There’s so many big issues with episode 608 — Did Shane break up with Jenny and how’d that go? How could Max’s body be carrying this pregnancy to term? WHO KILLED JENNY? — that it seems particularly taxing to nitpick the smaller issues while recapping it. But because every single scene is so jam-packed with these nitpickable problems, technical errors, logistical disasters and blatant inconsistencies — ignoring them is maddening … and writing about them is exhausting. It’s making me crazier than Jenny could ever be … and so I must vent.
It’s like trying to describe a crazy dream to a friend — “Okay, and then my ex-girlfriend suddenly became my Cousin Sara, but her Mom was now MY Mom, and we were eating strawberries in this hotel I stayed at once, when I was like eight, but I was suddenly allergic to strawberries, then it was raining even though it had just been Christmas?” I thought it might help me to list these issues. Get it out of my system. I’m not even touching on the bigger stuff here — the personality retcons, the shaky dialogue, the conversations and break-ups we didn’t see but should’ve — this list is just the facts ma’am. [For example, Bette not wanting a job anymore is out of character, and Shane not responding when Molly mentions the letter/jacket is VERY unlikely — but I’ll save that for the recap.]
46 Indisputable Technical Issues in Episode 608
- Things that do not abide by even the most extreme, melodramatic or heightened televisioned version of reality
- Things that contradict actions in prior episodes
- Inconsistencies within the episode itself
1. Shane is talking shit about a murder victim in the police station and sharing all the reasons she was frustrated with said victim and showing no sadness or grief — it’s a murder investigation, no one would ever ever ever do that.
2. In fact, everyone’s talking about their feelings & personal lives in the police station. This information is not only unrelated to what happened with Jenny and inappropriate in this setting but …
3. … it’s incriminating. Also incriminating = lack of grief across the board.
4. Jamie, Tasha and Alice have chosen to hold a very private personal conversation at The Planet. Since no-one involved is dangerous and all their friends work at The Planet, they’d never select this location for this conversation.
5. People are sending in tapes from all over the world to Jenny for a ‘farewell to bette & tina video’ — why would you want to say goodbye to Bette & Tina when you’ve already left and therefore their move will make them no closer to or more far away from you than before?
6. Time frame is completely unclear — the Kelly thing is still an issue, yet the house has been completely renovated. Bette & Tina are ready to move and Jenny has harvested tapes from all over the world — yet Nikki is apparently still upset about the dance marathon and hasn’t had a chance to speak to Jenny about it yet.
7. Max shaved his facial hair in his last episode in a symbolic “embracing the pregnancy” scene … but now he’s re-grown a mustache.
8. Bette compares Max to a used car — a very derogatory and bigoted statement — and Kit doesn’t question this.
9. Alice asks why Shane is so “honor bound” when clearly she isn’t — she cheated on Jenny last week (or whenever?).
10. Alice wants to show Shane the treatment on her computer, but Alice gave a handwritten document to Jenny. [I noticed it at the time ’cause I thought it was weird that she hand-wrote a treatment]
11. Anyhow! The night that Jenny was supposed to have read the treatment, she was having sex with Shane, so that’s all been confusing from day one — it’s unclear if Jenny ever read it, it seemed during her convo with Alice that she hadn’t, and that at most she stole the premise, which is still an issue, but it’s not the same thing as stealing the script as Alice says she did in this convo with Shane.
12. Dylan tests Helena’s trust by lifting her three inches off the floor and pulling a knife to her throat — which is so incredibly bizarre and beside the point that I’m going to declare it impossible.
13. Jenny has already started editing the movie with Final Cut before Shane buys it for her — you can see the program on her computer when she’s editing Helena, Phyllis and Joyce footage.
14. Where is the editing suite in this studio she got for Shane? Why did she purchase all this expensive editing equipment but apparently not Final Cut (yet)? All we saw was a darkroom and the stage for shooting photos.
15. Helena is filmed with Dylan giving a toast reluctantly — says video isn’t her thing — but then when Jenny is editing there’s suddenly all this personal footage where Helena talks about how she feels about Bette w/r/t her mother [inappropriate for a goodbye video, for one thing].
16. Sunset & Kit are together but we never saw them make up, now Sunset is Kit’s “man” and Bette has no reaction to her sister finally finding a happy relationship, as if it’s just been going on all this time.
17. Suddenly Bette finds men icky and doesn’t want them in her master bathroom — as if a drag queen wouldn’t know how to keep a bathroom clean.
18. Jenny asks if Shane wants to see Carmen dancing on the video — but when we see the video, Carmen isn’t dancing in it.
19. Bette says she might not have a job when they move to NYC, but in the last episode she said she would be working remotely for the gallery from New York.
20. If Dylan knew about Nikki, why DID she storm out of the baby shower like that and go to the “bus station”? Why did she wait to return to Helena? And then how did this fit in to the situation with her “sublet” that she apparently lost? There is no possible story that could reasonably explain all those events.
21. Helena blames Jenny for her inability to trust Dylan, but Dylan’s the one who stormed out of the party and pretended not to know anything about the test before the party.
22. Shane picks out a large bowl that would be incredibly cumbersome and difficult to pack as a random gift for two women moving cross-country. Furthermore, Bette’s an art expert with specific decorating desires, you wouldn’t buy an artistic object for people who are so particular about their artistic objects.
