On this chapter of The Queerest Things I Watched Last Week, I do a sad, post-probably canceled recap of Almost Family, and the queer TV fandom freaks out over the appearance of Tina on The L Word Generation Q.
- Shameless – Season 10 Episode 9 “O Captain, My Captain” [Catch Up]
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How ridiculous did Debbie’s accidental prostitute/sugar mama storyline get? Let me show you.
Claudia tells Debbie about her daughter in such a way to make her and the audience think she’s a little kid. But I knew that wouldn’t be the case.
As soon as Claudia asked Debbie to pick her kid up from school I knew:
- Claudia’s kid is an older teenager.
- Debbie is going to hook up with her.
Sure enough.
Shameless — predictably over-the-top as usual.
- Almost Family – Season 1 Episode 10 “Courageous AF” [Live]
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First I want to say I am really sad this show got effectively canceled last week. It’s being put out to pasture on Saturday nights to finish season one. They did the same thing to Ten Days in the Valley when it got canceled. Both of these shows are really good in my opinion, and it’s a big loss for our community.
We’ve gotten to the point where great shows with quality queer representation are getting made, but we don’t get to keep them. I’ll miss Edie and Amanda and I’ll miss having a show with a queer ship I look forward to watching every week.
With a heavy heart, here is my recap of last week’s episode.
Amanda dares Edie to order a hemp latte at their local coffee shop and the barista is pretty flirty with her.
I was so excited to see Marianne Rendón (AKA Jules from Imposters) playing the barista!
Edie sees this and decides it’s the time to take a page from Adena El-Amin’s Book of Dating Newly Out Women and bring up having experiences outside their relationship.
Let’s pump the breaks on where this is heading for a second.
Edie and Amanda finally get to be together, and Amanda’s already encouraging her to go have experiences with other women? In reality, they would be in the honeymoon phase. It would be a problematic honeymoon phase because Edie just broke up with Tim, but they would still be charged with new relationship energy.
Coming out later in life and only having queer experiences with one person can be an issue, but I think it would be something they tackle way down the line if the two of them evolve into a serious, long-term relationship. Opening things up after a solid history of trust and a strong bond is established makes more sense. But this is TV, and Edie trying to flirt with barista girl is more entertaining.
Worst pick up line ever.
Edie explains her girlfriend thinks she is a beginner lesbian and needs to have more experiences. If I were barista girl I’d be like, “Okay, here’s your drink. Bye!” But instead, she invites her to lesbian kickball. I guess kickball is the new softball (for real, I have been invited to a kickball game this weekend, but I’m not a sporty lesbian and will be skipping).
Edie shows up at kickball and does really well! After the game, the team is hanging out, talking about heading to a bar and throwing out queer terms like queer folks on TV do.
Y’all, “goldfish” is not a real term, is it? I feel pretty tuned-in to queer culture and I have never heard of it and neither has Google. I think the show made it up.
Skylar (barista girl’s name if you were wondering) explains “goldfish” is like the opposite of “gold star” — a queer woman who has only ever been with one woman, AKA Edie. I really hate terms that try to turn sexual orientation into a purity contest.
Edie goes out with the team and makes a clumsy and aggressive pass at Skylar. Skylar puts a stop to it and tells Edie she’s doing this to prove something to her girlfriend and that is not fair to her.
Serious words of wisdom from barista girl.
Later, Edie tells the whole story to Amanda while they’re being cute on the couch together.
However, things go south when Amanda brings up her ex-wife, Margaret, and her Cautionary Tale of Dating Newly Out Women.
Edie leaves the apartment in anger to “get air.” I should make a compilation video of every scene where a character “needs to get air.” It’ll be three hours long.
I really don’t like the fact that Edie got up and left without talking it out. It’s a bad relationship sign if the two people involved can’t communicate. Also, I think she’s overreacting to the Margaret thing. It’s a bummer of a way for the episode to end.
There are only a few episodes left of this show. Let’s try to see them out with a ratings boost! Please tune in to watch this Wednesday.
