This is the second episode in the Secrets of the Shadows series.
PLOT[]
A high school girl named Barbara "Barb" and her friend are fleeing into a classroom, trying to escape from three pretty but mean girls, in particular. The three mean girls follow Barb and her friend into the classroom. One of the three mean girls is Samantha, the school's "queen bee", and the other two are her best friends/"minions" Lola and Gina. Just as they are about to bully Barb and her friend, the latter two run away as Samantha, Lola, and Gina laugh in their direction.
Samantha then notices one of her classmates Bethany sitting down at a table, and proceeds to make personal insults to her. Samantha soon walks down the hallway and insults one of her other classmates Valerie "Val" as well. During both of these instances, Lola and Gina join Samantha in her presence and laugh with her. They also notice an attractive boy named Ben, but Samantha realizes that she cannot date Ben because she is currently going out with Dean instead, who is just as much of a bully as Samantha is, in addition to being the captain of the school's basketball team too.
When Samantha, Lola, Gina, and Dean all sit together soon, Samantha insults one of the nerdy boys in the room behind his back, for wearing a SpongeBob shirt. Dean then quips to Samantha that she is only one step away from doing the same too, which Samantha takes offense to, but fails to stand up to Dean about it. Samantha and her friends soon notice one of their other classmates Kylie stepping in, as they verbally insult her so much to the point of making her cry. One of the school custodians, Elizabeth, observes how much of a bully Samantha is to other students in the school and puts on a cunning smile, devising a plan to do something about it.
It is later revealed that Samantha is the captain of the school's cheerleading team, as she controls all of the other cheerleaders on the team in a domineering and tyrannical manner. Samantha is especially mean to Natalia, one of the other cheerleaders in particular, as she insults Natalia's hair and punishes her by telling her to stay out of the cheerleading team's practice session on that day for failing to meet Samantha's standards. Samantha also orders Natalia to run a lap every time the other cheerleaders make a mistake too, which Natalia reluctantly agrees to do. Meanwhile, Elizabeth has inconspicuously been observing these events under the disguise of an athlete herself.
Later the same day, Samantha goes to a local salon in her hometown and talks to the manager there in a very entitled manner. The manager reluctantly agrees to let Samantha get her hair and face be taken care of at the salon. Elizabeth comes into the salon under the disguise of a stylist and introduces herself to Samantha. Samantha talks to Elizabeth very rudely, and commands her to do service for Samantha immediately. Elizabeth then warns Samantha that true beauty comes from within and not on the outside, which Samantha scoffs at. Elizabeth then gives Samantha some special beauty cream, although it is apparent that it is no ordinary "beauty cream".
Samantha later goes back to her home, as she talks to her parents in a very spoiled manner as well, although they are still nice to her anyway. Samantha knows that the school's major pep rally is tomorrow, as she puts on the special beauty cream right before going to bed. Samantha gets out of bed the next morning and scolds her parents for trying to "fatten her up" with bacon and other similar food products. Samantha then blames her parents for causing one of her fingernails to get broken (even though it wasn't primarily their fault), as she angrily rushes to school afterwards. Soon after arriving to school, Samantha's friends and Dean and bully victims from yesterday all laugh at Samantha when they realize that she is growing pimples all over her body and losing her hair.
An outraged Samantha realizes that Elizabeth set her up with the beauty cream that she gave her yesterday in the first place. Samantha proceeds to express her anger by verbally insulting another one of her classmates, Shelly, but even Shelly can't resist laughing at Samantha after realizing how physically hideous Samantha is now. Samantha then realizes that she will be missing out on the school's pep rally due to her current appearance, as she demands to be taken to the hospital immediately. However, even Lola, Gina, and Dean refuse to take Samantha to the hospital because they don't want to be seen with someone who is as "ugly" as she is now. To Samantha's surprise, Natalia agrees to drive Samantha to the hospital despite how badly Samantha treated Natalia yesterday to begin with.
As Natalia is driving Samantha to the hospital, Natalia tells Samantha that her own mother once told her that true beauty comes within. After Samantha remembers how Elizabeth told this to her at the salon yesterday, Samantha changes her mind and tells Natalia not to take her to the hospital anymore. Samantha then orders Natalia to take her to the salon instead. After Samantha arrives at the salon, the manager there is disgusted by Samantha's current appearance, but Samantha still demands to know where Elizabeth is. Unsure of who Samantha is even talking about in the first place, the manager orders Samantha to leave the salon immediately. As soon as Samantha leaves the salon, she notices Elizabeth casually standing outside, as Elizabeth proudly tells Samantha that her own ingenious plan worked.
Samantha demands Elizabeth to tell her why she would set up Samantha by making her look as hideous as she does now. Elizabeth then tells Samantha that she is not really a salon employee, but instead a custodian at Elizabeth's school, which Samantha scoffs at because she thinks poorly of custodians. Elizabeth also tells Samantha the beauty cream she gave her yesterday is no ordinary "beauty cream". Instead, it is a special beauty cream that, when applied, improves the person's inner beauty, because that is a lot more important than external beauty is. Elizabeth then assertively tells Samantha that, based on the way Samantha has been treating almost everybody around her, Samantha needs that internal beauty cream more than anybody else does. Elizabeth then tells Samantha to stop treating people like garbage all the time, and then put on some more of the internal beauty cream afterwards to see what happens next.
