Pilot

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Season 1, Episode 1

Season 1, Episode 1

**Pilot** is the first episode of *MODS'* first season and the first episode overall. It will premiere on February 4th, 2021.

As the end of a semester approaches at Montgomery Ross Community College, in the Montgomery County, in Pennsylvania, Dan, head of the arts faculty announces he is being forced to make budget cuts, which include cutting a program from their rooster. Many interns that work for the faculty will try to keep it alive with some unorthodox methods. Getting a peak at the lives of some of the interns plus their struggle as faculty members tickles some boxes while others remain blank.

The episode was directed by Lagoona Bloo and Jan, and written by Rosé

## Plot

The interior office of Daniel Jackson, with one Daniel Jackson inside, walking incessantly around the small place, talking on the phone with someone; Dan appears to be agitated, his voice lowers and raises as the conversation goes on; the other speaker hangs on Dan, who then flops on his couch, looking at the plaque showing his name on top of his desk; Daniel calls his assistant, Freedom, and asks him to call the department staff.

We learn Dan is the head director of the Arts Department at Pennsylvania’s Montgomery Ross Community College, who is then seen talking to his staff, many of them being interns working as a part of their masters’ degrees. Dan lets them knows the news: the head director of the college is in the need of making some budget cuts, and that the arts department needs to cut one program from its schedule, Dan tells them that the program chosen by the board members is the theater arts one.

The staff starts to bicker and discuss about that sudden decision, as some of them work for the theater program only, and its closure would mean their firing; among those are Rita Bane, Perry Montero, and Kabs King, who show their disappointment around the decision. One other worker; Yogi Torres, who is under the music department guide tries to talk about how there’s a possibility other jobs open at the place soon, but his positivity gets overthrown by the other workers’ hot heads.

Dan goes back to his office after giving out the news; Freedom walks in offering him a coffee, which Dan declines, telling his employee that he’s trying to quit caffeine, as it’s damaging to him, all of this while drinking what it seems to be rum from a small jar.

Later that day, Jan Arango is seen talking to John Cyrus, both interns at the music department, they’re discussing what went down that morning with the news Dan gave them, and although they don’t have much to do with theater, they know how much both Rita and Perry work in there; they’re quickly joined by Archibald Kin, who works in the Mass Media program in the same department; they quickly shift topic to Yogi, who is apparently missing more and more meetings, as they didn’t expect him to show up that morning. Jan and John talk a bit, then realize they’re late for their next class appointment, as both serve as musical tutors.

Yogi is then seen walking back to the college building when he is intercepted by Silvia Momo, his old friend from high school; Yogi discusses what is Silvia doing there, while she explains she can’t help but visit him and their hometown, she also says she needs to perform minor gigs at some of the local bars and venues; Yogi expresses how proud he is of her for following her musical dream and that she sure is making it one step at the time. Silvia the asks him what he was doing outside working hours, Yogi just replies he needs to go to his next task, or they’ll give him another warning, he walks past her after that, while Silvia is left wondering what new endeavors her friend is on.

Cutting to Dan again, he’s looking at many papers at his office, wondering what he will do to try save the theater program, as he himself used to be a theater kid back in the day, he turns on the radio, while **Ain’t Nothin’ Goin’ On but the Rent** is heard playing; Dan looks concerned while he begins to perform the song, throwing around his papers, looking at his degrees and roaming around the office; when the song wraps, Dan walks out of his office, making his way to the headquarters of the building.

Perry accommodates the bookshelf on his classroom, while waiting for the seniors of the Theater program to arrive, as he needs to give them the news, they’ll be the third to last class to graduate the program. Walks in many students, while seeing Perry receive them with a smile. Bruno, one of them, notices Perry is holding some documents, and asks his teacher what’s that about, Perry checks that all the class is there, and drops the news on them; the students all seem in discomfort at the news, asking many questions which Perry can’t answer many of.

Kabs is working along with Rita in the props room while talking about the possibility of losing their jobs. Rita is hopeful about the situation but lets Kabs know that her job there and in a close by bar are just letting her skate by, so she is wishing everything can be fixed soon; Kabs questions about her job at the bar, Rita just tells him that she performs twice or thrice a week, as the bar is one of the most visited of the town, hoping maybe someone can find her like they found her friend Tamisha Iman, who is now a famous, world-renowned entertainer.

