The story begins in Southern Lebanon, 1998, with a group of young boys playing soccer near the tense border. Their game takes a turn when the ball lands in the space of 15-year-old Mary Em Saab, a sharp-tongued, hijabi teen with a thick Australian accent. After an intense exchange where she berates the boys, she briefly retreats to her Walkman and a rare moment of quiet. This is short-lived, as the boys retaliate, destroying her cassette player and sparking her fury. Mary Em’s chase after them sets the stage for the chaotic, spirited energy that follows throughout the episode. 

Insert:

*90s punk music*

***TITLE CARD: AJNABIYEH***

The girls hide in a tree waiting for a new record store to open to finally snag a copy of Jagged Little Pill. They do so by sending Sue through the backdoor. In staking out the store, the owner finds them in the tree, insisting they get down. When they refuse, the owners shake the tree and they fall. They end up sore and, more importantly, humiliated with their most unflattering photos plastered on the record store window warning the community of their attempted thievery. 

The girls are down and out believing they were wrongly accused of the things they very-much-so were doing, and so they decide to confront the record store owner to get the photos swapped out for more flattering ones. The infamy? They’re fine with that. Looking horrible while being chastised for said infamy? Absolutely not. Where is he though? He’ll be at Youssef Jabar’s mum’s divorce party. Youssef’s mum, Jumana will be celebrating her third divorce from her on-again-off-again husband, Mohammad Jabar. But Mary Em, Layal, and Sue can’t go because their dad, also named Mohammed, is lifelong enemies with the Jabar family, and they are now a part of their dad’s long and irrational “forbidden” list. 

Meanwhile, a distressed Youssef is in front of his bathroom mirror reciting the speech he plans on giving to his parents, begging them to stay together. He practices building up the very little courage he has in him. The town then gets a TV report where they learn that Yaroun, their village, is next in a long line of villages taken over by the IDF and that Mary Em, Layal, and Sue’s dad is one of many men stuck in holding for the night. The girls hear this and, naturally, get excited: all thanks to their father’s false imprisonment, they can now go to the party!

The girls first have to finish up some community service hours at the mosque before crashing the party. We see the girls “hard” at work at the mosque in their own unique way. Layal is trying to sell people indulgences (tickets of forgiveness supposedly from God that people buy. It was a controversial and corrupt Catholic Church practice in the 16th century, and Layal was just so deeply inspired upon learning about it and she just had to try it out herself). Mary Em is a general menace all around, complaining that the books are backward (they’re not; they’re just in Arabic) and closing off the microphone that the religious leaders speak into.  While out and about at the mosque discussing their plans for the party, Mary Em is greeted by a hijabi girl she does not recognize. She is given the “nod” that ethnic people often give one another, but Mary Em does not reciprocate. Nour asks her, “Do you know who that is?” to which Mary Em says, “Beats me – they all look the same.” “They” being hijabi girls such as herself. This is going to lead to trouble soon enough. 

We then see Youssef find a copy of The Parent Trap – the Lindsay Lohan one, obviously – and he is brought to tears and mobilized to do something… almost. But he has a plan. We see how nervous and insecure he can be.

We see a trail of whispers and messages sent on pagers traveling quickly around the village from one person to the next about Mary Em’s social misstep. A particular girl tells a group of people some outrageous exaggerated story of Mary Em flipping off a poor, innocent girl who just wanted to say hi. Mary Em finds out that this story has gone around and is waiting for the gossip to run its course. Things only get worse, however, when they learn that their dad is actually coming home, as someone in the town (the family of the girl Mary Em pissed off) posted his bail. If her dad comes home, no more party. 

In a panic, desperate to go to this party, the girls agree to call the IDF on their dad! In tipping off the IDF on a pay phone, Nour sends a cryptic, but, more importantly, vague message about a dangerous “Mohammad” — the single most common name in the Muslim world — and that is about it. As a result, the IDF come to raid the village, just as the girls wanted. They end up getting, however, Mohammad Jabar – Youssef’s dad – instead of Mohammad Saab. When Joumana, Youssef’s mom sees her ex in that vulnerable state, they impulsively get back together, and the party is canceled. Youssef feels somehow responsible for this, pleased with himself, and pats himself on the back, even though he did absolutely nothing. And if that wasn’t bad enough, Mary Em’s dad finds out she was on her way to the party and she is busted for breaking family loyalty. 

In the final scene, the girls lean against a brick wall that separates Southern Lebanon from the Israeli border looking into the vicinity thoughtfully. Think of Charlie Brown and Linus standing against their brick wall, but with a lot less sincerity and self-reflection. Engraved on the top of the wall is a heart with “MO + JO 4EVER” carved out. Everyone's upset. Everyone except Youssef, who appears in the frame with, for the first time, a huge grin on his face. The girls are disappointed, but Sue ensures them that they’ll catch their next divorce party. That promise puts a smile on the girl's face while wiping Youssef’s right off. They look out to the land ahead of them, across the wall, and into the Israeli side. We pan down and zoom out on the border to see that their lives are much bigger and more complicated than what they can currently or possibly ever understand.

End of pilot.