Spinner Mason

Infobox character
colour = #000080
colour text = #FFFFFF
series =
name = Gavin Mason


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first =
(episode 1.03)
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cause =
creator =
portrayer = Shane Kippel
episode = 135
nickname =
born = 1988
death =
specialty =
occupation = Former student of Degrassi Community School
title =
callsign =
family = (adopted sister)
Mr. Mason (deceased)
Mrs. Mason (widow)
spouse =
children =
relatives =
residence =

Gavin Reginald "Spinner" Mason, is a fictional high-schooler in "", portrayed by Shane Kippel.

Characterization

Originally depicted as the school "bully" in season one. He developed more into a jock in season two and three. Next he grew his hair long and started playing in a band with Craig, Jimmy and Marco and became a rocker/rebel and has kept the persona throughout the rest of the show. He could also be recognized as a class clown, becuase usually when there is a part with Spinner in it, there is always something to laugh at.His nickname Spinner derives from his ADHD hyperactivity, most likely given to him by his mother, when he was off his meds he would "spin" out of control.

He comes from a poor family and currently lives with his mom and adoptive sister, . It was revealed in season 7 that his dad had passed away from lung cancer, although it is not clear when that was, but must have been between season 4 and season 6.

His best friend is Jimmy. It was partially Spinner's fault that Jimmy was crippled, but eventually Jimmy forgave Spinner.

torylines

eason 1

Spinner took a liking for Terri. However, after a school dance in which Terri—who liked Spinner back—becomes intoxicated by Paige, his liking for her dissolves.

Also in season 1, Spinner assists Jimmy in buying condoms, and boycotted the cafeteria when he discovered an earwig in the food.

Also, in an attempt to boost Jimmy's performance during a basketball game, he gave Jimmy one of his Ritalin pills, which he took to help his ADHD. However, the lack of medication caused Spinner's ADHD to go into overdrive during the game, and he eventually moons the student body. Both Jimmy and Spinner are penalized for their actions.

eason 2

Season 2 saw Spinner begin to take an interest in Paige, but was insulted when she canceled a date with him to be with Dean at a party. However, when he discovered that Dean had raped her, Spinner attacked him. Paige and Spinner begin a relationship after this point.

Also in season 2, Spinner became jealous of Jimmy's wealth, so when Jimmy brought his new MP3 player to school, Spinner stole it and attempted to sell it to another student. Jimmy catches Spinner and confronts him about it. Spinner later apologizes and returns the MP3 player, however the two don't reconcile until the beginning of season 3.

eason 3

As an anniversary present to Paige, Spinner attempts to find her a desired locker in the halls of Degrassi after she receives one that is less-than-acceptable. After making promises to numerous people, making a fool of himself and Paige in front of the class, and an argument with Paige, Spinner gets her the locker of her desires.Also, Spinner joins Craig's band on drums in season three, and is obviously a great drummer.

Spinner begins to realize that Marco isn't sowing an attraction to girls, he is also homophobic. He tries to set Marco up on a date with Hazel, since he heard that Marco and Ellie broke up, Marco then [reluctantly] agrees.After a disastrous double date between Spinner, Paige, Marco and Hazel in which Marco walks out on them, Spinner approached Marco and demanded an explanation for his actions. Marco admits that he was gay, which greatly upset Spinner, causing him to act very homophobic. Spinner writes on the bathroom wall "Marco is a fag!", Jimmy catches him and asks him what hes going to write next, if he was going to write something about Jimmy being black. Marco is subjected to gay bashed by a group of men on Toronto's Church Street. At first Spinner is unsympathetic to Marco's plight only thinking that he got beat up for no reason, but when Marco sees what Spinner wrote on the wall, he confronts him and tells him that they bashed him because they hate homosexuals, just like Spinner, which makes Spinner feel like he was just as bad as they are. Spinner still feels homophobic.

When Jimmy invites Spinner over to his house to study, he also invites Marco, which Spinner thinks is not cool because they are staying over night. At the sleep over, Spinner gets the idea that Marco likes him, he bluntly tells Marco how he feels, and Marco tells him that he is not attracted to him in anyway. The next day, Spinner thanks him for helping him on the test and Spinner then cools down on being homophobic.

