The L Word: "Late, Later, Latent"

Cafe Society
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OK, there are spoilers here if you’re one of the people who are only getting The L Word on DVD…

Since this is the first thread that I know of concerning the current season, I’m going to give some brief thoughts on the current storylines, ending with thoughts about the most recent episode (“Late, Later, Latent”, AKA “LLL”). Keep in mind that (A) I’m a straight male and (B) I have not seen any of the first season, so all of my character impressions are based on the current season (are there only two seasons so far?).

Dana/Alice: First of all, thank God that Tonya is out of the picture! I couldn’t stand her! The Dana/Alice storyline so far seems the most fun, the most devoid of earth-shatttering drama (now that Tonya is out of the way, that is). I can see the potential for new conflicts over Alice’s new radio show, though; at what point will she cross the line and divulge personal info that could be seen as an invasion of privacy?

Not much new in “LLL” for Dana and Alice: just a hint at Alice’s kinkier side and that Dana might be a little bit intimidated by Alice’s fantasies.

Bette/Tina/Helena. I was all over the place on this situation. At first, I though that Bette was bringing this all on herself, that she deserved to get kicked to the curb; she not only cheated but kept on cheating, even having a one-night stand after trying and failing to convince Tina to come back to her. Helena, however, just seems so predatory and dominating that I’m now cheering or Tina to get back with Bette. I don’t know where that puts Helena as far as storylines, but so far I haven’t seen anything that makes me actually like Helena. She’s almost like the Tonya character in the Dana/Alice storyline to me, in the sense that she’s more of an obstacle to what should be than anything else.

In “LLL” we have the obviously important fact that Bette and Tina have sex after the ultrasound appointment. They part ways again, saying that they’re not going to “mess things up” with the way that they’ve been going, but it seems that Tina is getting more and more put off by Helena’s personality. At some point, the issue of the kids and the Peabody money is certain to come into play. Did I mention that I don’t like Helena at all?

Jenny/Carmen/Shane/Mark: Man oh man, things are about to turn super-ugly. Shane has been my favorite character so far; she has shown that she is a loyal and thoughtful friend (she was one of the ones that first reached out to Bette after her infidelity, for example, and it’s true that she has a way with people) but has the classic tortured soul/martyr complex going on. At first, I was a little peeved at her for flirting with Carmen when Carmen and Jenny starting to date, but then I realized that it’s actually Carmen who is being manipulative. That really came out in this episode, and the revelation that Carmen was just “biding time” with Jenny while pining for Shane is going to have potentially disastrous results. I feel bad for Jenny. I don’t know how I feel about Shane and Carmen, though; I would like to think that Shane, being deceptively strong in character, would reject Carmen’s advances not because of her defense mechanism but because of the way she treated Jenny. This episode made me really not like Carmen.

I was just starting to like Mark; he really was starting to show that he was growing and learning, and now it looks like he’ll probably get kicked out of the house, which makes perfect sense, but still it’ll suck if that’s the case. He really blew it by listening to his friend and putting the cameras up, but at the same time, would he have gained hit insight otherwise? I don’t know.

Kit: What can I say…? Kit kind of bores me. Maybe her character was better developed in the first season, but right now she just seems like a sexually confused, desperate lady. The whole storyline with the transgender(?) person was probably developed last season so I don’t really get a sense of what’s going on there.

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Dana and Alice seemed just filler this week. But with an ensemble show, that’s bound to happen. Last year Dana was involved for a few weeks with Lara, Kit’s new chef at The Planet. Although she only got about 10 minutes screen time last season, Lara is one of the more popular recurring characters. Look for that to be a source of drama in the future.

I thought this was an interesting week for Bette and Tina. Tina really seems to be just now discovering who she is. Bette was her first girlfriend. In fact she was dating a male artist when they met. So Tina has never really been a single lesbian. Being single, I believe, is an important part of being an adult. In some ways we’re watching Tina grow up. Of course, Jenny also is growing up; but she’s a youngun anyway and is supposed to be growing up. I think that is probably the reason Bette always treated Tina with kid-gloves and almost patronizingly so, as she mentions in therapy. That may have been a breakthrough for Bette and she’ll start to treat Tina as an equal. I think lack of respect from Bette was part of the reason Tina hasn’t wanted to reconcile. If she does give Tina respect, then they may get back together.