Natalia witnesses this conversation as Elizabeth then leaves. Natalia also notices a random male pedestrian mocking Samantha for her current physical appearance, as he immediately leaves afterwards too. Samantha then exclaims that that pedestrian is just being rude for no good reason. Natalia then tells Samantha that the way Samantha treats almost everybody else really isn't any better. Natalia then tells Samantha that she doesn't need to be mean to people just to feel a sense of personal empowerment, because even then, Samantha won't be well-liked but rather feared. Natalia then says that Samantha can still feel a sense of personal empowerment by being extraordinarily nice and generous to people instead, and this way Samantha will also be loved by everybody too.
Samantha then realizes that Natalia is right, and taking Elizabeth's advice into consideration, she decides to be kind to Natalia from now on, also apologizing for the way she treated Natalia earlier as well. Natalia then forgives Samantha for this. Samantha also says that she wishes that Dean would be kinder to people, including Samantha herself, from now on too. After Samantha arrives home, her parents are gobsmacked by Samantha's current physical appearance, but then Samantha explains the situation to them. Samantha also apologizes for the way she treated her parents earlier too, and puts on some more of the internal beauty cream before going to bed. After waking up the next morning, Samantha is alarmed to discover that her hair and rest of her body are back to normal again. Samantha also realizes that she is experiencing the day of the school's pep rally all over again, from the very beginning.
At first, Samantha thinks that she was only having a bad dream when she met Elizabeth, took her internal beauty cream, and became physically hideous afterwards, etc. But then Samantha starts having second thoughts when she realizes that the rest of her internal beauty cream (aside from what she had already taken so far) is still in her bedroom, and when her parents offer the same breakfast food as they did "yesterday", with no recollection of what happened "yesterday" to begin with. Samantha then realizes that the internal beauty cream is now giving her a "Groundhog Day experience" - only she is reliving the day of her school's pep rally again with a full memory of what she experienced on the first instance of that day. Meanwhile, nobody else around Samantha remembers what happened from then.
After initially talking to her parents in a spoiled manner out of habit, Samantha finally realizes this bad habit of hers and the advice that Elizabeth previously gave to her too. Samantha then apologizes to her parents and decides to eat the bacon and other similar food for her breakfast. Samantha's parents are surprised but also extremely happy at Samantha's sudden major improvement in her personality. Samantha then goes to school and remorsefully apologizes to Barb, Bethany, Val, Kylie, Shelly, the rest of the cheerleading team, and especially Natalia herself. Samantha then decides to be kind to all of them from now on, but Dean arrogantly shames Samantha for the way she looks now after eating "fatty food" for her breakfast.
Finally fed up with the way Dean has been treating her and many other people in the school as well, Samantha angrily breaks up with him, to which Dean scoffs and replies that his still the captain of the basketball team and doesn't deserve that. Samantha then tells Dean that she doesn't care about that, and that her decision in breaking up with Dean is still final. Noticing that Samantha is still physically stronger than he is, Dean decides not to argue with Samantha anymore and instead just flees in humiliation, effectively as punishment for all of his previous actions. Lola and Gina decide to follow Samantha's lead by being kind to everybody else in the school too. Samantha and Ben start dating as well. The four of them and all of Samantha's former bully victims (who are instead friends with Samantha now) all get excited to participate in the school's upcoming pep rally, as Elizabeth privately stands in a corner, proud of this large turn of events.
CAST[]
Samantha - Brittany Kirsten
Elizabeth - Laëtitia Mahicka
Natalia - Tori Eriavez
Dean - Arthur A. McAlpine III
Cool friend 1 - Dawson West
Cool friend 2 - Kareem Leferro
Val - Katrin Mendoza
Kylie - Dayandra de Miranda Leão
Vanessa - Kylah Tiair Whittaker
Stylist - Stacey Whitmire
Pedestrian - Mauricio Daniel Marte
Shelly - Mackenzie Coffman
Barb - Kaitlin Sanders
Lola - Kayla Cummings
Gina - Kristin Olinger
Student 1 - Hao Xuan Truong
Student 2 - Tawni Tucker
Student 3 - Edward Rodri
Student 4 - Tristan Maust
Student 5 - Alexis Sanchez
Student 6 - Jurnee Woo
Cheerleader 2 - Karlie O'Hearn
Cheerleader 3 - Aliyah Orozco
Cheerleader 4 - Indiah Bleher
Jogger 1 - Mariana Leal
Jogger 2 - Ana Sofia Munoz
Jogger 3 - Idalia Buddington
Casting Support Services - Breakdown Services
Trivia[]
- Second collab with Ben Alazert
- Second collab with Rebecca Zamolo
- First collab wit Matt Slays