Abhiroop Das
Created by David J. Rosen, Apple TV+’s ‘Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed’ steps into a roller coaster ride built entirely around its central character, Paula. A leading journalist by profession, Paula begins a steamy relationship with an online sex worker named Trevor in a desperate attempt to alleviate her loneliness. However, things quickly go downhill when Paula catches a blackmail and murder conspiracy as it unfolds on her webcam, and every attempt she makes to figure out a way out only makes things worse. In the first two episodes of the show, titled ‘Magnets’ and ‘YABA,’ respectively, we see exactly how a single, inexplicable night throws Paula’s life upside down forever. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Paula Witnesses Something She Really Shouldn’t Have
‘Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed’ begins by getting straight to business, as Paula chats with an online sex worker named Trevor about her life and all of its updates. In the middle of a messy divorce, but also making headways in her career as a journalist, she wonders if this dichotomy is all that life has to offer. Trevor, as it turns out, has just the right methods to lull her back into a peaceful state, through cybersex. The following day, Paula is barely able to trudge through work without fantasizing over Trevor, and books another nighttime session with him early. While she is loosely scheduled for a promotion, the higher-ups seem less than satisfied with her output, which is worrying, as she wishes to present herself as more financially stable during a custody battle, and a job upgrade is just about all she needs.
That night, Paula’s chat with Trevor begins as per usual, with the two of them flirting intensely and occasionally even revealing aspects about each other’s lives. However, the latter kind of exchange happens a lot more from Paula’s side than the former, and she acknowledges that by confessing to how lonely she feels. Just then, Trevor’s doorbell rings, and Paula watches through her webcam in pure horror as a masked man storms into the house and begins to ruthlessly beat Trevor down. Even though Paula films the entire scene and threatens to call the police, the masked man merely looks at her and leaves an ominous few words in Russian, before shutting the camera and leaving Trevor’s state ambiguous.
Trevor Becomes the Boy Who Cried Wolf
Panicked, Paula rushes for the police, only to learn from Detective Sofia Gonzalez that this might just have been an elaborate scam. Indeed, the doubts turn into a confirmation when Trevor specifically calls Paula later during the day, seemingly pleading for 15,000 dollars in order to survive his abductors. When Paula calls out his bluff, Trevor drops the act almost instantly, threatening to use everything that Paula has divulged about her life against her. Soon, calls begin to drop in at her home and workspace, and the police have little to advise except changing her phone number and being vigilant. Frustrated, Paula then uses her journalism skills to flip Trevor’s entire game, using the subtlest of context clues from her recorded video to find out his address.
Whether it is the reflection of a shop or the sound of planes, absolutely nothing goes unnoticed by the time Paula has an entire address range ready, and yet the police seem far from properly interested. Instead, Paula has to watch Trevor call her ex-husband Karl, who, in turn, threatens to cut Paula’s time with Hazel short. Equal parts panicked and enraged, Paula then hits the gas and races straight to Trevor’s home, which is exactly where she figured it would be. What’s stranger, however, is that the door is open, the cat food strewn over the floor, and there are clear signs of presence not so long ago. Paula finds her answers in the bathtub, wherein lies the dead and mutilated body of Trevor himself, and before she can even process the sight, the sound of incoming footsteps fills the room, giving her very little time to react.
Paula Winds up in a Murder Mystery Outside of Her Control
The second episode, titled ‘YABA,’ dials back to the day before Trevor’s death, revealing his rather rich interior life. As it turns out, Trevor is bisexual and is in a relationship. We also learn that he has been keeping his online sex work a secret from his partner, and instead plans to take on a housing project, which involves cleaning and refurbishing cheap lots to turn them into homes for parents whose kids are in the nearby college. Though his unnamed partner doesn’t seem too impressed by the idea, he gives in after learning that Trevor has already put in 30% of the deposit using his own money. Though things end perfectly that night, the following day, Trevor wakes up to none other than his own partner murdering him in cold blood.
After the murder, the man heads down to get his sawing machine, which is precisely the gap through which Paula enters the house as well. When the man eventually does reenter the house, she has only seconds to hide in the closet and sneak an exit through the roof window, during which she falls flat on a pile of trash and gets cut by a tuna can. However, this is not enough to slow her down, as Paula escapes by car moments before the man can catch up, but also not before she accidentally drops the cleats that she was supposed to give to Hazel for her soccer game, which means a dread trip to Karl’s house to pick up the spare. There, Paula has a rather rough encounter with Karl’s partner, Mallory, and curses her to have the same fate, before storming off.
The Masked Man Has a New Target
Though Paula plans to call the police and tell them everything, she stops at the last minute, wondering how all of this might reflect on her overall image and how Karl might weaponize it to take Hazel away for good. He already has plans to shift to Idaho with her, which is the one thing Paula absolutely cannot let happen. As such, Paula makes the hard choice to get back to work, only to be cornered by Detective Gonzalez once again, who confirms that the body of a sex worker has been discovered exactly where Paula predicted it would be. Sensing that there is more to the story, Gonzales fishes out all the details about what Paula saw and couldn’t in the heat of the moment, and though things end with only a reprimand for now, Paula can still hardly breathe easy.
As the day progresses, it becomes increasingly obvious that Gonzalez is only half convinced of how Paula’s role fits into the murder mystery. As she prepares for a long day at work, Paula makes it to Hazel’s soccer practice, where we are introduced to their titular catchphrase, YABA, or “You’re a Badass.” As Paula gets a chance to spend the night with her daughter, she momentarily forgets all the worries of the day. The mysterious killer, however, isn’t so forgetful and cautiously returns to the crime scene, only to discover Hazel’s cleats that got dropped earlier, which have her name inscribed on them, at the very least. With this, the masked killer’s scope expands rapidly, putting the once uninvolved Paula firmly in the eye of the storm.
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