Hello and welcome to the ninth episode of the third season of The L Word: Generation Q, brought to you by the same network that brought you the original L Word, a show about how it is not a woman’s job to be consumed and invaded and spat out so that some f*cking man can evolve!!!!!
Today’s recap of Generation Q Episode 309 “Quiet Before the Storm” is dedicated to whomstever is in charge of making the trail mix at Whole Foods, I salute your work, it’s really gotten me through so much. Also, “Quiet Before the Storm” marked Kate Moennig’s directorial debut, Bette and Tina’s return to the playing field and, in my opinion, the season’s strongest episode! It felt coherent and well-constructed and there were so many funny dialogue exchanges I couldn’t even transcribe them all.
I would like to start out by saying although I liked this episode overall, I have sent the first 30 seconds of it to the FCC, Lambda Legal, the FDA, the HRC, the ADA, the AMA, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, my own mother, Amnesty International, the YMCA and every Democratic official elected to the House of Representatives in the past 75 years in an attempt to notify the world that a crime against humanity has been committed and must be dealt with. I cannot say for sure what the consequences will be but I’m confident they will be swift and dire.
My friends, the show opens in the corridors of a well-lit but sparsely occupied hospital. There is doctor chatter. There is an affirmation of a dropping heart rate, there is a shot of a screen containing blood pressure readings. There are words like “stabilizing” and “CC” that we all recognize from precisely what this scene turns out to be… an episode of GREY’S ANATOMY.
(It’s not an actual clip from Grey’s Anatomy, obvs that’s not in the budget, but it’s a clip meant to stand in for an episode of Grey’s Anatomy)
“See, she’s not dead,” says Carrie in voiceover as the camera pulls back to reveal her and Misty alive and well on the couch, enjoying a little Shondaland.
Finley arrives, looking cute and sporty in her backwards hat with bags of luxurious take-out, and immediately expresses concern that Carrie and Misty have not begun the day with a balanced breakfast and a little “movement,” as per the doctor’s order. At first I thought she meant “bowel movement” so that was a little journey for me.
“I find Grey’s Anatomy really healing, you know,” Carrie says. “It’s gotten me through some really rough patches in my life.” This is incredibly accurate lesbian representation.
Elsewhere in “film/tv as therapy” we find Angie huddled under a blanket hiding from the world and also her Intro to Creative Writing class, watching The Four-Faced Liar. When Bella tells her she’s gotta get up out of that thing and go to class, Angie says she doesn’t care if she fails. Furthermore she’s dreading this evening’s reading and doesn’t want Bella to come watch her. This is literally exactly why you shouldn’t date your teacher.
Bella: “You’re way too hot to be hung up on some Hemingway wannabe.”
Angie: “I hope to one day share that perspective.”
But then… SURPRISE! Bette and Tina have traveled over the stormy middle of this spoiled country and landed in Los Angeles, just in time for Angie’s reading!
Bette and Tina are bubbling and doting and truly adorable.
Tina: “You don’t have to be nervous, honey, because you are an amazing writer!”
Bette: “You have such a command of the stage, you were terrific in your high school productions.”
Angie: “I was a stagehand.”
Bette: “And it was memorable!”
As Bette collects balls of Kleenex from Angie’s bed to sustainably dispose of them in a cardboard take-out container, Tina gently suggests Angie look into showering. We all know that Sisterhood is Powerful t-shirt has been through some rough times.
“Um, lowkey iconic,” Bella mutters accurately as Bette and Tina depart.
We then fly across the clear blue sky and into the window of the bedroom of Shane McCutcheon, who’s naked and sprawled out in bed. She rolls over to see Tess attempting an early morning Irish Goodbye. Shane says it was so nice to have Tess there and the dog missed her and maybe they could go talk to a couple’s therapist if Tess is ready for that?
Despite the universally held belief by not only Tess but the entirety of the lesbian population (2004 – 2023) that Shane desperately requires therapy, Tess declines this offer to enroll in Couples Therapy.
“I just think it would be a good idea,” Shane says.
“Well, you also thought it’d be a good idea to fuck another woman—” Tess says.
Point of order: I don’t think Shane ever said she thought it was a good idea to fuck another woman.
Tess then announces her intention to visit “the expansion” to see “the tile guy.” Okay
Cut to the set of The Aloce Show, where Alice is showing Sophie photographs of Piddles Junior for what seems to be absolutely not the first time, and they’re both thrilled about today’s season finale and its very special guest Rachel Maddow!
But then Sophie gets a series of notifications on her phone — Alice’s little squabble with Taylor in the movie theater has gone viral, thanks to noted “tiny cretin of a man” James Corden (who, you may recall, Alice has previously expressed hatred towards) and the hashtag he invented for her antics: #AliceSoEntitled. Of course this has inspired the internet to do its thing, digging up Alice’s sins from the year of our lord 2008.
Sophie looks up from her phone: “Alice, do you know a guy named Darryl Brewer?”
😬
Anybody aching for a breath of fresh air will be delighted to learn our next stop is the wild canyons of Los Angeles, where Finley’s taking Carrie and Misty on a hike.
Misty suggests sex as a reward for finishing this little incline but Carrie hesitates – she wasn’t expecting to feel all these feelings with Misty! Misty wasn’t expecting to feel all these feelings with Carrie!
“I mean I’m not somebody who just jumps right in to the sex stuff,” Carrie adds. Misty says she gets it totally one hundred percent, they don’t have to do anything she’s not ready for, but also she’d like Carrie to know that she’s very good at sex.
Back at The Aloce Show, Alice is on the phone with Barry and it’s not going great.
Squabble #14: I Am Sorry That You Feel This Way
In the Ring: Alice vs. Barry
Content: Alice recalls meeting Darryl and outing him but doesn’t regret her decision to put him on blast. (I will explain this situation at length shortly to anybody who doesn’t remember it or didn’t watch the original series!) Sophie, providing reason amid Alice’s chaos, assures Barry that Alice is very sorry, absolutely will say so, and there’s no need to cancel the show tonight!
Who Wins? Sophie for being very good at her job amid challenging circumstances
Cut to Dani’s Castle in the Sky, where Dre’s writing a song because they’re songwriter and Dani’s staring at her phone, probably googling “what happened to Devon Sawa” or “Sepideh Moafi Generation Q Season 3”
Dani leans in for the makeout and for one hot second I thought we were all as a community about to witness lesbian sex on television. But alas! Dre slips up with a, “God I love you,” and Dani immediately recoils.
Before Dani’s gotta deal with the love unfurled before her, Sophie calls and she picks up like an eager beaver.
We then return to the sullied halls of California University for a surprisingly well-attended student reading in an enormous venue. Angie tells Bella she’s nervous her parents can “sniff out” her affair with Hendrix Fitz but Bella assures her it’s okay.
“You’re the best person I know,” Bella tells her, futzing with the sleeves of Angie’s blazer. “You’re smart and kind and full of life and wisdom. He’s an idiot, and you’re a catch. It’s so obvious.”
“Says who?” asks Angie.
And it that moment it becomes clear: Bella. It’s Bella who says who. Through all the zombie makeup and sex advice and the homoerotic experience of having a condom retrieved from her vaginal canal by Angelica Porter-Kennard, a spark has emerged within Bella’s gut: she clearly has a thing for Angie.
In case Bella had any hesitance at all about the prosperity enabled by a lesbian lifestyle, Bette and Tina wave for Bella to come join them in the auditorium.
We return to the offices of The Aloce Show, where Sophie’s called in professional fixer Dani Nunez because if you can spin the opioid crisis to someone who just lost his son to an overdose, you can spin Alice outing a basketball player on now-defunct website Our Chart Dot Com in 2008.
A refresher: in 2008, Alice was invited to a secret gay party and attended it with her girlfriend, Tasha Williams, who was at that time under investigation by the military for homosexual conduct. The party was intended as a safe space for wealthy, closeted people, and all attendees were required to sign an NDA and forfeit their devices at the door. Barry, the party host (this show only knows like five male names), also personally requested Alice’s discretion after implausibly declaring himself a fan of her pod. Alice was giddy with excitement over the possible “famous closet cases” she might encounter at this event.
Tasha almost immediately clocked the presence of Top Ranking Point Guard in the NBA Darryl Brewer, and Alice, in a flagrant disregard for rules intended to protect homosexuals from discrimination in a hostile world, used her Samsung Flip-Phone to secretly capture Darryl Brewer dancing with his boyfriend and somehow did so undetected. Then, Alice saw Darryl Brewer on her favorite channel, New News Live, talking shit about John Amaechi, the first NBA basketball player to come out.
So she decided to post a video outing him (and everybody standing behind him at the party) on Our Chart dot com.
The video went viral, Alice was interviewed on her favorite channel New News Live, and her fame from this event eventually landed her a guest-hosting gig on The Look, replacing their former gay co-host who they considered to be “too angry” (who at the time we assumed was meant to be a nod at Rosie O’Donnell leaving The View).
But first, it landed her in hot water with Tasha, who was understandably shocked that Alice would out this man, particularly while Tasha was being investigated for Army. This man had a family and children and him being in the closet is not their fault and they were also going to suffer for this! It was also not a great look for Tasha to have her Very Close Female Friend on television during Tasha’s trial.
Alice and Tasha consequently broke up, although they did get back together a few episodes later as Tasha bid farewell to Army.
The fact that Alice had signed an NDA and would undoubtedly be in trouble with her alleged pal Barry and the entirety of closeted Hollywood (which was “most of it” at the time) was never addressed.
Unfortunately, then as in now — Alice would prefer to lean in.
Alice: “If people really think that I’m an out of touch, entitled asshole, then I say we make the bit out of it.”
Dani: “I fear that would make things worse.”
Alice: “Kimmel would do it. Sophie you know he would!”
Sophie: “Yes, but! Kimmel isn’t a queer woman.”
Alice doesn’t mean to disrespect these two women, but they don’t know what it was like to be gay back then, when men could go on television and call people f*ggots! As someone who was gay back then and watching and recapping this program, I can testify that Alice’s decision seemed incredibly bad to me at the time, too!
Alice insists she doesn’t regret what she said and therefore feels no need to apologize. For a moment I thought the show was actually going to address and acknowledge race as a concept — how that impacts her perception of herself as the more oppressed party in that outing as well as in this conversation — but instead they simply do not!
Sophie gets that this is what Alice wants to do, but they’re still the only queers on television so they’ve gotta do an apology. Fine, Alice says. FINE SHE’LL SAY SHE’S SORRY!!!!!!
Back at the reading, it is increasingly clear that Hendrix Fitz woke up today and chose violence. He saddles up behind Angie like a creep about to reach into your breast pocket and steal your pen and begins whispering about how someone broke into his car seven days ago and shattered the window, which cost him $250 to replace.
Angie: “What a terrible inconvenience.”
Hendrix: “I almost reported a theft until I realized only one thing was missing.”
Angie: “What was that?”
Hendrix: “It was that chapbook you made me.”
