’t sure and it didn’t matter. She realized that karma only wanted her to see Galen's embarrassing secret. But why?

“Okay, you have to do this, there’s no other way”, Galen told himself as he was greeting Jasper on the hall in school the next day. “theres something I need to show you”, he said. Jasper was certainly interested but had no idea it was something really serious. Galen stated that he doesn’t want to ruin his friendship with anyone and that he was only really concerned about Jasper. “Okay okay show it bro, nobody will get upset”. Galen took out the phone and started searching for the photo and as he looked at it he realized he just couldn’t do it, he couldnt ruin other peoples lives for his own good. “Oh no, it got  deleted” he lied, “but it doesn’t matter, it wasn’t anything important anyway”, he said as he rushed away.

„We need to talk at lunch“, texted Lynette Galen. She wanted him to know what she saw and that she wont judge him based on it. But Galen also had something to tell her, he wanted to come clean about the photo and maybe get some clarification from her. They both showed each other the texts they got. „Look Lyn, im sorry i even considered this, i was just so... desperate to pay that loan, we cant live on the street.““ No, i get it“, she said, but she was glad he didnt do it, she couldnt have Jasper mad at her now that they are finally friendly again. She promised Galen that this isnt the way it looks, but that she just couldnt explain it yet. „I understand, but if you ever want to talk about it, im here for you“ he said. At that moment Lynette was grateful to have someone like him as a friend, Kyra and Madison wouldnt be this supportive, now would they?

After the school Galen walked sadly towards the house he will no longer be able to call home tomorrow. He thought about all the memories he made there, but mostly he was concerned about his brother. Tim was just a kid, he surely didnt deserve this. Maybe he could convince Shirley to ask her parents if they would take Tim, at least until their mom finds a new place. Maybe he can get a job too, maybe they can move to another town? He had many ideas but none of them seemed like something that could actually happen. When he got to his house his mom was standing outside, seemingly waiting for him. „Hey mom, arent you packing?“, he asked. „We dont have to“ she replied. „What do you mean?“, Galen was confused. His mom smiled as she said „Someone else paid for us, we dont have to move out.“

Lynette arrived home. She went to the kitchen where she found a noteo n the table saying: 'Had to stay in tonight. There's dinner in the fridge. Your father will be back from his work trip tomorrow. Love you. -Mom'. Lynette took the cold food out of the fridge and put it in the microwave to heat it up. While doing so, she started sobbing. She sat down and kept on crying with her hand on her face.

-Flashback-

A month ago, Lynette's mom, Kara Jackson was at work. She works for Kenneth as his secretary. A client of Kenneth's was in his office, discussing business. Kara was also in there with them. When they finally reached end agreement, the client handed Kenneth an envelope containing $10.000. He locked it in his safe that has a combination lock of numbers. From the corner of her eye, Kara saw Kenneth enter the code. Later in the evening, Kenneth was leaving and he told Kara to lock up after she leaves. He left and a few minutes afterwards, Kara went into his office. She entered the code to the safe, grabbed the envelope, went back to her desk and put it in her purse. She then left as well. Back at home, Lynette overheard her telling her dad that they can finally solve their financial issues. Her dad seemed to disagree with Kara's actions, but eventually she convinced them that Kenneth will never find out it was her. The next day at work, Kara was called into Kenneth's office where he asked her about the missing money, but she denied knowing anything about it. He revealed to her that he had a hidden camera in the room and that he intended to fire and sue her. She begged him not to, promising to pay back every dollar, but he wouldn't budge. Kara left his office, packed up her things and went home. The day after that, Lynette paid a visit to Kenneth. He was rather surprised to see his son's former girlfriend. She told him she knows about what her mother had done and she tried to convince him to give them time to pay the money back. He told her that there might be a way to repay him. He started rubbing Lynette's face and said: '..if you are willing to do anything to help your dear mother.' Lynette looked at him with shock and fear on her face. A couple hours later she went home and her mother told her that Kenneth had just called her and gave her her job back and said he wouldn't be pressing charges, provided that slowly but surely, she will repay him the money. Kara seemed to be very happy. Lynette put on a fake smile and said: 'I'm very happy for you, mom!"

Title

 * A Stitch in time (saves nine) means that it's better to deal with problems immediately, rather than putting them off for later.

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

Guest Stars

 * Alexis Denisof as Kenneth Price
 * Laura Leighton as Teresa Wright
 * Ryan Bradford as Tim Wright
 * Jennifer Jason Leigh as Kara Jackson

Trivia

 * This episode marks the first appearance of Kenneth Price, Teresa Wright, Tim Wright and Kara Jackson (Flashback).