Jared is a 17-year-old indigenous Haisla teenager and the protagonist of Trickster.
Bio
Jared is 17 going on 30. Like any teenager, he struggles with friends, school, girls. But he's also a parent to his parents. Jared is kind, considerate, and will help anyone who asks — or doesn't ask. He yearns to express himself creatively but he's too busy just trying to survive his increasingly tough situation. Jared's daily life is addiction, poverty, and violence. But it's also laughter, friendship, and fun. Jared is relatively uncorrupted by the chaos in his life. He sells and uses drugs but he doesn't get into trouble. Jared's too busy getting his parents out of trouble, mostly his mom Maggie. Resilient and adaptable, Jared thinks he's just trying to get by. But he doesn't yet realize that, at his core, he's a survivor – it's in his DNA.[1]
Biography
Jared is the only child of Maggie, who raised Jared alongside her husband Phil. She told Phil that Jared was his son when in actuality, his biological father is Wade. She told Jared that he was born in the back of her red pickup truck in the middle of nowhere.
Series
In Episode 1, Jared arrives at a trailer in which he has a drug lab set up inside. He mixes several chemicals while wearing a gas mask, a yellow apron, and gloves. Jared proceeds to make drugs.
In class, the teacher deals out the graded assignments. A student behind Jared mocks him for smelling like weed. The teacher gives him his test and tells him he can do better and to see the counselor.
Jared walks down the halls and sits with Crashpad, who is eating lunch alone. Jared swaps him crackers for his cucumbers. He asks to borrow Crashpad’s bike for work in the morning, to which Crashpad agrees. He then invites Jared to play video games like the old days, just as a fellow student named Dylan approaches. He tells Crashpad to leave as he has grown-up matters to discuss with Jared. Crashpad ignores Dylan’s request and decides to stay. Dylan wants to know if Jared’s working tomorrow as he wants some extra salty fries, to which Jared agrees to give him them after six. Dylan begins to taunt Crashpad, but Jared intervenes. He leverages the extra salty fries in exchange for Dylan backing off Crashpad.
After school, Jared rides the bike home and waves to his neighbors. He stops to watch a teenage girl and an older man enter a house. Jared then goes into his house to find Maggie drunk with more of her friends. She taunts him to fight her, but he refuses. Maggie offers him a beer, but he declines. Maggie loudly explains to her friends that she birthed him in the back of her truck. Jared goes to his room, where he lays out his clothes then puts food in the oven. Jared reminds Maggie to take the tray out of the stove when it beeps. He reminds her that she almost burned their house down last time.
He goes to work at the Tasty Bucket where he’s a cashier. He converses with the first customer, who remarks that Jared's not lazy like everyone else before driving off. Dylan arrives and asks for extra salty fries. Jared packs the order and places a small baggie of drugs in the bag. He continues this charade of delivering three pills in each bag of an order that asks for extra salty fries. He pockets extra money this way.
After work, he rides the bike to Wheeler’s restaurant and waves to an older man on the way inside. He visits his dad, Phil, who lives in the apartment section of the building. Phil invites him in for company. Jared gives him money for rent and clothes but nothing else, sparking Phil to remind Jared that he’s off the painkillers. He pockets the money anyway, explaining that this is only until his disability cheques are increased. Phil’s girlfriend, Destiny, comes out of the bedroom but retreats to the bathroom to vomit. He remarks that the only woman that could keep up with him was Jared’s mother. Jared ensures Phil that Maggie is unaware of Jared's visits.
From there, Jared goes to the bank to pay his bills with cash. He runs out of money and promises to pay the hydro bill another day.
He walks down the street listening to music and watching the birds. He walks through a junkyard but freezes at the sight of a pit bull barreling towards him. Jared runs in the opposite direction as it growls and snarls after him. He hears a yelp and turns to see the dog on the road. The dog's hit by a red pickup truck. Jared is surprised to see his mom driving the vehicle. The dog's owner angrily sprints after the car. He shouts at Jared's mom for killing his dog and demands his money.
Jared asks who the man was, to which his mom brushes it off as just being Richie. She gives Jared some weed telling him to calm down. Richie was her dealer, but he dealt her some crap coke, so Maggie refused to pay him. She drops Jared off at school, reminding him that she would kill or die for him.