Speaking of Jenny, she is so much the ingenue. She showed strength for breaking up with Robin, which was done for the right reason. Unfortunately for her, she still too inexperienced to see that Carmen is a player and is going to get hurt until she develops better filters. Naturally, we all have to go through the process of getting our hearts broken, so that’s life.

What can I say about Mark. I don’t really like him. AfterEllen has some interesting comments about the character.

Kit is a royally screwed up woman. She is recently sober and trying to get her life on track. Ivan is a drag king and possibly a pre-op FTM transsexual. However, the fact that Ivan has kept the long hair and doesn’t seem to be planning surgery, I’m not sure if she just a really butch lesbian or a transsexual. Ivan helped Kit out through some hard times last season and the seemed to be developing a relationship until Kit walked in on him disrobed and Ivan freaked out. I’ve thought Ivan should be more like the Amy, Chloe Sevigny’s character in If These Walls Could Talk 2. Amy seemed way more comfortable in her skin than Ivan.

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Cuckoorex, before I ramble, I must recommend that you watch the first season. there’s a lot of stuff there, especially with respect to Tina & Bette, that will make it easier to understand (and care about) what’s going on right now.

my thoughts as of the most recent episode:

what they did to the Kit/Ivan storyline is a shame, and feels like a cop-out. they spend all this time developing their relationship last season, and then end it abruptly, only to bring it back for one episode and shit all over it? I realize there were fans clamoring for Ivan’s return, but christ, they could’ve just left it alone and been better for it. it seemed very contrived, like it was simply a way to shut fans up about Ivan by completely invalidating his character, at least from Kit’s POV (which is really the only one that matters). and FTR, I thought the way they “ended” it the first time was pretty dumb too. I mean ferchrissakes, if he freaks out like that anytime someone sees him naked, wtf does he do during sex? :dubious:

not a lot to say as to Dana/Alice; their purpose lately seems to be pretty much comic relief, a welcome break from all the heavy shit.

Shane/Jenny/Carmen is getting weird. A lot of fans are pissed at Carmen for “betraying” Jenny, and see Shane and Jenny as victims, but honestly, no one’s innocent in that situation. Carmen was stupid to hook up with the roommate of someone she has strong feelings for. Jenny was stupid to hook up with someone her roommate was with just previously fucking. Shane was stupid not to object, because even if you don’t want a relationship with that person, you can’t account for their feelings. switch-hitting is never cool, and all three of them are responsible for ignoring that.

Bette/Tina/Helena: hehe, this is my pet storyline. I think it’s obvious that Bette & Tina still love each other, if only from the music they played during the sex scene. they’ll eventually get back together, and I don’t think Helena is going to be much of an obstacle to that: I think she’s pretty much there right now as a representation of Tina’s desire to explore her independence, and as a reaffirmation of it, because let’s be honest, she’s more self-absorbed and controlling than Bette ever was. Tina’s showing us through Helena that she won’t put up with that anymore, she won’t be an accessory and she won’t be content to simply be a passenger along for the ride in her own love life… once that is firmly established (probably within the next two episodes), Helena’s a non-entity. as for Bette, she’s very confused, what with this new self-sufficient Tina. she said in therapy that she didn’t know whether or not she wanted to get back together with her-- I’m fairly certain this is only due to her being uncomfortable and unused to not being in control. however, she admitted herself that this change in Tina is a good thing; all that’s left now is for Bette to accept and embrace it. I think everyone can agree that their relationship dynamic before the split was fundamentally fucked and pretty much Bette’s fault, so their reunion would represent major personal growth for her, and the lack thereof would basically mean that she was incapable of changing for the better. Based on this logic and the fact that we’re Americans and eat personal-growth-and-betterment shit up in our fiction, which the writers undoubtedly take into account, Bette + Tina = inevitable. :smiley: