I will, by the end of the week (fingers crossed) have posted summaries for what I believe are eps 1.4 and 1.5 -- I know there's one missing, and I have reason to believe it's 1.3. I won't be summarizing the pilot, Wax Lion, because there are so many copies out there that I can't imagine there are any spoiler ho's out there who haven't seen it or read a summary already.



Title: Karma Chameleon

Fair warning: this one's got a hella twisty plot. It's entirely possible that the following summary may make no sense at all. I've watched it twice now, and I'm still having trouble remembering what order everything goes in. As much as I worship the man who wrote it, I have to say that this is the weakest ep I've seen so far. The plot is too complicated, and the character of Bianca never really solidifies. Which is part of the point of the ep, but it doesn't quite work as well as I wish it did, given how fantastic the other three I've seen are.

The family is gathered around a restaurant table, celebrating the release of Jaye's mother's newest book. On the back flap, where the author's bio goes, she has written a brief bit about each of her children. Sharon and Darrin have 15 and 19 words written about them, respectively. Jaye has 5. 5 little words. 4 words and a digit, really. ("Jaye, a daughter, is 24.") She knows she hasn't exactly accomplished a huge amount in life, but come on, surely she's worth more than 5 words! Her parents try to be diplomatic while the sibs snark, but just then, everyone's cell phone rings but Jaye's, and dinner is over. On the way out of the restaurant, a girl bumps into Jaye. The girl is conservatively dressed, with long frizzy hair. Jaye sits at the bar for a little bit, talking to Eric, who is impressed that Jaye was mentioned in a blurb at all. The mounted fish behind the bar says "Get her words out!" but Jaye has no clue what that means.

Outside, we see that she has stolen Jaye's wallet, and is also taking photos of her getting into her car with a telephoto lens.

The next morning, Wonderfalls is swamped with tourists because the boats aren't running. Mouth-breather sends Jaye to get more plastic bags, and Jaye is stopped by the girl from the Barrell, who returns Jaye's wallet, to her extreme confusion. She doesn't remember losing it, and she really doesn't remember having cash. Through her pronounced stutter, the girl (whose name turns out to be Bianca) explains that her van broke down, and she was desperate, but she felt guilty, so she gave Jaye her last $8. The stuffed chameleon on the rack next to Jaye interrupts with "Get her words out!" from time to time, so Jaye ("Oh, get her words out.") helps Bianca through her story, finishing difficult words whenever Bianca sounds like she needs it. After hearing that Bianca is broke and has nowhere to go, no one to call, Jaye says "Well, I can't take your last $8...here's 5 back." As Bianca turns to go, she knocks over a stack of t-shirts. Jaye tells her not to worry, but Bianca picks them up and begins folding at lightspeed. Jaye and Mouth-breather are both impressed, and Bianca is hired on the spot.

Jaye is assigned to train Bianca. Bianca's instincts are to attend to customers' needs (including looking for items in the closet if they're not on the floor), and tidying up when there aren't any customers around. Jaye quickly corrects her on this, pointing out that if Bianca dusts one shelf, it'll just make the rest of them look dirtier. And that lamp that that customer wanted is waaay up on a high high shelf in the back room, and if one of them went to look for it, they could fall and break their neck, which would just drive worker's comp rates up. Pretty soon, Bianca is a first-rate snarking slacker, and her stutter is almost gone. When a customer comes in to exchange a Nerf gun, and wants to make sure the new one she's buying works, Bianca assembles the new one, and aims it straight at Mouth-breather, who is busy berating Jaye for some small infraction. It hits him right in the eye, which Jaye and Bianca thinks is pretty funny. At the end of the day, Bianca thanks Jaye for training her, and says "I've never had a mentor before." Jaye makes a self-deprecating comment about living in a trailer, and Bianca replies "I live in a van." Jaye smiles. "What are your feelings on beer?"

At the Barrell, the fish is telling Jaye "Get her words out!" again, but Jaye is convinced she's already done it. She introduces Bianca to Eric and Mahandra, and they seem to have a pleasant time.

There's a brief scene in Jaye's trailer where Mahandra is concerned that Bianca may be crazy, after Jaye tells her about the Nerf gun incident.

The next day, however, it looks like Mahandra may be right, when she walks into Wonderfalls to see that Bianca has transformed herself into...Jaye. She's straightened her frizzy hair, copied Jaye's wardrobe, and even adopted Jaye's signature slounge & sneer. Jaye is a little freaked out by this, but Bianca doesn't see what the big deal is. It gets even creepier when Jaye's dad walks in, kisses Bianca on the cheek and says "Hi." "Hi, daddy," Bianca replies. "Oh wait, you're not my dad." If Jaye wasn't squicked enough already...

Turns out that Dad is there to let Jaye know that the book is doing so well that the publisher has ordered a second printing, and that Sharon and Aaron have each volunteered to donate 5 of their words to Jaye, so that she can have 15 total. And she can even write her own blurb. Jaye is somewhat mollified, but peeved that she has to write her own blurb.

Later, at the Barrell, Jaye is trying to explain the situation when Bianca walks in wearing Jaye's vest. Jaye is not pleased. She's also not pleased that Bianca is flirting heavily with Eric, getting him to crack her back. Jaye leaves.