Jared visits the guidance counselor, Mr. White, and relays that everything is the same. He has friends but no girlfriend. Jared claims his home life is fine, even though it’s been a year since his parents separated. The counselor asks if he thinks his parents separating is because of Jared’s grades, which are a concern for the counselor. The counselor knows Jared is smart, yet doesn’t apply himself. He asks Jared to think about what would happen if he did try. The counselor gives him a stress ball to let go of the tension holding him back. He asks where Jared sees himself in five years, but Jared doesn’t see himself anywhere.
He goes to work at the Tasty Bucket when Richie pulls up and points a gun at Jared. He pulls the trigger, but Jared is relieved when it's just a water gun. Richie advises him to talk some sense into his mom. Maggie owes him two grand for the coke. But he's rounding up to three for the cost of his dog. He gives Jared three days to pay the fee, or he will kill his mother.
Jared bikes to Phil's house again to find him arguing on the phone while also planning a party with the same caller. He notices Jared’s demeanor and Jared carefully asks for some of the extra cash he gave him back. Destiny approaches and asks Jared to hold out his hand for a surprise. She drops a pregnancy test in his hand, announcing that she’s pregnant and that he’s going to be a brother. Jared is surprised and tells Phil to ignore his request about giving the money back. Before he can leave, Phil asks for more money now that he’s going to be a father.
He leaves to find that the bike has a flat tire, so he walks to the bus stop. A man emerges, the same one from the woods who stole the baby from Maggie. He exits the bus stop asking for directions. He remarks that the more things change, the more they stay the same, but Jared doesn’t pay him much attention. The man asks if he grew up here, but Jared scoffs him off and gets his bike to walk the rest of the way. When he looks over his shoulder, all that remains is a raven.
He returns to the trailer to cook and doesn’t notice when someone identical to him enters, picks up a frying pan, and smacks him across the head with it.
Jared goes to Crashpad’s house to play video games. Crashpad’s mom approaches and asks Jared to stay for dinner. Crashpad reminds her that they can’t pause the game. She sweetly reminds Jared that he can stay anytime. When she’s gone, Crashpad remarks that she’s just happy Jared’s here. She doesn’t like it when Crashpad games alone, even though he's just lying low for a while. Jared thinks he should probably be doing too. Upon further inquisition, Jared admits that he got rolled and now all his dope and cash are gone. He thinks Richie did it since his mom owes him three grand, but the attacker didn’t look like Richie. He’s been seeing weird things lately but thinks it’s just too many drugs or he’s inheriting his parents crazy.
He goes home after and hears muffled voices that he follows. Jared finds his mom in her room high and hallucinating friends while talking to herself. Maggie asks if Jared was at Phil’s and accuses him of giving his father money. She remarks that Phil is a user. Jared counters that Phil's off the oxy, but that’s not what she means. He goes to his room for the rest of the evening until his friends come for a party.
They get high before a girl, Ebony, asks Jared to a party at Dylan’s where Jared can sell his pills. Maggie comes home and offers to show them how to play a real drinking game, her loud demeanor winning over Jared’s party friends.
The next morning, Jared rides the bike home and sees the same girl that just moved in. This time, she seems to be sparkling with a golden aura. He is mesmerized, and he watches her throw away a slab of meat that she quickly explains is spoiled moose meat. Jared notes that she just moved in with the Jacks’ family, which is a foster home. He points out that she had blue hair the other day, to which she agrees. She asks what the town is like, but Jared responds that it's boring. A honking oil truck blares past them. She gives the truck the middle finger and asks if Jared knows there is a direct link between the industrial exploitation of land and violence against indigenous women, which he didn't know. As they talk, she reveals this is her third foster home this year, so she figures she will be gone by Thanksgiving. She then retreats inside. Jared comes home to an empty house.
Maggie visits Jared at work and asks him for a coffee to help level her out. He reluctantly gives her one when she promises not to cause any trouble. She sits down and dumps sugar packets in her coffee. A man enters the establishment, but Maggie continues mumbling to herself. She spots the man whom she recognizes as the man from the woods that stole her baby. She pins him against a wall with a mop, angrily yelling at the man. Jared and a manager rush over, and when Maggie looks back at the man, he’s physically changed to someone entirely different. She swears it was someone else and leaves. The manager, Tony, pulls Jared aside and reprimands him for his mother’s behavior. This isn’t the first time she has brought her crazy to the Tasty Bucket. He can’t risk it happening again and fires Jared.
