The L Word Season Four, Episode Twelve: The Parenting Perspective

Season Four flew by with all the speed of a toddler after cookies. In this last episode, Paige’s son Jared says he doesn’t want his mom to be a “lez.” This seems rather crass of him given the lengths Paige (and Ilene Chaiken) went to to give us a sensitivity lesson back in Episode Seven. What he’s really saying, I think, is that he’s scared of anyone intruding on the relationship he’s forged with his mom since his dad left, and he’s scared of getting close to another parent who will leave. In this, he may have more insight into Shane than Paige does.

Shane realizes it’s the instability and uncertainty that bothers him. She tries arguing that they could all live together as a family, and her half-brother Shay would be “like a brother” to Jared. Jared points out that Shay doesn’t live with Shane anymore. True, but the point isn’t who is living where. The point is defining what makes a family. For Shane, Shay will always be part of her family, more son than brother, and thus brother to any child of her partner. Yes, it’s still early, even by lesbian standards, to be calling Paige Shane’s “partner,” but that’s where the story is headed . . .

. . . or appears to be headed. The kitschy sequence in which Shane imagines herself and Paige as a straight, 1950’s couple a la the Cleavers is hysterical, but clearly meant to cast doubt on the whole venture.

I have to give Ilene Chaiken and the other producers and writers credit for building up this storyline. I would have guessed that Bette and Tina’s shared custody (or maybe Helena and Winnie’s) would have been the prime parenting plot. Instead, they got short shrift this season while the show used Shane’s story to explore (with varying degrees of success) the definition of family, how children react when new relationships (lesbian or otherwise) begin, and homophobia in schools.

That’s all well and good, but next season, I want to see Bette baking cupcakes for Angelica’s preschool class.

Previous reviews of Season Four:

• Episode One
• Episode Two
• Episode Three
• Episode Four
• Episode Five
• Episode Six
• Episode Seven
• Episode Eight
• Episode Nine
• Episode Ten
• Episode Eleven