Good storytelling is like good sex. It’s all about the climax. So, we’ll start there. Our pilot episode begins at the climax of our season one. Sid and friends headed to a Palm Springs/Joshua Tree getaway to forget their troubles and ring in the New Year. After the pilot episode, the rest of the season’s twelve episodes will cover the 12 months leading up to this point.
Joshua Tree National Park.
We first meet our characters in the middle of a brawl at a wedding at Split Rock in Joshua Tree National Preserve, before we cut to:
December. Los Angeles. The Day Before New Year’s Eve.
We meet SIDNEY (SID), 30, the half-Asian, millennial Carrie Bradshaw of our show and the sex-centric VICTORIA (VEE), 32, Latina, who have just ended the most significant relationships of their lives. There's also NIKHIL, 31, their best guy friend, a Millennial Muslim man, who is mildly handsome, but fantastically funny. They’ll all meet up with HIMASA, 30, who is an unusual mix of casual and reserved. Nikhil and Himasa are on journeys that have them starting new—not necessarily for the best—relationships.
Joshua Tree.
A photoshoot for Vogue at an upscale house with a heated infinity pool bleeding into an amazing desert view is wrapping. The shoot’s subjects are Sid’s half-sister XIA & HENRY (Xia’s fiancee) being shot in the latest runway fashions as Sid, Victoria (aka Vee), and Nikhil arrive and kick back on floaties in the pool drinking away the year's troubles. They clink their beer bottles and toast the end of Sid’s relationship with Jared, “Ten years was a good run.”
Flashback:
Sid, ten years younger, is SLAMMING around to music in the middle of a mosh pit, holding her own in a mass of mostly white male bodies. JARED watches her from the sidelines with fascination until she SLAMS into him.
Back to present:
After a year of dating ups and downs—way more downs—Sid tells her friends she doesn’t know if her heart can take much more.
We learn that Victoria, who has had a lifetime of spontaneous (read meaningless) hookups and being the most desirable woman in any room, has fallen in love with the perfect guy in L.A. However, for some reason, she’s hired an oiled-up male escort (for sex, not companionship) who is now canon-balling into the pool with a splash.
Flashback:
Victoria and a gorgeous guy, SAI, 45, lay on a bed naked; except for holding each other’s hands, they are not touching each other. He looks elated but Vic not so much.
Vic’s conflict is that Sai happens to be asexual and doesn’t want or need sex. Ever.
Back to Present:
The girls tease Nikhil about the big decision he has to make while on their trip.
Flashback to one day earlier:
Nikhil, his Hindu mom, and Muslim dad sit before three Indian young women as a matchmaker, MRS. GOYAL, 45, in a colorful saree, grins at him. She tells him that tomorrow he must tell them which woman he chooses as his wife.
Back to present:
In full avoidance mode, Nikhil exits the pool and heads over to Himasa now that the shoot is wrapped. She’s on the phone, arguing with her mother in alternating Twi and English. She looks worried when she hangs up, but takes a deep breath, and grabs her prayer mat for Asr, one of the daily afternoon prayer to Mecca. Nikhil grabs a mat to join her. He lays it down and kneels, but she laughs because he’s facing the wrong way. “You’ve never done this before, have you?” she asks. “No, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t wanted to,” he replies. It’s clear he is fighting a growing attraction to her.
Meanwhile, we see JARED, 29, ruggedly handsome, on his motorcycle speeding through the desert with intention. He pulls up to the house, finds Sid and declares, “I choose you.” He proposes and Sid, half-drunk, accepts.
They tell their friends they’re meeting a justice of the peace in an hour and getting married. There’s a moment of panic that they have nothing to wear—they’re a fashion-forward group after all—but Henry, Xia’s fiancee, buys the rack of clothing off the stylist.