23. Jenny shows Kit a video she shot on her iPhone — but when we saw her make the “video” it made a picture-snapping noise, she was not taking a video.
24a. the video does not explicitly show Bette & Kelly having sex, it’s clear there are other ways to look at it, yet Kit reacts as if it’s blatantly incriminating.
24b. iphones do not shoot video
25. If Shane knew enough about the attic to know it was a place to look for something that was missing, then Jenny would know better than to hide the negative there.
26. Jenny says the video is three hours long, but we see everyone’s initial reaction to every person included in the video, and we are told that everyone in the video only had to talk very briefly — so what’s the three hours?
27. If Jenny knew where Carmen was and could get in touch with her to make a video, why has she been relegated to the vortex all this time? Similarly, how does the story we were given regarding Marina’s disappearance provide an avenue for Jenny to get her to make a video?
28. Why is Ivan saying he’s going to get married with a No on 8 sign in the background but Bette & Tina’s scene with Marcie, in which they talk about their feelings on getting married, has been re-dubbed to adjust for Prop 8 passing?
29. When Tina sees the negative, she doesn’t call Aaron or tell Bette —
30. Between the time we see Jenny & Bette talking and Jenny’s death, people are walking all over the house but yet there is never any splash or otherwise strange things happening — a noise of any kind, or anyone looking remotely ruffled — to imply a death has occurred.
31. Nikki is hiding in the bushes — she’s a major movie star, how the hell did she get out of her palace and into the bushes and to the police station without TMZ on her ass?
32. No one looks shaken or otherwise as if they could’ve just killed someone — I think we’re all forgetting how unusual it is to murder another person, if these characters are the ones we know & love, they’d be immediately transformed —
33. Yet they seemingly do not assume it is a suicide because they volunteer to go down to the station and say “none of us know what happened out there” —
34. Though they’re all aware the railing was broken, and logically would probs assume Jenny had fallen —
35. And there’s no way it could’ve been a conspiracy between all of them, ’cause they were all sitting watching a video like all was well just before Alice found Jenny’s body —
36. Shane & Bette are both wet, but we don’t know why they would be [I’m aware they went in the pool, I heard the splash — but them jumping in to get her doesn’t fit with what happens next — if they’d had their hands on her or removed her from the pool, they’d be upset and they’d be immediately fingerprinted and etc — and Shane’s jeans aren’t wet, just her hair and possibly her shirt [see through, hard to tell].
37. No blood in the pool, so she must have died of drowning or been strangled underwater or it’d be suicide — if it is suicide, then why are all the girls volunteering to be suspects, and if it isn’t, then why isn’t anyone wet [before her body is found] or shaken [before her body is found]?
38. When asked if there was drugs & alcohol at the party, the officer responds, “Just a few glasses of wine” — in fact, an entire mini-bar was outside by the pool and Alice and Helena alone have already had a few drinks apiece.
39. A body is wheeled into the ambulance that looks different from the one wheeled away from the pool — when did it go through the room like in Episode 1?
40. Max, who was not that mad at Jenny and had asked they stop the video so she could watch it and who told the detectives that Jenny changed his life, is not crying.
41. Shane, who was best friends with Jenny for four years and was her girlfriend until a few hours ago, and who is aware that Jenny has psychological problems and who has been understanding of said problems in the past, is not crying.
42. Bette & Tina, who are both human beings, are not crying.
43. Alice & Helena — also human beings (also drunk) who’ve had serious relationship issues in the past 24 hours that have made them both very sad and have now seen a dead body in the pool — are also not crying, do not even look mildly upset.
44. Nikki, who was in love with Jenny and upset enough about Shane to come over, is not upset about it at any point. Also as a movie star, obvs she would have a lawyer right there.
45. Shane tells the officers they are all very tight and they all look out for each other — but they just allowed their friend to drop dead.
46. “Thanks for six great seasons” — when only 2.5 seasons were actually great. ETA: In addition to fio’s explanation of why every single thing that happened between “29” and “30” is problematic, y’all have alerted me to the following issues.
47. Jenny looked incredibly serene, dry and clean on that gurney. (Leah)
48. A medical examiner/cornoer/cop would not wheel a dead body through a house with the corpse exposed. (Leah)
49. There’s no reason for everyone to take separate cars to the police station. (ejw)
50. Although they’ve all been drinking, they all drive to the POLICE STATION. (amanda)
51. No one lawyered up — a former TV star, two business owners, a high profile gallery owner, a movie executive, a former soldier and future cop and Shane (who’s habitually had bad encounters with the police and would never trust them enough to speak freely). Helena has money and they’ve all got Joyce on speed dial, so wtf? (rebyj)
52. Angelica called Sunset “Daddy” though she’d only known him for a week, and the gender mix-up astounds the parents moreso than the fact that they just met, as it’s not mentioned. (Lisa)
53. Bette says she wants to marry Tina when they get to New York, but you can’t get married in New York.
54. Bette obviously jumped into the pool, and had to change out of her wet clothes before going to the station. You’re trying to tell me her false eyelashes didn’t come off? Or, if they did, that she’d take the time to reapply them? (PatC)
55. Nikki was hiding in the bushes when the police arrived — wouldn’t she have already seen the dead body floating in the pool and therefore cried for help/been upset/ not talked crazy when she got into the room? Unless she killed Jenny, which is unlikely considering the state of her hair and clothing. (Bridget)
Okay, now I feel better and can go back to the recap.