Angie: [Nods] “A criminal with good taste.”
Hendrix: “Maybe. Or maybe an immature person whose feelings were hurt so they decided to vandalize somebody’s property for no reason.”
God, it’s satisfying when someone who seems like a creep reveals themselves to be a creep. Also, five stars to Angie for this exchange!
Meanwhile, our friends are exhibiting poor audience behavior by loud-whispering constantly during what I’m confident is insufferable prose from a young white man. Bette Porter’s extracting duty-free-procured candy from her purse for Bella. Shane ducks in a little late and Bella’s like, “wow, hot Aunt!” and I’m like “get this girl to The Planet!” Shane and Bette whisper about Tess so we learn that Bette is facing her mistakes and healing and also that Shane feels like she and Tess are not moving forward together.
Next up we have Angelica Porter-Kennard and as she takes the stage and Hendrix shuffles around doing whatever, a look of recognition — that that man is the ex who was loitering around the canned goods at the food bank — slowly forms across the plane of Shane’s face.
We return to the hustle and the bustle of The Aloce Show, where Dani’s composed a stirring apology and Sophie likes it, it just needs to be in Alice’s voice.
Onstage, Alice is zooming around on a baby bicycle wearing a white satin Evil Kinevel pantsuit, overcome with glee at her position in the world and upcoming one-on-one with Rachel Maddow.
Then, Sophie gets the call — sadly for Alice and also for us, Rachel Maddow has cancelled.
Alice reacts by throwing a little tantrum!
“What’s the point of this, really?” Alice scowls. “If you think about this, like I get on stage every week and I try to bring a little joy to everyone, just trying to give a voice to all the queers! And they turn on me? It’s not fucking worth it, okay, just run a fucking clips show for all I care!”
Alice storms off and Dani grabs Sophie by the arm — is she okay? What happens now?
“I’m gonna make a fucking show,” Sophie grits her teeth. Inspirational music begins. My heart stirs to the beat of a different drummer (Sophie). They allegedly only have 45 minutes to construct a new show but that is a lie I refuse to incorporate into my understanding of this episode.
We return to the reading, where Angie is finishing her piece and Hendrix Fitz is gently ushering her off stage and then —
Shane: That’s the guy.
Bette: Who?
Shane: That’s the guy, that’s her ex.
Tina: No no that’s her professor.
Shane: I’m telling you that’s her ex. Bella, is that her ex or is that her professor?
Bella is stumbling over her ums but Tina Kennard cannot wait for Bella’s disclosure, she is moved by the lord to stand up and testify GET YOUR HANDS OFF MY DAUGHTER!
Obviously what she should’ve done was calmly approach him after the reading, man-to-man, to tell him that he is dirt and then Bette Porter could’ve read him to pieces and it would’ve been a very triumphant moment. Alas, in lieu of triumph we have spectacle, because we’re gay and Tina is upset.
Back at The Aloce Show, The Sophie Show is coming together! They’ve gotten Margaret Cho to commit to hosting and apparently filled all the other minutes except for a mere 4-5 empty minutes, aching to be consumed by another special act.
Dani’s got a brilliant idea: Dre. They’ve been working on new material, after all! Just this morning in bed before telling Dani that they loved her!
“I’ve been wanting to do this kind of thing for so fucking long, make this show about bringing in new talent, queer talent,” Sophie says. She’s so stoked! I find this highly relatable! I love Dani and Sophie teaming up on this project!
We return to Misty, Carrie and Finley reaching the apex of this trail hike! I’m loving this for them as characters but also slightly annoyed that the storyline for the only character on the show over a size 10 is about hating healthy food and exercising!
Finley hands Carrie some water with surprise green health powder in it and Carrie has had enough of Mr Doctor Health McDuck! She would like her water clear “like everyone does” and she’d like her eggs to be eggs, not tofu, and Finley’s driving her a little crazy!
Finley: “I thought I lost ya and it was really fucking scary!”
Carrie: “I know.”
Finley: “I just — I don’t wanna lose you, I love ya. Not in a gay way. I mean, you know, we’re both gay but—”
Carrie: “Yeah, I totally get that. I love you too. A lot. Now will you help me get down this fucking hill?”
I can’t really replicate the delivery of the “in a gay way” dialogue by just typing it into this box but trust me, it was funny.
Misty tells Carrie that she likes her in a gay way and they set off down the canyon as the camera drone sails into the sky, revealing the full glory of this scene: the dusky pastels, the old Hollywood sign, the winding path, the hills dotted with parched shrubbery and my absolute favorite family of all time making their way back down the trail and probably eventually to the parking lot where they can pay $5 for the privilege of living here.
Believe it or not, Angie was not wild about how Tina chose to handle the revelation that she has been doing squat thrusts in the cucumber patch with Hendrix Fitz.
Squabble #15: Hot for Teacher
In the Ring: Angie vs. Bette & Tina
Content: Why didn’t Angie tell Tina and Bette? Why didn’t Angie tell Shane?
(THANK YOU SHANE I HAD THE SAME QUESTION! Ultimately, I think last week’s scenes needed to have been written or directed differently to make it clear Angie was intentionally obscuring this information from Shane — she could’ve stumbled over her words more, started a sentence and then stopped midway, told Shane he thought they’d get back together “after the semester” and then quickly corrected herself to attribute a non-educational-system-related time period to his plans for their relationship. A quick fix and a clarifying one!)
Tina says she’s gonna get a condo next to Angie’s dorm. Bette says btw it’s his fault and not Angie’s, they’re not blaming Angie. Tina says he took advantage of her. Angie insists that’s not true, she wanted it every step of the way, it was her choice. Tina says Angie will see it later when she’s older, which’s basically just like throwing dirt into a hole, telling that to a teenager.
Shane asks, “how old is this guy? 27?” and this is when Angie yells, “This is exactly why I don’t tell you anything! You’re all acting like fucking hypocrites! Like you’ve never fallen in love with someone that you shouldn’t? It’s fucking bullshit!”
Time freezes for a moment as Shane thinks about Cherie Jaffe (married closeted society wife); Bette thinks about Nadia (her TA at this very University) and Jodi (her employee at this very university) and Felicity (her married employee at the Office of Cultural Affairs); and Tina thinks about Daddyof2 (you remember).
So they take it down a notch. Bette and Tina both say “okay” a lot. Bette suggests they just go to dinner. Angie doesn’t want to go to dinner with these losers!
Who Wins? Bette for exuding calm and confidence in the face of unspeakable adversity.
And then Angie’s onto her next fight of the evening!
Squabble #16: So What I Lied, I Lied To Me Too
In the Ring: Angie vs. Bella
Content: Angie complains that her parents are treating her like a kid and misjudging the situation. She’s relied on Bella, all this time, to be on her side — but she’s not, after all. She sort of thinks that Angie’s Moms and Hot Uncle Shane are right:
Bella: I just mean… um… I think it’s weird. On his side. Not on yours.
Angie: How? I was the one that kissed him. I was the one who told him that it was okay. Do you understand what I’m saying? He was the one that wanted to get out of it. I don’t wanna seem like a fucking kid that doesn’t know what she wants ’cause that is not the truth.
Bella: I know! I am on your side! I am on your side. I just — he has all the power.
Angie: Okay whatever.
Bella: That’s real.
Who Wins? Bella.
Angie takes her bag and storms off, but my hope for an Angie/Bella love confession remains.
We then return to Chez Alice, where Alice is complaining to herself about getting cancelled when she realizes that her emotional support kitten — Piddles Junior, Mr P, Little Pee Pee, etc — is nowhere to be found! She clocks the window she’d cracked to counterbalance the litter box smell. The kitten has escaped!
I had hoped, briefly, that Baby Bar #2 had vanished into the vortex, like the Lez Girls negative and the character of Papi, but alas. It exists and Tess is inside it, drinking, because they’re really dedicated to keeping this relapse storyline alive. The house music screams, making me give in oh I can’t help it, I think there’s too much that I need to erase!
Well look who’s here it’s Shane, hello!
Squabble #17: what do I need to do to see myself in a better mood
In the Ring: Shane vs. Tess
Content: Shane confesses to Tess that she in fact does not desire a second bar, which is an important moment for us as lesbians who have known all along that she doesn’t desire a second bar.
But then something magical happens — Shane has an idea of her own! What if instead of opening a second bar (The Jenny Schecter Memorial Tavern), they opened a hair salon (Jenny’s Hair by Shane for Wax)? Shane darts around the room describing where everything would go and maybe honestly this is the first time we’ve actually heard Shane declare what she wants for herself?
She’s always just gone with the flow, gotten into the passenger seat with various hotties who’ve got their own ideas of who she is and what she should be doing with her life until she gets itchy or feels small and then blows it all up. Usually, things come to Shane — both girls and gigs. And true, she bought the first bar and started poker night of her own volition, but the former happened when she was going through a divorce and she seemed mostly happy about how happy it made Tess (who she barely knew, but!) and the latter at least was mostly about just needing some cash. She didn’t seem as wide-eyed and passionate about either of those things as she does about this, here, now.
Shane’s been missing cutting hair, the thing she was always good at. Tess could be at The Dana Fairbanks Memorial Tavern and Shane could run the hair salon. It’s honestly a really solid business proposal, and a much better idea than Bar #2.
But Tess can’t see any of that, maybe ’cause she’s drunk or grieving or inconsistently written. I don’t know what to make of this, besides that it’s nice to see Shane take the initiative to express her desires instead of only acknowledging them once she’s backed into a corner, or not at all. Their foundation was likely always gonna be tough — Shane being the one who slept with Lena while Tess was still dating her (a similar problem arose for Shane and Jenny, due to Shane sleeping with Nikki). There’ll always be some resentment there, some sense of someone owing someone else something.
Tess: I think it’s bullshit. Why do you get to make up all the rules??
Shane: I don’t, I don’t, I don’t! Tess, it’s just an idea —
Tess: No, you do! You get to fuck whoever you want—
Shane: I apologized, we’ve been over that—
Tess: Yeah yeah yeah, and now you’re just coming in here and blowing this whole thing up! This was my dream. You are so fucking self-centered it’s exhausting. It’s like if you’re not happy, no one’s allowed to be.
Shane: I can’t do this anymore.
This is objectively bonkers, “if you’re not happy, no one’s allowed to be” is a very inaccurate evaluation of Shane’s personality from someone she’s apparently been dating for well over a year.
Anyhow, Tess says fuck you and throws a wine bottle at the wall. As she storms out, Shane looks back at her with a tinge of bewilderment.
Who Wins? Shane
Back at The Aloce Show, Sophie’s abuzz with the thrill of leadership! She’s finally got the chance to be in charge of something she’s wanted to take over, secretly, this whole time, and now she is, and she’s going to fucking kill it.
Dre’s here in an interesting outfit and Dani’s talking them through all of it, and Dre wants to know if they’re just going to act like this morning didn’t happen. But Dani says this moment isn’t about her and Dre! It’s about Dre!
