Dash & Lily Season 1 Episode 1 Recap – Dash

[00:01:00] Lily imagines a fairytale story of how she will meet the love of her life. She imagines a red notebook among her favorite books inside a bookstore. She also imagines being in New York City on Christmas Eve looking for that special someone somewhere inside the city. Lily knows meeting the right person depends on the kind of person someone is. In contrast, Dash hates Christmas due to his past relationship. He thinks people are overzealous during the holidays. He says, “couples are naive enough to mistake holiday spirit for being love,” something that happened to him with his ex-girlfriend. Dash vows to himself he will never fall in love again during the holidays. As Dash reminisces about his past relationship, he receives a message from his mother asking if he’s okay staying with his father for the holidays. Dash responds with a thumbs-up emoji.

[00:02:00] Dash doesn’t know how to respond to his mother because she chose to spend the holidays in Hawaii instead of being with him in NYC. He has a haven to avoid the holiday spirit: a bookstore named the “Strand.” Dash goes around the store looking for books that are out of place. He takes a book and hands it over to one of the employees, telling him where and how the book is supposed to be classified—the attendant doesn’t care. Dash finds a red notebook on one of the shelves, taking it to the employee again. The employee pretends to be on the phone this time, so he doesn’t have to talk with Dash. The notebook’s title: “Do You DARE…?” tickles Dash’s curiosity. He opens the notebook and finds a note.

[00:04:00] “I’ve left some clues for you. If you want them, turn the page. If you don’t, put the book back on the shelf,” the first page says. Dash was interested from the moment he read the first page, so he continued reading. The writer dares the reader to decode a secret message using a couple of clues. He goes back to the information desk to ask for help on the first clue: “French Pianism.” The attendant refuses to help. He tells Dash he promised the girl who wrote the book he won’t help anyone who takes up the challenge.

[00:05:00] Dash is surprised when the attendant reveals the writer is a girl. He gets excited and continues following the clues in the notebook. He knew all the books he needed were inside the bookshop. Dash goes to the music section and finds the “French Pianism” book collecting dust on top of the shelf. The message has eight words to it—the first two words: “Are you.” The next clue is inside the book “Fat Hoochie Prom Queen.” Dash makes quick work of the clue and finds the book. He finds the next two words: “going to.” The next book isn’t about a Christmas story, but Santa hands out weapons to kids. Dash immediately knew what the book was. He went to the fantasy section to find “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.” The next word in the message is “be.”

[00:06:00] “What bothered you about this scene?” the writer asks Dash. Dash answers correctly by choosing Santa giving out weapons to kids. The next clue lies within the most popular title within the Sex and Sexuality section. Dash cautiously approaches the section and finds the most popular title: a book named “The Joy of Gay Sex.” As he’s looking for the next set of words to the clue, a girl approaches him—Priya, a friend of Dash’s ex-girlfriend, Sofia. She invites Dash to her younger sister’s birthday on Christmas day. She didn’t plan on inviting Dash because he’s no longer in a relationship with Sofia, but since she bumped into him, she thought of inviting him. Sofia is back in town for the holidays, she also informs him.

[00:08:00] Priya sees Dash reading the book about gay sex and asks him if Sofia needs to know anything new about him. “Tell her I’m trying new things,” Dash responds. He gives Priya “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” since she’s looking for a fantasy book for her sister. Dash continues reading and finds a new dare along with a set of rules: (1) Only a teenage boy is allowed to read the book; (2) The reader should be attracted to girls; and (3) Is the reader brave enough to read the manual aloud? The writer tells the reader to return the notebook to the shelf if they do not meet the rules above.

[00:09:00] The manual fell out of the notebook. Dash takes on the dare—he goes to the microphone inside the bookstore and reads the manual aloud. Dash apologizes to everyone in advance, including Joni Mitchell. He reads the lyrics of “River” by Joni Mitchell. Dash thinks the girl who wrote the book is inside the bookstore. He knows the dare is supposed to scare other people off—but he loves the song, and he knows the writer does as well. Priya hears Dash’s voice on the speaker and wonders what he’s doing. Dash continues reading the lyrics, but the bookstore attendant unplugs the microphone off. Dash argues the song isn’t finished, but he tells Dash he already has the last two words to the coded message. He opens the notebook to complete the message.

