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"Pilot" is the first episode of the first season of Fresh Off the Boat. It first aired on February 4, 2015.
Synopsis[]
It's 1995 and 11-year-old hip-hop loving Eddie Huang has just moved with his family from Chinatown in Washington D.C. to suburban Orlando. They quickly discover things are very different there. Orlando doesn't even have a Chinatown - unless you count the Huang house.
Plot[]
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The episode begins with Eddie dressing up in the clothing of a stereotypical black rapper while some rap music plays in the background. He comes out of the changing room and his mom, Jessica is there with his two brothers, Evan and Emery. Jessica checks out the price tag on his golden chain necklace but it's too much money for her. A narration of Eddie's future self happens, explaining that it was very annoying how Jessica never understood that in America, there are set prices and you can't haggle for anything. He explains who everyone in his family is and he explains them moving from Washington, D.C. to Orlando, Florida. The next scene shows them moving there. They are all in the car and Eddie is listening to rap music on his headphones. He sees that Evan is singing and he takes off his headphones to hear what he is singing. He and his father, Louis are singing "I saw the sign" while Jessica is nodding her head happily without singing. Eddie hangs his head and groans out of hatred for the song. Louis turns off the music and explains to Eddie that moving to Orlando isn't going to be bad. It's going to be a very amazing thing for them. Mainly, he is doing this because he just opened up his own restaurant called "Cattleman's Ranch Steakhouse". Eddie mentions Shaquille O'Neil and Jessica rags on him for liking the African-American culture so much when the Asian culture is better. She explains how sexy Pete Sampras is. Louis gets annoyed by his wife admiring another man, but then, he hears a song on the radio. It's their favorite song. "Something to talk about". He turns it up, starts singing along to it and Evan joins in. Jessica is hesitant to do this at first, but then she quickly and happily gives in, singing along. Eddie hangs his head again and plugs back in his headphones to ignore them.
They finally make it to Cattleman's Ranch. Louis introduces them to the place and Jessica had her concerns about it. She knows nothing about the American culture and she isn't entirely comfortable with them moving here and doing this. Eddie just tries to tell her how amazing this restaurant is and what good things it's going to do in their lives. Meanwhile, Eddie, Evan, and Emery are very skeptical about the whole thing in general. Jessica expresses her concerns about there being a lack of customers to Louis and he convinces her that people will be coming in sometime soon. Although she is very hesitant to all of this, she puts her trust in him.
When they are moving into their new home, Emery and Eddie notice that there is a lot of Caucasian people in this new place, which they are very unfamiliar with. Jessica is greeted by the neighborhood girl, Deidre and her friends when they rollerblade over to them. When she talks to him, Deidre says a lot of prejudice things about her that she apparently doesn't notice. Jessica kind of hated her for making these comments, but she feels that she needs to pretend to like her anyway in order to have friends there, because of the fact that everyone else is the neighborhood follows her.
The next day, Eddie, Emery, and Evan are sitting at the table eating breakfast and getting ready for school. Eddie complains about having to start school on a Wednesday and Jessica tells him that the sooner they start, the better chances he has at going to college, getting a job, and making money. Eddie hates the stuff she's saying but he gets dressed and goes off to school anyway, taking Evan and Emery with him. Just then, Louis comes in and tells her that he just got a brilliant idea on how to attract customers for his new restaurant. He needs to hire some more white people for the restaurant so that the place will have more of an American theme if there are American people there, instead of an Asian guy. Jessica just rolls her eyes.
On the first day of school for Eddie, Mrs. Uveda is introducing Eddie to the class but is confused when she sees that his Chinese name is "Chungi yi Ming". Eddie just tells everyone to call him Eddie, relieving Mrs. Uveda of a ton of stress. Later at lunch, Eddie sees that a lot of people are eating Lunchables. He goes up to one table where a kid named Walter is sitting. Walter tell him that he can sit there as long as he doesn't talk to him because he doesn't like kids and his only friend is a 40 year old man. Eddie sits there with Walter for a while until a kid at another table calls him over there. He introduces himself as Brock and they become good friends. However, Eddie opens up a container of some noodles that really stinks. The boys are all disgusted by this and they make fun of him and shoo him away from the table. He goes back to the table with Walter where he sarcastically apologizes for the way they treated him and then rudely demands that he sits somewhere else for leaving him like that.
