The season 1 finale of The L Word: Generation Q was a sixty-one minute roller coaster ride that left me emotionally exhausted. By the time the episode was over, there was so much unresolved drama that I threw my notebook across the room in a fit of stress. At that point, I had felt all of the feelings, like really, all of them.
The episode begins on election night at Dana’s, where Dani and Bette are constantly refreshing the LA mayoral election results among several hundred of Bette’s most devoted supporters. Sadly, Bette’s ex-wife Tina was not in attendance, and did not appear in this episode. But it was more than Tina’s absence that had me reeling. The stress of Bette’s election felt all too reminiscent of 2016, albeit with much lower stakes, and Finley and Sophie trying to hide their newfound romance from Sophie’s fiancé Dani only made things more tense. At the same time, there were some cute moments like when Angie asked Alice about when she lost her virginity, and the importance of queer role models really shined through.
Ultimately, Bette loses the election by a slim margin and has what one might call a depressive episode, though Angie pulls her out of it. But this was not the saddest part of the finale. In a later scene, Shane’s partner Quiara goes to the hospital and ends up having a miscarriage. Tensions run high, and Quiara accuses Shane of being relieved she lost the baby. Quiara says to Shane: “You’re never gonna change. No one is ever going to love you because you’re incapable of loving anyone but your f*cking self.” And then she throws her wedding ring at Shane and runs off. Now obviously Quiara was dealing with a huge loss, but even still, this moment felt a little too dramatic.
But if you want to talk about drama, the rest of the episode was basically a soap opera, except gayer. Micah goes to Jose’s art opening and meets a man who introduces himself as Jose’s husband. Say what?! Sophie agrees to fly to Hawaii to marry Dani, but then sleeps with Finley. And in an effort to save her show from being cancelled, Alice has Roxane Gay on as a guest, but her interview gets rudely interrupted by Nat, who tells Alice she loves her and wants her back, only her this time. It was so over-the-top, and left me with lots of questions about how quickly Nat decided to remove Gigi from the equation. But alas, I still cried. There’s nothing like a cheesy rom-com monologue to capture my heart.
But before I could piece together my feelings, Sophie and Finley’s relationship reached a tipping point. Sophie runs through the airport, where Dani is waiting for her to go to Hawaii, and Finley is flying back home to Missouri. With Pink’s “What About Us” playing in the background, Sophie checks the departure times for both locations, and without revealing where she decides to go, the episode cuts to black. Even with all of that drama, all I can say is thank goodness that Generation Q is coming back for season two.
Sexiest Scene: Finley and Sophie having sex backstage on The Alice Show.
Most OMG-Moment: Jose has a husband!
Funniest Moment: Alice said she went from “the greatest girlfriend to two girlfriends to no girlfriends.”
How We Know We’re in 2020: Roxane Gay is a guest on The Alice Show.
Who will sleep together next? Angie and Jordi, because right now, they’re the only couple left to believe in.
