On this special edition of The Queerest Things I Watched Last Week, talking, laughing, loving, breathing, fighting, fucking, crying, drinking, riding, winning, losing, cheating, kissing, thinking, dreaming. This is The L Word: Generation Q season one finale recap.
- The L Word: Generation Q – Season 1 Episode 8 “Lapse in Judgement” [Live]
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If you asked me two years ago if I wanted an L Word sequel I would have said, “Hells, no!” If you asked me a year ago if I thought the sequel would be any good I would have said, “I’m not feeling optimistic.” I am so glad I was wrong.
As a people, we experience a lifetime of getting by with the crumbs mainstream television tosses us. We fill in the blanks and brace ourselves to be killed, written off or canceled. The only times we get shows with a mostly queer female cast of characters is when we do it ourselves by creating web series, or via the extremely rare show produced by a major network. The L Word: Generation Q is the show I wished the OG L Word was — a QUALITY show with, great writing and a sharp cast. I hope this is a turning point for queer-centric TV and we get more well-done shows revolving around many diverse queer communities.
But, now let’s see how The L Word: Generation Q season one finale wrapped things up for everyone.
Bette Fucking Porter
It’s election night! The night we find out if Bette Porter will be the first female, biracial, out lesbian mayor of LA. Bette is making the rounds while Dani is keeping track of the results as they come in. Things are looking optimistic, but tight. Some wards they didn’t expect to win are going to Bette.
With one ward left to go, Bette and Dani go to Shane’s office (thank goodness they didn’t sit on that couch) and take turns frantically hitting refresh on a laptop like me trying to get tickets to a favorite band.
The last refresh brings bad news.
Poor Bette and mini Bette.
Just like on The Bold Type and The Good Wife, our main characters didn’t go on to have storylines where they’re in office. I bet it’s too big a thing for a show to take on unless it’s about being in office like Veep. Note for the future: bet against characters winning an election.
Pause for a snark moment — what the heck was Bette’s outfit about?
My wife was like, “Did she get that from the original L Word wardrobe?” Silver lapels: yes. Silver ascot: maybe. Both together: no. (TBH though Bette could wear a burlap sack and still look amazing)
Are robes on TV lesbians becoming a thing?
Anyway, back to the election night aftermath. The OG characters are having their weekly hang at Shane’s house and Shane asks Bette how she’s doing.
Bette’s great. Everything is JUST GREAT.
Meanwhile, during Dani’s lunch with her dad to tell him she’s running off to Hawaii to marry Sophie, he tells her his company stuck a deal with Milner months ago.
Dani tells Bette about the deal and crushes her optimism over the Opioid Task Force.
This sends Bette into a sadness spiral. She went from, “Everything is JUST GREAT!” to, “What was the point of doing any of this?”
Angie comes home to find Bette in a depression coma on the couch. With some prodding, Angie is able to get Bette up and out for a hike. After some scream therapy, Bette runs into Maya, one of the journalists who was at her party on election night and she asks her out.
Things are looking up for our Bette!
Alice
After breaking up with Nat and Gigi, Alice is immediately trying to drown her sorrows in dating with some help from Shane.
Shane/Alice scenes are comedic gold.
Back at work, Alice’s show is on the line and she decides to forget the viral-hit bullshit and do the show she wants to do. She gathers her staff and gives a motivational speech before her last episode of the season (and maybe ever).
Alice wants writer Professor Roxane Gay as her guest, and smacks Drew down when he tries to propose a “compromise.”
During the interview, Alice talks to Roxane about the concept of being a “bad queer” and tells the story of her and her girlfriend bringing her girlfriend’s ex-wife into their relationship. Then, in soap opera realness, Nat walks on stage from the audience and delivers a big speech to Alice.
It looks like Alice got her viral video moment!
Dani, Sophie and Finley
Oh my goodness, these three. SMH.
On election night Finley is skulking around behind the bar acting weird around Sophie.
Meanwhile, Sophie is still pouting over Dani not paying enough attention to her on the BIGGEST and busiest night of Dani’s career.
Listen to Micah, Sophie!
My wife and I own our own business and when one or both of us are out at a professional event there’s no time for being all coupley. It’s not a date it’s work. Sophie is lucky Dani took a moment to be a sweet fiance and tell her how beautiful she looked in the middle of election night chaos.
After that, Finley approaches Sophie wanting to talk. Finley tells her she can be a shit storm and she does not want Sophie caught up in that. She pledges to forget about what happened and not let it derail Sophie’s life.