Jessica is rollerblading with the other neighborhood women, annoyed with Dierdre's story and Samantha's bag of dog feces, being carried right in front of her face. She soon takes a break and bids a do to her friends, as the school bus pulls up. Evan, Emery, and Eddie get off. Evan tells her about a hilarious fat kid who he befriended in his class named J.J. Emery, introduces her to his newfound girlfriend, Kim, and Eddie comes off the bus, complaining and wanting to go back to D.C. again. Jessica tells Eddie that they have no choice and that she too is suffering, trying to fit in with the new friends there. Eddie just angrily walks away, telling her that she's never on his side.
At Cattleman's, Louis is going a job interview for a white man named Mitch to host the restaurant, who seems to be bit of a silly goof-off. Mitch assumes that Cattleman's is actually part of the Golden Saddle chain restaurant, which Louis denies, but Mitch then starts assuming that it's an inspiration, a spin-off, etc. and even points out that the stuffed bear statues in the restaurant are identical to that in the restaurant but Louis tells him that the difference is that the ones in his restaurant are brown, while the ones in theirs are black. Eventually, he hires Mitch as a waiter at the restaurant.
The next morning, Jessica was preparing Emery and Eddie's lunch for school. Unfotunately, Evan won't be going to school since J.J. gave him cheese and he got an allergic reaction from it. Eddie protests against his mom giving him noodles for lunch and would rather have "white people lunch". But Jessica told him the others will get used to it and thus Eddie has to deal with it. But when he and Emery were walking to the bus stop, Eddie decides to throw out his food and claims he will be fine. He tries to talk to Emery on how much it sucks being at school and claims that Emery might feel the same pain later on. But the majority of his classmates like Emery. One said hi, another offered him to their birthday party, and Kim brought Emery a soda. Much to Eddie's dismay.
Back at Cattleman's, Louis hoped that with the new help of Mitch, he can bring in a lot of customers. Not surprisingly, it didn't work out as he hoped and demanded Mitch to use his "caucasian features" to work right now. And even mentions how Jessica is very pushy as she tried to start a garden and it never worked, even when she yelled at the seeds to grow. Mitch explains its best if they wait patiently and give it some time and even mentions how his own mom is pushy too. Much to Louis' annoyance.
At night, the family was having some dinner when Jessica and Louis had a mini argument on whether or not Steve bought a new or used car. Then they noticed Eddie was eating his food quickly, he claims he's still hungry from lunch. But Jessica managed to get him to confess that he threw out his lunch when she asked if he liked the xiaolongbao she made for him. Eddie tells his parents that he needs to be like everyone else, so that way he can become popular at school. He explains his biggest dreams to his parents on how he wants to get up to the spotlight and this finally convince Louis and Jessica to change up his lunch. Later that night, Eddie and Jessica head over to the supermarket to get some Lunchables. Jessica felt very uncomfortable at first since she felt like the Taiwanese Market made her so calm. But she got to open up a bit when someone offered her a free sample of chips.
The next day, everyone at Cattleman's Ranch was getting ready to film their first commercial. Mitch wasn't willing to do this, but Louis didn't care. But before they can argue, Jessica arrives and is upset on how nothing is going well ever they since moved down to Orlando. Not only that, the resturant isn't even doing well and is worried that the commercial is too expensive and will be a flop. But Louis assures everything will turn out fine and had to hurry off to shoot for the commercial.
At Abraham Lincoln Middle School, Eddie proceeds to brag about the lunchables that he has to the others. But when he puts in the lunchables into the microwave, Walter shoves him out of the way and tell him to get use to it since he is lower than him. Eddie denies this, but Walter retaliates by calling Eddie a "chink". This shocked everyone throughout the cafeteria, and Eddie decides to beat up Walter because of this. Not surprisingly, he ends up at the Principal's office and Principal Hunter tells Louis and Jessica the stuff Eddie did to Walter and is going to have to suspend Eddie for this. But the two defended their son since Walter was the one who made Eddie respond with violence. They then complained that if Principal Hunter suspends Eddie, they will sue everyone.
The Huangs then leave the school and Eddie asks his parents how come they defended him despite what he did. They both tell him that they're proud of him for defending his culture and for himself and they can never be upset for that. Louis adds that's the main reason why they moved here to Orlando. Louis doesn't want to work for Steve anymore, he would rather start a new chapter for him and his family. While things may seem rough now, things will get better in the future. Afterwards, the family continued walking through the basketball court as Brock and his friends move aside showing that Eddie has earned a bit of respect from them.
The episode ends with the family watching the new commercial that Louis made for Cattleman's Ranch. Jenny thought it was funny, while Louis looked up and smiled, knowing one day things will go well for them.
Cast[]
Main Cast[]
- Randall Park as Louis Huang
- Constance Wu as Jessica Huang
- Hudson Yang as Eddie Huang
- Forrest Wheeler as Emery Huang
- Ian Chen as Evan Huang
Guest Cast[]
- Paul Scheer as Mitch
- Rachel Cannon as Deidre Sanderson
- Jillian Armenante as Nancy
- Noel Gugliemi as Hector Martinez (credited as Noel G.)
- Brooke Baumer as Mrs. Uveda
- Prophet Bolden as Walter Stone
- Marie Buck as Store Employee #3
- Kimberly Crandall as Lisa
- Davis Desmond as Kid
- Gabe Eggerling as George
- Jessica Gardner as Samantha
- Aubrey K. Miller as Kim (credited as Aubrey Miller)
- Martin Morales as Janitor
- Colleen Ryan as Amanda
- Stacey Scowley as Carol-Joan
- Lucille Soong as Jenny Huang (credited as Grandma Huang)
- Brady Tutton as Brock
- Scot Zeller as White Tourist
- Eddie Huang as Narrator (voice)
- Rachel Abendroth as White Tourist Wife (uncredited)
- Alice Chen as D.C. Shopper (uncredited)
- Michael Cummings as Neighbor (uncredited)
- Ryleigh Mangen as Student (uncredited)
- Johnny Meyer as Neighbor (uncredited)
Trivia[]
- In this episode, it is revealed that Eddie's legal name is "Chungi yi Ming" and that Eddie is just the American name he chooses to go by.
- Although this was intended to be a Chinese name, the name "Chungi" is actually Vietnamese.
- In this episode, Jessica mentions that her "brother" just got a new car. This would be continued later in the episode "Success Perm", where Steve visited and he was shown bragging about his new car, only for the episode to later reveal that his car was used.
- This episode featured the uncensored usage of the term "chink" twice. First used by Walter when calling Eddie one, and used shortly after by Louis, telling Principal Hunter what Walter had called him. This would be the first time that ABC has broadcast anything that uses that term uncensored.
- The instance of Walter using the term was actually broadcast in the promo for the show itself. This was done out of the creators taking pride in using this term on their show.
- In the Cattleman's Ranch commercial at the end of the episode, Mitch acts like a redneck to get the attention from All-American people. One of the things he says is "If you don't believe me, ask my wife, or my cousin, or my cousin wife." This is a reference to a common offensive stereotype of Americans, saying that they have incestuous relationships with their close cousins.
- This is the only episode that doesn't feature the theme song.
Errors/Inconsistencies[]
- Louis and Jessica talk about Jessica's brother owning furniture store and his "new" Miata, which Louis suspects is used. However, a few episodes later in "Success Perm", Steve is referred to as her brother-in-law instead, the husband of her sister Connie.
Gallery[]
To view the gallery for this episode, visit the Pilot/Gallery.