- The L Word Generation Q – Season 1 Episode 6 “Loose Ends” [Live]
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Wow, this was a really good episode! Let’s get right to it.
Bette Fucking Porter
It’s the morning after Bette pushed Felicity’s ex-husband down the stairs of Angie’s school and there’s a swarm of media outside her house.
Bette is falling apart and ready to quit the campaign. Dani tries to stop her as she heads out the door to tell the media she’s dropping out when someone surprises her on the other side.
I have a ring tone on my phone that’s Bette yelling, “Tina!” and that was literally me when I saw her.
I know I said I was enjoying offscreen Tina, but I was really happy to see Tina on The L Word Generation Q because I knew this iteration of the show would do a better job with her character.
The two of them talk about Angie and Jordi and the incident until Tina gets a call from what I’m assuming is her current girlfriend. Bette didn’t look very happy about that.
Meanwhile, Pierce can’t get past Bette’s lying and quits the campaign.
Brian Michael Smith is going to change the world by having a lead role on the 9-1-1 spinoff, Lonestar. So I’m not super sad about him leaving knowing we’ll get to see a lot more of him on that show.
I didn’t anticipate watching Bette and Tina in scenes together would make me feel so nostalgic for the old Bette and Tina. It was like a Bette and Tina do-over with better writing. They even had a little argument. Tina passive-aggressively brought up there not being space in their relationship for anyone other than Bette’s goals and career. She says she definitely put Bette’s life ahead of hers.
Doormat Tina is back.
We also find out Tina didn’t go to Kit’s funeral because it was right after they got divorced, and she didn’t think it was a good idea. Bette tells her she should have been there and I agree.
Later, Tina and Angie have a talk where Angie tells her all about Jordi. And gently asks her why Mama T needs to live so far away. Tina tells Angie she needed to leave to become a whole person.
I’m sorry, but I am not okay with that answer.
I get leaving a relationship to find yourself. Bette has a big personality and Tina barely had one, so yeah, moving out and divorcing Bette was what Tina needed to “find herself.” But you don’t abandon your kid. You suck it up, move across town and stay in your kid’s life while you work your shit out. It’s pretty unrealistic how understanding Angie is. My kid gets mad if I don’t pay attention while they’re doing something for the 10th time. There’s no way Angie wouldn’t have resentment towards Tina for moving away.
Also, everyone at team LezWatch thought she just moved a couple of neighborhoods away. It turns out she moved to Toronto! How did she give Angie a driving lesson then? Whatever, it’s television.
It’s late, and Bette needs to make a decision. Dani gives her one last pep talk to encourage her to stay in the race.
She gets herself together, walks out her front door and gives a speech only Bette Fucking Porter can.
For the first time, Bette tells Kit’s story and the reason she is running.
With Bette’s decision made, and speech given, Tina feels her work is done and goes to leave. There are some nice “I love yous” and a hug goodbye.
“Please don’t go?” What is happening?
I was not into Bette and Tina during the Original L Word, but this version of Tina on The L Word Generation Q I can ship with Bette.
Finley
It’s the day after Finley and Tess hooked up on Shane’s sex vortex couch and Shane walks into her office to see this.
Shane is mad and threatening Tess with firing her until she learns they both were drinking.
With that look on her face, you can see Shane finished Tess’s sentence in her head with, “until you fucked my girlfriend.” Shane lets her off the hook again, but I’m not sure how many more times Tess can use “you fucked my girlfriend” as a get out of jail pass.
Later, during Finley and Sophie’s bro night out, Tess has a “don’t make it weird” talk with her.
Finley takes her hooking up with friends lesson to heart, but as she walks away we see Tess pouring booze into her water glass. No, Tess, no!
Finley and Sophie continue to drink and hang out when Shane walks up and tells Finley Quiara is moving in. Which means Finley has a week to move out. Drunk Sophie tells Finley she can move in with her, but she and Dani already have a roommate. Maybe they both won’t remember any of this anyway.
In a peak gay moment, they dance to Closer by Tegan and Sara where it looks like they’re about to maybe kiss. My wife and I both yelled, “Nooo!” at the TV. Thankfully they didn’t.
