THe Hills - Season 1, Episode 3

Heidi enjoys Day One of her dream job

"An Unexpected Call"
Original airdate: 6/14/2006

Episode summary: Heidi is disgruntled when she's assigned menial tasks on her first day at Bolthouse Productions. Lauren travels to New York to deliver a dress for Fashion Week.

---

Recap: Heidi asks Lauren if she's still miffed at her for dropping out of FIDM, and Lauren's like, "Yeah kinda" and says it's weird that she quit, given that attending FIDM was the main reason she moved to L.A. - but then concedes that there are lots of opportunities in the city. Heidi says she's soooooo excited about her new job and likes the idea of "running around all the time", hanging out in the clubs and meeting celebrities. Lauren reminds her that since it's a job she'll have to work, and Heidi's like, "Yeah whatever - OMG, what should I wear?!" Lauren advises her to always dress nicer than she thinks she should. At least on the first day. 

Later, at Teen Vogue, Blaine summons Lauren to his office to tell her she's going to need to take the red-eye to New York to deliver a dress to Lisa Love, who's attending Fashion Week. He unhelpfully adds that he has no idea how long she'll be there - an hour? five days? - and Lauren's like 'seriously?' and is probably too polite to remind him it's not exactly convenient for her to be away for an indeterminate period of time 'cause she also attends school - but in the next scene she seems fairly excited by the idea of flying across the country to run an errand.

"We need you to jet to New York to deliver a dress to Lisa, and we have no idea when you're coming back."

"I can't decide if I'm delighted by the glamorousness of flying to New York, or deeply annoyed by the inconvenience."

Brian drops by Quixote Studios to dorkishly flirt with Audrina, and she gives him a tour of the various stages, including one that's currently in use for a Maxim/scantily clad female model shoot. Brian wanks her about how much hotter she is than the models, then asks her out to dinner tomorrow night...and she's like 'ah what the hell, I have nothing better to do'.

Lauren rushes home to pack and inform Heidi that she has to leave for the airport in an hour to fly to New York to deliver a dress [that someone either forgot to ship in advance or decided at the last minute was urgently needed]. Lauren says she has no idea what to wear to a fashion show [despite not being invited to attend any], and Heidi, who's suddenly an authority on the matter, says it's customary to wear something by the designer. Heidi gushes about how much fun she's going to have [flying to and from New York within the same 24 hours] as Lauren packs her big pink suitcase and dashes out. 

That evening, Heidi and Audrina are hanging by the pool, talking about boys and how super excited she still is about landing her "dream job". She adds that she quickly realized she wasn't meant to follow the same career path as Lauren and has no regrets about dropping out of school, and Audrina nods approvingly and chirps, "I dropped out too!"

"I'm sooooo excited about my dream job."

"I felt the same way when The Hills producers discovered me laying poolside."

Lauren, meanwhile, arrives in New York and goes into the nearest ladies room to change into something dressy and comb out her hair.

Heidi arrives at Bolthouse Productions and announces to the Second Assistant (Landon) that it's her first day of work...as, I'm guessing, Third (?) Assistant. Brent summons her to his office to explain that basically her job will be to assist whatever department needs extra help...and today she'll be assigned to the mailing room to help the other grunts stuff envelopes. Heidi looks less than thrilled by the menial task...and when she learns that the woman stuffing envelopes next to her is an intern who attends FIDM, she wryly says, "I just dropped out of there" and completely misses the irony of having made that rash decision.

In New York, Lauren arrives at the Marc by Marc Jacobs fashion show and finds Lisa Love chatting with someone. When Lisa finally acknowledges her, she takes the dress with a curt thank you, then tells her she's going to need to fly back to L.A. tonight. Lauren looks crestfallen by the major brushoff, then heads back out to the town car to be ferried to wherever she's going to kill time until her flight departs. 

Heidi calls Lauren from a bathroom stall to complain about how boooooring her dream job turned out to be, and that stuffing envelopes all day has been "a nightmare". Lauren tells her that she too is disgruntled about having to fly across the country for the sole purpose of delivering a dress, then wearily says she has no idea how she's going to do this internship and attend school.

Heidi asks to speak to Brent [and by default Jen, the Nightlife & Events producer] about the indignity of having to stuff envelopes all day...and suddenly feigns confusion about whether this was supposed to be a full or part-time position. Brent tells her that her being around full-time is what's best for Bolthouse [is it, Brent??], and that he'd like her to at least pretend to be 100% committed to wanting to be there. Jen chimes in and says, "You've got to crawl before you walk" and Brent adds, "If you're going to come here and work, we need you to work." Heidi thanks them for the clarification and sashays out of the office, leaving Brent and Jen exchanging OMFG expressions and shaking their heads in collective dismay. 

"I just assumed I'd be co-running the company on my first day."

"Sounds like a plausible Hills storyline."

Audrina and Brian are out to dinner at a Japanese restaurant. The two discuss how long they've been living in L.A. and how they're attempting to break into showbiz by taking acting classes and going to castings. After dinner, Brian walks her to her door and hints that he'd like to hang out some more, and she awkwardly invites him in for some hanky-panky-free alone time.

Heidi gets up at 6:30am the next morning, makes breakfast, then sits atop the bed while munching on a bowl of cereal and watching TV. Jordan grumbles about her having a "regular job" - I can't help wondering if his Hills pay checks are fully financing his life of sloth or if he has an alternate revenue source - and urges her to blow off work and lay in bed with him all day. Heidi mulls that over and looks tempted, but ultimately decides to give her dream job at least one more day. 

Brent tells Heidi that since Landon is out today, he needs her to handle travel arrangements for various staff. He then realizes it's lunchtime and orders Heidi to go get him a sandwich, and she reacts by staring unhappily into space. 

Lauren and her big pink suitcase return home from New York. She checks her answering machine and looks aghast as she listens to a message from Jason, her shitty ex. He tells her he's in L.A. and wants to know if she'd like to hang out and get caught up, and she continues to glare in horrified bewilderment at the answering machine. 

"You have one unwelcome message."

"Maybe the offending message will delete itself if I keep giving my answering machine the stink-eye."

Lauren arrives on the FIDM campus and goes to class, while at Bolthouse Productions a poutish Heidi inputs "9-6" for every weekday on her computer calendar. The camera then pans back to Lauren, who's barely listening to her classmate deliver a presentation, presumably 'cause she's so distracted by the imminent return of Jason to her life. 

Thanks for reading! If you are enjoying TVofYore's recaps, consider thanking me by buying me a "coffee"!

---