That night, Maggie brings Jared a tray of food as an apology. He asks if she regrets having him, but she asks why he would ask such a stupid question. Jared wants to know if she ever imagined what her life would be like without him, but she retorts that her life didn’t exist before him. Maggie asks if he regrets having a crazy mom with anger management issues. He returns the sentiment of that being a stupid question. She plans to buy food for dinner despite not having money. He asks if she’s worked things out with Richie yet, to which she ominously responds that the world is hard, so they have to be harder.
He goes to Crashpad’s and invites him to the party at Dylan’s house. Once there, they begin drinking and are greeted by Ebony. She's excited about the amazing product Jared was supposed to bring. Jared informs her that he’s out, so she scoffs and storms off. Jared spends the rest of the night drinking alone on the couch while Crashpad plays videogames with other partygoers. He slumps backward and looks over to see himself on the opposite end of the sofa, staring back. He goes to the bathroom to splash water on his face. When he comes out, he still sees himself smiling evilly from the kitchen. He runs out of the house, and Dylan tells him to take it easy, asking what Jared took. Crashpad comes to check on Jared, and despite Dylan’s cruel remarks to beat it, claims he just saw Jared in the kitchen.
Jared wakes up on Crashpad’s couch to the sounds of a muffled video game. He sits up and converses with Crashpad, who thinks he should quit taking pills and mixing his drinks. Jared asks if Crashpad has any cash, but Crashpad only has thirty bucks. He wants to know how Jared plans to turn thirty dollars into three grand in only a matter of hours.
Jared goes to a bingo game in the hopes of winning money. The woman next to him helps him keep up with the fast announcer, though she ultimately wins the game. He sits outside when Crashpad approaches and gives him an envelope of cash that he got from selling his game - characters, rare items, all of it. Jared refuses the money first, but Crashpad reminds him that he has to accept.
As they walk to Richie’s place, Jared swears he will pay Crashpad. Crashpad asks why he stopped hanging out, to which Jared explains that things got crazier after his parents’ split-up. They watch the oil trucks pass before spotting a dead animal on the side of the road surrounded by bugs. They walk to Richie’s to find his trailer torched and the place a mess. The boys worry that Maggie might have something to do with it.
Jared hurries home to find spilled milk, a knocked-over chair, and his home in disarray. Richie emerges from the hallway looking high and angry while holding a hammer. Jared slips on the milk in an attempt to run away, just as Maggie comes out of the hall. She explains that she found an alternative way to pay off her debts. The house is a mess because of her alternative payments. She and Richie also worked together to make his trailer fire look like an accident for the sake of earning the insurance money that she and Richie will split 50/50. Maggie tells Jared that Richie is staying with them for a while since he's virtually homeless, much to Jared’s disgust.
Jared goes back to the road where he buries Richie’s dog. A raven lands in front of Jared and begins mocking his sentimental attitude. Jared rightfully freaks out at the sight of a raven talking. The raven wonders if Jared’s never had a Corvus Corax talk to him before. Jared thinks he’s tripping. The raven eerily responds that he’s the one tripping, not Jared. He warns that Jared’s time is almost up as Jared runs away. The raven takes flight and soars over the town.
In Episode 2, Richie takes a shower while loudly singing to music. Jared bangs on the door, asking him to turn it down or change the song, but Richie ignores him. Jared goes to the kitchen, where the table is a mess and pours cereal. Maggie asks what is wrong, to which Jared expresses his disdain over Richie playing the same song when he showers every day. Maggie thinks his actions are charming. She likes having a real man in the house instead of just a mopey, smelly teenager. He asks how long Richie plans to stay. Maggie assures Jared that Richie is only staying until she gets her share of the insurance money. Jared worries the cops will find out Maggie is responsible for the fire, which would get them all arrested. She thinks he worries too much, and they banter before she warns him not to mess things up for her. He quips that Maggie does that all by herself. She thinks Jared's being jealous. When she's out of earshot, Jared mutters that he's desperate.
He takes the trash out and watches another oil truck speed by before smoking. He goes to the woods, where he passes fallen statues and battered towers. A raven stands by the broken statue, and he watches the Raven sing along with the music he is listening to on his headset. When he takes off his headset, the raven only squawks.