Episodes
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| Fresh Off the Boat – Season One | |||
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| Episode 1 "Pilot" |
Episode 2 "Home Sweet Home-School" |
Episode 3 "The Shunning" |
Episode 4 "Success Perm" |
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| Episode 5 "Persistent Romeo" |
Episode 6 "Fajita Man" |
Episode 7 "Showdown at the Golden Saddle" |
Episode 8 "Phillip Goldstein" |
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| Episode 9 "License to Sell" |
Episode 10 "Blind Spot" |
Episode 11 "Very Superstitious" |
Episode 12 "Dribbling Tiger, Bounce Pass Dragon" |
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| Episode 13 So Chineez | |||
| Fresh Off the Boat – Season Two | |||
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| Episode 1 "Family Business Trip" |
Episode 2 "Boy II Man" |
Episode 3 "Shaquille O'Neal Motors" |
Episode 4 "The Fall Ball" |
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| Episode 5 "Miracle on Dead Street" |
Episode 6 "Good Morning Orlando" |
Episode 7 "The Big 1-2" |
Episode 8 "Huangsgiving" |
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| Episode 9 "We Done Son" |
Episode 10 "The Real Santa" |
Episode 11 "Year of the Rat" |
Episode 12 "Love and Loopholes" |
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| Episode 13 "Phil's Phaves" |
Episode 14 "Michael Chang Fever" |
Episode 15 "Keep 'Em Separated" |
Epsiode 16 "Tight Two" |
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| Episode 17 "Doing It Right" |
Episode 18 "Week in Review" |
Episode 19 "Jessica Place" |
Episode 20 "Hi, My Name Is..." |
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| Episode 21 "Rent Day" |
Episode 22 "Gotta Be Me" |
Episode 23 "The Manchurian Dinner Date" |
Episode 24 "Bring the Pain" |
| Fresh Off the Boat – Season Three | |||
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| Episode 1 "Coming from America" |
Episode 2 "Breaking Chains" |
Episode 3 "Louisween" |
Episode 4 "Citizen Jessica" |
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| Episode 5 "No Thanks-giving" |
Episode 6 "WWJD: What Would Jessica Do?" |
Episode 7 "The Taming of the Dads" |
Episode 8 "Where are the Giggles?" |
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| Episode 9 "How to Be an American" |
Episode 10 "The Best of Orlando" |
Episode 11 "Clean Slate" |
Episode 12 "Sisters Without Subtext" |
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| Episode 13 "Neighbors with Attitude" |
Episode 14 "The Gloves Are Off" |
Episode 15 "Living While Eddie" |
Episode 16 "Gabby Goose" |
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| Episode 17 "The Flush" |
Episode 18 "Time to Get Ill" |
Episode 19 "Driving Miss Jenny" |
Episode 20 "The Masters" |
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| Episode 21 "Pie vs. Cake" |
Episode 22 "This Is Us" |
Episode 23 "This Isn't Us" | |
| Fresh Off the Boat – Season Four | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Episode 1 "B as in Best Friends" |
Episode 2 "First Day" |
Episode 3 "Kids" |
Episode 4 "It's a Plastic Pumpkin, Louis Huang" |
| Episode 5 "Four Funerals and a Wedding" |
Episode 6 "A League of Her Own" |
Episode 7 "The Day After Thanksgiving" |
Episode 8 "The Vouch" |
| Episode 9 "Slide Effect" |
Episode 10 "Do You Hear What I Hear?" |
Episode 11 "Big Baby" |
Episode 12 "Liar Liar" |
| Episode 13 "The Car Wash" |
Episode 14 "A Man to Share the Night With" |
Episode 15 "We Need to Talk About Evan" |
Episode 16 "Ride the Tiger" |
| Episode 17 "Let Me Go, Bro" |
Episode 18 "Measure Twice, Cut Once" |
Episode 19 "King in the North" | |
| Fresh Off the Boat – Season Five | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Episode 1 "Fresh Off the RV" |
Episode 2 "The Hand That Sits the Cradle" |
Episode 3 "Working the 'Ween" |
Episode 4 "Driver's Eddie" |
| Episode 5 "Mo' Chinese Mo' Problems" |
Episode 6 "Sub Standard" |
Episode 7 "Where Have All the Cattlemen Gone?" |
Episode 8 "Cousin Eddie" |
| Episode 9 "Just the Two of Us" |
Episode 10 "You've Got a Girlfriend" |
Episode 11 "Driver's Eddie 2: Orlando Drift" |
Episode 12 "Legends of the Fortieth" |
| Episode 13 "Grand-Mahjong" |
Episode 14 "Cupid's Crossbow" |
Episode 15 "Be a Man" |
Episode 16 "Trentina" |
| Episode 17 "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" |
Episode 18 "Rancho Contento" |
Episode 19 "Vice Mommy" |
Episode 20 "Nerd Watching" |
| Episode 21 "Under the Taipei Sun" |
Episode 22 "No Apology Necessary" | ||
| Fresh Off the Boat – Season Six | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Episode 1 "Help Unwanted?" |
Episode 2 "College" |
Episode 3 "Grandma's Boys" |
Episode 4 "S'Mothered" |
| Episode 5 "Hal-Lou-Ween" |
Episode 6 "Chestnut Gardens" |
Episode 7 "Practicum?!" |
Episode 8 "TMI: Too Much Integrity" |
| Episode 9 "Lou Wants to Be a Millionaire" |
Episode 10 "Jessica Town" |
Episode 11 "A Seat at the Table" |
Episode 12 "The Magic Motor Inn" |
| Episode 13 "Mommy and Me" |
Episode 14 "Family Van" |
Episode 15 "Commencement" | |