This week on “The L Word: Generation Q” Episode 7 …
We’ve gone from “Karaoke Calamity” to “Charity Calamity.”
This week, the gang gathers at the sight of a silent auction for an MS charity. It attracted non-lesbian executive types like Barry, Alice’s network boss. He gets the chance to personally congratulate Sophie on the triumphant premiere of “The Quiet Rebellion,” the segment she’d pitched for Alice’s show that highlights the lives of ordinary queer women. He’d tried congratulating her immediately following the premiere but she’d been too busy having sex with Finley in the green room to watch the segment, let alone accept credit for it.
But I’m getting a little ahead of myself. Let’s go back to the beginning.
Now that they are officially a couple, Finley and Sophie spend much of the episode engaging in an all-out sex marathon. They seem to have a good thing going on, but following the green room encounter, Sophie seems to want …. maybe a little more than just sex. Back at home, she asks Finley what she wants out of life. Kids? (Yes!) A career? (Stay-at-home parent.) Finley plays along for a few questions before initiating another sexual encounter. Maybe it’s just me, but this time around, Sophie looks a little … bored.
There’s plenty of other relationship drama to go around. After last week’s hook-up with Tom, this week Alice is … back together with Nat. The pair rekindle after an accidental encounter at brunch which leads to a quickie in Nat’s SUV (a word of advice: If you have sex in an SUV, it might be a good idea to leave the sun roof open — or not). Reclusive artist Pippa accepts Bette’s offer of a museum show, and also a date. And Angie, fearing that girlfriend Jordan isn’t so supportive of her quest to learn more about her donor, decides that maybe it’s time to break things off.
We also learn a little bit more about what Dani was thinking last week after Gigi told her that her feelings had changed. Dani now wants to ignore the whole night. She was more in need of a friend, she says, than a would-be lover, and is also worried about what Bette might feel, seeing her and Gigi together. Bette will be fine, Gigi assures her.
Which brings us to the charity auction.
Once again, the entire crew reunites, including a surprise guest: Carrie, who’s solo for the night with Tina out of town. Apparently, in an attempt to make nice, she’d sought out an invite from Bette. However, Bette, who’s on a date with Pippa, isn’t looking to hang with Carrie. Carrie doesn’t take the news too well. “It does not feel good to be around you,” she tells Bette, echoing the sentiments of just about every person who’s been intimidated by Bette since the original “L Word” aired back in 2004.
“That’s your baggage,” Bette tells her, as only Bette can. (She’s right, but still.)
Finley, meanwhile, is actually doing a pretty good job playing at “grown up.” She charms the socks off executive Barry, and is proving herself to be a charismatic, socially adept partner for sometimes-introvert Sophie. Still, Sophie’s earlier line of questioning must have made an impression, as Finley goes looking for advice on how to be a grown-up from the most grown-up person she knows: Dani. (First step toward being a grown-up: Don’t ask the woman whose marriage you wrecked for advice on how to be a grown-up.) It’s not exactly a reconciliation, but probably the closest these two will come for now.
Alice, who’s brought Nat as her date for the evening, spends part of her night getting it on in the bathroom, and the other part remembering why she and Nat broke up in the first place (the latter occurs after she spots Nat flirting with a cute woman). We don’t know yet what compelled the reunion with Nat: Was it an impulsive fling? Did Alice move too fast with Tom? Does it have to do with how she is still processing the loss of Dana? But by the end of the evening, it seems as if she and Nat are officially over.
Not so with Bette and Pippa, who slip out early so that they can spend a romantic evening together at a gallery Bette has access to. Dani, finally ready to take the plunge, heads over to Gigi’s, where the two kiss in the rain (“Not yet,” Dani says, after Gigi invites her inside. “It’s real,” Gigi assures her.)
Oh, and in what is probably the week’s sweetest plotline, Jordan stages an elaborate song-and-dance promposal for Angie, which melts Angie’s heart and has her, thankfully, reconsider that decision to break things off.
For Shane and Tess, the evening ends with them both driving home Carrie, who’s gotten progressively more drunk since her confrontation with Bette. She’s in a pretty bad place — so bad, in fact, that she hints at a possible drastic decision on the horizon. “You people are so beautiful,” she says just before retreating into the house. “I can’t live like this for the rest of my life. I don’t think I can marry Tina.”
Shane and Tess are stunned but let her go, probably assuming there’s not much they can say to shake her out of the insecurities at the moment. But Shane’s willingness to step up is enough to convince Tess that she is really a good person. Like Dani and Gigi, they share their first kiss in the rain.
By the episode’s end, Sophie, too, seems to have a little more faith in Finley, realizing that they compliment each other pretty well. And Finley seems to be more of a grown-up or, at least, the only one sober enough to drive them home. Or so we think. On the journey home — and partway through car sex which Sophie initiates — they’re pulled over by the police.
No big. Sophie’s seen Finley put on the charm all evening. How hard can it be to talk her way out of a ticket? It’s not as if she’s drunk. Right?
Right?
We close out with Finley, silent and terrified, caught in the beam of the officer’s flashlight.
So just how drunk is Finley? How will Tom respond to the news of Alice’s fling with Nat? And what inevitable confrontation will occur between Pippa and Bette once Bette’s boss, Zakarian, gets himself involved in Pippa’s museum show (as you know he will)? We’ll have to wait six more days to find out (or four for those of us with Showtime streaming).
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