Bette and Tina have foregone their fancy dinner reservations for hamburgers at the Frosty Freeze, and Bette’s practicing all of her deep mindfulness techniques and Tina would like to find this man and destroy him.
Bette says Angie will never trust them with the slings and arrows of her romantic life if they react to revelations of problematic relationships by murdering the responsible party.
Tina: I feel like we’re losing her.
Bette: We are! She’s pushing us away — and that’s exactly what she’s supposed to be doing right now.
Tina: I hate it, I hate how it feels.
Bette: I know, me too, but we want her to carve out her own path, right? And she’s ready. And she’s so fucking smart. But it doesn’t matter how smart you are. You’re going to fuck up along the way.
Bette says it’s so sexy to see Tina stand up for Angie and they hold each other ordering their burgers like two teenagers in matching airbrushed t-shirts in line for the Raptor at Cedar Point.
Meanwhile, Alice is out on the streets — as in, literally standing in the middle of a street where she could be plowed over at any time, just ask Cat from Lip Service — hunting for her Little Piddles tiny friend.
Alice realizes that perhaps she lost her cat as karmic retribution for her past actions and says to the universe: “Okay I get it. I stand by my reasons for doing it but I should’ve apologized for the rest. I get it, it’s payback. But karma shouldn’t hurt cats!”
And then! Miracle! Alice hears Little Piddles meowing and locates the fiesty feline inside an actual tree. In blatant disregard of the Ani DiFranco lyric, And what if there are no damsels in distress / What if I knew that and I called your bluff? / Don’t you think every kitten figures out how to get down / Whether or not you ever show up? she calls the number everybody’s been dying to call all season — 911.
And it was in this moment that I knew, that it all flashed before my eyes, what was coming around the corner for us. What this has all been leading to!
We then cut to the office of Professor Hendrix Hendrix Fitz the Worst, where Angie’s shown up to apologize for all that but finds him packing up his office. She asks if he was fired and he says absolutely not, he chose to resign three weeks before the end of the semester. What is this man doing? You cannot simply quit a class you’re teaching mid-semseter!
“I could’ve told whoever I wanted that it was me in the first place,” Angie says, again. Oh my sweet summer child. That does not matter at all!
According to Hendrix Fitz, this job was preventing him from doing what absolutely nobody asked for him to do: spend more time working on his book. Angie confirms he no longer works here, tells him to stop talking, and then shuts the door so I don’t have to watch them make out!
Remember this?
We exit that upsetting scenario to find Carrie and Misty cuddling and watching Grey’s Anatomy. Misty’s getting into it and I’d like to know if they’ve approached the Calizona scenes yet but alas I rarely get what I desire in this life.
They smile at each other and they start making out a little bit and then Carrie moves Misty’s hand suggestively and so Misty asks if she’s sure and then Carrie says she is and then Carrie starts crying because my god isn’t being gay just a fantastic journey and aren’t we all blessed to be going on it.
“I didn’t expect to feel this much, you know? I almost died, and it hasn’t really sunk in yet I don’t think,” says Carrie. That’s how I felt after watching the last two episodes of The L Word Generation Q Season 2, like I had almost died but it hadn’t sunk in yet.
Misty tells her she’s not going anywhere and neither is Carrie and so Carrie grabs her face and they are kissing harder now.
I’d really like to thank Carrie and Misty for representing a typical Saturday in my own lesbian life with my girlfriend: going on a hike, watching bad television, eating take-out and making out.
We return to the Frosty Freeze where our Mommis are eating burgers on a bench. Bette asks Tina if she misses Los Angeles and Tina says not really, she has Bette so she can be anywhere! Bette feels the same way about Tina. They just wanna be together forever like sea otters.
“What if we got married?” Tina asks, rifling through her french fries. “You know, threw a party for our friends, something like that. Something fun.”
What’s about to happen is super cute and I love it but unfortunately I am who I am and I must first note the following: Bette and Tina already were married — Season 6 ended with Bette and Tina planning to move to New York with Angie and tie the knot and Generation Q began with the assertion from the showrunner that they’d been divorced for two years because Tina had left Bette and then fallen in love with someone else. (Granted, they wouldn’t have been able to get legally married in New York until 2011 or California until 2015, but perhaps they intended to get hitched in Canada or Massachusetts or something. At some point they must have gotten legally married though, otherwise no divorce would’ve been necessary!)
So I think it’s the language here that confused me — why say “married” instead of “re-married” or “married again” or any type of brief acknowledgment of a past marriage? Why mention having a party for their friends without nodding towards what they’d done the first time around? (e.g., “We didn’t have a party for our friends the first time, maybe we could do it now?”) Is this an intentional obfuscation from the characters or an incidental oversight from the writers?
Thank you for listening I will now continue as if none of that matters!
So, then Tina turns back to Bette with fries in her mouth and Bette has the box with the ring in it right out there and says that’s what dinner was supposed to be for.
And Tina puts on the ring and they smile and lean into each other and it’s so sweet and I had no choice but to tear up!
Back at The Sophie Show, Dre is performing the song they wrote about Dani this morning with backup singers and a drummer pulled out of thin air through the magic of Hollywood.
Their song runs under the next few scenes as the episode races towards its end:
Finley gets home, lies on her bed, hears Misty and Carrie boning, and literally googles “LA apartments,” an interesting first step! But really: Finley, you just bought a car and you’re looking to go back to school and you’ve currently got your own room in a great house in a nice neighborhood … perhaps now is not the time!
Tina and Bette are fingering each other’s fingers like lesbians as actual fireworks go off in the sky!
Angie… watches Hendrix Fitz put his pants on? Ew stop!
Tess pours Shane’s favorite brand of Vodka, “Vodka,” into a glass and dances around her little bar that she owns ’cause it’s her dream.
Back at the Shane Shack, Shane’s packing up Tess’s belongings for her, which is certainly a move!
We return over and over to Dre’s performance and I will say that they are doing a truly incredible job I have never been prouder of a former Autostraddle Calendar Model than I am of Dre right now!
And then we return to Dani’s Castle in the Sky, and I’m just now noticing that the exterior of her building looks like one of those behemoths that aren’t real and have no windows because they’re just filled with telephone wires or whatever?
But as soon as they get all the way inside, Dre starts packing their own bag. They’re gonna bounce. They meant what they said earlier, they’re falling for Dani, and if Dani doesn’t feel the same way they’d rather head home, protect their heart and cut their losses. This is a little bonkers — just ’cause someone’s not ready to say “I love you” after (checks watch) two weeks doesn’t mean they’re never gonna be ready to say it!
I would like for the record to have my original note for this scene, written before the scene took place, preserved in the Lesbian Herstory Archives:
please let this firefighter be tasha
Alice is too consumed by her reunion with Mr PP to notice what the rest of us are gradually noticing, egged on by the camera’s strategic positioning behind the firefighter handing over the kitten. But once our local American hero removes her firefighter helmet-mask and says, “Hey, Alice” — well, I’d recognize that voice anywhere.
It is my number one L Word Crush, Tasha Williams!!!
And I wanted Alice to soften in this moment, to lean into this person we’re all still a little bit obsessed with, this opposites attract relationship that required a lot of work to work but also maybe brought something out in both of them that they needed and would’ve been resistant to otherwise.
But she doesn’t. She almost does, betraying herself for a split second, before hardening, narrowing her eyebrows: “Oh my God. That is so annoying.”
Tasha shakes her head.
Lesbian Squabble #18: But You Still Crumble at My Name
In the Ring: Alice and Tasha, just like old times!
Content: Alice says she’s had “as you know… a very, VERY bad day,” and Tasha’s unclear on how exactly she’d know that, it’s not like she’s got a google alert set up in Alice’s name.
“Right, ’cause you hate celebrity culture it’s just so vapid and so meaningless…” Alice mocks her. Tasha says Alice hasn’t changed one bit, which isn’t a compliment. Then Alice strides back and forth, thanking the entire squad profusely for their service reuniting her with her kitten, “present company excluded,” and Tasha stands there, grounded as always, shaking her head, rolling her eyes, giving that little smile of bewilderment at Alice’s overall deal.
And Alice has turned, and is walking away, when Tasha goes, “Alice, wait.”
So Alice slowly turns back, clutching her kitten to her chest, eyes wide open—
“There’s paperwork,” Tasha declares, before walking away. Alice hardens again, and follows her.
Who Wins? Tasha. Handily.
The Round-Up:
Squabbles: 5 this episode, 18 Total
Sexy Moments: We Are Never Having Sex Again Sorry
Quote of the Week:
Comments
Aaaaaaaaaaaa I’m too excited for this recap. I wasn’t expecting it to be out this early. Thank you, Riese!!!
you’re so very welcome!
Tasha popping back up in this episode had me weak.
Here’s hoping to a Helena, Peggy cameo for the wedding, and maybe even a lovely Alice and Dana moment fro LW S4, but flip the script and it’s Bette and Kit.
Alice having outed Darryl Brewer – I liked that the writers remember that and brought it into the story! While I didn’t remember the specifics (thanks so much Riese for telling us what happened there precisely), I recall Alice having outed someone and said it was her duty as a journalist or something? And liked that she had to react to it now, many years later. I also liked how she said to Sophie and Dani that it was a different time back then… To some extent, it reminded me of the dinner scene in “Tales of the City” (2019) when Michael and Ben are with Michael’s friends and have a discussion, only that the dinner scene was wayyyy better. I wish the scene with Alice, Sophie and Dani had been longer and that they would have gotten deeper into some generational differences, attitudes and divides between queer people of different generations. Also, I would have loved it if someone in Alice’s age had come up to her and said: “Hey you know, I remember the times well and we discussed this back then and didn’t all have the same opinions on stuff” so that a difference of opinion hadn’t just been generational.
Shane is being written so differently in GenQ than in the OG series. The Shane I remember wouldn’t have said to Bette and Tina “That’s her ex,” but talked with Angie later in private. I don’t recall Shane giving away other people’s secrets *ever* back then, which is why everyone trusted Shane with their secrets. Has her character changed so much in the 15 years off-camera? Or did the writers just not do their homework and want to create drama? I tend to believe the latter because it fits the pattern of so other story elements.
Angie: “You are all hypocrites and you don’t even see it” – YES! But let’s get into why! Bette had an affair with her student! Tina had an affair with her divorce lawyer! The list goes on! Probably Angie doesn’t know but someone else could have said it.
Carrie’s line “I find Grey’s Anatomy very healing. It got me through some really rough patches of my life” was hilarious. Haha, I know someone who could have said just that. While I never watched Grey’s, these moments with Carrie and Misty were still the most relatable, realistic and grounded moments for me in this whacky series. I celebrated the whole Carrie-Misty-Finley-dynamic, and I loved Carrie and Misty on the bed with their casual t-shirts. Felt seen and I <3 Butches
Most unrealistic: Bette eating fries and burger??? And I get that they wanted us to see how Bette had changed, but the roles of Tina and Bette were completely reversed in their dialogue about the professor/Angie etc., it felt out of character. Come on! Bette was the one who tracked Angie’s phone in season one and went through her bag!! A person who supposedly changes their *entire* personality in maybe 1,5 years is suspicious to me
Tasha as a firefighter: I’m glad she’s not a cop!