i just watched the episode…that’s the shittiest (?) shit i’ve ever seen. and even more shitty: tina’s interrogation tape.
what are those interrogation tapes suppossed to be? everybody screaming: hate me, hate me?
i love the new autostraddle. good job girls.
xo
amazing exhaustive list of pitfalls…they give you a lot of material to work on (too much)! …sorry…
an additional element for confusion with regard to Jenny´s death is that she seems very happy while lying death…not that she suffered from any contusion (i.e. if she had fell) or drowning.
also, how could anybody had killed her without getting wet?
another thing: Tasha is in the final cut of the video, wearing the same clothes that she is wearing when she gets into the house. hasn’t she changed in some days? supposedly she has been with jamie all this time…anyway……..
btw, this episode should have been called “the Lost Word”
EXCELLENT!!!!!!!!!
I HATED watching the final episode alone, I needed someone to hear me screaming LOL. After reading others reactions and this excellent blog post I no longer feel alone.
iphones don’t shoot video??? are you fucking kidding me?! can we burn her house down yet?
if it makes you feel any better i heard that when the cast watched the finale a friend’s house, they apologized throughout the entire thing and were severely embarrassed to have been a part of it.
shame =\
Karmen, that does make me feel better. I’m a nobody and “I” was cringing during parts of the show.
Seeing IC all over the web yesterday explaining and defending the finale just pissed me off. If a show has to be explained it’s because of bad storytelling. FAIL!!
i’m going to have to agree with dani. that was the shittiest shit i’ve ever seen.
maybe you saw a different finale than i did, but in my finale bette and tina were driving cross-country to new york with “tim haspel’s deeply unhip mix” in the cd player, and then we see how everybody grows old and dies – even jenny. the show ends with angelica, ancient and wrinkled, surrounded by pictures of her two moms, her aunt kit, her baby brother (who was never allowed to use the bathroom in their house ever), her earth mother alice and all her gay aunties. old lady angelica is lying in bed, her eyes white from glaucoma, and then she takes her last breath…..
..and billy chenowith never gets over any of them.
my only theory re: possible death method was that she fell off the railing and into the pool and hit her head and drowned, only she’d have to have been pushed and there was no splash. i’m pretty sure max’s baby did it.
This comment made me LOL ten times.
mostly imagining the characters with that soft focus glow and everything in the future being white and angelic looking.
oh also, of all people to leave them videos, carmen, ivan etc didn’t have connections to bette that were in any way meaningful – why not james? why wasn’t james invited to this party? he was the most steady character on this entire series. team james!
Team James all the way!
it would have been great if his video was just him off screen yelling “oh, fuck you bette! just…fuck you!”
yeah the finale was just about the worst bit of television iv ever seen…was really pissed off after. think will have to watch seasons 1 & 2 in a row soon to let the show redeem itself.
good luck with the recap though, i couldn’t do it it would make me too angry!
#5 = brilliant point
#47 Why was Sarah Shahi’s name left off the credits?
#48 – What was Alice doing during the police questioning – knitting baby booties for Max’s testosterone-juiced baby?
#48 – Hollywood and Kit – maybe a couple for a week and Angelica is already calling him Daddy?
Loved the characters, despised the storylines.
Later, L Word
1. Right, maybe Shane is suicidal too
2. Maybe they’re all suicidal
3. Maybe Ilene wants them all to go to prison
4. Maybe
5. Because Jenny just threatened to kill them if they won’t
6. I agree – must be hard to fit so many things into 8 one-hour episodes
7. I agree! Absurd. Inexplicable.
8. That’s certainly not the worst thing happening to Max this season (!)
9. I agree – inconsistency.
10. She printed from a file.
11. I agree – inconsistency
12. Totally uncalled for and out of context – no idea what the writers were thinking.
13. Obvs – I think the writers needed Shane to happily go run some errands for Jenny just before discovering she was Satan.
14. Right.
15. Right.
16. There was no time, only one hour, too many storylines.
17. Gratuitous hate for men
18. Maybe it was footage she didn’t include in the final cut.
19. She changed her mind.
20. Another complete absurd plot.
21. See above.
22. Yeah but Shane does not have much taste in art and she just wanted to be kind; besides, she needed a neutral place to meet Molly in.
24a. because subconsciously she does not trust Bette the way Jenny didn’t; she saw the glass half empty.
24b. I know! They should have used another phone! Or maybe they assumed once the ep would be on TV Apple would have made a video-shooting iPhone? I can’t believe no one in the writing team has an iPhone.
25. Maybe their house is that small?
26. No one trusts what Jenny says, it was just another Jenny lie.
27. That’s because it’s the last episode and Ilene wanted to bring everyone back for cameos. She wanted to do too many things with only 8 tiny 1-hour eps.
28. I’m not sure Bette & Tina’s scene implied Prop 8 had passed
29. No time! Everyone was just waiting for the ep to end and Jenny to die.
30. I guess no one realizes Jenny fell in the pool (unless perhaps Bette and she’s pretending she didn’t). Maybe Jenny hit the pool side first and slowly fell in the water so there was no splash to be heard (that would explain why she didn’t call for help as she might have lost her senses)
31. Exactly… and also why would she be hiding there???
32. I think everyone is just too shocked to behave appropriately
33. I think everyone has slight suspects about the others because they knew everyone had a reason to kill Jenny as this season has cared so much to show us!
