Jason McCardy

Jason McCardy is a deuteragonist character in Ginger Snaps. At first, he was an antagonist of the Fitzgerald sisters, making fun of them with his friends Tim and Ben. However, he later develops an interest in Ginger Fitzgerald, and later when he has intercourse with her, he was subsequently afflicted with lycanthropy.

History
Jason develops an interest in Ginger Fitzgerald seen after seeing grotesquely provacative images of her from the Fitzgerald sister's "Life in Bailey Downs" presentation and seeing her visibly rubbing her back due to her cramps, to which he says to his friends Ben and Tim that she "looks like she's good to go." He invited Ginger to smoke marijuana, which she eventually agrees to.

As Ginger's werewolf transformation progressed, she became more sexually aggressive and reciprocated Jason's desire for her. She also began making advances herself. Ginger finally gave Jason what he had been looking for, and the two engaged in unprotected sex in the back of Jason's car. Ginger transmitted her infection to him, and within a few days he began exhibiting signs of lycanthropy. Jason soon became more aggressive from his transformation, with his facial features growing distorted, and he even began growing a tail. The final break to Jason's psyche was when he began urinating blood. He came upon Ginger's sister Brigitte and told her what had been happening. As he described it, he was "way out on the corner of fucked-up and evil". He also told her his alarming feral tendencies when he massacred his family dog.

During Halloween, Jason's craze rose and he began terrorizing a young boy. Brigitte found Jason in the midst of terrorizing him. Jason notices Brigitte and lunges toward her instead, who stabs him in the neck with the syringe. The solution appeared to have worked and the symptoms quickly disappeared. In a daze, Jason got up and supposedly returned to school. He was never seen in the film nor mentioned again, and it is unknown what happens to him afterwards.

Ginger Fitzgerald
Jason develops an interest in Ginger Fitzgerald and hooks up with her after becoming attracted to her physical appearance from puberty and from lycanthropy, where she develops a more sexual, aggressive behavior and further physical changes. Later, Jason and Ginger had sex, and he acquired the lycanthropy infection from her. He appears to have broken up with Ginger after he corners Brigitte in the janitor's room at school and grills her on what to do regarding his changes. In the deleted scenes, he reveals to Tim and Ben that he broke up with Ginger. After Tim expressed discontent, Jason calls him out.

Brigitte Fitzgerald
Jason disregards Brigitte as the less attractive of the sisters and basically ignores her while he hangs out with Ginger. When he is terrorizing a young boy, Brigitte defends herself by injecting him with monkshood serum. Although she had little desire to cure Jason, she wanted to test the treatment out to see if it had worked.

Ben
Ben is one of the close friends of Jason. They like to watch the girl's field hockey team on the bleachers.

Tim
Tim is one of the other close friends of Jason. They also hang out together often and like to watch the girl's field hockey team on the bleachers.

Appearance
Jason sports a "Chad-like" haircut and wears clothing akin to Canadian modern dresswear. He sports a casual look.

Significance
Jason serves as a deuteragonist of the Fitzgerald sisters. At first, he along with his friends Ben and Tim used to mock the sisters and deride them for their odd behaviors and clothing style. Later when he begins to take notice of Ginger's beauty and knowing that she was sexually maturing, he begins to separate the bond the Fitzgerald sisters had between each other by being Ginger's first hook-up. Ironically, in his pursuit for the "hottest girls around," when he has sex with Ginger, he was infected with lycanthropy, where his own appearance grew grotesque.

For Brigitte, he serves as the antithesis of Sam, who Brigitte trusts. Unlike Jason, Sam did not attempt to exploit Brigitte for sex nor judge her for her appearance. He did not try to take advantage of her (like Jason did with Ginger when she was vulnerable due to the confidence her werewolf transformation had given her) even though he could be able to since he was years older than the sisters.

In addition, Jason's acquiring of lycanthropy from Ginger reveals that transmitting the werewolf curse to another can travel not only by bites or scratches but also by sex. This justifies Brigitte and Sam's hypothesis that the werewolf curse acts like (and may be caused) a supernatural virus.

Fan theories
See main article fan theories.

Many questions about Jason include whether he is the identity of the werewolf from Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed. The producers debunk this theory.

Trivia

 * In the second film, it is revealed that the Monkshood is a temporary cure to slow the effects of lycanthropy. Because Brigitte had only given Jason one single syringe of monkshood, based on the second film, it is very likely he still suffers from lycanthropy.  In addition, based on the second film, if he had not taken additional doses of monkshood, then he might also have become immune to it as future temporary treatments.
 * Jason is never seen again after Brigitte defends herself from him and injects him with monkshood. No wanted posters are seen looking for him, nor is he mentioned again in the sequel.  It is speculated that he might even be the werewolf that Brigitte Fitzgerald is on the run from in Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed, but this was debunked by the producers.  See Fan Theories.