There's another brief trailer scene, where Jaye is trying to convince Sharon to track down Bianca's parents so they can come and get her. Sharon doesn't understand why she should do this, when the phone rings. It's Mahandra, saying Jaye'd better get back to the Barrell -- Bianca has been sitting at the bar pumping Eric for information all night. Jaye does so, and walks in to find Bianca and Eric playing a too-friendly-for-Jaye's-comfort game of pool. She flips out at Bianca and chases her out of the restaurant, telling her the game is over, and it's time to get lost. Mahandra and Eric are shocked at how mean Jaye was, and explain that they called her a second time, it was a false alarm -- turns out Bianca just wanted information so she could help write Jaye's blurb. Jaye reads the rough draft that Eric hands to her (written on a bar napkin, and it's both poetic and flattering. Jaye leaves with Sharon, utterly confused. Sharon drives away. Jaye notices a white van with a vanity plate that says "BINKYS," and decides to break in. She does so, and is more than a little freaked out by what she finds.

The inside of the van is *covered* in pictures of Jaye. Getting in and out of her car, entering and leaving the trailer, the Barrell, etc etc. Also, copies of her driver's license and credit cards. There's a notebook full of nothing but the words "Jaye Taylor" written over and over and over again, and Jaye's face is Bianca's desktop background on her laptop. Bianca walks in, about to explain, but Jaye tackles her and pins her on the bed, demanding to know what's going on. There's a very funny bit where Jaye starts going through scenarios and asks "Is this like in that movie where that girl wanted to be that other girl so much that she killed her?" Bianca: "Grease?" Jaye: "No, Single White Female!"

Finally, it turns out that Bianca is studying Jaye for an article she's writing on Gen-Y losers (which she quickly amends to Gen-Y "non-winners" when Jaye doesn't like being called a loser). But now, it's ruined, Jaye knows about it, and the study is tainted. But Jaye is no fool. An article in a national magazine would mean lots of words, all about her. The fish says "Get her words out!" and Jaye responds "Yeah, way ahead of you." So she suggests that Bianca abandon the "study" idea and instead use Jaye as a resource. Jaye promises to give her an all-access backstage pass to the life of a Gen-Y non-winner. Full disclosure.

There follows a series of very short scenes of Bianca following Jaye around with a notepad as Jaye imparts pithy Gen-Y life lessons, all of which add up to, as Bianca puts it, a "stressless, expectation-free zone." Jaye decides she's a genius, but she hopes Bianca's done researching, because believe it or not, she's actually getting tired of talking about herself.

The next morning when she walks into Wonderfalls, late, Mouth-breather has removed her timecard from its slot. It seems he found Bianca's notes (complete with references to him as "Mouth-breather.") He tells Jaye that Bianca already confessed, and how dare Jaye tell her that there's a time capsule under the Maid of the Mist fountain? Also, even if there were, the Wonderfalls time capsule document would not be all about her. Jaye's fired. Bianca has won this round.

Jaye goes home to tell her parents that she was fired, but it seems they already know. Bianca is sitting on the sofa in the living room with Jaye's mother, apologizing for accidentally getting Jaye fired. She's still dressed freakishly like Jaye. They're left alone, and Bianca explains that she's always been an overachiever, but held back by her stutter, so she could never get anything started. But Jaye has taught her a new way of living, and now, she never has to. She wants to live in Jaye's stressless, expectation-free zone. Jaye doesn't want her parking in her zone, but Bianca says "It's the only place I'll ever be able to breathe."

By virtue of being there, Bianca gets herself invited to Pizza Night, where she charms everyone with her politeness and good humour. Jaye's not buying it, though. When Bianca gets up to clear the table, Jaye tries to take the plate from her, and it ends up shattering on the floor. Jaye's parents are forgiving, she did just lose her job, after all, but Jaye needs everyone to know that Bianca is an investigative journalist, who is writing a story all about her, 5,000 words all about her! Bianca smiles kindly and says "Oh...Jaye...I thought you knew I was kidding."

At the Barrell, Jaye is distraught. The fish says "Get her words out!" and Jaye finally gets it. She runs home to her laptop muttering "You wanna know about Gen-Y? I'll tell you about Gen-Y." She writes and writes and writes and writes, mails the finished article off to Today's America with Bianca's name on it, and returns to Wonderfalls with the acceptance letter.

Bianca says that Mouth-breather told her to call security if she ever saw Jaye in the store again, but Jaye's not giving up this time. She hands over the letter, and says that Bianca needs to go live her life, and let Jaye have hers back. And look, she gets to take credit for something she had absolutely no hand in producing. You can't get any more Gen-Y than that. Bianca finally accepts her destiny and leaves, and Jen takes her vest and resumes her place behind the counter. We zoom in on the "Binky" stitching, which changes to "Jen Why" as we zoom out to the cover of Today's America magazine, with the headline "Who is Jen Why"

We zoom out further to see Jaye's entire family sitting around the same table from the teaser, reading the article. The end of the article is reminiscent of the author's bio, listing "A supporting father, a compassionate mother, a loving brother, and a sister, 35," as the things in life that let "Jen" know she is not alone. Sharon protests being 35, but her mother says "Well, you're not a lesbian either, but you can't expect her to get everything right." After graciously recieving compliments on her "friend's" crisp prose, Jaye reads her blurb. "A daughter, Jaye, 24. Her life, like this blurb, is a work in progress."