I wanted to see the show that Sophie put together after they gave us the hero shots and dramatic music when she was like “I’ll do it”! An opportunity for her documentary or something… Want to see Sophie being great and a film maker and being capable in times of crisis, I want to see her thrive! I like her being single and therefore breaking a pattern. Also I like Finley being single, and I enjoy getting to know characters when they are by themselves and not stuffed in relationships and affairs.
Dre’s song was boring. Nothing against Dre (they are boring for now but hope that will change soon), I am just disappointed by the show’s general choices in music
Thanks Riese for the great recap and refreshing mine and every other person’s memory with screenshots!) who did not know exactly what went down with Darryl Brewer!
I also like this episode showing the ways Alice can be petty, or out of touch, or resist reflecting on her past mistakes. Gen Q has been pretty generous to Alice, and this episode reminded me how much more complicated and often as likely to be offensive, or ostensibly ‘in the wrong,’ as funny and apt.
I too wish that the storyline had opened an opportunity to engage not just with generational differences, but also distinct perspectives based on race and class.
Yes to Alice resistance a reflecting on her past mistakes and to the show having missed the opportunity to say something profound about race and class as well as Alice’s white rich cis-woman privilege.
And I also think that GenQ has been very generous to all the OG characters and their past mistakes. Has anyone been held accountable for what they did? Or truly reflected on their shit? I miss deeper storytelling and the commitment to really deal with privilege and oppression, not just in passing and small comments on the site that are squeezed in without giving it real story
i think i believed bette’s transformation because when you are really head over heels in love with someone who has already left you 3x and know that you have to change in certain ways to make it work for real this time… it is amazing what you can make yourself do psychologically! i liked the role reversal but it was actually tina’s attitude that came a little out of nowhere for me, she was always the chiller mom.
dre’s song had strong house music vibes!
I too thought the Dre song was boring. House music has energy to it, this did not.
Me too! My spouse said the show was trying to keep it safe with Dre’s song.
For Shane, I think her calling out Angie’s professor as her ex highlighted the fact that she doesn’t just view Angie as one of her friends, but rather two of her friends’ child. Technically Angie isn’t a child anymore but you get it… She has taken on an aunt role, almost maternal (which is not like Shane, unless you count the time she took on her brother.. which is another story line I hope they revive). She’s more mature and responsible and is working through her trauma, even if she falls short. But yes I was also surprised this is the move the writers went with until I gave it some more thought.
As for Bette, I also feel like something is coming… Unless this is the writers’ way of phasing the Bette & Tina storyline out. As it is, they weren’t in the last few episodes, so it’s possible the actresses may not want to be as involved with the series.
I didn’t mind Shane telling Bette and Tina about that grown man their daughter had been involved with, but it did feel really regressive for Tina specifically to react the way she did. Two years ago, Tina was talking to Angie like she was a fully formed adult about her and Bette’s marital problems, but now Tina doesn’t respect Angie enough to let her explain why she’s been so caught up in such an ill-advised romance all semester without ever mentioning it to her family.
Since Tina was bold/weird enough to tell her 16 year old about how her relationship was so overwhelming and suffocating that it warranted moving away from her kid to thrive, it’s glaringly strange that she couldn’t acknowledge that she’d also made romantic choices that felt right to her but had a lot of baggage that made them painful in the long run.
I had the exact same thought that Alice’s comment about “what it was like to be gay back then” reminded me of the Tales of the City dinner scene! Also agree that that scene was way deeper and better. And also agree with others here that it could have gone into race, positionally, and privilege. I thought the Alice story in this episode as a whole was a could-be interesting commentary on fame and the responsibility of it – it would have been nice to see a depiction of an influential person getting called out on past actions and taking accountability for them, navigating the situation with thought and care. Alas.
Yes! The more I think of it, the more I want Alice to have a conversation with Sarah Schulman how it was to be gay in the 1980s. And Sarah Schulman speaking her truth about how ridiculously privileged Alice was as a wealthy white woman in 2008, and even so more now.
The Tales of the City scene was excellent. It was sympathetic in ways to both generations and critical of both.
Y’all make me wanna look up that scene on YT despite having never heard anything about Tales of the City
I do want to add that the dinner scene in “Tales of the City” is not perfect. Basically, I wish that Ben (or someone, or in a different scene later) had pointed out that trans people in the 80s and 90s, including trans people of color, died of AIDS as well, but had less power than white gay men; that trans people built the world we live in as well and fought for medication and health care also; that trans people, with and without HIV/AIDS “clawed, tooth and nail, from a society that didn’t give a shit whether [they] lived and died”; that the death rates for people of color in terms of AIDS are much higher now than for white gay men; how cops murder Black people…
But even with all the notes that I have, the dinner scene was still so much deeper than anything in this regard from the L Word Gen Q.
RAINING CATS AND DOGS
thank u 4 the tip
After watching this episode I might have captioned every other screengrab from this episode WHAT IS GOING ON??? but reading this you might have convinced me that the episode holds together more than I initially gave it credit for.
I loved Sophie getting her chance to shine as a leader, but why put this insane “45 minutes until we’re live” timeline underneath it? Why not stage it like this is the day before filming and they’re doing a run-through/the prep interview with Maddow? It just makes what they pull off COMPLETELY ridiculous. Like, if Dre was still penning the lyrics that morning, would they really have a full back-up band ready to go? Wouldn’t it take Margaret Cho at least 2 hours to get to that studio lot?
If I accept that time runs at a different and variable rate on TLW, my main two disappointments were how the Angie/Prof storyline evolved, were it felt like him not technically being her grade-granting evaluator somehow absolved the power dynamics at play (I hope this isn’t the last we see of the Bella/Angie dynamic though). Riese, your observation that “I think last week’s scenes needed to have been written or directed differently to make it clear Angie was intentionally obscuring this information from Shane” > yes, such an easy tweak and it would have made all this make more sense, particularly on Angie’s end (also what is going on with her and why is she into him??).
Jenny’s Hair by Shane for Wax – LOL. Shane’s pitch makes so much sense. And I loved this for Shane, finally verbalizing what she desires in an active way. Which makes Tess’ response all the more inconsistent and bizarre. Again, WHAT IS HAPPENING?
Tess is particularly challenging because I think she is written with so little interiority. Even when Sophie’s character has been written inconsistently, it feels like we usually have a better sense of what motivates her. Tess just feels like she is all over the place. The Tess we met in s1 is so different from the Tess of early s2 and this whole season. If it’s because she’s going through a really hard time, why not open up that interiority and let us glimpse what is motivating these unhinged reactions? (Mostly to Shane, but also Finley and others). That awful monologue at the end of last episode doesn’t count.
I miss Micah and Maribel. I also feel like the next episode is going to be all about the wedding? And where does that leave all these other characters and storylines? I feel like this season needs 2-4 more episodes to reach a kind of natural conclusion. There are so many small character moments or plot developments that were set in earlier episodes that I fear have just vanished. We never learned why Finley didn’t feel comfortable/ready having sex with Sophie (this was before the Dre revelation). Isn’t Micah still working with Nat, so why have Nat and Gigi completely disappeared (not even a reference in dialogue). WHAT IS GOING ON?
I was thrilled that Tasha Williams returned, and given Alice’s fixation on finding “the One,” wouldn’t she have plausibly viewed Tom > Mr Piddles kitten > Tasha as “the universe” at work somehow?
I also could not get past Sophie only having 45 minutes to throw it together! I had the same thought, about the traffic!
yeah the 45 minutes was bonkers, i just immediately had to be like “ok i am eliminating that line from my concept of this show or else i will never move on” bc it would for sure take margaret cho a solid two hours to get stage ready and get to the studio, if she was even that easy to get ahold of in the first place! it was so bananas — one of those things i’m just like… why say that? just have sophie say “we still have time,” bc the rushed timeline wasn’t really used either, the events continued unfolding like it was 4-5 hours or so that they were pulling it together.
Shane’s hair salon speech was really lovely and I desperately want this person who never manages to see a future for herself to see this one dream realized. I totally agree that it makes perfect sense for her, and is maybe the only thing that has made sense for her in a long time.
Making far less sense, the “it’s all about you” and “no one else can be happy if you aren’t” lines from Tess make her seem like she’s been bodysnatched. I truly can’t grasp what we’re meant to think of her this season, but I have to imagine we’re supposed to forget what we knew of her character in the previous series. The scenes she’s in this season are all so wildly unflattering to her. At best she’s ambitious and focused to a fault and just expects Shane to get onboard with it; at worst, she’s actually being the sort of partner that Sophie randomly accused Finley of being, constantly absorbing Shane’s energy and efforts while freaking out and lashing out whenever Shane deviates from her plan.
I also really hated the bottle throw. I understand we’re meant to believe that Tess has found a trapdoor beneath what she used to think was rock bottom, but the way she spoke to Shane in this ep and the way Shane has been walking around on eggshells and lying to her friends about how bad things have been combined with the bottle flying not far from Shane’s head was a lot. She’s been so mean and dismissive to Shane this season that it’s hard to have empathy for anything that Tess feels except for her specific Patty-related grief.
One too many jilted lovers throwing things this season for my taste, and tragically Dani stole the funniest thing to throw ($20 dollars worth of roadside oranges), and Angie’s rock wasn’t aimed at a person, so the bottle was just unsettling. I miss the backyard movie Tess of S2.
My wild prediction that I do not actually want to see happen is that Tina and Bette are locked in that freezer and some arbitrary time constraint for whoever is planning to marry them pops up, and somehow Micah and Maribel luck their way into a free wedding and everyone in the audience stays and celebrates as though none of them wonder what’s precipitated Maribel’s reversal on marriage.
Taking a big swing, I know, but in lieu of doing the work of giving them any meaningful continuation to whether they’re both still employed or Micah still hangs out with Max/any friends other that haven’t ever split utilities with him or Mari goes to therapy or whether the Suarez fam eternal sunshined ableism and transphobia from their very hearts, I think they’ll just get another surface-level but very cute moment as a cure all (and one more opportunity to show how mature and secure Bette and Tina are when they’re freed at the last second but let M&M have their moment, and then enlist a friend to get ordained and marry them).
That is an excellent theory on the Tina/Bette ceremony getting taken by Micha and Maribel.
It sounds like a horrible and childish storyline and fits a lot of what’s happened on this show.
I too thought this episode was well done!
I also was really hoping that maybe Alice would be forced to confront the immense privilege she possesses – like telling your Afro-Latina, lower paid coworker that you had it so much harder than her is…rough, I gotta say. Really brought me back to the Alice of yore, who I had the utmost of love/hate relationships with (that line to Max being a great example of something that falls in the “hate”category). But then again, I’m not confident in the show being able to handle that convo so perhaps best they didn’t.
I’m with Tina, I would like to murder Angie’s professor. But I love the development with Bella!! So glad that I have another friends-to-lovers ship to root for!!
I once again would love the butch 4 butch 4 butch spinoff with Finley, Carrie, and Misty.
And I’m with you that I was so glad to see Shane finally assert her wants and needs!! Characters on this show are always telling Shane how selfish she is, which is like…the opposite of how she is? As someone currently working my way through an assertiveness communication workbook, I was very proud of her. I hope that said communication being met with such vitriol doesn’t set her back!!
Shockingly, I was moved by the Tibette love in this ep – I think mostly because they were finally being good parents to Angie, but happy to be on the same page as the fanbase for once. I am just so bummed that the wedding is probably going to take up all of the finale!! There’s so much I want to follow with the other characters, and they were already married!! I only hope that there’s some yearning looks between the other couples to satisfy me
yes, I felt all this so much too, and I generally could care less about Tibette, from the OG until now:
“Shockingly, I was moved by the Tibette love in this ep – I think mostly because they were finally being good parents to Angie, but happy to be on the same page as the fanbase for once. I am just so bummed that the wedding is probably going to take up all of the finale!! There’s so much I want to follow with the other characters, and they were already married!! I only hope that there’s some yearning looks between the other couples to satisfy me”
yes agree! i am worried about all the stuff in motion that’ll have to happen or wrap up or not in an episode already consumed by a wedding. the “next on” was not exactly full of clues!
I am so stressed! And we don’t have a renewal yet! Am I going to have to get really into writing fan fic??
I’m relieved that Bella does indeed like Angie because she seems great and age appropriate, and also because Bella instinctively wanting a vibrator to match Angie’s had to either be queer or a very tasteful start to a gen z Single White Female plot, and Angie doesn’t need the latter. Very cute that she was will. Would’ve been very fun to have more of Bella and less of that grown man all season, but Bella’s making the most of her limited screentime and I love that for her!
This was the best of Bette and Tina that Gen Q has offered I think? In small doses and when assured that Bette’s new personality will hold, I like them just fine.
Yeah I also feel like Bella has been written as the overly confident and knowledgeable one in her dynamic in Angie and I love when that gets flipped, and the worldly one has to actually confront learning this new potentially scary thing about themselves!
Also, Sophie is in her early-30s, right? Rosanny Zayas is born in 1990, so even assuming Sophie is 5 years younger, that puts her in her late teens when Alice was outing Darryl. She’s very aware of what it was like to be gay then!
I wanted Rachel Maddow, who was also queer in 2008 (and the 90s), have a serious conversation with Alice about outing Darryl Brewer!
Absolutely loved Finley/Carrie/Misty with the “Love/like you (not) in a gay way”. I too want a butch 4 butch 4 butch spin-off with Finley, Carrie and Misty!
Yes to being annoyed that the only not thin character is getting a storyline about food and exercise. Nevertheless I liked the little moments, like Finley meaning well and Carrie pushing back.
Also yes to Shane not wanting a second bar but a salon. I also thought it was no coincidence that she cheated with Ivy because the whole Ivy-fling (hair stylist, Shane’s hair products) reminded Shane of a part of herself that was not active any more but she missed it. And Shane could have said: “You pressured me into it and I didn’t know how to say No etc.”
Tess saying to Shane “This was my dream” … Ahem, sure, yeah, but it was Shane’s money. I have a lot of dreams but I am not demanding people in my life to throw their money at it (and my dreams are better than having a second bar next to the first).
One comment on the sentence: “Cut to Dani’s Castle in the Sky, where Dre’s writing a song because she’s a songwriter…” … They are a songwriter. It was “they” everywhere else, only here it wasn’t.
I liked how Sophie said that Dani has hundreds of templates for apologies and how the show seemed to comment on what is going on behind the scenes when a celebrity is called out for something.
Tess drinking again… The 100th relapse storyline… Don’t care for it.
It would be a better storyline with Angie and Hendrix if the writers had delved deeper into the dynamics of a relationships/affair when one person thinks it is great and consensual and others recognize the power imbalance and find it messed up. The specifics, the why. Some depth.
The captions were so so funny – absolutely and incredibly hilarious. I started writing down my favorites but it got too long…
agree, re: rachel maddow! i can’t even imagine the show doing anything that deep, i would die on the spot
don’t worry there is no length of a favorite captions list that i would consider too long!
Okay so in this case, the following is my favorite captions list:
– “C’mon, somebody’s gotta do a sex scene this season and it may as well be us” – AND ALSO, I WANT THEM TO HAVE A SE SCENE
– I mean, me getting a crush on you and that enabling my bisexual awakening would be a pretty good story, yeah? Better than this professor thing?
– I mean sure — was it my idea, my footage, my voice, my script and my website? Absolutely. But technically it was Max who uploaded the file
– So you want to pin your bad judgement call on your transgender employee who probably has more negative “working with Alice” stories than anybody else you’ve ever met?
– Just to name one example, apparently ten minutes before asking Max to upload the Darryl Brewer video to Our Chart, he told you he was suspicious that Jenny’s new assistant Adele “isn’t who she says she is” and your response was “you’re one to talk, Max,” so
– I mean “I learned that things happen here that never should have happened” doesn’t really work when all the “things that happened” were things Alice literally did
– YAY WE ALL HAVE NAMES THAT END WITH AN “EE” SOUND!!
– Mmmmmm poision (Tess’ coffee mug w alcohol)
– No Tina I’m positive when she said “we’ve all fallen for people we shouldn’t,” she was talking about Henry
– And BY THE WAY nobody has even MENTIONED that I outed Nikki Stevens on The Talk like three days after I outed Darryl Brewer!
– So it turns out everybody in my life disapproves of this relationship after all
– She’s banging her ex-fiancé’s ghost??? The audacity!
– It’s my wisdom tooth. I had it removed so I could give it to you – followed by: omg that’s so sweet I know the perfect place in my mouth to put it
– Did you know that fireworks generate huge concentrations of pollutants from colorants and explosives and also from the metals and fuses that compose the firework itself – and I must add: ALSO BIRDS CAN DIE FROM FEAR WITH FIREWORKS
– Wanna see my kidney
thank you this list has bouyed my spirit and my ego and was better than clear water
This is why they should do it! Alice and Tasha should talk about what it was like between them back then printing deep reflection on Alice’s part, leading to her reaching out to Maddow to actually talk about what it was like back then. It’s a great idea!
I’m gonna be total honest with ya: with Bette + Tina gone, I was losing interest in the series. I know they are not the center of the world but I enjoy every minute of their interaction -since 2004! Getting married almost 20 years after the airing of the OG series feels reliving. Say what you want about the writing and what not, but that’s life, we are flawed and act like dumbasses. And don’t act like characters dying are a rare thing: last year, my 38 and 48 yo cousin and coworker died from cancer in a span of 6 months.
I just wanna see Bette and Tina tie the knot (and have hot, hot sex before the series get axed).
Love from Ecuador.
The Angie/Hendrix plot would actually be a great place to address the adultification of Angie by Terrible Parents Bette and Tina. Their treatment of their child as a confidante whose needs weren’t as important as their relationship drama could have warped her sense of her own maturity. Adultified kids don’t realize that being denied care doesn’t equal maturity, which makes them vulnerable to creepy older people whose attention can be confused for the care they actually need.
I am not interested in BetTina (sorrynotsorry). Their screen time takes away from other storylines. Rather I’d like to see Micah – but in a way that is more interesting than the storyline his character was given this season. He and Mirabel could discard their baby ideas; Micah could hang out with Max or other trans folks. Do activist stuff. We could learn about his counseling, what he does as a social worker. I’d like to see Dani attending a leather party and be a throuple with Dre and Roxy. Or better yet be single and into kink. I’d like her to shave her head and go punk. But most of all, like caitrw said last week, I’d like to see meaningful connection between characters. Something like interactions between Carrie and Finley. Not so focused on who dates whom. Only with Misty and Carrie – protect them at all costs!
Definitely would prefer all of those storylines to the one we are getting!
I’m hoping that we get to see a wedding and then they get to move more off the show. They can come in to support Angie as supporting characters in a few scenes. I’m hoping the wedding is a happy send off. Then we’ll get more Micah, Mirabel, Sophie, etc.
Yes to a throuple! I would lose my shit. I love seeing healthy polyamory depicted on the screen. It gets taken away too quickly.
Also, it seemed to be a meta-moment when Alice was like “You know I get on stage, every week and I’m trying to bring a little joy to everyone, trying to give a voice to all the queers… And they turn on me? It’s not fucking worth it!”
Is this what Marja & the writers are feeling about all the criticism they receive on Generation Q?
Omg so I had thought it was somehow a dig at Ellen degeneres — like something she might say — but I think your theory is better!!
Ilene included similar meta commentary in the original series from time to time
Do you remember which meta commentaries Ilene included in the OG series? I’m always interested in meta stuff within fictional storylines!
I 100% felt that it was Marja/the writers’ voice as well!
Same!!! That line from Alice felt like the showrunner and writers speaking directly to me, lol.
The backlash against Alice could have also included:
• stalking Dana and Lara when they were together
• making public people’s sex lives without asking their permission (and probably outing some queers by that)
• her transphobia
• pressuring Lisa the Lesbian into a kind of sex Lisa did not want
• outing what’s-her-name… the actress?
Loving the fact that Tasha is not working as a cop after all, though having been in the police academy in the OG series
So now I’m just envisioning all these people popping up to pile on and tell their Alice stories.
The existence of the chart as a public interface was really one of the most bananas elements of the original series
Loved this ep but feel Maddow-baited! :(
Mee too! I was hoping – and falsely expecting – that Rachel Maddow would appear (sniff)
Maddow-baited and then Cho-baited! I’m only forgiving it because Tasha showed up.
I was truly SO EXCITED I was like wow WHAT A GET
My thoughts exactly, and I was hopeful that we might also see Fortune Feimster at some point but I guess they’re really scaling back the onstage Aloce content (apart from Margaret Cho’s appearance).
turned off my brain for this one because i wanted to enjoy these silly little 45 minutes for once and as you pointed out it turned out to be a great episode so i guess it paid off! here are the few thoughts i wrote down:
– poor angie they gave all her wisdom to bette “what’s a little bumper” porter
– leisha really said “i want to act with all my friends again” and made it happen! good for her and good for us!
and last but not least:
– ok but if they’ve given up on putting the ogs with gen q characters and are bringing back their last love interests does this mean we’re finally getting ghost jenny at the wedding
“does this mean we’re finally getting ghost jenny at the wedding” – COMMENT AWARD
I hope she is wearing her iconic garbage bag dress
oh i will 100% be making an edit of that stay tuned
i am in love with the representation of butches in loose-fitting shirts.
moreover the episode was coherent and congrats to kate for directing it!
and dre was mature in the end by basically saying “this is how I feel how about you” instead of playing games. I liked this about dre
Even though I knew it was coming, I still screamed my fool head off when I saw Tasha. You’re too good for Alice, T. Come on over here and sit next to me. *pats sofa cushion*
im shipping you and Tasha
I did NOT know it was coming and just about lost my mind! I had to pause and collect myself.