Jan and John are with a small group of their tutored students from first year at the school’s auditorium; they’re trying to get them to learn the lyrics to **More than a Feeling** by Boston, but some of them are not able to follow through enough. Jan then stops the lesson, asking them to harmonize background vocals at first, he then starts with the lead vocals of the song, John then joins after the first part helping the students with the vocals; they finish the song with a moderate level of success, but they then ask two of them to follow through with the lead vocals, the lesson ain’t over just yet.

Perry is seen walking into the theater’s backstage room, where Rita is found organizing some costumes into their racks. Rita greets Perry with a smile, but both know they aren’t in the best mood. Perry sits down in the couch close to where Rita is seen working, he asks her what she plans on doing whether the department ends up dissolving; Rita is unsure, she says she’s been working part-night at the same bar she explained to Kabs earlier, but she doesn’t have any safe net to fall to. Perry tells her things should fall into place soon, not to worry. Perry notices a Fleetwood Mac vinyl around Rita’s stuff and decides to calm down the situation by humming **Dreams** by Fleetwood Mac, to which Rita soon realizes; as she starts to the song, while Perry joins her later. Rita hugs her friend after the song ends, thanking him for cheering her up.

Bruno is walking out of class as two people come up to him, Aries, and Dee. Bruno greets them, they’re juniors for his same degree; Theater, and soon to be the seniors after Bruno graduates, and twins as well. They ask him if he has heard the news about the program closing and how is he dealing with leaving campus behind. Bruno seems annoyed at many of their questions and just replies he’s heard of the news and feels sad about it, but let’s them know that nothing is decided yet and there could be a change of plans, Aries and Dee seem reluctant but walk away after that, chitchatting about their plans for an apparent musical they’re planning.

Jan walks past by Yogi’s cubicle, noticing him missing, but finds someone else inside there; Jan promptly calls him by another name, thinking it could be someone else, the guy introduces himself as Anthony, to which Jan asks him if he was there on the previous day, or the day before; Anthony is quite confused by this, but Jan realizes that he isn’t the same guy from any of the previous days, and just rubs it off as confusion; the intern asks the guest where Yogi is, to which Anthony replies he went to buy some food for them; as Jan is trying to remove himself from the situation he sees Yogi walking inside the office room, much to both of their surprise to see each other there; Jan quickly smiles, dismissing the situation, just telling his co-worker that their next meeting should start any minute, Yogi thanks him for the reminder, as Jan walks away. Anthony asks Yogi how the food hunting went, while Yogi just nods and delivers some small box, while tells him to eat while waiting him there.

Dan receives the workers again into the meetings office, reminding them of some changes to some programs and letting them know that the board has told him that its’ definite to let go of the theater program. Perry tries to argue with the decision, as he’s working there full time and not just as an intern, Dan doesn’t hear his reasonings, afraid of calling out the board again. Jan asks if there is anything any of them could do to save it; Dan tells him that it’s a budget issue; recent issues with the state and activities have decreased, which means a program had to be cut out. Yogi suggests they could do a charity event, as it worked in the movie Sing! Dan is flabbergasted by the idea taken out from a children movie but doesn’t find it too crazy, the director then calls out the meeting and the school day, as everything that had to be said was said, but that he will keep them updated on everything.

John goes back to his workspace, passing by Yogi’s cubicle in the meantime, finding Anthony still inside, he curiously says hi, calls him by the same name Jan called him previously; Anthony is about to start questioning all the incorrect naming when Yogi arrives, telling the boy to walk with him; John shrugs after that, saying bye to both, still calling Anthony by a different name.

Nighttime comes, as Dan is back at his home, trying to sleep, imagining his life back when he was younger, when the theater department had just begun; he falls asleep, dreaming about his former class performing a medley of My Humps by the Black Eyed Peas and Never Gonna Give You Up by Rick Astley; Dan wakes up In the middle of his fantasy, realizing My Humps wasn’t even close to be out when he was in college; he goes back to sleep, as Never Gonna Give You Up still echoes into his head.

Yogi comes back home with Anthony by his side; **Midnight Train** by Sam Smith starts playing, as a montage of Yogi walking in and out of his house with a multitude of guys going in and out of there as well, while Yogi looks more and more tired each time; as the song ends Yogi lays in bed with Anthony by his side; the intern looks up to his roof, mumbling the final words of the song while trying to sleep.

