Deception 4 steps
Lester's Staged Robbery Deception
After Mike leaves him for Gemma, Lester arranges for four parlor friends to fake a robbery at Gemma's workplace so he can intervene as her heroic rescuer. The diagram shows how the recruitment, the staged robbery, and Lester's staged rescue combine into one deception that presents him as Gemma's savior.
Read the 4 steps as text
- 1
Breakup and betrayal trigger Lester's plan
Lester · Mike · Gemma
Mike ends his three-year relationship with Lester, and Lester learns Mike has been cheating with Gemma for the past year, prompting Lester to devise a calculated plan to pretend to be a straight man in order to win Mike back.
- 2
Lester recruits four friends as fake robbers
Lester · Ricky · Babushka, Fanny and Bambi
Lester enlists his four gay friends from the parlor—Babushka, Ricky, Fanny and Bambi—to stage a dramatic robbery at Gemma's workplace after her shift.
- 3
Friends stage the robbery at Gemma's workplace
Ricky · Babushka, Fanny and Bambi · Gemma
What it looked like: The staged robbery appears to Gemma as a real, threatening robbery by actual robbers.
After Gemma's shift, Babushka, Ricky, Fanny and Bambi carry out the staged dramatic robbery at her workplace, acting as the robbers Lester arranged.
- 4
Lester steps in as Gemma's chivalrous savior
Lester · Gemma · Ricky · Babushka, Fanny and Bambi
What it looked like: Gemma sees Lester as a genuine hero who happened to save her, rather than the orchestrator of the robbery he staged.
Lester intervenes against the "robbers" as a supposedly chivalrous savior, rescuing Gemma and presenting himself as her knight in shining armor.