I am so happy that finally we get to see Bette and Tina together. It’s been a long time coming. I thought it was one of the better episodes this whole season. Can’t wait for Episode 10. Hope we might see Bette and Tina get physical with each other
Am I the only person who found this to be one of the most unenjoyable hours of television they’ve ever watched? An inventory of things I hated: 1) A continuation of one of the most fatphobic storylines the show could have come up with, 2) Bringing back Tibette, a couple that has to focus so hard on not being toxic to each other that they barely notice their daughter is in a post-breakup depressive spiral. The proposal was uninspired and they are deeply boring but third time’s the charm I guess, 3) The complete incoherence of Shane and Tess, who the writers have zero idea what to do with besides repetitive declarations of “I can’t do this” and mysteriously undetectable coffee mug relapses, 4) Alice being an insufferable child which, while realistic, was a missed opportunity to explore nuances of race and sexuality, 5) Continuing with Professor Predator romance when literally no one wants this for Angie; even Shane and Tina’s interventions were un-strategic and out of character, and I don’t think it’s actually good parenting to say “well, they have to spread their wings” in response to your teen child being in relationship with their professor. The only parts that didn’t make me want to throw things were Bella and the cat. I didn’t hate Dre’s performance but also wished at least some of the triumphant apex of the story had been given to Sophie, the most consistently underwritten character, to relish her accomplishment in a difficult professional situation! And of course it was great to see Rose Rollins, but I am anti this storyline they have manufactured where Tasha became a complete asshole and ghosted Alice? The interaction didn’t feel earned or real to me. They always bickered but the dynamic was never hostile. I suppose I was watching a more narratively coherent episode than usual but about the most miserable topics.
I am so happy that finally we get to see Bette and Tina together. It’s been a long time coming. I thought it was one of the better episodes this whole season. Can’t wait for Episode 10. Hope we might see Bette and Tina get physical with each other
It’s not a duplicate. Please submit
I believe you may be on to something if you are not already spoiled.
Agree with you. I checked out after they left. Tried to watch but never really saw the show due to having Bette and T divorce.
If the whole episode is about the wedding I won’t complain
Riese, much as you would like to let the record show that you called Tasha early in the ep, I would like the submit to the official record that I called the salon in a comment on ep 302 on this very site.
“My gut says they’re going to ‘open a bar’ across the street from their other bar, and it’s actually going to become a Shane TM salon.”
That is all.
I will add it to the record!
This is the validation I needed. Haha
Ok can anyone explain this to me so I don’t have to go back and rewatch:
Do Carrie and Tina live in Toronto together?? Are they in a distance relationship?? How does Carrie live and have a nice home in LA post-Tina?
K that is my non-episode-specific question ty.
TASHA WOO.
I thought (can’t guarantee I’m right though lol) that Tina and Carrie were living in New York at the time of Tina’s reappearance. It’s mentioned Carrie has passed the bar in two states (which I interpreted as NY and California). Toronto is only 1.5 hours by plane from NYC, but they could have been living in upstate New York and so much closer to Toronto.
And then the fact that Carrie is now in LA I interpreted as Carrie transferred or took a new job in California (while they were still together) so Tina could be closer to Angie, but then the fact Tina still works in Toronto doesn’t make sense. Who knows?! Lol
As someone with extremely limited understanding of US geography, this gave a bit of context but I am still so confused. It was definitely one of those things I told myself not to think about too much or else I’d lose it aha!
Ok that’s somewhat helpful!!! Thank you. So confused.
ssh, does anyone even remember that Carrie and Tina were a thhing?
So actually, I think Tina and Carrie were living in Toronto where Tina was working in a show in Season One, and then in episode 107, Tina told Bette that she and Carrie were gonna be looking for a place in LA to live in during the hiatus of her show, and also they were gonna be getting married. That said I have… no idea what Carrie was doing in Toronto bc she’s a lawyer and you can’t just move to Canada and start working there. We don’t really get a lot of info about Carrie in Season One, i’m not sure if the writers had decided anything about her yet. Seems that what Trout said (that Carrie was working in NYC) is most likely.
Then Season Two opens with Carrie coming over, they seem set up in LA. But then Tina would’ve gone back to Toronto when filming started again.
I guess she decided to stay in LA after her and Tina broke up and makes good enough money to have a nice house.
Very thorough!!! Ty
I can’t believe you didn’t mention Bette’s line “How about instead of murdering a man we get some french fries?” It seemed to be parallel to the new Bette’s saying in episode one: “we’re all going to die, what’s a little bumper?”
anyway love love love the recaps!
TAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
also
“(this show only knows like five male names)”
is like the most relatable aspect of the L Word.
Counting the days for The Wedding of the Century!
Thank you for mentioning Shay, even in jest! I actually wonder a lot about where he is and whether Shane kept any kind of contact with him. He would be a young adult now, yeah?
Also want Shane to reconnect with her brother. And I want her to look into her childhood/youth trauma with a professional and how that shaped her, as well as her relationships. Give us therapy sessions! But without having sex w the therapist! It worked well on Jane the Virgin, on Buffy, even The Flash, and provides a different/deeper insight into characters!
I love therapy on tv, when done well! Big Little Lies and The Fosters also did it really well. I would love to see it with Shane
it seems like social media doesn’t exist in the world of the l word gen q unless it’s tweets or videos about a public figure — but if it did i do think that shane could fine shay that way. although that said shane definitely does not have a facebook profile, i’m not even sure if i’ve ever seen her use a computer
The fake buildings in LA are supposedly oil derricks. I haven’t been in them and I don’t really know anything about the oil industry, so I can’t tell you if they are always pumping oil now or they just used too …
There are many active oil wells in La esp Inglewood. I went to a fascinating talk by the guy who is in charge of regulating them. It’s actually kind of a city hazard. It did finally make sense why downtown la is located where it is though! I always wondered why the center of the city is there and not the ocean. That’s where the oil is
TASHA! I’ve waited 3 seasons for this! And I can’t wait to get to the moment where Alice & Tasha can’t keep the tension going any more, start to giggle, and we get to hear Rose’s best-in-class laugh again! I’m still mad about & missing Gigi (how whatever happened was handled compounds the disappointment). But seeing Tasha with Alice again — directed by the third musketeer, Kate — did my heart good. I missed them! My kingdom for Helena next. And…Gigi. Sigh.
Everything is beautiful and nothing that i refuse to think too hard about hurts. Getting to see Tasha Williams in her sexy firefighter era is so special to me. I can’t wait until something convulted happens to get her to Bette and Tina’s wedding where she and Alice will pointedly avoid talking to each other until Bette or Shane will wax poetic about missed opportunities and lost love and make the two of them make meaningful eye contact. I hope they get to have sex afterwards for old time’s sake!
I like Alice having to deal with outing Darryl Brewer again, but it’s very funny for a white lesbian whose career has been built around being allowed to live openly to not notice even 15 years after the fact that a Black man in a theretofore homophobic league who relied on brand endorsements from homophobic companies might’ve been in a hard spot and handled needing to be closeted very poorly, but idc TASHA’S BACK.
Dani looks so good this season, like why does she look so good this season? She exclusively acts opposite gorgeous people and yet every ep it occurs to me that she looks freakishly hot, esp for someone who was recently left by Gigi Ghorbani. Dre being in love with her within a fortnight very nearly makes sense because of it, but also Dre is so hot that I have to imagine they can think clearly around Dani and so, idk, seems a little early for a romantic ultimatum, but she is the acting like the Iranian-Latina Olivia Pope and maybe I’m circling back to it making sense again.
Carrie is my number one normie and I truly couldn’t have weathered losing her, and I love every second that she shares with Finley and Misty, and I am only a little bothered by the fatphobia until I remember that Carrie was either in or lied about being in OA last season and so having her eating policed by a slim kid in shorts that I might buy may not be great for her and doesn’t feel very comfortable to me. Still, those three are great as a unit and also I hope Finley switches tabs and orders noise canceling headphones. She seems like maybe she shouldn’t have a credit check run needlessly any time soon.
I’m thrilled for Sophie to thrive by any means necessary, and even though I’m confused about what her role at the Aloce Show is and why she doesn’t have peers helping to make the show happen, it was fun to see her in her element, and also to see her and Dani team up. I adore their friendship and I wouldn’t have guessed at the start of their season how much I’d buy them as each other’s dearest and most supportive friends. I do wish the show could’ve decided on literally one shred of story for her that wasn’t tied up in her relationship earlier in the season, but I’ll take what I can get.
Alice has always been very white and privileged. I’m not surprised by any of her actions. It would be nice to see her have to confront some of that, but I’m not sure if I trust the writers to do that.
For the people who were upset with me last week: I’m not saying she is evil/awful/etc. I like her a lot. She is just very white. Remember the Papi arc XD? “Pappy” XD I will never get over that.
mostly i just wanna c/p everything in your comment and say “hard agree” or “this made me laugh”
i totally forgot about the OA thing which yeah, we still have no idea if that was true or not (did the writers know? was that decision made? who are any of us and why are we here?)
Dani… does look so good this season! i loved her hair this episode. idk she feels very much inside her power, if that make sense, despite as aforementioned being left by gigi (as were we all)
I was watching old eps, and I was finding I can’t even take Sophie and Dani as a couple seriously anymore! I was literally like “oh wow forgot the cliffhanger was if she’d choose Dani or Finley.” They work so well as besties, it’s just such a good fit it makes me forget all the drama of last season
Carrie’s and Misty’s hands: was moved to see two older hands like this in this show. Also to see faces of two butch characters with wrinkles that are not concealed by make-up or eliminated by cosmetic surgery. Love lines in women’s faces, they are an award and show that they have lived. Also I wish the more feminine-presenting folks who are older could be seen with wrinkles and lines.
Misty is phenomenal. So natural and cool. When she said “I actually really like this show” about Grey’s Anatomy, Carrie’s face changed, she was touched that her gf got into something that was important to her, and that was when they started kissing, which lead up to sex. This was wonderful.
However, it just seemed like some pressure to me early in the episode when Misty was like “and then WE can get going” on the hiking tour, also thought that Carrie felt pressure (her face), even though Misty then said “We don’t have to do anything you’re not ready for, obviously.”
Was happy they let go of the fat-shaming around Carrie this season, but last episode and this leaned into it again. Boooo!
Finley’s line “She’s a beast people” when Carrie reached the top of the mountain – brilliant!
The way Carrie responds when Finley is all like “I’m trying to help” and Carrie is like “but that’s not the way” – kind and also holding her accountable. Hoping for Finley that she’ll learn something valuable here.
