Jermaine Foster

A tall and gangly man with a smoker's cough and a dour presence. Married to Wallace Foster. He is the head forest ranger and oversees most of the forestry work around town. He is very aware of the supernatural in Thistlewood and knows a number of the factions and organisations that operate in town. His open acknowledgement of the weirdness of the town puts him at odds with his husband as it harming their marriage, something he is aware of but feels unable to stop, as he is deeply frustrated by Wallace's denial of the supernatural.

He is openly encouraging of the interns' investigations into the town, as well as their worse habits such as delinquency and smoking.

Early Life
According to Jermaine his job prior to becoming a park ranger was painting preservation at the Met. He met and married Wallace after becoming a forest ranger and they had their ceremony in the forest. He was potentially involved in secret societies in Thistlewood and has experience dealing with Sheriff Rhett Haynes and getting drunk with him. Five years ago, he claims that he and Wallace in some way disturbed The Varusa and it has been specifically targeting them ever since, impeding their ranger duties.

In the final episode of season 1, it was revealed that Jermaine was the Guardian, the owner of The Grimoire and cause of many of the problems affecting Thistlewood. In addition to causing irreparable damage to the gnomes, he enslaved the Brownies and summoned two demons: Vada and her brother. For his trouble, Vada's brother turned him into the Varusa and took his place.

Season 1
Jermaine first appeared in episode 2 where he helped Wallace to set up the cabin the Interns would be staying in. After turning the generator on he paused to briefly give the interns some warnings about the supernatural nature of the town; and also explained that his husband doesn't notice any of it. He bitterly described this as Wallace being "so deep in denial that Egypt is jealous". Before leaving he encouraged the interns to do their own research into the town and mentioned The Map of Sanity. He also discussed vore with the interns.

In episode 4 he and Wallace took the interns to Gilmore Cars to try and pick up a new truck for ranger duties. He briefly spent some time joking around with the interns, particularly Fliss, and wound up having a minor argument with Wallace. He did not join the interns in their mission to rescue Remi Gilmore from the ExoBear.

When the interns broke into Sheriff Haynes' office in episode 6, Joshuwa broke away from the group to get Jermaine and Gus Haynes to come to the station. When the interns tried to convince Gus that his father had plans to murder Leslea, Jermaine acted as an intermediary, providing information on the families in town and offering a counterpoint to the evidence that the interns had collected. Jermaine confirms that outsiders disappear in town but says that there are too many varied threats and quirks to Thistlewood for him to have directly warned the interns about this. He does apologise for not letting them know sooner. He offers by way of defence the insular nature of the town, explaining that there's some things he can't explicitly say in case it moves people in town to act against him. He then bribes Gus to ignore the entire conversation. When the Winkles' pet slime Izzie emerges from the bakery to wreak havoc he's very dismayed because as far as he's concerned the Winkles are supposed to be normal.

In episode 7 when Joshuwa is flung bodily by Izzie, Jermaine catches him and moves him to relative safety. When the interns entered the bakery and Fliss confronted Fred Winkle, Jermaine dealt a mortal blow to Fred's body in the ensuing scrap, seemingly killing him. He takes responsibility and when it is revealed Fred is alive, agrees to source human body parts so that Fred can reconstitute a physical form.

In episode 8 Jermaine was called away by Wallace to have a discussion, the details of which are not explicitly shown.

When the interns approached him in episode 9 Jermaine arrived at the Ranger Center with a duffle bag after a row with Wallace, intending to stay the night there. He agreed to have pizza with the interns and answer their questions about town. He explained the specifics of the Holowitz Treaty, The Varusa and Sheriff Haynes' chaos worship. He again apologised to the interns, as he full well knew that strangers disappear in town but still sent out a call for new interns. He suggested burning Joshuwa's grimoire, as he didn't trust it and it was clearly linked to whoever has been causing havoc in town. When Fliss caused Joshuwa to drop the grimoire, Jermaine touched it and this caused the book to begin burning, as well as fixing Jermaine's hand to the page. The interns managed to separate him from it, causing him to bleed. When Joshuwa apologised, Jermaine jokingly said that they could call it even if the interns killed the Varusa or completed the Map of Sanity.