A new day starts, with Jan and John practicing with their tutored class of the day; the lesson is going well, while the class is feeling positive and inspired; John asks them if they’ve been working on their next performing song, which is **Don’t Stop Me Now** by Dua Lipa; the students all confirm they have, and Jan lets them perform the song. As asked, the class performs to satisfactory results, while John tells them that they still must prepare More Than a Feeling; the class is once again ready.

Jules O’Hara, board member of the college, walks into Dan’s office, while the latter is signing documents provided by Archi moments before. Jules asks why he was contacted to meet him. Dan tells him that there must be something to save the theater department, as they’re the only college in miles with a competent program for it; he even suggests the charity event Yogi told him about last meeting; Jules shuts it down quickly, telling Dan that an event like that isn’t possible nor the school can fund it; Dan asks about what if the school didn’t need to fund it; Jules still says no, telling him that he expected more of a level-headed opinion from him, instead of trying to act all Sister Act on the issue; he walks away from the office, leaving Dan drained, as Freedom walks again, asking if he does want a coffee this time, Dan tells him to leave.

Jan, Kabs and Yogi are talking in the dining hall, discussing the growth of the college in the past years, it is revealed Jan and Yogi were both hired at the same time, while Kabs has less than a year in the workplace. Yogi gets a phone call, and as he answers he hears Silvia on the other end, who invites him to see her at the gig she’ll have that night at the Striped Knee Bar; the call ends as Yogi invited his co-workers; when Kabs hears the name of the bar he realizes that’s where Rita works. Jan and Kabs both accept, while Yogi runs to invite pretty much anyone he gets along with.

Later that day, Perry is wrapping up his class, as Bruno stays behind while the rest of his classmates leave the room; the student asks Perry if something was able to be done for them to keep the theater program; Perry tells him that there was no luck as far as he knows but he will try still, as any boardroom and administrative decision is corroborated at the end of the school year, which is still far away, Bruno says he’s graduating at the end of the current semester, but that he will support as much as he can any plan, Perry nods, asking him to walk out with him, as Archi walks into the classroom, with a small group of students by his side.

Yogi runs to find Rita on her own by the main office building, and invites her to Silvia’s gig, Rita agrees, telling him that she knows a way of getting a better view of the stage; Yogi smiles and runs away again, Rita is left confused but laughing.

That night, Jan and John are trying to find Yogi at the quite long line to enter the Striped Knee, when they encounter Rita, Perry and Kabs, who join them into trying to find Yogi. Torres shows up a minute later, apologizing for not being there earlier as he should’ve, and now there’s a chance they don’t get to see the show. Rita brushes that off, walking into the start of the line, greeting the bouncer as they’re acquaintances, he lets Rita walk in, as he does with the rest of the gang.

Rita then uses her same greet with Crenshaw, a waiter, who escorts them to a table closer to the adorned stage; Perry is slightly left behind, and he must sit in a corner table with some woman who starts asking him about his hair routine; Perry sighs, looking at the stage where the show was about to start.

Yogi snaps a picture of the place, sending it to Silvia, letting her know he’s there and ready to support her; Silvia quickly snaps back from the backstage, saying she’s nervous, Yogi reassures her she has nothing to worry about, he doesn’t get a reply after that.

The gang converses for a while, but the lights dim, indicating the show is about to start; Silvia then comes out, looking visibly nervous; she introduces herself to the audience; Yogi cheers for her way higher than the rest of the audience, everybody looking at him with a fun glance in their face. Silvia then says she’ll perform **Telephone** by Lady Gaga and Beyonce; she performs with energy and cheer in her voice and movements, as the intern gang cheer for her, quietly dancing from their spots. She wraps the song, as the audience is content with her, while the notes of the following song begin to play.

After the show wraps, the gang congratulates Silvia, while she tells them she appreciates them for coming to see her; Jan asks about Perry’s whereabouts, no one being able to find him through the crowd.

Perry is then seeing with the same woman he was sitting with, but now outside the place, discussing skincare routines with her as well as two other women who excitedly listen to every word he has to say.

Back at the bar, the gang is seen having fun, while singing along to the song the DJ is playing; their lives can be complicated sometimes, but a job wasn’t the only thing Montgomery gave them, friendship forming was also a nice reward for them.

## Guest Cast

### Guest Stars

Rita Bane as Rita Marie Bane

Dee Pression as Dee Manhattan

Aries as Aries Manhattan