Sophie to Barry: “Thank you so much for your leadership role on this” – she is great at crisis management!
Jordan Hull is an amazing actress and terrific as Angie, she is fabulous in every scene she’s in.
Bella about Tina & Bette: “They’re low-key iconic” and Angie just shaking her head – funny. Also funny how Sophie and Dani were both fangirling over Dre.
Shane and Tess… Does Shane not know her partner of 1,5 years well enough to realize that Tess had a relapse and behaves different? Smells alcohol? Anything?
In the musical episode, it would have fitted better if Shane had jumped towards Tess’ car and Tess had already left, because this is how they seem to me. Hopefully Shane will get some therapy for herself even if Tess doesn’t want to do couple’s therapy.
I mostly loved this episode! The exception is the last Angie scene, with them getting dressed, which felt like we were supposed to think, “thank goodness they can be together now.” I can only hope the season finale will have Angie come to some sort of realization?
I was hoping Tasha would come on the show since they mentioned her but didn’t want to hope too hard. I guess the dredging up of Daryl Brewer was a hint early in the episode, but still, I screamed when I saw Tasha. Since her mention in the musical episode and due to the dearth of sex scenes, I can’t stop thinking about that “I’m just a soldier in the army” sex scene.
I wonder where they are going with the Angie/Ex Professor plotline. I really hope Angie comes to the realization that the entire relationship is f’ed up. She won’t even listen to her friend. Teens do tend to think they are grown, so it’s not surprising. I really hate this plot line and as someone who has been groomed, I skip through many of the scenes. My spouse fills in the holes for me. It feels so unnecessary. I get if it’s supposed to be a teaching moment, but I’m not seeing anything being taught. And the actual actress is a teen (maybe she’s 20 now) and she looks like a teen (she still has baby fat), while the professor looks like a grown ass man. Which disturbs me further.
It was pleasing that the narrative mainly made sense this week. And I was honestly teary-eyed seeing Tasha as a firefighter, a perfect post-cop career change. Love this for her.
I thought they really missed an opportunity to dive into Alice’s privilege/self-righteousness. I like her character a lot, but it would be nice to delve into why she is the way she is a little closer.
I cannot BELIEVE that Angie went back to the Man, Sweet jesus!!! But I do feel good about successfully noticing the vibes that Bella was giving out from the beginning.
Tess…ooh lorde. What is there to say? So messily written, can’t even meaningfully engage with the storyline.
I loved seeing Tasha as a fire fighter! I’m super tired of copaganda, glad they had her switch careers. If we get more than a scene or 2 of Tasha I would love for her to have a convo about the problems of policing today. Whatever happens I do want a few more scenes with Tasha (if not a whole season!).
if tasha doesn’t show up in the next episode i am RIOTING
also agree with both of you, firefighter was the perfect career shift.
This show…. it has to go. So depressing because, as one character so aptly pointed out on this episode, queer content on TV is bleak right now. But the writing is terrible. My biggest regret is the potential loss of these recaps. Reese, you had me CACKLING this week. Thank you for that.
you’re welcome!!!
Okay, is it just me or was Tina’s public confrontation out of character but only a little bit? Like, it’s not her usual behaviour but it’s not *entirely* surprising? Have we not seen a reactive Tina before? A Tina who is quite good at emotional regulation but loses it every now and then when she feels like her family or sense of security is under threat?
I can think of a few instances. In the OG, she slapped Bette; it’s a thing Tibette fans don’t like to remember (including the part of me that ships them) because that scene is murky but it definitely happened and it didn’t look like Tina (the character) planned it. It’s not what you would’ve expected her to do though. Then there are other moments I remember like the iconic table flip at The Planet in OG season 2. Or the time she had a go at Jenny in a meeting and called her the c word (which was unprofessional but kinda funny). Or in the season that I like to pretend doesn’t exist (6) where she publicly harangues William and her dick boss in that restaurant. I think it was even shot in a way that suggested Tina was making a scene and what we expected from Bette actually came from her. Of course people develop over time but even the confrontation with Bette in Gen Q after Carrie overheard them seemed to hint that this reactive part of her is there, it’s just rare and mostly tamed. I wasn’t shocked though. I think it makes her flawed and human.
Also, this is a small thing but I can’t express how beautiful it is to see characters with braids on the show. We all know Black hair is political and I’ve loved seeing Pippa and Angie do their hair. Even Quiara rocked them in season 1 and I recently saw an interview with Michelle Obama where she said she felt like she could never have that when she was first lady because it would become this whole thing. Dre, on the other hand is just smoking everyone – wow. Every style has made me pause a little bit and feel inspired. Kinda sad that this is the most memorable aspect of their characterisation for me though 😅.
Great recap as always Riese. I can’t believe we only have one more.
I am always so happy seeing Angie’s hair. I also find it beautiful that she is a mixed race kid who is not light skinned, with blue eyes, loose curls, and light colored hair. It feels radical. I love it. I never get to see that.
Trigger Warning: Sexual Assault
“Tina says that Bette was technically not the first woman she was with, revealing that she had been sexually abused by her older sister for three years, …” – “L Word” wiki
This could be one of the motivators of why Tina stood up and yelled. Tina is also a Mama Bear and all the other things you said. In the end unless we are presented with that kind of situation we have no idea how we are going to respond. That would be a very surprising and upsetting situation for many parents.
Dre has great hair. I agree it’s almost the most memorable part of their persona
Yay, Cedar Point shout-out!
i was hoping at least one person would also have a fond feeling towards my favorite sandusky attraction!!!
“Dre’s here in an interesting outfit and Dani’s talking her through all of it, and Dre wants to know if they’re just going to act like this morning didn’t happen. But Dani says this moment isn’t about her and Dre! It’s about Dre!”
Am I misreading this sentence or was Dre misgendered here? Also obviously all nonbinary people have different relationships to their gender and gendered words, but I haven’t seen anything from Dre that indicates they would be okay being called a “girlfriend” as in the photo caption right under this sentence.
This episode made me smile. Even though I don’t think Bette and Tina are good for one another, I started a rewatch on the original and OMG. Bette just ran Tina over, baby stealing, slapping, etc. For a TV show I can suspend my disbelief. I liked their little discussion over fast food, it was cute.
Love Tasha coming back. I’m not sure if you should date/have sex with someone who ghosted a long term relationship, but I’m hoping Alice was exaggerating that fact.
I could see Tasha ghosting Alice though. Maybe Alice wasn’t listening to Tasha’s needs, things got toxic and Tasha just left. We’ll see.
Does anyone remember the tapes that came out after the Jenny Schecter “murder” thing? Tina talks about being sexually abused by family members, her sister I believe. That could have been her motivation to jumping up and yelling. Also, people are weird, no one is perfect. People act “out of character” all the time. I do sometimes feel like the comments and recaps are nitpicky and not just a critique/analyzing. When I say nitpicky I’m not talking about fatphobia, racism, transphobia, etc. I mean people nitpicking a small thing a character did is out of character because XYZ and I wouldn’t do XYZ. XYZ doesn’t make sense to me. I also understand that it is fun to come into community and talk about one of the only all queer shows on TV. So I’m not taking it to heart. “Gen Q” is a fun show to discuss. Still searching for a place to watch “Queer As Folk.”
Really loved this episode. I hope we get more of Mirabel and Micah’s fertility journey next season. I’m a queer working on trying to have a baby and their plotline is giving me life. Most of the people I know/knew think children are disgusting and weigh people down or are god’s gift to earth, so I feel a bit isolated sometimes. Micah and Mirabel make me feel a little more seen. I can’t wait to see a lesbian wedding.
It’s really nice seeing Sophie be good friends with Dani and respecting Dani and Dre’s hookups. I like that. Someone said it earlier and I would love a throuple with Dani, Dre, and Dani’s friend from childhood (forgot their name already XD). I love a good throuple, poly is so beautiful. Now I know “Gen Q” would f up that relationship (RIP Gigi, Nat, and Alice), but it would be good while it lasted.
I hope the show gets renewed.
Yeah I don’t think it was necessarily out of character for Tina to do that but I just personally *wanted* to see them actually go head to head with that guy instead of yelling and then a cut! I wanted to see them fight with him! But it’s ok, obviously this show won’t always be what I personally desire lol
The name you’re looking for is Roxy!!
And yes unfortunately I do remember the interrogation tapes
Should they all have fought in a wrestling arena oiled up?? JK, it would have been fun watching Bette tear ex professor a new one. Ahhh
Kayla, I hadn’t thought about Tina’s experiences with her sister and how this might have impacted her yelling at Hendrix in the audience. That is a valid point and I see the situation in a new light now. Also, I agree with you that people behave “out of character” in real life.
Micah and Mirabel wanting to have a child is not my cup of tea, but I love it for you that this plotline is giving you life!
Alice!!! You screwed it up with Tasha again!!! Who came in dashing saving a cat?!? Wtf. I give up on you Alice. You’re going to die alone
I agree that misty and Carrie and gi finley’s weekend is highly accurate LA rep. Love this place forever. It’s a mess, but it’s our mess
And yes, I’ve googled “what ever happened to Devon sawa?” Don’t Google Jonathan Brandis.
I don’t think Alice wants a long term relationship. She kind of reminds me of Carrie from “Sex and the City.” She loves her career, but is told people need to find her forever person. So that’s what she searched for. Just my opinion.
I unfortunately seem to have a desire to google Jonathan Brandis and read all the same articles about him annually, most recently a few weeks ago! Still not over it!
Yes it’s our mess ❤️ bless it
On Gen Q they keep showing Shane being treated unfairly by people who are Black or far less financially secure than her. Quiara was mean to her about having a kid, then, despite being financially successful in her own right, she ‘takes’ Shane’s money like the evil ex-wife in a misogynist tale of woe. The whole plot with Lena Waithe’s character punishing Shane for being unwittingly hit on by her partner at poker was yet another example of a Black character with little interiority becoming an obstacle for poor innocent wealthy white Shane. (Then they bring up the Daryl Brewer incident and totally fail to have anyone even hint at Alice’s white privilege causing harm to Black people…)
When Shane and Tess got together some of us had questions about Tess’s status as Shane’s employee, which would create an uneven power dynamic between them. This season, the employee manipulates her rich boss into making a terrible business decision, takes Shane’s care for her mom for granted, and has this bizarre tantrum about the bar/salon. In reality, how often do we see relationships with such an income disparity where it’s the wealthier person whose life comes to revolve around the desires/needs of the financially less secure partner? Never.
This is a fantastic observation, thank you so much.
“In reality, how often do we see relationships with such an income disparity where it’s the wealthier person whose life comes to revolve around the desires/needs of the financially less secure partner? Never.”
You are 10000 % correct. Thank you for this thoughtful comment, you raise excellent points. Tess’ behavior this episode (and this season) annoyed me and everything connected to the second bar, but yes, it is a writing problem and a tired misogynistic trope.