34. See above – besides, they knew someone killed Jenny because they had seen the obsessive Showtime promotion before the season aired LOL
35. See above
36. Because they dove in the pool when they saw Jenny floating trying to save her I guess (splashes can be heard this time)
37. Or she hit the poolside with her head or something. I think they’re all acting weird because they feel guilty and think “Ok someone killed her but it’s not me so how do I show it”
38. I agree, either the police is blind or it’s an inconsistency.
39. Right, another inconsistency.
40. No one is crying, everyone is acting weird.
41. See above.
42. See above.
43. See above.
44. Nikki was always demented from ep 1 this season.
45. It’s weird. It doesn’t make sense. People would protect friends in case they knew they were guilty and would not give away information that incriminate those friends. But here?!?! Does Shane know who is guilty?
46. Totally agree. My favs were S01 & S05 and bits and pieces of other seasons.
It’s on Ilene, it’s soooo ON. And don’t go hide in Switserland or Fiji because we will find you. Max’s baby will find you.
I mean serious? An hour- long jerkoff before the actuel final, ok I can handle but then…I screamed at the tv, I trew things at the tv, I killed 2 stuffed animals…
Also add Jenny seemed pretty dryon that gurney, hair not mussed up or wet either. And I know it’s tv, and there was a reason for it and all (the drama!), but a medical examiner/coroner/cop would not wheel a dead body THROUGH A HOUSE WITH THE CORPSE EXPOSED. We all know they cover dead bodies.
btw, with the right application you can shoot vids with an iPhone. But it’s highly unlikely Jenny put the application on her iPhone herself and Max was just too busy being postnatally depressed before he even gave birth.
That is true, but what we saw of Jenny spying on Bette and Kelly was that she took a single photo. Also very unlikely that she’d have installed the video app, since it wasn’t around when they shot the episode (if we want to get really nitpicky, which I am ALWAYS up for).
I agree that you are being nitpicky, especially with a show that has been chocked full of holes since 2004. I think people (including you sometimes, even though I enjoy your recaps) do not criticize this show based on a level of competence it has only briefly shown in flashes. Don’t go mad, but keep writing :o).
BTW, Bette and Shane were wet because Bette (at least) jumped into the pool after Alice came in and told everyone about Jenny. If you go back and listen, you can hear the splash. I watched it in a club full of women and heard the splash just fine.
That was my grammatical error — I meant that no-one was wet BEFORE Jenny’s body was found. And i knew why Shane and Bette were wet – obvs they went into the pool — but it was never even hinted at why they did that, or how it went, or anything that could possibly remotely even begin to explain why two people who took the body out of the pool are not being scrutinized a little more closely by the detectives than the other characters, as they would’ve had their hands all over a dead body, which I think also might make them feel a little weird.
Also yeah I know I’m being nitpicky — that’s the point — I want to keep the nitpicking out o the recap, so I put it here. ‘Cause you’re right, we defo over-nitpick.
ALL of these things irritated me about the finale as well! I’m really pissed off that IFC made me watch it with the whole “Who killed Jenny” bullshit that she didn’t even bother to stand by because Jenny was in the slow motion “walk to the police station” scene. Which reminds me: Why did everyone feel the need to take separate cars from the same house to the same police station?
After wondering why NO ONE seemed upset that Jenny was dead, I remembered that NO ONE LIKED HER! She spent the whole episode talking about how much she loved everyone and how they were her friends (which was very “daytime soap opera” like – when someone’s about to die, they get all this face time, going on and on about how much love they have for everyone – just sayin) but no one besides Shane until the end gave a damn about Jenny. Bette and Tina were really pissed off when she came back in S5 and now they’re BFF? WHAT?! Are they fucking serious?! Alice hated Jenny. Helena hated her. Bette hated her. Tina hated her. Shane hated they way Jenny kept her in this too small box (because Shane is tiny, she can fit in a “small” box so it’d have to be too small to be uncomfortable). I agree with Sophie. I think a S1 & 2 marathon will be the only thing that will redeem this show in my mind.
Good luck with the recap! I know it will be amazing because they always are…
Also, what was with Tina and Max making a huge deal about being cold and needing sweaters? There’s an anvil that went nowhere…unless Jenny died of hypothermia.
Well I haven’t seen Jenny eat in awhile and there is that whole “starving artist” thing. Also, she was rather masochistic this season. The movie was three hours long…no one wanted to go find her till the very end….jenny defies all logic…and was probably chilling in the pool till she got the shakes…then stayed there while Toto #2 watched with glee…
Hypothermia is as strong a possibility as anything else mention by IC or otherwise…
You forgot to mention that they all drive to the police station after Bette and Tina’s party. Weren’t they all drinking?
Or was that supposed to be another day? Where I’m from there is a no tolerance rule. Screw killing Jenny, they could all be put away for a DUI!
Keep up the great work gals! :-)
Nope not another day, they were in party clothes.
Big giant WORD to #46.
