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Episode Transcript    

"Pilot" is the very first episode in the first season of the Lifetime series Drop Dead Diva. It was first broadcast on the 12th of July, 2009, and is the series premiere.

Synopsis[]

A fish-out-of-water comedy about a vapid model who is reincarnated as a brilliant plus-size lawyer. When Deb Dobkins is killed in a car accident, she returns to life in the body of attorney Jane Bingum.

Plot[]

Deb, an aspiring model is at home with Grayson, her boyfriend, preparing for her audition for the game show The Price is Right. She puts on some Ironic Taffy nailpolish, goes to the audition with her car. While putting on some lipgloss, she crashes into a grapefruit truck. Jane, an overweight but brilliant lawyer has spent another night in her office at Harrison and Parker, the firm she works at, preparing for the case of Marcus Newsom who is suing Upland pharmaceuticals because his wife suffered a hallucination aftertaking their sleeping pill, Zolpidem and fell from a 20-story building. She takes a bullet for her boss, Jay Parker, and dies. After the accident, Deb goes to Heaven and meets Fred. Desperate to get her life back, she presses the return button and goes back to Earth. But she doesn't go back into her old body, but the body of Jane.

When she wakes up, she finds it hard to accept her new body. Fred, who is now her guardian angel, helps her to get used to her old life, yet Jane is reluctant. Instead, she leaves the hospital while wearing a her hospital gown and goes back to her old home. She gets the key hidden in the gnome on her front lawn. She then rushes to her closet where she finds a dress and attempts to put it on as it rips. She then hears that Grayson has returned home and rushed to hide in the bathroom, where she sees Grayson crying because of her death. Jane accidentally pushes the bottle of Ironic Taffy nailpolish and alerts Grayson that someone is in the house. However, she manages to flee before he sees her, and goes to her office, where she once again meets Fred who is applying for a job as a messenger. She gets a very warm welcome by the office workers, and meets her assistant, Teri, who helps her get the needed information about Marcus Newsom's case. Jane, together with her colleague Kim starts working on the case. Kim recommends that Marcus Newsom remains calm in court since the defence will argue that his wife is suicidle. Jane thinks otherwise. Jane says, "You're asking a young widower not to be himself, not to feel his loss and that is not who he is. And that's not the strategy that Jane—I mean that I outlined in this brief." She continues, "The jury is not going to sympothise if they don't see your pain. Don't hide it—embrace it." Markus Newsom then appoints Jane to first chair.

Then she goes to meet a new client, Vicky Wellner, who is getting divorced from her husband Parker Wellner. Although her husband has net worth of 5 million dollars, she will only get a 100 grand thanks to the prenup she signed. The prenup can be annulled because her husband has cheated on her with the dogwalker, yet she refuses to go to court, thus making any chance of voiding the prenup impossible. While having a meeting with her, she tries to convince her to change her mind. Later that night Jane goes to ger friend Stacy's home because she has nowhere elso to go. At first Stacy is reluctant to believe that Jane is her best friend, but after Jane gives her some information only Deb would know, thus proving she is Deb, Stacy let's Jane in and later on moves in with Stacy.

The next morning she decides that she doesn't want to "play lawyer any more" and goes to Deb's funeral and listens to Grayson's speech about her, and what some of her former friends had to say about her. That makes her realize she can really help Marcus Newsom and makes her remember what Fred told her in heaven— that she's a 0/0. No bad deeds, no good deeds. She realizes that in her new life she can help people and change from a narrow minded shallow yet remarkably aspiring model to a plus-sized incredibally smart, empathic lawyer. She then goes to court and defends Markus Newsom, only to be sabotaged by Kim who takes advantage of her memory lapse and takes over the defence. The next day they have an arguement, and Jane tells Kim that she is as cheap as her "Hermes" bag. Parker then tells her to go to her meeting with Parker and Vicky Wellner and accept the offer. She, however, refuses to take the offer. Vicky thinks it was a terrible mistake and doesn't want to testify in court. Parker then confronts her, because he had thought that her and Vicky were similar because they were both insecure. Jane is upset of the words of Parker and replies, "Well I'm not the person you think I am!" then storms out of the room.

Jane then has a nervous breakdown in her office, and Teri calms Jane down with some Easy Cheese. She then tells Teri to send Vicky to a spa and schedule another settlement conference. Soon after that she is visited by Grayson who has just gotten a job at the firm. It appears that the real Jane was the one who interviewed him and recommended him to Parker. Kim interrupts them, greets Grayson and gives him an office warming gift. This makes Jane rather upset and she eventually breaks the window with the cat statue her mother had given her, as it had been too hot in the office before. She requests a new window with a latch.

Then she meets with Vicky who had come back from the spa and looks much more beautiful now. Jane shows her the toe tap booty bounce, her signature move. Stacy then arrives with Ironic Taffy and Deb's shorts that she left at the pool and colors their right pinkies with it for good luck. Then Jane and Vicky who is wearing a new green dress have another settlement conference with her husband. At first, she still finds it hard to stand up for herself. Jane tells Vicky to stand up and fight for herself, and since she won't testify in court, Jane recommends that Vicky bluffs. Vicky finally tells him what she has wanted to say for a long time. This makes Parker agree to settle the divorce with 2.5 million.

Fred visits Jane again in her office. He gives her the idea for the speech in court. She then uses the speech that Grayson spoke on Debs funeral as an inspiration. She asks the jury to help Marcus get past his anger. They eventually win the case. Then Grayson and Jane speak, and he tells her that he thought her speech was nice. He also notices her wearing Ironic Taffy. Kim invites them to a cocktail party, where Kim and Grayson get together.

The episode ends with Jane and Fred talking in her office. She now has a new window that can be opened. Jane tells him that she misses Deb and asks if it makes her self-absorbed and selfish that she is grieving for herself. Fred tells her that it makes her human. They both then look at the evening sky with a smile on their face.

Cast[]

Starring[]

Guest Starring[]

Co-Starring[]

Music[]

This is the name of the music tracks featured in the Pilot of Drop Dead Diva.

  1. "Hey Na Na" —Katie Herzig
  2. "Big Girls Don't Cry" —Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons
  3. "I Want You" —Holly Palmer
  4. "Beautiful Inside" —Katie Herzig
  5. "Big Girls Don't Cry" — Fergie

Quotes[]

  • "This doesn't work for me. I've never been more than a size 2 and that's only 'cause of the freshman 15, which is why I quit community college. So who do I have to talk to?"
    ~Jane to Fred

Trivia[]

Gallery[]

S1

"Pilot" · "The F Word" · "Do Over" · "Lost and Found" · "Second Chances" · "The Magic Bullet" · "Crazy" · "The Dress"
"Make Me a Match" · "What If" · "Dead Model Walking" · "Grayson's Anatomy"

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