When Marco is becoming more attracted to Paige's older brother Dylan, who is also gay, Spinner gets over his homophobia and helps Marco get him a date with Dylan.

eason 4

In the season 4 opener, Spinner gets a new car which he has been saving up for since mid-season 3. After Paige becomes infuriated when she lost her trial against rapist Dean due to a lack of evidence, she uses Spinner's car to crash into Dean's. In the beginning, Spinner takes the blame for the damage, but Paige eventually confesses to the crime and offers to pay for the damages of Spinner's car.

During a Degrassi-run car wash, Spinner and Manny realize there's a spark between them after they find themselves flirting with one another. This, however, creates jealousy for Manny's ex-boyfriend Craig, which eventually leads to a brawl between him and Spinner. When Paige finds out the motive of the fight, she breaks off her relationship with Spinner, upset that Spinner was fighting for Manny. Spinner and Manny then begin a short-lived relationship.

Later in season 4, Degrassi sees a team of students compete on the televised student trivia show, "Whack Your Brain". One such team member was Rick, former boyfriend of Terri and generally disliked student of the student body. After Spinner, Jay, and Alex successfully pull an on-screen prank on Rick involving yellow paint and feathers, Spinner and Jay frame Jimmy for the incident. Rick later returns, armed with a gun, to Degrassi, and shoots Jimmy in the back, which inevitably confines him to a wheelchair. After a scuffle with Sean, Rick is shot with his own gun. After the shooting, Spinner admits to Jimmy that he framed him for the prank, which results in Jimmy and all his friends alienating Spinner. He also admits the truth to Principal Hatzilakos, which inevitably gets himself and Jay expelled from Degrassi. Spinner and Jay then got drunk and Spinner went to Craig's house, where Marco, Jimmy, Hazel, Paige and Craig were, he attempts to apologize to Jimmy in a very drunk way. After Jimmy rejects his apology, Spinner tries to commit grand theft auto by stealing Craig's keys to his car. Jimmy stops him and tells him that he is dead to him already.

Spinner begins to feel hatred for Degrassi and all of his friends, so he and Jay break in the school at night. They tear everything apart in the school. After looking at the new yearbooks, he sees pictures of him and his friends with headlines saying "Friends Forever". Enraged he takes liter fluid and poors it on the yearbooks and attempts to burn the school down, not until Jay stops him. Spinner goes back to school the next day to get signed up for summer school.

eason 5

After Spinner was expelled from Degrassi in the previous season, he attempted to better himself by going to summer school courses. Because of his desire and motivation to return to Degrassi, Spinner is permitted to return and repeat the 11th grade. However, his friends still resent his past actions and he remains friendless. However, Darcy invited him into the Friendship Club, a Christian student organization run through the school. Spinner then became a born-again Christian and began dating Darcy. Because the Friendship Club (and inevitably Darcy) believed in virginity until marriage, Spinner was forced to hide his past with Manny from Darcy. Later, Jay attempts to manipulate Darcy into having sex with Spinner, however when Spinner learns of this, he beats Jay up and cuts him out of his life.

In the episode "I Against I," Spinner and Marco become friends again, but Linus, the leader of Friendship Club, convinces Spinner that Marco's Safer Sex campaign must be stopped because it goes against their beliefs. Spinner, lost for friends, loses Marco's friendship again because Spinner sided with Linus. Linus is later found out to be intolerant of homosexuals and is rejected by Spinner. At the end of the episode, Marco forgives Spinner again, realizing how lost he feels over the things in his life that have gone wrong. As the season advances, Spinner eventually regains the trust and forgiveness of all this friends, but Jimmy still refuses to associate with him.

In "High Fidelity, Part Two," Spinner goes to Paige's house to tell her that he and Darcy are back together, but she reveals to him that she never blamed him for the Jimmy incident. Confused with the acceptance, Spinner and Paige have sex. The next night, Darcy finds this out through Spinner's text messages, which he sent to Marco for help. Heart-broken, Darcy breaks up with him. At the end of the episode, Jimmy apologizes to Spinner for blaming everything on him and their friendship is rekindled.

eason 6

The season begins with Darcy and Spinner rekindling their relationship. However, when Spinner disapproves of some risqué photos Darcy had been posting on her MyPage profile, the two break up.