Stef, I think we were all watching different finales! It’s like Clue. In my finale, Bette and all the girls have to fight the First Evil. Alice is worried about using magic again but Tasha assures her it will be ok. In the great fight, Jenny is sacrificed to save Shane. The team is successful and then they all move to New York to defend the earth from a second Hellmouth there. Oh, and I think Eliza Dushku was involved too.
Oh wait, that’s Buffy. Even that finale was better than this, and that final season was a bit ill-conceived.
EPIC FAIL.
“After wondering why NO ONE seemed upset that Jenny was dead, I remembered that NO ONE LIKED HER!”
Exactly, I mean, we’ve spent an entire season watching everyone being mad at Jenny and threatening to kill her, all of a sudden she dies, they can’t be like “OMG this is the worst thing ever”. Clearly no one was devastated, and I think because they were feeling guilty about not being devastated, they acted weird and inconsistent.
touche!
exactly…Alice’s mini “freak-out” after seeing the dead body of someone you hate is as close to “realistic” as this episode got…
Eh … I dunno … I think when someone you’ve been close to dies, it’s really upsetting, even if you hated her.
Jenny may have pissed some people off, but nothing that made her worthy of being killed. And some of the things she allegedly did she didn’t really do. I mean I have annoying friends who I would still be upset if they died.
But then again these are the same girls that have only mentioned Dana like twice since she died, so …
And I know it’s unlikely, but since Tina and Shane hadn’t confronted Jenny about the negative, it’s possible Jenny didn’t steal it — it’s possible Adele stole it and put it in her attic, or really anything’s possible — it would be stupid, as I said, for Jenny to put it up there … sooo … y’know.
I guess the argument I’m making — and that I will make in the recap, because I know for a fact that it’s true, is that Ilene doesn’t know who killed Jenny either. And that’s why this script was such a crapshoot.
I completely agree. So…why didn’t the actresses themselves choose to play the scenes with some emotion during the interrogation?
The only decent director the L Word has had was Tony Goldwyn in my opinion.
since they were so close, maybe we should be asking why they weren’t devastated rather than why they weren’t upset…oh! i know! we can say that they were still in shock from finding Jenny dead and that’s why they were acting weird when the cops came in. that seems logical, right?
and this is what studying for a philosophy midterm will do to you…force you to make sense of nonsense…
i watched half the finale then decided i was bored and watched a rerun of america’s next top model instead [in the episode i saw, robot tyra told one of the models not to look up on the runway because then people will see up her nose and know what she’s thinking, which is ridiculous/awesome.] anyway, ilene should think about getting a bodyguard; a mob of angry lesbians could be dangerous.
this site is so beautiful. you guys are fantastic.
Aside from nobody seeming at all upset (and whether they liked her or not, they should be upset at someone dying almost in front of them) why did they all look so good? I mean, Better obviously jumped into the pool, and had to change out of her wet clothes before going to the station.You’re trying to tell me her false eyelashes didn’t come off? Or, if they did, that she’d take the time to reapply them?
Also, is it me or did some of the scenes seem improvised. Like when Alice is on the phone with Shane eating Swizzlers. But she takes the time to glance down and exclaim about the calories!
Aargh….this finale really pissed me off!
Regarding 44 no one lawyer’d up . The only one smart enough to mention a lawyer was Nikki.
Alice : Tv star of The Look
Kit : Business owner The Planet and Hit
Helena: Ditto above
Bette : High profile art gallery owner
Tina: Movie executive
Shane: Like she’d trust police enough to talk freely?
I can understand them talking to police at the home but anyone who is called to a police station to answer questions about a suspicious death is stupid not to have a lawyer present ! People of their supposed stature and savvy would have a lawyer pronto. Especially Helena who has a record and a gagillion dollars.
#47. Why did Sarah Shahi not get her name in the closing credits (like everyone else who showed up on the video?)
#48. What was Alice doing during the police questioning? Crafts? Looked like she was knitting baby booties for Max’s testosterone-juiced Moira Junior.
#49. Angelica called Hollywood daddy? He and Kit have dated what, less than a week?
L word – loved the characters, loathed the story lines – Later, Ilene.
I honestly would be satisfied with this for a recap. Mostly I just wanted to have someone agree with what I thought about the atrocious and mind boggling mess, that was the series finale. After the slow motion walking in the breeze ending, where no one was sad about Jenny dying, I literally said what the hell at least 10 times out loud. That pretty much sums up my feelings for this episode/season. what. the. hell.
608 was complete and utter total fucking bullshit. maybe they did this open ending shit to us so that they can make a movie or maybe the farm will be the greatest show ever or maybe maya fisher and angelica will catch up in heaven after angelica got hit by a bus on her way to a FUCKING IVY LEAGUE EDUCATION AND NOT CRAYONS or maybe i’ll just have to kil myself so that i will never have to think about this terrible show again that i actually still love, deep down inside. season 3 and 6 are the worst seasons ever of a tv show although ive really enjoyed ep603. here’s to you mrs robinson!
i’m gonna miss JB. i hate tina’s interrogationtape. i’m glad i can’t grow a mustache even if i’d try. i’m very happy you guys building this website and i will support you from the other side of the world. good luck!
billie.
oh and maybe im stupid but i really thought at the end with the starring pam grier as kit thing: aah.. now the real episode begins! what a lovely surprise ilene!
i ended up crying in my bed for dana/carmen/paige/angus/marina/even fucking GENE FEINBERG time.
