On this chapter of The Queerest Things I Watched Last Week, Stef and Lena pay a visit to Good Trouble for A Very Coterie Christmas and The L Word Generation Q continues to bring quality queer content.
- Good Trouble – Season 2 Episode 10 & 11 “Nochebuena” & “A Very Coterie Christmas” [Live]
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A 2-hour holiday special with the entire Foster Adams family meant dusting off the sad sponge scale for Stef and Lena. Let’s see how our favorite bickering moms are during A Very Coterie Christmas.
Yup, still fighting.
This time it’s about Waze vs. Google Maps.
Meanwhile, Alice needs to save the Coterie for the holidays.
The Coterie’s lease is up, and the eccentric woman the lease’s name is in will only sign for an extension if she’s allowed to move back in. That is not an option. Alice is trying to hold it together in front of everyone, but not doing a very good job.
Also, Jazmine and Gael are spending their first Nochebuena together both estranged from their family.
They get a call that their grandfather (the supportive one) had a stroke and is in the hospital. Even though Jazmin refuses to go because the rest of the family won’t welcome her, Gael convinces her.
After a lot of uncomfortable interactions between Jazmin and her dad, they do get a chance to talk things out while everyone else is asleep.
Later, Stef and Lena get in the mood by throwing shade at Brandon’s parents-in-law.
Gross to doing it in your kid’s bed, but I don’t think I’ve seen the two of them be that into to each other before. The sad sponges are looking up!
But not for long. We should have seen this coming with all the talk about Stef moving to Sacramento for Lena and their phones being identical, but Lena sees a surprising message on Stef’s phone.
It’s the old “I Applied For a Job in Venezuela and Didn’t Tell You” trope. Even without a house full of children, Stef and Lena still have terrible communication skills. But I guess it’s not that big a deal. Lena tells Stef she saw the message and it’s cool if she wants to go to Venezuela.
I warned my wife I would be mad as hell if she secretly applied for a job that would take her out of the country for a year. But maybe Lena’s relieved she can concentrate on her first year in office without any distractions.
Stef and Lena’s Sad Sponge Rating
- Starting off the episode fighting: Negative Sponges
- Passive-Aggressive statements about Sacramento on both sides: Negative Sponges
- Hiding the year-long job in Venezuela: Very Negative Sponges
- Doin’ it in their kid’s bed: Gross, but Positive Sponges
- Being cool with the Venezuela thing: Positive Sponges
- Being above-average nice to each other: Positive Sponges
I give them 3 sponges, one flaming hot for A Very Coterie Christmas Eve bang.
Elsewhere, Alice’s troubles are solved when Dennis steps in with a big check and saves the Coterie. The only contingent being Alice can’t let anyone know it was him.
Gael and Jazmin’s grandfather wakes up from the stroke happy to see his son and granddaughter together. Hopefully, this puts Jazmin and her dad on the road to a better relationship.
And there you have it — A Very Coterie Christmas tied up in a neat bow. Regular season two episodes start back up on January 15 in the new year.
- The L Word Generation Q – Season 1 Episode 3 “Text” [Live]
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This show is truly the Queerest Thing I Watch Every Week lately. How are our characters doing this episode?
Finley
After a night of “fudging” (that term creeps me out), Rebecca says she needs to leave in the morning even though she doesn’t want to. Finley’s like “Where are you going? I’ll go with you.” and is visibly freaked out after she tells her she’s going to Church.
By now, we’ve been able to extrapolate Finley had a homophobic religious upbringing forcing her to leave her family and run away to LA. It also looks like she is still dealing with a lot of internalized homophobia so it would make sense she would be freaked out by dating someone religious.
At work, she tells Sophie about it and Sophie makes her go see the church (MCC – a super queer-friendly Protestant Christian denomination) because it’s on her list of potential wedding venues. When they get there guess who the Minister (Pastor? Sorry, I don’t know anything about religion) is?
I honestly did not see that coming. Good one, L Word.
Shane
As predicted, Shane bought the previous lesbian bar turned sports bar and Tess and Lena are going to run it.
Later, Shane meets up with Alice and Bette for lunch and introduces them to Lena.
I absolutely love the telepathic level of communication between Bette and Shane.
Of course, they want to know where Shane met Lena and she tells them Atlas, the sports bar she just bought to turn back into a gay bar.
Alice is really encouraging and Bette is judgemental as usual. But they give Shane these wise words of advice.
Spoiler Alert: She doesn’t listen.
Oh, Shane.
Alice
Alice is concerned about Nat not having any friends, including her former best friend who is also her ex-wife.
But before the friend matchmaking happens, Alice has America’s Gay Sweetheart as a guest on her show — Megan Rapinoe!
Finley is all of us in that scene.
Alice brings up hanging out with Nat to Gigi and she looks confused but is okay with a potential hang. Nat, on the other hand, is pretty weirded out by Alice trying to get her and Gigi together for a friend-date. She’s also doubtful Alice will be 100% okay with it.
I do get where Alice is coming from. I think it’s really important for partners to have strong friendships outside the relationship. I often encourage my wife to go do stuff with friends, including one of her best friends who also happens to be her ex-girlfriend. And that has included trips to a spa.
In this case, it’s a little weird because Nat and Gigi are not on great terms. But I guess if there’s a friendship to be salvaged there, it’s worth a try.
Dani and Sophie
Dani has been on rocky ground with her dad since leaving his company to work for Bette’s campaign. But her dad called to meet up and offered to rent out a super fancy and expensive ballroom for her and Sophie’s wedding. Dani is into it, but Sophie wants their wedding to be about them not him.
During the fancy ballroom tour, they find out Dani’s father already booked the room and set the date for their wedding. Of course, they get into a fight about it when they get home.
I’m with Sophie on this. If they take Dani’s dad’s money he is going to take full control of the guest list and everything else. A wedding should be about the two people getting married, and if you lose all control of the ceremony, it’s no longer your day.
Bette Porter
We found out what happened to Bette and Tina.
I wonder when this happened? I guess we’re being led to think it was at least a few years ago.
On the campaign trail, things are going well. After (very reluctantly) switching Angela to a public school, she got the endorsement of the Teachers Union. And then a late-night visit from Felicity.
Uh, oh. Dani can’t unsee that, and as Bette’s fixer, she’s going to have to fix it.
Happy Hanukkah and happy Christmas to all of you who celebrate! I will see you next week.
