One to Watch

Ten years before the main narrative, Bea Schumacher, a shy, plus-size college student spending a semester abroad in Paris, visits a flea market on the city's outskirts. A shopkeeper named Jeanne drapes a floor-length velvet cape over Bea's shoulders, gifts it to her, and tells Bea she has been hiding. In the cape, Jeanne says, she will be "someone who everyone must see" (4). The moment is a turning point: Bea sheds her habit of dark, baggy clothing and begins cultivating a bold personal style.

By the present day, Bea has built a thriving career as a plus-size fashion blogger in Los Angeles, running the site OMBea.com and amassing over half a million Instagram followers. She writes candidly about the fashion industry's exclusion of larger women, but her romantic life is a source of deep pain. She has long been in love with Ray Moretti, a former coworker now engaged to a woman named Sarah. When Ray visits L.A. for one night the previous summer, they reconnect, share a kiss at a rooftop party, and sleep together. He leaves before she wakes and cuts off all contact. Bea spirals into months of heartbreak.

That fall, while live-tweeting the premiere of the reality dating show Main Squeeze with her best friend and roommate, Marin Mendoza, Bea posts a blog critiquing the show's lack of body diversity. The post goes viral, contributing to a ratings decline and a leadership change. The new executive producer, Lauren Mathers, pitches Bea to star as the next Main Squeeze, the show's first plus-size lead. Lauren tells Bea she need not fall in love for real; she can keep things professional and deliver a convincing engagement at the finale. Bea agrees and enters pre-production, where she bonds with Alison Sommers, the show's plus-size head stylist.

The live premiere is a trial by fire. Lauren has secretly arranged for one man to walk offstage upon meeting Bea, a ratings ploy designed to generate sympathy. Bea, not warned in advance, is devastated. Most suitors react with surprise or discomfort, but bright spots emerge: Wyatt Ames, a kind wheat farmer from Oklahoma, gently comforts her, and Luc, a strikingly handsome French chef, makes an intensely flirtatious introduction. Bea survives the night and eliminates several men, following Lauren's suggested list.

In the early weeks, Bea struggles to perform romance on camera. On a group yacht date, she endures one man fetishizing her body and another offering unsolicited fitness advice. Asher Chang-Reitman, a history professor from Vermont, tells Bea she does not seem interested in finding love. His words sting because they are accurate. That evening, Luc visits Bea's apartment at Lauren's arrangement, and he and Bea share their first kiss over homemade crème brûlée.

Lauren warns that ratings have dipped. Marin visits the set and urges Bea to stop using Ray as an excuse to avoid genuine connection. On a date at Disneyland with Sam Cox, a 24-year-old former teacher from New Jersey, Bea finds easy chemistry. On a date with Asher at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), her favorite museum, Asher delivers a profanity-laced apology that cannot air on television, proving its sincerity. They dance near a sculpture, but Asher refuses to kiss her, leaving Bea humiliated.

The show moves to Bea's hometown in Ohio. At a staged prom with Wyatt, both reveal they never attended their own. Bea shares the painful story of her first kiss, when a classmate kissed her roughly after her brothers asked him to. Her slow, warm kiss with Wyatt represents a genuine breakthrough. At a family cookout, Bea's sister-in-law Julia challenges her to stop framing herself as unwanted. Her stepfather, Bob, tells her that building a family requires choosing someone. Galvanized, Bea confesses her feelings to Asher. He reveals he has two children, Gwen, 12, and Linus, 9, and refused to kiss her at the museum because he could not risk their hearts without being sure. He kisses Bea passionately.

With five men remaining, the group travels to Marrakesh. Bea and Sam share their first kiss in a hammam, a traditional bathhouse. Luc later implies to Asher that he and Bea slept together, stoking jealousy, though Bea clarifies the truth and they reconcile. At the ceremony, Bea eliminates Jefferson Derting, a warm Missourian she has grown fond of. Jefferson erupts, telling Bea none of the men are genuinely interested in her and that her singleness is "about eighty pounds" (246). Bea flees in tears. That night, the four remaining men reverse the kiss-off ritual, each visiting Bea's room to ask her to stay.

Hometown dates test each connection. When cameras briefly lose power, Wyatt confides he has never experienced romantic or sexual attraction and offers to stay as a safety-net engagement. In Vermont, Asher's daughter Gwen demands to know why Bea should be trusted not to leave like their mother did; Bea wins her over by sharing her own experience of being left and explaining that joining their family would require all four of them choosing together. In New Jersey, Sam tells Bea he is in love with her, the first time anyone has said those words to her romantically. At the ceremony, Bea agonizes between Wyatt as the safe choice and Luc as the risky, passionate one, ultimately choosing Luc. Wyatt publicly comes out as someone who does not experience romantic attraction and exits gracefully.

In France for overnight dates, both Sam and Asher decline to spend the night with Bea. She sleeps with Luc at the Château de Chenonceau after a fairy-tale evening, her first time with anyone since Ray. The next morning, she discovers Lauren and Luc having sex. Bea eliminates Luc, but the host announces that Ray has broken off his engagement and flown to France. Asher, learning Bea's ex was engaged when they slept together, accuses her of lying, compares her to his cheating ex-wife, and walks off the show.

In Paris, Ray confesses he loved Bea for years but was too ashamed to date her publicly because he could not picture being serious with a plus-size woman. They kiss, but something has shifted in Bea. On a final date with Sam, she senses their bond, while genuine, lacks the depth she needs. At the finale on Paris's Pont des Arts, Bea rejects Sam gently, telling him they are helping each other toward their futures rather than sharing one. When Ray proposes, Bea tells him she once dreamed of this moment but now has bigger dreams. She becomes the first female Main Squeeze to turn down both final suitors.

At the live reunion a month later, Bea parts with Ray and Luc for good. Sam announces he will be the next Main Squeeze. Asher has declined to attend, but three thousand miles away, his children watch and urge him to reconsider. Gwen whispers to Linus that everything they wanted is going to happen.

Bea returns to Los Angeles. On a free afternoon, she visits LACMA and posts an Instagram story. Asher, arriving at LAX, sees the post and goes directly to the museum. They find each other in the impressionist gallery where their relationship began. Asher admits he confused Bea's situation with his ex-wife's betrayal and has regretted leaving every day. They kiss, and Bea says, "I choose you" (409). A year later, Bea and Asher live together in Brooklyn with his children. During a tour of the Vogue closet at Condé Nast, Asher drops to one knee with a vintage rose-gold-and-opal ring Bea had secretly loved, one with a storied history tied to an heiress who never married. Bea's tears confirm her answer.