I am just mad I sat thru an entire season based on the ** Who shot J.R.? ** style ending when they dont even disclose who did it… Shoddy Marketing Ploy. Not to mention the “Oh so you think it was a murder question?” As much as I would like to think Jenny just extinguished herself to relieve everyone’s BIGGEST problem all season (Jenny) however again … the marketing “who killed Jenny” idea blows this idea out of the water (no pun intended) and wastes my time. Big Disappointment!
*side note* Carlyton… O-town misses ya!
#46 is my favorite.
Also why was Bette interrogated twice, saying the same thing almost exactly?
But the big question is. Why did Tina get it on with her sister? Why is that of any importance.
I’ve chalked it up to IC is a complete moron. And the fact of having this groundbreaking lesbian series went to her head. She needs to come down off her pedestal and go hibernate in a cave… or play in traffic.
I think the most inconsistent things happen between your points #29 and #30
this is where it starts:
Jenny is downstairs in Bette and Tina’s house. She invites Alice, Max, Helena and Kit to go watch the video: as soon as they get up and start walking to the media room, she goes upstairs looking for Bette.
While she and Bette are talking, Max, Helena, Alice and Kit are in the media room, and Tina is in the attic next door with Shane.
Now,
when Tina comes back to her house she goes to the media room looking for Jenny – who is not there. But Alice, Kit, Max and Helena are not there either. We had seen them going in: where are they?
They went out again. In fact, as she exits the room and goes towards the swimming pool, Tina closes the door behind her – the door which had been left open.
THIS MOMENT IS CRUCIAL:
If Bette and Jenny had been outside, Tina would have seen them.
If Jenny was in the pool already, she would have seen her as well.
So Jenny’s death must happen sometime FROM NOW ON:
Alice shows up on the front porch and talks to Shane.
Max is known to have gone home looking for a sweater.
Nobody knows where Kit and Helena are.
Tina reappears after having gone upstairs and having put on a sweater, she is still looking for Jenny when she meets Bette in the hall. She is going to tell her about the negatives.
Max interrupts them.
Max and Bette claim they haven’t seen Jenny downstairs.
Helena and Kit are somewhere unknown.
Shane and Alice are either still discussing on the porch, or somewhere else too.
This is also the last moment possible for Jenny’s death.
Next thing you know, in fact, ALL OF THEM are sitting in the media room watching the video and eating popcorns.
Tina, who has just found the stolen negatives that costed her her job and her credibility, is not running around like mad screaming and cursing and looking for Jenny anymore, but is instead perfectly calm.
Bette – who, I presume, should be enraged as much as Tina – is there next to her, laughing.
Helena and Kit have reappeared from wherever they had gone. Shane and Alice too.
Max, the same.
This is driving me C-R-A-Z-Y.
i wouldn’t try to find a logic in it because there isn’t!
nice summary, though. thanks!
Yeah, I just got over it…
Honestly, I never really expected TLW to wrap up tightly, no writer ever had the talent….
They sould’ve hired Riese…
Duuhhh
yikes. I’m truly frightened to say this, but am I the only one who liked the ambiguity? Maybe I just used the old defense mechanism and expected nothing but the worst, so when I got it, I was ok. I mean they all ended up like looking like inhuman psychopaths with their grins at the end, but that entertained me.
I’ll save you all from writing it. I suck. I have no taste. I wouldn’t know shit if I stepped in it.
Oh well. IT IS WHAT IT IS.
Yeah I think you might be. :-)
I think ambiguity works if the creator herself at least seems to know whodunit. But when she doesn’t, it just is a big ol’ mess.
uh i would just like to say i watched this episode. i horrid mistake on my part. the part that bothered me the most is when Bette and Kit are talking about Max and it cuts to a shot of Max cleaning a grill. anyone notice his shirt….how its like half rolled up his stomach. who just walks around with their shirt like that?
the only part of this that was at all funny to me was that Alice and Helena were drunk the whole time.
me too. i love drunk alice, i love drunk helena, i love drunk shane, i love drunk tina, i love drunk everyone.
Max at the BBQ was totes random. Usually he’s wearing like six layers, so.
You can add a 47th reason…
How after shooting a photo of Bette and Kelly together Jenny could show a video to Kit…
Go watch the end of the 6th episode and you’ll actually hear and see that Jenny shot a photo and not a video…
Jenny has a magical iPhone… First it can shoot video then it can transform photo into video…
yeah I agree with you WTF???
I remember reading somewhere, shortly after this last season was ordered by Showtime, that writing was over and shooting had begun. I was like “WTF?!?!? How could they write it in such a short time?? It’s probably gonna suck”. Now it’s easy to say that I’ve never had such a correct premonition in all my life, ever.
But again, it’s not a documentary. It’s fiction and it’s meant to be entertaining, even though the writers have a weird idea of entertainment at times. I mean, I have annoying friends too, but luckily none of them even remotely reminds of the manipulative cruelty Jenny is capable of. I am SO glad Jenny is a character and does not exist in reality. I have never threatened to kill a friend of mine, no matter how annoying the are (and most of them are! I have a thing for irritating people). NONE of my friends have ever gotten so consistently offensive, or ever stolen any of my business ideas, or seriously threatened to reveal my personal (false) secrets in a way that would ruin my personal life.