Finley gives Sophie a ride on the back of her bike to her house where they both pass out on the couch. She didn’t hook up with anyone or show up drunk at Father Rebecca’s front door. I call the night a success for Finley.
Shane
Shane and Quiara are on Angie duty while Bette is dealing with her shit storm. They drive her to the DMV to take her driver’s test and she passes! Shane tells her she can have the keys to her car and go wherever she wants. Angie chooses to drive to Jordi’s house.
When they get there Angie asks for some love advice from Uncle Shane and Auntie Quiara. They give her a pep talk and Angelica Fucking Porter-Kennard walks up to Jordi’s house and tells her the truth about being in love with her.
Oh my gosh, so cute!
Shane and Quiara are happy too and Shane is finally won over to the kid thing.
That was really sweet. I love Quiara and Shane together, and I think Shane is going to be a great dad. I’m just not sure what domestic Shane will look like.
Alice, Nat and Gigi
Our favorite lesbian poly triad is at lunch comforting Alice who is furious over Bette letting her defend her on her show while still covering up the affair. The server sees this and thinks, “Cute, besties!”
Nat and Alice were not happy about Gigi outing them to the server.
They have an angry ride back to Nat’s house.
Gigi does not want to go back in the closet and thought they weren’t since they all held hands at Angie’s play. Nat is like, that was in the dark and we’re not coming out until we tell the kids and we’re never telling the kids. Alice is in the middle and could go either way, but Nat sees this as her taking Gigi’s side.
Gigi drops them off, angrily leaves and Alice and Nat talk it out some more. Alice thought Nat was being mean to Gigi, and Nat says she’s feeling overwhelmed.
Being with Gigi again is bringing up a ton of feelings for Nat — good and bad — and it’s a lot.
I get it, Gigi is her ex-wife, and they had kids together; it’s a lot of history. There were good times and betrayal they probably never worked though. Now she’s being forced to face all of this in the context of being in a throuple with her and her current girlfriend.
Y’all, I really want this to work out, but the previews aren’t looking good. Fingers crossed.
Dani and Sophie
While Dani is dealing with Bette’s political meltdown, Sophie is still sulking about how she won’t process with her. Finley is also feeling bad about herself for drinking with Tess so what do they decide to do?
That’s a great idea, you two! No bad decisions will be made with that plan.
At Dana’s, Sophie and Finley are on their 4th shot and Finley accuses her of being a mean drunk.
After this Sophie is stuck on Dani not calling her pretty anymore. She mentions it like 10 more times. When did she stop calling her pretty? Last week when she told her dad off and then the campaign she works for collapsed? JFC, Sophie give Dani a break!
Late that night, Dani comes home to find Sophie passed out on the couch with Finley. I imagine Dani just wants to get some sleep, but Sophie then comes into the bedroom and, you guessed it, wants Dani to talk right then and there.
Dani is not in the mood to talk, especially with Sophie being drunk, but Sophie won’t drop it.
These two have to work this shit out before getting married, but I’m not feeling very confident about that right now.
This week – Crisis is back and I am not excited. But so is This is Us, Good Trouble, Grown-ish and Batwoman so maybe we’ll have some good queer content to make up for it.
I was pleasantly surprised by the way Almost Family handled the “exploring” plot. The message seemed to be that it was a bad idea that came from a place of faulty reasoning, which is much better than I expected when I saw that the episode was going in that direction.
I’m glad to see somebody else with a similar take on that last scene. It just didn’t seem to make any sense. Amanda says she was worried Edie would leave her and Edie asks why that would ever happen… then Edie walks out because she’s upset Amanda’s ex came up? What was going on in that scene didn’t seem to provide much of a reason for Edie to get upset and walk out like that, imo.
Less on the topic of this specific episode: I notice that the show’s page on this site lists Amanda as gender-fluid. Was that mentioned in supplemental materials or something? If that’s accurate, they never seem to talk about it.
The Fox bylines talked about it, and IIRC Vicki Cartegena tweeted it as well. Though if they never touch on it by the final episode, we’ll be pulling that back. I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt on it for now 🙂