Jared heads to an abandoned building in the woods where he sees a group of girls and Sarah, his new neighbor, hanging out. She is spray painting on the side of a trailer. He remarks that Sarah's fitting in with the locals. She asks if he skates, and he instinctively claims that he does before correcting himself, not knowing why he said yes. She asks if she brought any snacks and makes the gesture of smoking. He does have actual snacks, which they share as she explains her personality is hardcore resistance with a dash of sparkle. He noticed that and her friends called for her, outing her name as Sarah.
Jared goes home and sketches Sarah in his notebook. Richie comes home and asks where his carburetor is, to which Jared explains that it was taking up too much space on the table. Richie angrily grabs Jared by the sweatshirt and slams him against the wall claiming that he takes up too much space. Jared dares Richie to punch him as Jared knows Richie is all talk. Richie angrily hits the wall, remarking that one of them has to leave and it won't be him. Maggie emerges and asks what the boys are doing, prompting Richie to lie. She remarks they are out of food, and Jared explains to Richie that money is tight until he finds a job. Richie produces a wad of cash and gives some to Jared, telling him to buy groceries for Maggie on his treat. Jared is reluctant to accept the money, but Maggie wants pancakes. Richie remarks that the trio is family now, so he doesn't need to worry about it.
Jared goes to the store with Crashpad, who thinks it’s a bad idea for Jared to start dealing again without knowing who rolled him. He offers the money he earned from selling his profile, but Jared declines even though he appreciates the offer. They spot Phil Nelson in the store as he’s getting things for a party. Phil invites the boys over for the party. He then introduces them to his friend, Wade, who is the same man Jared saw at the bus stop. Wade recognizes Jared as Maggie’s son, to which Phil explains that the three of them were close back in the day. But Wade has been gone close to twenty years now. Wade alleges that he sees the resemblance between Wade and Phil. Crashpad and Phil wander off, leaving Wade to admit that Jared doesn’t look anything like Phil. He cryptically states that Jared has Wade’s eyes. A confused Jared tries to understand, but Wade merely smirks. He tells Jared to ask his mom about it before leaving. Jared also notices two customers looking at him.
Jared comes home to hear his mom shouting and Richie sitting at the table. Jared hurries to his mom's door, ready to kick it in out of the fear that Maggie is in trouble due to her screams. Richie stops him, saying that she ditched him to argue with her imaginary friends. This outburst has been going on for twenty minutes. Jared hears her scream for them to get out of her head.
Jared and Crashpad attend Phil's party that night. They notice the visible age difference between them and the rest of the partygoers. They stand by a fire, where Crashpad admits that Wade is cool. He clarifies that while Phil is cool, it's different from Wade. Wade wanders up to them, asking if Jared and Crashpad are drunk yet or not. He wants to show Jared his motorcycle in the garage.
Jared is clueless about motorcycles, so Wade offers to take him riding before he flies to Vancouver. Jared refuses the offer. Wade asks what his mom said about their resemblance, but Jared admits that Maggie is clueless that they spoke. He refuses to believe that Wade is his father, as his mom has no reason to lie about Phil being his father. Wade admits that Phil was mature and loved Maggie, so she did what was best for Jared and lied. The topic of Maggie being crazy surfaces. Jared hopes her crazy is not hereditary. Wade presses that if Jared hears voices or other strange things, he can tell him. Jared lies about not having heard anything. Wade asks if Jared knows that his grandma Sophia was sent to a residential school. Sophia passed her baggage onto Maggie, which explains her situation, though that does not mean Jared has to bear it. Jared is surprised that Grandma Sophia was a member of the residential school. Wade ominously states that Jared is clueless about a lot - including when he was born. Jared knows he was born in the back of a pickup truck, but Wade retorts that Jared doesn’t know half of it. Jared quips that Wade doesn't either, but he does as he was there.
Jared comes home to see Richie with his friends drinking without Maggie. He goes outside to find Maggie and lights her cigarette for her. They sit by the fire, and Jared asks about the night he was born. She is surprised by his question, but he insists on knowing. She explains that she was driving from Terrace when she went into labor. She pulled over in the middle of nowhere and gave birth to him in the back of her truck. He asks about the nearby totem. She quickly corrects that it's an ancient face carved into a tree, not a totem. In Heiltsuk, it's known as Mamathlteeasa, as long ago, their people carved faces into trees to mark territory. He wants to learn more about the tree and who was there with her, but she snaps about him giving her the third degree. He tells her that he met Wade, who claims to be his biological father. Jared pushes that Wade told him he was with Maggie the night Jared was born. She brushes it off as Wade being an old snag, and he is jealous. Maggie tries to smooth things over with Jared, who refuses her hug as he is upset. She warns him to stay away from Wade.
