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Jason Caperna is firing back at claims of acting as Janet Caperna‘s “puppet” on the latest episode of The Valley.
After Jason, 41, was seen confronting Danny Booko, 41, about his drinking, encouraging him to drink less, Danny labeled him a “puppet” as other cast members, including Kristen Doute, 42, agreed that Jason seemed to have been coaxed into the conversation by his “messy” wife.
“I was like, ‘What are you trying to say here?’ And he was just all over the place, trying to do this, trying to say that, and then he was getting really frustrated, and I couldn’t get out a sentence, and his veins [were] popping out,” Danny recalled on the May 27 episode of The Valley: After Show. “For him to come at me as hard as he was, I was very surprised and caught off guard.”
According to Danny, he believes Janet, 35, “probably sent Jason to attack [me] to keep the heat on me.”
“I think that’s why he was so awkward while doing it. He was being a puppet,” he suspected.
Meanwhile, Jason denied any such thing, pointing instead to Danny’s marriage to Nia Booko, 35.
“Maybe that speaks more to him and Nia’s relationship. But Janet doesn’t tell me what to say or do, and I listen … Janet and I don’t strategize about how to take people down,” he insisted.
As for Janet, she said she likes that people think she has “that much power” over her spouse.
“Jason is his own person,” she clarified. “I guess it’s convenient for Danny to say, like, ‘Janet just controls Jason and puts words in his mouth.’ No. Your behavior was so inappropriate [that] Jason had his own strong opinion about it.”
Looking back at her past friendship with Jason and Janet, Kristen alleged that she noticed a change in Jason.
“The things that I’ve seen out of Jason in the last two years have been Janet chirping in his ear … The way he talks to people and handles situations now is not like the Jason that I’ve ever known,” she explained. “Even when we were really good friends, Janet’s always like gossipy, catty, louder, Jason’s not.”
“She needs things to be messy. She lives in it,” Kristen added of Janet.
Recalling his discussion with Danny in regard to his drinking, Jason said that it wasn’t Danny drinking and passing out that raised a red flag.
“That’s fine. That can happen. It’s when the next day you gaslight everybody and say, ‘I had one seltzer and one shot.’ It’s calling that crouched down swig with the closet door closed a shot, which is not how I consider a shot, and when it was boldfaced lies in response, that’s when it kind of set my plan off track,” he explained. “He’s saying he’s confused because at that point his story is that he had two drinks … but in actuality he had 25 drinks.”
While Danny then noted that Jason didn’t seem to have an issue in Santa Barbara, Jason said that if he had done what Danny did on Halloween, he would never take “another sip of alcohol.”
As The Valley fans will recall, Danny acted inappropriately with both Jasmine Goode, 37, and her fiancée, Melissa Marie, while in a state of drunkenness. And while they did sit down to discuss the matter eventually, Jasmine was still upset in Tuesday’s episode.
“Danny, you didn’t apologize to me. I was very hurt. And the fact that Jason had my back, I think that’s amazing because as a friend, I would do the same thing,” Jasmine stated.
That said, Jasmine didn’t discount the fact that Janet may have been involved.
“I think she does push him a little bit because I think Jason’s a little reserved,” she noted.
Still, Danny thought that the issue was resolved and was unaware of what Jasmine had been telling others when he wasn’t around.
“You’re bringing up something that happened almost a year ago. I have gone and addressed it over and over and over the best way I can. I didn’t even know that she was still talking about it. She wasn’t coming to me. She was going behind my back, apparently, and still bringing it up to other people,” he explained.
In his own segment, Zack Wickham, 36, admitted that Danny still owed Jasmine a bigger apology than he had given up until that point, and he added that he didn’t like seeing Jason approach Danny “on this high horse.”
“I think he’s going in with ulterior motives and ulterior mindset,” Zack shared.
The Valley season two airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on Bravo.
