The Puppet Master

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