Jared and Crashpad walk together, and Jared admits he doesn’t think his mom told him the truth. Crashpad recommends talking to Phil, but Jared can’t do that to Phil. Jared plans to grovel for his old job back. They arrive at the Tasty Bucket. He calls for Tony, who is yelling at employees for being too slow. Tony worries that his mom will make a scene again, but he promises she won’t. Tony needs a delivery driver, but Jared doesn’t have a car. He orders a bucket of thighs instead.
Phil is in his garage looking through old baby stuff when Jared enters with the bucket of thighs. Phil plans to reuse things from when Jared was a baby, as he kept it all. He shows Jared a baby photo, but Jared asks about Wade instead. Phil explains that Wade, Maggie, and himself were tight back in the day, but Wade moved to Vancouver before Jared was born. Wade always thought he was too big for the city of Kitimat. He trusts Wade as he’s a good guy, even though he plays up the cool act. Wade pulls up, trying to get Jared to go for a ride with him. He’s reluctant at first, but Phil urges him to try it. Wade tosses him a helmet, and they drive away.
They stop at a light, and an older woman stares at Wade then watches him speed away. Wade takes them to a cliff that overlooks the river. Jared tells him what his mom said about him being jealous of Phil, to which Wade agrees - but only because Phil got to raise him. Wade knows Jared needs proof and offers to give it to him. Jared follows Wade into the woods. Wade remembers the stars being out the night Jared was born. They were driving to the hospital, but Jared was eager to come out. Wade pulled over, laid a sleeping bag on the truck, and out came Jared. He cut the umbilical cord with a Leatherman. He shows him a tree with a face carved into it as proof that he was there that night. Wade turns to Jared and calls him son.
Jared sits outside his house smoking and drinking a beer. He notices the flashing headlights of a car and goes over to see Sarah. She offers him a smoke, which Jared accepts. He asks about her foster family, which she claims are nice enough, but they are nothing alike. He asks why Sarah's had so many foster parents. She is looking for her birth parents, though Sarah isn't unsure about their identities. She moves town to town by causing trouble and making child services send her to a new family. They share a look, and they kiss. When she does, fireflies circle her head. Jared panics as she can't see the fireflies. He quickly leaves the car.
Jared awakens with a start to see his mom standing over his bed smoking. She asks him to never leave her then walks out.
The next morning, Jared visits Phil who remarks on the earliness. Jared wants to see Wade but he isn’t there at the moment. Phil is glad he stopped by but it’s not about money, but rather a surprise. The increase in disability cheques fell through but the social worker came through with a motorized scooter. He doesn’t need it for his back, and even though he has a new kid coming, Jard is his firstborn so he doesn’t want him to feel left out. Jared remarks that Phil will be a great dad to the baby and rides the scooter to the Tasty Bucket.
He approaches Tony who still has the delivery job and hires him back as a delivery driver. Jared rides the scooter to the abandoned warehouse where he tries to hide from Sarah. He apologizes for last night as he was stoned, but she states it’s already forgotten. She’s raising awareness for anti-pipeline protests. The government is trying to force a pipeline through unceded lands. Jared doesn’t think the protest is going to go over very well here as people are relying on the gas terminal for jobs. He isn’t pro-pipeline but just observant. She declines his help so he drives off.
Richie watches sports as Jared comes home looking for Maggie. Richie blasts the TV over Jared, as he hasn’t seen her since this morning when she took off. Jared receives a text from Wade asking if he’s ready for another ride. Jared is down so Wade offers to pick him up.
Physical appearance
Jared is a tall teenager with wavy brown hair, brown eyes, and prominent features. He usually wears casual clothing such as hoodies and jeans.
Personality
Though not reflected in his grades, Jared is a remarkably intelligent person whose knowledge of chemistry allows him to be a proficient drug cook. He is witty, sarcastic, and rather jaded against the world. He sees his parents as his responsibility and has assumed a parental role over his household. His partying nature often conflicts with his financially responsible side.
Episode appearances
Trivia
- Jared is a gifted artist, able to sketch an image of Sarah from memory alone.
- He is a brilliant chemist, as he makes his own drugs, despite his ironic failing grade in chemistry.