Tonight on ABC their new drama Cristela starring Cristela Alonzo premieres with an all new Friday October 10, season 1 premiere episode called, “Pilot.” On tonight’s episode a prestigious internship becomes available in the opener of this series, in which an ambitious Mexican-American law-school student struggles to balance her career with her family life.
On tonight’s episode Cristela’s dream of becoming a lawyer is something her traditional Mexican-American family doesn’t quite understand. She’s entering her sixth year of law school after juggling home obligations and working multiple jobs to pay her way. Cristela lives in cramped quarters with her sister Daniela, her long-suffering brother-in-law Felix and their two young kids.
The senior member of this extended family, all living under one roof in Dallas, is Cristela’s old school mom, Natalia. After six years of setbacks, her mom Natalia worries that becoming a lawyer might not be in the cards for her and doesn’t want Cristela to be hurt by a dream that might not come true. Then, Cristela’s life begins to look up. Lawyer Trent Culpepper, who is unapologetically politically incorrect about Latinos and just about everyone else, offers her an internship at his prestigious firm. She’ll be working – unpaid – with Culpepper’s pampered daughter Maddie and good-natured fellow intern Josh.
Tonight’s episode is going to be a great episode, which you won’t want to miss. So be sure to tune in for our live coverage of ABC’s Cristela season 1 premiere— tonight at 10PM EST! While you wait for our recap, hit the comments and let us know how excited you are about this new series.
Tonight’s episode begins now – Refresh Page for Updates
Cristela tells her mom she has an interview for an internship and her mom says she always dreamed of her working hard for nothing. Her sister Daniela comes in and says she wanted them to have the chance to clean large beautiful houses. Cristela says she bought a digital scale and she’s lost four ounces. Daniela’s husband disses Cristela. Daniela’s kids come in and Isabella says they have soccer today but Daniela wants her in cheerleading. Felix says women should cheer men on. Daniela says she could fit into her old cheerleading uniform.
Cristela complains that law school is hard and Natalia says she’s wasting the worst years of her life. Her mom says she should marry someone nice like Felix. Cristela asks if she wants her to marry someone nice or someone like Felix. Felix says if she was his wife he’s poison her coffee. She says she would drink it if he was her husband. Natalia guilts Cristela. Felix makes out with his wife and Cristela tells them to get a room. He says all the rooms are his.
Alberto shows up and flirts with Cristela. She tells him he has no shot and she says she’s saving herself for Tony Romo in case his marriage breaks up. He flirts with her and asks if she lost weight. She tells him that’s a point for him. He says she’s sending mixed messages and she says I don’t like you, go away is not a mixed message. Felix tells her he doesn’t like her and to go away.
Josh and Cristela work on their applications but don’t think they have a shot because her dad Trent is the hiring guy. Maddie mistakes her for the cleaning lady and then the receptionist. Josh says she’s coming back to try and buy a bag of oranges from her. Cristela is in her interview with Trent and says he met her daughter. He says the world needs bad lawyers too. Cristela says she loves that the law holds everyone to the same standards.
He notes how long she’s been in law school and she says she’s paying her own way. He cracks about drowning and she says she can’t swim. He asks how she got here from Mexico. They talk Dallas football after she says she was born here. She doesn’t like the owner Jerry and Trent says he’s a client. Trent gets a call and says he’s going to put the guy on the stand, pry his mouth open and abuse him like a public toilet. He asks if she has a message for the demented geriatric that owns the Cowboys and she says she’s looking forward to working with him.
Cristela comes home and finds Alberto drinking a beer. Natalia asks her how it went and she says she boss’s daughter called her the janitor. Her mom says even though all janitors are Latino, you can’t convince people that not all Latinos are janitors. Cristela finds her sister cleaning a knee wound on her daughter she got from playing soccer. Cristela forged her sister’s name on the permission form. She tells them they should let her play soccer.
Daniela says she doesn’t know how long she can ask Felix to put up with her. Cristela says she’d hate Felix to have to move over. Daniela says it’s not about the skinned knee, it’s about boundaries. Cristela says if she takes the job at the call center, she can afford to move out and her sister is thrilled. Her phone rings and she pulls it out of her bosom. She gets word that she got the interniship and drinks a beer to celebrate. Felix comes in annoyed since it was his last beer.
Trent welcomes Cristela, Josh and Maddie. He says a Jew, a Mexican and a blond walk into a bar. He asks what happens next. He tells them it’s a hard job they will hate. He holds back Cristela and says he picked her because of how much harder she’s worked than his daughter. She says that wasn’t offensive at all and he says if she does a bad job, he can report her to the INS.
Josh says Trent is tough and Cristela says she’s had worse jobs usually involving a hair net. Josh admits he’s never had a job. Cristela says her sister is going to kick her out because she didn’t show up for a job she got her. Josh says his big sister got him the messenger bag. Cristela calls the guy who owes her brother money. She channels her boss and chews the guy out and says they are pursuing civil action for non-payment.
Cristela comes home and finds an angry sister waiting on her. Cristela has a pastry for her that’s still warm. She says she stuck her neck out for her. Felix comes in and shows her the check for the work he was paid for. Cristela asks if Chuck said why he paid the bill and Felix says he asked to have his lawyer back off. Daniela is shocked that she got him to pay up.
Daniela says if she can make this happen pretending to be a lawyer, imagine what she could do if she was a real lawyer. She tells Felix they need to make sure she gets through law school. Felix caves in and Cristela hugs him. Natalia comes in and she says it was a hug – Daniela says it was something else they didn’t have in her village. Natalia says she got the fancy job.
Cristela says yes and tells her mom sorry. Natalia says she worries she’s going to get hurt. She says she also worries when she’s a big deal lawyer, she’ll be embarrassed by her. Cristela says she’s already embarrassed by her and her mom laughs. Natalia says she’s proud of her. They hug but her mom does it poorly and she shows her how to give a proper hug.
Cristela hands out beers while they watch the Dallas game. Alberto asks her to sit next to him and says last time she did, they scored. She plops down beside him and Dallas scores but then she has to wrestle to get away from him.
THE END!