[00:10:30] The message reads, “Are you going to be lonely on Christmas?” The writer tells him to leave a message for her on the notebook before returning it to the shelf. Dash asks the attendant who wrote the book, but he refuses to tell him. He insists Dash returns the notebook on the shelf so that other people can play the dare, but Dash takes the book with him. He continues to read the book on his way to a friend. Dash arrives, and Boomer, his friend, goes berserk for not telling him about Sweden. He knew Priya told everyone he was going to Sweden, so he asked Boomer if she told him anything else. Boomer tells Dash he’s an ally, but he quickly responds he’s still straight.

[00:12:00] Dash explains he just told Priya he’s going to Sweden to avoid seeing anyone over Christmas break. Boomer thinks Dash is also avoiding him, but he responds he can’t avoid him because he works at the pizza place. He tells Dash about his family’s plans for the holidays. Dash reveals he helped his mom pick out his Christmas present, so he asks for a clue to what his mom got for him, but Dash refuses to spoil the surprise. He convinces Dash for a hint, but Dash gives a fake one. Boomer sees Dash reading the red notebook and asks him if it’s his diary. Dash tells Boomer he found the book at the “Strand.” He asks Boomer if he recognizes the handwriting. “That’s a girl. That’s definitely girl cursive right there,” Boomer assures Dash.

[00:13:30] Boomer found it weird that Dash likes a mysterious unknown girl. Dash defends himself that he just wants to find out who wrote the book. He took his pizza and left. Dash enters his father’s apartment, but the alarm goes off. He quickly calls his father for the new set of codes. Dash tells his father he’s just looking for a place to bring a girl. Dash assures his father he won’t touch his brandy stash but does the complete opposite. He successfully devised a bulletproof plan to stay away from people for the holidays. He told his mother he would be with his father, but he told his father he would be with his mother. Then, he told Priya he was going out of town, which she quickly told everyone. So, he’s one hundred percent alone for the holidays.

[00:16:00] Dash watches a French movie while eating pizza. A scene in the film makes him remember how Sofia broke up with him—they were in bed kissing when she broke the news she was moving to Brazil. Their relationship was over in a second as Priya entered the room and told them to come out and enjoy the party. Dash decides to turn off the movie and just indulge in the red notebook. He leaves the writer a message. The writer asks what the reader thinks about the holidays, so Dash writes his signature saying, “Christmas is the most detestable time of the year.” Dash returns the notebook to the bookstore the next day. The attendant sees the notebook and informs his friend of its return. The girl who wrote in the notebook quickly returns to the bookstore to check Dash’s message.

[00:17:30] Dash sets up a trap for the writer. He tells Boomer the writer will leave the notebook on the video section of their pizza parlor, so he asks Boomer to keep his eye out for the owner of the notebook—but she’s more elusive than he thinks. The girl leaves the notebook in the video section. Boomer doesn’t spot her until she leaves, only seeing her backside. Dash returns to the pizza parlor and asks Boomer to check the security cameras when he tells Dash he missed the girl because she went to the pizza parlor during lunch. The writer responds to Dash’s trap. She tells Dash she’s brighter than he thinks. The writer reveals that Dash needs to earn her name by playing another dare. Boomer and Dash go to Macy’s on Christmas Eve.

[00:19:00] Boomer doesn’t like the idea of Dash playing dares with some mysterious girl. But Dash loves the idea. He tells Boomer he could hear the writer’s voice as he reads from the notebook. Dash feels like he knows the writer even though he hasn’t seen her. He plays the dare and gets kicked out of the store. He took a Santa hat from the Santa Land department—it is supposed to have the writer’s name. Dash took the hat out of his jacket, but it didn’t contain a name. Dash thought the name would be written on a piece of paper, but it was on the hat itself. The embroidery reads “Lily.”

[00:20:30] We go back to the day Dash went to the “Strand.” On his way over, it was Lily who bumped into him. It was also Lily who Dash saw singing on the street. Dash hates the carolers. They always sang Christmas carols with the wrong lyrics because they were drunk with eggnog. He was correct. The carolers told Lily they had too much eggnog, and she saved the day by singing with them. Dash hears her singing and praises Lily for knowing the correct lyrics.