Ctrl + z that kiss and stuff it down the memory hole, you two!
The next day Dani has her first day off in forever, but Sophie is still sulking like, “oh you have time for me now?” YES, yes she does have time now. Dani ignores that and makes a grand gesture.
She asks Sophie to run off to Hawaii the next day after the Alice episode is done. Sophie agrees even though her family is going to kill her.
Later Dani talks to her dad and tells him about the Hawaii plan. Her dad is a classist jerk about it and says Sophie is not good enough for her because she comes from a “broken home.” He tells her “When things get hard she’s going to leave you because that’s what she knows.” Dad may not be 100% wrong on that one.
At work, Finley and Sophie have a moment in the green room where Sophie tells Finley she’s going off to Hawaii to get married the next day. Finley’s all “Congratulations, that’s great” and then they bang anyway.
I know this is TV, but the office was still full of people and I didn’t see Sophie lock the door. Is no one afraid of getting caught having sex at work on this show?
Sophie went from having a possibly forgivable kiss during a high-emotion event (is her grandma okay btw) to being a full-blown cheater. I am just not buying cheating-level chemistry between these two. Can you have a firey romantic passion for someone who calls you “bud” like you would a toddler?
That night Sophie shame cries in bed with Dani and Finley visits the “priest” for confession after deciding to leave LA.
At work the next day, Finley tells Sophie she’s leaving that night to go home to Kansas City for her sister’s wedding. As she leaves, Sophie tries to go after her, but the show is about to start.
Shane
At Bette’s election night party, Shane gets a phone call.
I know the call was bad news, but I laughed at this scene because of the interview Kathy Tu did with Kate Moennig and Leisha Hailey on the Nancy Podcast. Y’all should listen to it. The specific reference to this scene starts at 27:25.
The bad news was Quiara was in the emergency room because she’s bleeding. Shane takes off to be with her and the worst is confirmed. Quiara had a miscarriage.
Back at Shane’s house she is taking care of Quiara but upsets her when she finds her packing up a box of baby things. Shane thought seeing those things would make Quiara sad, but she saw it in a different way. She thinks Shane feels like she dodged a baby bullet.
Quiara tells Shane she’s going to try to conceive again. She also says, “No one is going to love you because you’re incapable of loving anyone but yourself.” and then throws her ring at her.
I thought that was really harsh, and a big conclusion to jump to. I hope it’s hormones talking and Quaria and Shane will reconcile because I really like them together.
Everyone’s Big End Montage
The L Word: Generation Q season one finale ends with a musical montage to P!nk. Here’s how they wrapped everything up
- Shane finds a stray dog eating out of the garbage and picks them up. I imagine this is step one in proving she can love someone other than herself.
- Bette, looking amazing, has a dinner date with Maya.
- Jordi and Angie are cutely hanging out together.
- Micah refuses to talk to Jose after discovering he has a husband.
- Nat and Alice are making out on one of her show set audience couches. Maybe having sex at work is an employee perk?
And finally, we have a classic “Running at the Airport” scene (that gave me Domlene feelings) with Sophie either meeting Dani to go to Hawaii or Finley to stop her from going to Missouri.
Who will she choose? We won’t know until season two.
The L Word: Generation Q season one finale wrap up
I’m so glad the show got renewed and these are things I would love to see in season two.
- All the Tibette angst. I want Bette/Tina/Carrie/Maya drama that goes on for the entire season.
- More Gigi. I don’t know how she’ll fit in with Alice and Nat back to being a couple, but I love her and want her to be a regular character in season two.
- Alice keeps her show. I think the big Nat speech will be the viral content needed to keep it going for another season.
- Shane and Quiara to make up and get remarried.
- Bette starts her own non-profit to take on the Opioid Crisis. She should open a Safehouse, that would provide a lot of challenges for her to take on.
- More Finley backstory. The info leading up to TLWGQ said Finley was a former Olympic swimmer. That did not come up at all. I also want her to get her shit together, but just a little. I like her being a lovable mess.
- Sophie chooses neither Finley or Dani. Dani and Sophie should not get married, but I don’t think Sophie should be with Finley either. Everyone needs to sort themselves out.
- More OG characters! I want to see a parade of cameos from the original L Word.
I enjoyed this season so much, and so did everyone else on the LezWatch editorial team who watched it which is why we decided to give it the coveted designation of a Show We Love.
