Story notes for editors: Season 37, Episode 2
Story producer:
Ryan Parker
Air date:
Monday, September 20, 2021
Executive producer:
Maureen Scott
Scene: Week-one Crowning Ceremony Location: Ever After castle Mark Davenport: [Medium shot of M.D. approaching from the left.] Maidens, there is only one tiara remaining. If your name is not called, that means your quest has ended.
Charles Winshaw: [Close-up of his hands picking up the last remaining tiara; cut to footage of Megan, Sarah, and Amy, the only remaining women without tiaras; cut back to Charles; hold the moment for five seconds.] Megan. [Cut to shot of Megan stepping down off the risers.] Megan, are you interested in becoming my princess?
Megan: Of course.
[Cut to confessionals after the C.C.]
Megan: I wasn’t really worried he wouldn’t pick me. We have insane chemistry. These other women just don’t have that kind of connection with Charles.
Amy: I can’t believe I’m going home at the end of week one. I feel like Charles didn’t give us a proper chance. I know we’d be perfect together. We have so much in common.
Producer [off camera]: What’s something you and Charles have in common?
Amy [muttering over the sound of her sniffles]: You know, we’re both, uh, blond. And I know I could’ve made him happy if he’d given me that chance. Why doesn’t any man want to give me a chance? [Stay tight on her crying for three seconds.]
Maureen’s note to editors: Make a moment of this woman’s pathetic desperation.
WEEK TWO
Pasadena—Sunday, June 13, 2021
14 Contestants and 56 Days Remaining
Dev
“I was thinking we could go get brunch together this morning.”
Charlie pauses in the diligent peeling of his banana and looks up all wide-eyed and startled. “Um. Why?”
Dev leans back against the kitchen counter. “It’s our day off. I figured it might be nice to get away from set for a bit. I know this brunch place just down the hill.”
“But why?”
Charlie’s eyebrows are knotted anxiously, and Dev fights the urge to smooth them out with his thumbs even though there aren’t any cameras around to capture his constipated face. “I thought it could be fun to hang out and get to know each other better.”
“You want to hang out,” Charlie repeats slowly, “with me? Why?”
“Jesus, Charlie!” Dev explodes, abandoning his attempts to play this off casually. “Look. I thought it might be helpful if I took you on a… practice date.”
“A practice date?”
If Charlie repeats his words as a question one more time, Dev is going to smash banana in his beautiful face. “Yes, a practice date. To help you get a little more comfortable on your dates on camera. Work up toward the dates with the women.”
Charlie is quiet for a second. Then: “With you?”
Dev throws his arms up. “Just meet me outside in five.”
Thankfully, five minutes later, Charlie meets Dev in front of the guesthouse wearing navy shorts and a gray short-sleeve button-down that matches his eyes, looking like the douchey frat bro of Dev’s nightmares. He borrows Jules’s car, and they drive through the streets of Pasadena in awkward silence. Dev fiddles with the aux hookup until he’s playing Leland Barlow’s debut album, and Charlie nervously clings to the handgrip in the door and pumps an invisible brake pedal with his right foot every time Dev careens toward a stop sign.