In episode 10 he told the interns that there are no flame gods.

Jermaine next appeared in episode 18 alongside Wallace, overseeing the interns collecting trash. He almost immediately got into an argument with Wallace about how strange Thistlewood is or isn't, and about a creature that damaged the trees some time back. After the argument, Jermaine noticed Leslea's transformations and suggested they were a lycanthrope. He briefly explained that Thistlewood contains a number of ur-animals that bestow their traits on humans, often permanently changing their form and destroying their minds, before the Brady Family kill them. He told the interns about a person who lived in the woods and tried to heal lycanthropes, the interns concluded that he was talking about The Guardian. While he was giving them directions to the mysterious shack that the healer used to live in, the interns returned to him his locket: he recognised himself and Wallace but had no memory of the locket itself. He left the interns to go investigate the citadel after exchanging some last pleasantries with them and then joining Wallace to go talk to the town's restaurants about the upcoming carnival.

In episode 19 Fliss spotted Jermaine and Wallace being pursued by the Varusa from the top of the citadel, the two barely escaping with their lives.

Episode 20 starts with Jermaine and Wallace having a massive row after objects start to go missing from the carnival. After some difficulty remembering them, Jermaine had confirmed for the interns that the Brownies were likely the source of thefts at the carnival and that they followed The Varusa. Wallace didn't want the interns to abandon their duties at the carnival and flat out refused to accept any supernatural elements to the disappearances, having a very public argument with Jermaine that ended with Wallace slapping Jermaine. When Wallace asked Jermaine what he was doing to the interns, he said that he was telling them the truth. After Wallace left, Jermaine gave the interns some final advice but did not come with them as the Varusa targeted him and Wallace whenever they approached.

After Joshuwa fires the Varusa across town with the force of a magical explosion in episode 21, Jermaine picks them up in a car and drives them to where it landed. On the drive they question Jermaine about mounting evidence that either he or Wallace summoned The Varusa. Jermain says he can't remember if either of them did anything and suggests his memories have been stolen. He reiterates that the Map of Sanity is a main goal for the interns as it can restore memories.

They met Wallace at the site the Varusa landed, who immediately confronted Jermaine and the interns about what they've been doing over the last few weeks. He found the pieces of the Map of Sanity, the tunnel under the cabin and the bones of the Megatherum. He intended to turn everything over to Sheriff Haynes. Leslea scared most of the crowd around the Varusa away by roaring and Jermaine intercepted Wallace and told him that they needed to discuss everything privately. Fliss followed them on a hunch from Vada and watched Jermaine and Wallace enter the highschool to talk. Jermaine assured Wallace that nothing strange was going on and that he was hallucinating, Wallace started protesting. When Wallace got too contradictory, Jermaine sprouted red horns and forced him against the wall. He mesmerised Wallace and reiterated that there was nothing strange in Thistlewood, Wallace started dreamily repeating the words. He gave Wallace instructions to pretend to be the Guardian, and to turn over the pieces of the Map of Sanity, which Jermaine now called The Reality Map.

Meanwhile inside The Varusa, Cypress discovered the real Jermaine trapped and confused, missing his memories. It was here that the Interns discovered that the Jermaine they had known during their stay was Vada's brother wearing Jermaine's face, having trapped Jermaine inside the Varusa and taken over his life, repeatedly hypnotising Wallace and doing who knew what else. An anguished Fliss confronted demonic Jermaine and the two fought, nearly to a standstill. With Leslea's help Fliss nearly decapitated Demaine but at the last moment he disappeared as a result of a spell cast by Joshuwa and the real Jermaine. The episode ended with real Jermaine embracing Wallace.

Trivia
Although his name is Jemaine in the show, autocorrect doesn't believe this is a real name and Lex did a whoopsie so now he is always styled as Jermaine on the wiki because redirects are annoying.