"Pilot" is the first episode of Cougar Town's first season, and the first episode of the series.
Jules, a newly-single divorced woman, heads back out into the dating scene with her friend Laurie. She deals with being 40 and a single woman, contrasting with her neighbor Grayson, who recently separated from his wife and is currently hooking up with a number of younger women. She embarrasses her son, Travis, after flashing one of his classmates who was delivering newspapers.
Laurie convinces Jules to go out with her, and hits it off with an attractive younger guy. However, Jules goes home after an encounter with Barb, as well as overhearing a guy say he thinks she went to high school with his mom. She is about to go over to Ellie's to hang out, but Laurie drops the guy she was talking to off at her house. They hook up, but afterwards, when they get intimate again in the backyard, Travis and Bobby walk in and catch them in the act.
After Laurie puts a provocative photo on Jules' real estate signs, middle school kids start to steal them. When someone at school starts to taunt Travis over it (after he had just walked in on his mom the night before), he hits him with the sign and gets suspended. After Grayson sees Jules and Travis fighting in the driveway, he walks over, and Jules pushes him to the ground after he makes an insensitive comment. She lays into him about what it's like to be a single, 40-year old woman.
When showing a house with Laurie and Barb, they catch one of the kids stealing her signs, who's room is covered in them. Jules berates him until he agrees to stop stealing her signs. Later that night, Travis goes to hang out with his friends, and offers to stay, but Jules insists he go. When he leaves, she says the coast is clear and Matthew comes inside.
This episode contains examples of:
- Color Motifs: Jules in orange: The orange towel and nail polish in the first episode, her orange dress, and orange blazer.
- Double-Meaning Title: "Cougar Town" refers to both Jules becoming a Cougar (and others around her such as Barb), as well as the high school's team mascot, a cougar. The high school is referred to as "Cougar Town".
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Jules' red Lexus is not seen in this episode.
- The first few episodes, particularly the pilot, focus on Jules dating younger men (hence the name), but after a while the show transitions to centering more on Jules and her circle of friends, and dropping the whole "Cougar" premise entirely, albeit without changing the name.
- Bobby is mentioned to be living in an apartment; later episodes show him living on his boat in a parking lot.
- Ellie acts less dismissive towards Andy.
- Good Angel, Bad Angel: Ironic given their later characterizations, but Ellie is the good angel and Laurie is the bad angel; while Laurie is always trying to tempt Jules to go out with her to clubs and bars, Ellie is trying to get Jules to stay in and hang out with her. Laurie's influence ends up winning out because that's what Jules needs right now, however.
- Improvised Weapon: Travis uses one of his mom's signs to beat up a classmate.
- Interrupted Intimacy: Bobby and Travis walk in on Jules doing something with Matthew, which she told Bobby she hated.
- This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!: "You left that at the bar bitch!"
- Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: Jules resents the fact that Barb approves of her encounter with a younger guy, and that she's now "one of them" (a cougar).