Also in this season, Spinner's renewed friendship with Jimmy is tested when the two begin selling t-shirts designed by Jimmy. Jimmy is unsure if they had made the right move, however the venture takes off and does surprisingly well in the beginning. Their store is later robbed and Spinner saves Jimmy from harm, but the robbery incident further cements Spinner and Jimmy's friendship. The two decide to keep the business going, and they hire Paige as their business manager.

Paige and Spinner begin seeing each other casually, but after Spinner wants things to become more serious, the two end their relationship and return to platonic friends.

eason 7

After a scuffle with Johnny in the cafeteria at school, Spinner is warned by Ms. Hatzilakos about the breaking the school's zero-tolerance policy regarding violence, and suggests that he join the school's new peace group, which Spinner eventually convinces new-girl Jane to join. Later, Spinner stops another fight in the school yard between Liberty, Danny, and a Lakehurst student (Lucas) who taunted them about JT's death.cite episode |title=Death or Glory, Part 1 |series=Degrassi: The Next Generation |serieslink=Degrassi: The Next Generation |airdate=November 2, 2007 |season=3 |number=705 ]

Jane and Spinner eventually go on a date, but after he's teasingly prodded in the abdomen by her, Spinner hastily leaves the date in pain, unwilling to admit to her that he's been having health problems. After experiencing more intense pains from his groin, Spinner reluctantly visits a doctor and learns that he has a lump in one of his testicles, which later learns is testicular cancer. Unable to handle the news well, Spinner takes a bad turn and begins fighting various Lakehurst students, ensuring that the fights are filmed and uploaded to the Internet. Jane disapproves of this, and keeps her distance from Spinner for a while.cite episode |title=Death or Glory, Part 2 |series=Degrassi: The Next Generation |serieslink=Degrassi: The Next Generation |airdate=November 9, 2007 |season=3 |number=706 ]

The oncologist recommends Spinner undergo surgery to remove his testicle, followed by chemotherapy. Spinner reluctantly agrees before shaving his head into a Mohawk. After another filmed fight, Mr. Simpson warns Spinner that if he continues fighting and having people post the videos online, the police will get involved. Spinner and Johnny eventually fight again, resulting in fines by the police. Jane and Spinner eventually reconcile.

Spinner later gets the operation, but has bad side effects to the chemotherapy. When Jay recommends marijuana, Spinner rejects the idea at first, but eventually becomes reliant on the drug to ease his nausea. He also begins to hang out with ex-girlfriend Darcy. However, after realizing his priorities, he gives up the drug and returns to Jane.

Also in season 7, Spinner, ecstatic that his cancer is in remission, is determined to pass exams with Jimmy's help. But, when a great opportunity comes to Spinners band, a problem comes up. He doesn't know is he should stay in high school with Jane and Studz, or study hard with Jimmy, graduate high school, but have no real plans. Against the advice of Jimmy and Jane, Spinner decides to take the opportunity for his band, which ends up being a poor decision. He attempts to take his science exam without studying, but is saved midway through when Jimmy pulls the fire alarm, therefore postponing the exam for another four days.

In the season finale, Spinner kept his promise to Jimmy and is able to walk across the stage for his diploma and graduated in the Class of 2007.

Relationships

*Paige Michalchuk
**First Relationship
***Start Up: "How Soon Is Now?" (220)
***Broke Up: "Islands on the Stream" (406)
****Reason: Paige finds Spinner fighting with Craig over Manny.

*Manny Santos
**Start Up: "Bark at the Moon" (413)
**Broke Up: "Eye of the Tiger" (416)
***Reason: Manny finds out that Spinner had something to do with the school shooting.

*Darcy Edwards
**First Relationship
***Start Up: "Foolin'" (504)
***Broke Up: "High Fidelity , Part 1" (518)
****Reason: Spinner felt that Darcy couldn't accept his sexual past.

**Second Relationship
***Start Up: "Here Comes Your Man" (601)
***Broke Up: "Eyes Without a Face, Part 2" (606)
****Reason: Darcy posted revealing pictures of herself on the internet and Spinner didn't approve.

*Jane Valieri
**Start Up: "Pass The Dutchie" (710)

References