So I don’t think the inconsistency lies in them not being upset or not crying. The big, gigantic, colossal inconsistency was forcing a murder plot on a group of friends that have been telling decently entertaining stories for quite a while – in the name of ego-nursing or sequel-launching or just a deviated notion of what makes good entertainment.
Thank you for all Ilene, you’ve opened up the way, but now it’s time for someone really good to step up and tell “our” stories.
That list is freakin’ awesome. Damn. Why didn’t you guys work for The L Word as script consultants? We needed you! So, it’s really all your fault that the ending made everyone say, “WTF?!” ; ) Lol! Great work, guys!
I know for many years I dreamed I’d one day join the staff and make Haviland the star and Carly my co-writer and then it would be about the way that we live, and would probs still be not great, but be not that bad either. sigh. now there’s no hope.
It’s astounding how awful this show is.
-_-
I’d like to say:
“Maybe we’ll get answers on The Farm.”
But nooo noo, that would be way too easyy. Right?
Please keep writing. It keeps me sane.
=P
This was the first season that Jenny didn’t really annoy me. I felt like the please-find-jenny-intolerable undetones were so forced that I just wasn’t feeling it.
That being said, this was also the first [er, third] season I wanted the show to be killed.
Can I *pls* just vent quickly about the interrogation tapes? Wasn’t a goal of Ilene’s [at one point when dinosaurs roamed the Earth] to influence society to view lesbians ‘like everyone else.’ I mean, frankly, I’d rather be viewed as the lez best friend than the incestous Tina Kennard & murderous whoever the hell did it. It’s clear to me that Ilene felt as though she needed to tackle every social, medical, political issue ever addressed in the history of the world. This was to “tell our stories”…but I *really* appreciate that she basically pushed lesbians even further outside the box than before.
Oh! And did it annoy anyone else when she said she would have re-thought the Dana storyline if she had known the reaction? ARE YOU OBLIVIOUS TO YOUR FAN BASE?!
She actually should have re-thought everything that happened after Dana died.
I gotta say I think we’re being a little harsh on the episode though I do admit. WTF KINDA ENDING WAS THAT! omg I totally wanted to see the girls walking towards the station waving their damn hair around like they were in an herbal essence commericial while the ghost of jenny trots along like usual in their heads and totally checks out bette… .. yeah guys come on. come on. and the last word where ilene says thanks for six great seasons I have to say just because most of the seasons MAY have sucked to us at least making them for the actors and the writers might have been fun. I mean when isn’t ruining your characters fun? ….anyway yeah you did bring up some good points and as for the final cut thing didn’t jenny already have it way back in season 2 or 3 when she was watching clips of carmen and shane?
I’m not so sure that Jenny stole the negatives either. And at the end Leisha did say to watch the webisodes for more interrogation tapes AND to find out who stole the movie negative. Maybe Nikki did it to get back at Adele (for Jenny since she didn’t leave with her) and to save everyone from the ‘straightened out’ ending… Nikki did have keys…
Jenny is wet on the gurney (in 601) but not like dripping and messy. She’s just… damp, eye makeup intact.
If Nikki was hiding in the bushes behind the pool, wouldn’t she have noticed the body floating in it? Wouldn’t this have made her break her cover and call for help?
The only possible thing i can think of re: Nikki is that she wasn’t “hiding” in the bushes but was arriving on the scene afterwards VIA the bushes (go with it) and the cops heard rustling and drew their weapons and forced her out. Which would also explain why she would blurt out all her reasons for coming when she got to the living room (shock, confusion, retardation, etc.) But that doesn’t explain why she was crouching – I know my first reaction upon finding flashing lights and police tape all around my ex’s friends’ place wouldn’t be to immediately drop to my knees like, “oh shit, coppers! better hide!” but then she IS a movie star, so maybe she was hesitant to have her picture taken at the scene? Much better to have pictures taken of her at gunpoint with her hands in the air. you can’t buy that kind of press. But then also who cares.
and another thing…..why didn’t anyone say goodbye to Angie in the farewell video?! Hello?
Hey, Leash, from up above. I couldn’t have said what you just said any better. I’ll only add this about the interrogation tape
with Tina. I’ll bet Laurel Holloman actually choked as she was saying each and every word that was written in that scene. They so didn’t need to go there. I am stunned. And, Leash. I almost fell out of my effin’ chair when I heard Ilene Chaiken say that she might have considered not killing Dana off if she had known the fans reaction. WTF?! Are you kidding me? Erin Daniels must have rolled her eyes on that one. I mean, really. She says that now.
The whole murder mystery is what put the nail in the coffin. That is not the L Word.
It’s not the L Word I have known and loved.
This isn’t friggin’ CSI. They should have just ended the show with season 5 on a more happy and positive note. We fans can’t even now have the satisfaction of Tibette living happily ever after because there will always be a cloud over their head with that whole ridiculous video that Jenny took.
Couldn’t you have given us any kind of happy ending or storyline, Ilene? Would it have been so hard? Would it have been so wrong? Instead of asking myself, “Who?” this whole 6th season, I now find myself asking, “Why?!”
We fans deserve so much more. The actresses deserved so much more. And, this wonderful show deserved so much more. Shame on you.
You know what is really the saddest thing about all of this? What was once a brilliantly written, powerful, and much needed show has now been turned into an endless barrage of negative, scathing, and laughable reviews. And, that, Ilene and the powers that be, deserves a big SHAME ON YOU. It’s so sad. So very sad.