(Also I agree with everything you said about Quiara and Lena Waithe’s character but I thought about that last season, too, and the observation regarding Tess was new to me.)
This is such an interesting observation! Half the time the show wants to take on Blackness as a very special focal point (like S2 Angie and Bette talking briefly about police brutality and the like 2 sentences Angie got to say about how losing Kit meant losing someone who looked like her and experienced Blackness in the way that she did, which incidentally made her interested in finding Marcus) but probably do it a little badly and at the expense of minor Black characters. The other half of the time, the show is very comfortable pretending that the whiteness and wealthiness and thinness of most of the characters they focus on is happening in a vacuum, and therefore not really impacting Black people or other POC.
They’ve never really cared to explore wealth or wage disparity, and I think we’re meant to think that everyone on the show is fairly comfortable, if not wealthy, even though it sort of doesn’t make any sense for some of them and could be interesting to navigate in a place like LA.
I truly won’t ever get why they wrote a line about world-famous, presumably rich Quiara getting some of Shane’s money in the divorce as though Quiara wouldn’t have outearned her.
Yes to Bella/Angie – you go Bella! Yes to the Bette/Tina Wedding (I actually forgot they were supposed to be already wedded and again divorced, whoops) – they were extra cute this episode. And Bette is apparently actually working on her anger issues. Love to see it. Yes to TASHA and oh well, Alice!
I actually don’t dislike Alice and I kindaaaa understand her outing that guy (but I don’t really agree with it). But how are you greeting Tasha?!? Girl, just no! You know we all love Tasha and were waiting for her ever since that Dana flashback!
But on a much more Meta note. I do love on how they’re bringing back past love interests for Alice and are trying to tie those ends up. I also kinda like Tom and that Dana drug-infused flashback was both unexpected but also very, very lovely for my romantic heart. And now Tasha – I always hoped for her but never dared to actually have her in Gen Q. Sooooo unexpected!
Also, love that Carrie storyline. Glad she didn’t die! Please don’t die.
As someone who is slowly processing their first lesbian break up this line messed me up. We didn’t even bang and the relationship was short but my gosh, the amount of crying I did during the relationship and post is bonkers. Just soooo many gay feelings.
“then Carrie says she is and then Carrie starts crying because my god isn’t being gay just a fantastic journey and aren’t we all blessed to be going on it.”
The “fingering each other’s fingers” also hit close to home. Mercy me.
I did contribute but I don’t see my comment so I’ll write another one
I loved seeing Bette and Tina. Wish they were in more episodes. Can’t wait for E10 and the wedding. So surprised with the ending with Sasha. I’m interested to see what the next episode brings with Alice and Sasha
Your comments all went through! There are two of them on this post before this one if you scroll back
I had a feeling Shane wanted it to be a salon right after she cut Ivy’s hair. Just not sure where the fuck they are going with Shane & Tess’s characters. Just so poorly written this season with this episode being the worst.
I apologise, I haven’t checked to see this has been already mentioned.. But I do want applaud how well the references were findable here. The ever changing journey of Bette and Tina’s relationship, all and everything to do with Alice. Even just having a rewatch of the singular episode with the whole of the “lez girls” cast. It’s such a clever way to give new viewers a perfect chance to gain a flashback episode, and probably make them watch it all from the very beginning like the rest of us did! 🙈 I thought a few of the episodes this season have been absolutely brilliant! It’s a good amount of full circle moments for sure!
Wow, I really wasn’t expecting to get so many episodes with Carrie & Misty. I feel spoiled! I totally cried when Carrie cried, I loved that scene so much. They feel so real to me, and like I can have that kinda love when I’m older, and maybe be in butch4butch relationship?? That representation is really awesome to see. Do Carrie & Misty have a ship name yet??
Yay for Finley being brave and expressing her emotions by telling Carrie she was scared and that she loved her!!! Proud of you Finley.
When I saw Tasha I screamed!! So happy they made that happen. She was my crush on the OG series.
I really don’t want to go through a season of Tess & Shane having bars next to each other. Shane cheated but Tess is consistently treating her like shit now.
However, a season finale is coming up and it feels like they might use it to make Tess leave in a big way. She is spiralling and most of her story has been intertwined with Shane.
I feel like the OG series really dragged relo dramas out but this one seems to cut people out after break ups unless they are core characters in a lot of ways. It feels like the only thing keeping Tess there post Shane is the bar and I think technically that is a Shane money thing. Unless Finley moves in with Tess? The relapsing would be v triggering though.
I am living for the Carrie storyline and I need the dynamic with Finley to continue. I would love if they could handle Carrie without fat shaming and/or making her feel unloveable etc.
Feels like Angie might run away with the professor we all hate bc Bette and Tina will need a ~drama~ in their storyline.
I didn’t mean to do this as a reply, sorry!
The ship you’re searching for is #MistArrie #letsmakeithappe
yes!!! #MistArrie – love it 😄
So, did Misty and Carrie actually diss Lexie Grey or what?
They did! Ruuuude!!
YES! And I as a gay am offended by this very mundane thing bc that face is ALSO Alex Danvers’s face
Yay, a fun episode! Usually I watch these right when they come out on Fridays but I saved this one for today as a birthday gift to myself and I’m glad I did. I wish Hendrix Fitz would have been called out much earlier in the season but it was a relief to see the callout happen at all since I had lost hope it ever would. Not sure what purpose is served by having Angie stubbornly go back to him, but surely it’ll crash and burn quickly and she’ll realize her moms and uncle were right?
Tasha’s return was also a fun surprise. Initially I also wanted Alice to lean into Tasha, but I’ll gladly accept a bit of prickliness and conflict in the beginning if it means that they make it work together next season, a season which Showtime will surely give to us because failing to do so would be violence.
Also, the Call Your Girlfriend photo caption was a fun and welcome reminder that real music exists, not just the in-house stuff with the extremely heavy-handed lyrics they’re using in lieu of an actual soundtrack. What a delight it would have been to hear Dre sing some Robyn instead!
Oops, make that Dancing On My Own, not CYG! Lengthy sentence in gay culture jail for me after getting that one wrong.
I love that I get to write about something I liked!
I liked seeing Tasha, I liked seeing Bette and Tina adapt to this New Phase of Parenting, and although it was frustrating to watch, I liked that Alice couldn’t see how privileged and white she acted EVEN THEN to out this black male athlete and justify her actions. And think that other people should/would also justify her. And that her employee and consultants of color didn’t call her on this and the very race-informed outcomes Alice and Darryl seemed to face. Alice made it her brand to be messy for views! She is a white woman who profited handsomely for her actions, and profited for years! And her malnourished admission that her behavior was destructive only comes after even her Dana kitten has to take a moment! LOL
This is always how I’ve read Alice, and it’s so interesting to see the show make more space for viewers to see her that way too.
And I also loved how these celebrity apologies were depicted in general. Reactionary, performative and insincere.
Look, I can forgive every transgression of this batshit series thus far because Tasha’s back! What a master stroke… bravo.
This episode found me sitting on the couch with my spouse in matching sweatshirts/sweatpants, working on a craft and pausing to eat dinner (they cooked, I did the dishes). 15 years ago I was in a University dorm watching pirated episodes, praying no one found out. I thought I wanted Tibette, but MistArrie is so, so much better. Give me queer realness. Give me fingers fingering each other. Give me direct conversations and mentoring/befriending younger queer humans, giving them a literal safe space to be. Give me the sewing machine in the spare bedroom realness because housing is $$$!!!
“Give me the sewing machine in the spare bedroom realness” yes!!!!!
This is probably L word sacrilege but I don’t think bette and tina should be end game like this. (Maybe even at all?)
Bette has always been very strong and fierce and it feels like she is blunting herself. Did they say she went to therapy? She is … so chilled. How much of yourself are you willing to give up to be with another person?
It would be cool to see other reasons behind her being chill now. Still involved in the art world but even at a student mentoring level and helping others in a non stressful way? Having her career culminate in something that gives her joy but is flexible so she can be supportive of Tina.
I commented earlier saying I felt they might get rid of Tess and I just wanted to point out that I love Tess. I do love a lot or the new characters from Gen Q! Sophie, Finley, Tess, Micah, Mirabel and Carrie are my faves.
I loved Daniel Sea coming back. I did notice a good 90% of commenters used their dead name and that is probably because it is so close to their new name and they maybe didn’t notice.
I appreciate that there are people who will love and feel represented by the having a baby storyline but at the same time, as a trans guy, am now seeing the second trans guy in this show have another baby storyline. When representation is so limited in media in general, it is tough to see.
I guess the good thing is that this is intentional and planned. I would argue that it is too soon bc M&M have so much to work through. I admittedly had kids too soon (who are my absolute world but I missed being young) due to being pressured by my clucky ex and my brain is just screaming.
Maybe Mirabel’s fam will be heaps involved and it will be a cute thing. Maybe we will get to see the kid being raised in the context of the extended friend group likewise missed with Angie. It could be great.
I hope Gen Q keeps getting renewed. It isn’t perfect but it is what we have!
Before I even finish your comment I want to say:
It’s not L Word sacrilege. I agree with you, lots of people do.
I’m willing to suspend my belief that after years of incompatibility, Bette will stop cheating and they’ll live happily ever after for a lesbian wedding. Clearly the writers will not let their relationship go. I’m here for a wedding and a send off.
I love Tess too!!! Also want to see the show get renewed!
Give me the realness of watching tv in baggy t shirts while eating takeout any day. The Carrie/Misty scenes are the closest to my actual lived experience, & I’m there for it!
Tina & Bette were adorable in this one also.
Oh Angie, please stop making bad choices. I hate this storyline for her. She’s such a force, what is she even doing? Are they trying to show us that everyone makes mistakes? Yeah, we knew that, now give Angie a better storyline, please and thank you.
I know all the drama is going to eventually unfold bc that’s what the l word does, but i enjoyed the brief moments of sunshine in this one.
Tasha’s back! Finally! I feel like Ghost Dana needs to come back to make fun of Alice for being so dense.
Riese, first my eyes were forced to read “take the train to tuna town” and now “squat thrusts in the cucumber patch.” Send help!!
I appreciate that there are people who will love and feel represented by the having a baby storyline but at the same time, as a trans guy, am now seeing the second trans guy in this show have another baby storyline
Spot on, as always. And I’m sorry, but did you pull the necessary permits for “doing squat thrusts in the cucumber patch”????
Although I’ve thought that the writing on the show this season has been quite poor, I have LOVED your recaps Riese and love listening to the To L and Back episodes each week on my Monday commute.
I recently started re-listening to the episodes of To L and Back recapping the original series and earlier this week listened to the recap of Lynch Pin from season 2 where you discussed what you thought Bette and Tina’s first wedding would have been like. I’m looking forward to seeing if any of that plays out on screen now we’re actually going to see them get married!
I watched this episode in a gay bar with other queers, and let me tell you, many toques were thrown when angie closed professor blech’s door
also, i have never gotten tibette hype and honestly i still don’t get it…..