After binging season two of Peacock’s Girls5Eva, I could not stop singing the band’s new song “Big Pussy Energy,” and if that’s not quality queer representation, I don’t know what is. Joking aside, though the song is more of a feminist anthem, it does a good job of setting the backdrop for the characters’ growth this season, including our favorite lesbian, Gloria (Paula Pell).
Last season, we saw Gloria attempting to get over her divorce with Caroline, played by Janine Brito, who is married to Pell in real life. This season is more of the same, but there is a little bit more of a “will they or won’t they” dance than the first season. In one of the later episodes, Gloria shares: “I’ve been working so hard to get my ex-wife back.”
A few episodes focus on Gloria’s relationship with her ex, but the most relatable for me was the third episode. Here, Gloria is convinced that Caroline is The One, but she admits that like too many of us, she’s bad at flirting.
Summer (Busy Phillips) remembers a few instances where Gloria was great at flirting, to which Gloria aptly responds, “Those were guys. I had zero investment,” and admits that she has never come onto a woman before. Wanting her friend to find love, Summer challenges Gloria to get a woman’s phone number while on set for a music video.
The results are highly entertaining, with Summer trying to figure out who is queer and Gloria talking way too much about her favorite murder podcast. By the end of the episode, even though Gloria miraculously succeeds at getting a woman’s number, she flies back to Caroline.
But things aren’t as easy as Gloria had hoped when she gets back with Caroline. Since Gloria is caring for her ill father, , the two don’t have as much privacy as they had hoped. The pair decide to start house hunting for a place together, but the number from the woman Gloria met at the music video resurfaces, and Gloria starts to have doubts.
Will Gloria raise these issues with Caroline or stick with her one true love? All I can say is that Gloria shows some real growth this season, as do the other members of Girls5Eva.
Wickie (Renée Elise Goldsberry) learns to be less self-centered and goes from breaking up with famous people before she even dates them to dating someone more “normal.” Summer gets divorced from her husband and stands up to her parents when they ask her to keep chaste and wear a purity ring.
And Dawn (Sara Bareilles) continues to write songs for the group, with a clever nod to Bareilles’ catalog. “I’m not gonna write them a love song cause they asked for it,” Dawn declares, quoting Bareilles’ hit “Love Song.”
As with the first season, the music is extraordinary. In the second episode, Dawn sings a song she wrote that uses all 430 meanings of the word “set.” The lyrics are complete nonsense, but Bareilles delivers them with earnest conviction.
A song about Gloria’s knee injury called “Bend Don’t Break” is also wildly empowering, which is no surprise since the tune was written by Bareilles herself. The women sing: “Why don’t we bend so we don’t break? Why don’t lean on each other to carry the weight?” We even get a surprise song sung by Ingrid Michaelson, which had my queer heart reeling.
All in all, season two of Girls5Eva certainly had some queer feminist energy. If you’re a fan of musical parodies and ill-timed pop culture references combined with a lot of heart, Girls5Eva will not disappoint you.