Kris, you are so right. We were loyal despite what was thrown at us & I feel like she completely disregarded that.
I don’t think any of the characters were capable of murder. With two people talking about sweaters, I believe Jenny, who had bare shoulders, felt a chill in more ways than one after she spoke to Bette up on the balcony. It’s hard to believe she would take a swan dive off that balcony to kill herself with a splat on the cement and bounce into the pool. She was too hyped about the video she had just made and hoping everyone would praise her for a job well done, to kill herself. It was to be her redemption.
No, feeling the chill she went home in haste to get a sweater and accidently let the dog out. As she walked by the pool, the dog got under her feet, she slipped, hit her head on the edge of the pool, got knocked unconscious and drowned.
Why else was the dog suddenly there? It would have been up on the balcony with Jenny if it was out earlier.
As for Nikki, how long was she there? Tasha had to show her badge to get in after the discovery. While Nikki might have showed a tit, you have to think she had been there for sometime. Why didn’t the dog bark at her in the bushes? Maybe she saw the whole thing. Maybe she was afraid to come out because of her image. There are so many questions and variables that in the end it makes no sense whatsoever, except to confuse.
Why will Alice be in jail? Who said The Farm is a continuation of her L Word character? As convoluted as everything is, maybe she commits another crime we don’t even know about, like jay walking?
Honest to God I have never before, ever found a series ending to be so unfair, unjust, ridiculous and bizarre – you’d almost think Jenny wrote it.
While 6.8 was extremely well done from the flow of progression, it’s like the flow hits a barrier, a wall and just simply ends because the time TLW was given is up. All that seemed to matter to IC was that her favorite character, which is rumored to be herself when she was younger is dead, just like the fans wanted her to be and the loose ends are IC’s idea of punishing us for disliking the Jenny character so much.
~Sissee~
I am a recent fan of TLW, but this season was just embarrassing. Did the writing change?? As a heterosexual, i loved the intimacy portrayed in these relationships, demonstrated primarily thru the writing. What happened to that writing?? How could these actresses let that happen??
While there have been an insane amount of issues with the writing in the past clearly this episode was insanely bad. I kept hoping this season would get better but by the time I saw Willy Wonka at a baby shower I knew there was no hope.
I would also like to add that if I were Bette, who had just dove into a pool at the sight of my dead neighbors body, I would most definitely NOT change into a power suit and meticulously fix my hair and makeup before heading down to an interrogation.
Furthermore, the showtime videos that are building Tina’s back story now that the series is over, PISS ME OFF.
As a huge fan of The L Word and not a lez, may I say that the L word opened up my eyes that lesbians are like other people (surprise!), and yeah, I dont care how Max or Bette or Jenny are portrayed since they’re characters and logic is the last thing I’d look for in tv series like The L word. If you want logic, try (thinking of tv shows with logic, err.. Education channel). And fuck me if the L Word is not entertaining, has kept me awake at odd times waiting for the torrent to finish downloading so that I could watch it, and it made me realize that as a gay man, lesbians have better shows on tv. fuck! Queer as Folk (US only) is 10000000000000000X worse than the L word, and I doubt any gay man I know, know who the fuck Kathleen Hanna is. Do you think mainstream gay show will ever have Limpwrist or Pansy Division on the background?
Chaiken and her cronies are the queens of inconsistent, which reminds me of incontinence – which basically tells me the Lword makes me pee in my pants. As if I didn’t know ….
i agree wid stef i think u didn’t watch the entire ep06. although i also agree with your comment that finale is the worst.
Season 6 was an absolute piece of shit!!
Thank you Ilene Chaiken for making lesbians/bisexual women all over the world feeling embarassed!
I feel sorry for the poor actresses, watching the show progressively going down the toilet…
This IS NOT the way that we live! IC should not be allowed to be in front of a camera EVER AGAIN!
P.S.: Riese, you make my day! I have read all your recaps, hillarious and to the point!
This has such validated so many feelings I have after having such finished the series, thank you guys so much!
I came back to read this today because the most recent OITNB recap reminded me of it and it’s still hilarious and incredible. What a show.
That’s what I’m doing here too!
So…reading this 7 years later, only two things have changed. a) You can get gay married in new york and b) you can film video on an iphone
Well..at least someone else has revisited this. I just finished marathoning this via Showtime On Demand. Don’t know why: i guess i just wanted to ‘visit’ with some of the characters. All it did was piss me off all over again. Frankly, i feel (like i felt then) that IC really stopped caring about TLW the minute she realuzed it was going to be the last season. They didn’t care about the story. They were trying to create a prologue of sorts for “The Farm”, which (ha ha) wasn’t picked up, much less aired. I hated “The Real L Word”, although honestly i only watched about 2.5 episodes. I was pissed that IC was back with a new show and we were flocking to watch it even after her ego-driven, not-giving-a-f&@! about the fans ending of TLW. I’m pissed off with her all over again, for real. Note to Lee Daniels: i LOVE “Empire”, and cursed out loud when i saw her nane in the credits on the first ep. PLEASE..don’t let her mess “Empire” up. It’s my new favorite show. If she did it to her own creation, she’ll do it to yours too if you let her. You’ve been warned.