The latest episode of The L Word: Generation Q started and ended with parenting moments. Let’s take a look.
The episode opens with Shane and her estranged but-at-least-temporarily-reunited wife in bed together. They’ve clearly had a nice night and are on their way to a good morning, when Shane mentions that she signed the divorce papers. “I shouldn’t have sent them,” Quiara says, before dropping her bombshell: “I’m pregnant.”
“I’m not asking you to be a parent,” Quiara then explains. “It’s my dream, not yours. All I’m asking is for you to be my partner.”
“Well, then, tell me what that looks like,” Shane replies, which is an excellent request. She’s had friends with kids; she’s been to Nat and Alice’s lately. She knows how kids permeate a household. Shane is likely going to find herself doing parenting tasks even if she doesn’t want to (she wouldn’t turn down a kid in need) and end up resenting it; want to parent but be blocked by Quiara; or not parent, as agreed, but discover that Quiara comes to resent her lack of participation in running the household.
Quiara doesn’t have an answer, except to say she doesn’t want to go through the world without Shane. Shane doesn’t scare her, she says.
“You scare me,” Shane replies. It’s unclear if she’s referring to Quiara’s desire for parenthood, her fuzzy vision of what her and Shane’s family life would entail, something that happened in their past before LW:GQ premiered, or combinations thereof.
Cut to pick up the other big storyline from last week, and we find Alice, Nat, and Nat’s ex but-at-least-temporarily-reunited wife Gigi in bed together. (I’m sensing a theme with regard to exes.) They all check in to make sure they’re each okay, if hungover. Nobody seems gripped by remorse, which is a good thing. Remember what I said about kids permeating a household, though? Cue the kids, Olive and Eli, knocking on the door.
The adults go into a panic, realizing that somehow the door isn’t locked. Gigi locks it and realizes she’s supposed to be picking the kids up for a playdate in five minutes. In the midst of clothes being flung around, Nat asks Alice if Eli’s finished his book report—because being a parent means always having the kids’ schedule in your head, even if you’re hungover after a threesome with your partner and ex. Luckily, Alice helped Eli finish his report. Gigi goes around back and rings the doorbell like she just arrived, so all’s good for the moment.
Later, though, the three adults process. Nat sees their threesome as a one-off thing. Alice doesn’t like that math and wants to do it again. Nat and Gigi squabble, with Nat concerned that Gigi, who cheated on her during their marriage, is just trying to interfere in her relationship with Alice. It’s a valid concern, but they seem to get over it, because we next see the three of them trying to figure out the logistics of being a parenting throuple. What happens at Olive’s swim meets, for example? “I hate swimming,” Alice admits. She only goes to the meets because “the kids like my snacks.”
“No, they don’t,” Nat reveals. “I make them lie.” That’s not a recommended parenting move, even if, as Nat says, Alice’s snacks are “really dry.” They all decide Nat and Gigi will handle the swim meets from now on.
Alice then jumps to the big question, “Are you going to tell the kids?” Nat says no. Gigi says yes. “I’m not lying to them again,” she insists.
“Well, that’s a convenient time to give that up,” Nat snaps, rather ironically for someone who just admitted to making her kids lie (though the scale of what Gigi lied about is admittedly much more consequential).
They finally all agree, though, that discussing life as a throuple is a speculative game and for the moment, “We just hang out.” Stay tuned.
Meanwhile, Dani’s dad is trying to make her sign a prenup that says any children her fiancée Sophie bears won’t get a cent of Dani’s family money. Dani, although she cut her dad some slack in Episode 3 when he tried to commandeer their wedding planning, sees red. She confronts him. “I’m trying to do what’s best for my family,” he explains.
“She is your family. Our kids will be your family. Why is it so f—ing hard for you to see that?” Dani retorts. The prenup has been nupped in the bud.
Over in Bette’s life, Bette is driving daughter Angie and her friend Jordi to school, and trying to convince Angie to let her attend Angie’s performance in the school play. Angie gives her a classic exasperated “Mom, please” and says it’s embarrassing. When Bette ask Jordi if her parents are coming, though, Jordi says they were, but then cancelled. She says she didn’t want them to, anyway, but we can see she doesn’t mean it. Angie sees this, too, and after she gets out of the car, texts Bette that she can come, “But not for me. For her.”
Bette, Shane, Quiara, and the Alice-Nat-Gigi triple feature arrive at the play and cheer wildly for Jordi. Angie’s in the stage crew, but Shane and Alice take photos of her anyway. It’s sweet and adorkable.
After the play, the ever-observant Shane asks Angie about her feelings towards Jordi. “You like her, though, right?” It’s clear she means Like with a capital L. Shane adds, “Well, I think she likes you, too.” Angie as second-gen queer person? That would be a great sign of progress—not that all LGBTQ parents have LGBTQ kids, but that we’ve gotten to a point where a television show about queer people isn’t afraid to remind folks that some of us do.
My suspicion, too: Shane isn’t good with babies, but older kids? She’s got their vibe. Remember how she was guardian for her younger half brother Shay back in Season 4 of the original series? I’m not sure what this means for her and Quiara; I’ll just put it out there for now.
As the friends are all walking out of the school after the play, the husband of the woman Bette has been sleeping with runs towards them, shouting angrily. He pushes Angie aside, and Bette’s mama-bear instincts kick in. She shoves him back, yelling, “Keep your f—ing hands off her!”
He falls, hits his head, and loses consciousness. Bette dials 911.
Whew. That’s a lot of parenting and processing about parenting. Are the parenting storylines overly dramatized? Yes. Are there still things we can relate to? Yes. I know many of us have (unfortunately) had our parents try to exclude our spouses/partners from family life; many of us, too, have likely had the kids knock on the door at inopportune times. I appreciate the relatable parts—and the melodrama just makes me glad my own life is relatively tame in comparison. Can’t wait for the next episode this Sunday!