Cut To:
Joshua Tree National Park. It’s quite a scene. Pink sunset, desertscape, cacti and couture. Sid, in an over-the-top blue Gucci gown, and Jared, in a funky dramatic Alexander McQueen suit, stand before a justice of the peace. Sid sobers and falters. She tells Jared it feels wrong to get married without her mom and dad there. Jared just smiles as a car drives up in the background and Sid’s mother and father exit it, running toward them. We notice Victoria stiffen at the sight of Sid’s dad. Sid’s parents take their places and watch as Jared & Sid declare their vows, surrounded by their best friends and family.
Back at the house, Victoria and Sid’s father mysteriously sneak away from the others. Victoria asks for his forgiveness and he gives it. Meanwhile, the friends have pulled together a makeshift wedding reception. Nikhil lays In-and-Out burgers on china. Henry pours bottles of Budweiser into champagne flutes. Xia assembles a “wedding cake” of tiered foil-covered Ding Dongs she bought at a gas station. They have a beautiful lowbrow dinner in their highbrow outfits. Vic sits down at the piano and sings (for the first time in front of her friends). The song is the first Sid & Jared ever danced to: Magic in the Air, and now it’s their first dance as a married couple.
Soon after, Jared sweeps Sid off her feet and carries her to the guest house for their honeymoon night. He tells Sid that he hasn’t had sex in a month, which seems to surprise her. He tries to rip the gown off her until he learns it’s a $20k dress.
They collapse onto their backs after they’ve consummated their marriage, a look of pure elation on their faces. As they stare at the ceiling, their expressions slowly transform from euphoria to deep doubt.
Sid reaches for Jared’s hand and asks: “Who is he?”
Flashback to:
Sid and Jared at a gay bar ordering a drink. “See? Not so hard,” she yells over the music before excusing herself to answer a call outside. A young good-looking Scandinavian guy, ANDERS, 27, sitting next to Jared, observes him looking nervous. Anders writes something down in a small notebook and slides it over to Jared. “First time?” it reads. Jared laughs and looks over. “That obvious, huh?” Anders gestures that he is deaf, then inputs his phone number into Jared’s phone and holds his phone up to signal they can communicate that way. They hold an easy and interesting conversation through texting. Jared watches as men hit on Anders. “I don’t imagine this is YOUR first time,” Jared texts. Anders texts back: “No, but I’m hoping it’s my last.”
Back to present:
In the morning, Sid tells her friends that she and Jared made a mistake; they have to intercept the Justice of the Peace who officiated their wedding before he delivers the marriage certificate to the courthouse and makes the marriage official. The group splits up in Henry’s two Benz G-Wagens and race through the desert.
As Sid stares out the window at the desert landscape, looking lost…
She flashbacks to:
Sid & BEN, 37, a music journalist, stand in line at an ice cream shop in Little Osaka at night. They’ve each got one earbud in, listening to a playlist on Ben’s iPhone. In response to the song, they turn toward each other. There’s enough electricity to power a city grid. A beat, then a passionate kiss.
Back to present:
Sid, Vic and Jared exit their car at a golf resort and search the wedding taking place for the Justice of the Peace. They find him finishing up with a couple and ask him if he can give them back their marriage certificate. He informs them that if he did that for every drunk couple with second thoughts, he wouldn’t make a living, and he leaves.
Vic and Sid exchange a silent understanding. Sid nods, “Do it.”
Victoria removes her heels, hands them to Sid, knots her dress (revealing a gang tattoo on her leg), and chases the Justice of the Peace across the golf course. As she tackles him to the ground, we switch POV to:
SID & JARED FROM THE BACK
Standing side by side, Sid & Jared watch as a triumphant Victoria, grinning ear to ear, holds up their marriage certificate and waves it in the air. Besides the faintest of pasted-on smiles, they barely react, staring straight ahead at the scene before them. But as the camera pulls back, we see their hands reach ever so slightly toward each other and, as they marvel at the complexities of love…we wonder… will they? won’t they?… as they clasp their hands together.
