This article contains spoilers for The L Word Generation Q. It is recommended that you watch the show before reading.

Welcome to my weekly review of Season 2 of The L Word Generation Q. Each week, I’ll go over the characters’ narrative arcs and pick out sections that suit my agenda. I’m not sorry to say that these will all be thinly veiled pro-communist rants. You can read my thoughts on Season 1 and its central plot points, and my recaps of episodes one, two, three, four, and five if you need refreshers.

Image by Vladimir Sukhachev

Season 2, Episode 6: Love Shack

Because I’ve been in locky-d for a million years, I’ve been dreaming of my sweaty, half-naked body rubbing up against other sweaty, half-naked bodies on a dancefloor for a while now. In these dreams I’m also cooked, the speakers are pumping out Britney (#FreeBritney), and all my mates are smiling and shouting “I love gay!”

In lieu of being allowed to get off my couch – get vaxxed if you can, queers! – I’m left to trawl YouTube for gay party scenes, so this week’s episode was a welcome respite from that.

That said, I still highly recommend the party scenes from Cruising. LOL.

Basically, this entire episode was about one drama-filled night at Dana’s.

Watching all of those queers at a bar made me feel like I was back in that magical land of gay, surrounded by all of you. Even if Dana’s looks nothing like my usual crusty queer haunts.

And, to be honest, I hate karaoke. I understand I’ll be shot down for this opinion, so moving swiftly on…

But first, most importantly: Gigi.

Was she wearing a jumper? Was it a shirt? Could it have been a scarf?

What was that?

The show opens with Micah and Dani going for a jog.

Side note: everyone on this show is skinny and manicured, and it’s really starting to grate on me. Show us different kinds of amazing queer bodies, please.

Micah tells Dani about Maribel. Dani tells Micah about Gigi. They decide to go to Dana’s together that evening for karaoke.

Now, everyone is at Dana’s, and drama is about to brew. Dani’s there, and so are Finley and Sophie. Gigi’s there, and so is Bette.

Juicy.

Finley and Sophie are having some major dyke drama. Firstly, Finley shows up to work without deodorant, and she’s stressed about it.

Babe, don’t worry about it. Your natural crystal deodorant doesn’t do anything anyway. Let those smelly pits run free.

It turns out Finley’s mostly nervous and stressed because Sophie has started being weird. This is understandably already confusing for Finley, and then Sophie starts flirting with her too? What the hell?

Eventually, Finley tells her to stop. She has a moment of realisation that Sophie will ultimately never choose her. She storms off, but the drama isn’t over yet. Sophie gets up on stage and starts singing Tegan and Sara to Finley, even though Dani is still there.

I mean, I’m not going to lie; I love Tegan and Sara. I saw them live once at the Palais Theatre. You were probably there too?

All I’m saying is, if Sophie sang Tegan and Sara at me, I would be stoked, and I’d forgive her for all the games she was playing.

Clearly Finley feels the same way I do, because they end up back at the house hooking up.

It’s a pretty sweet sex scene, though I made one observation that the writers should have considered if they wanted to make it way more believable: when Finley pulls off her shirt, she’s wearing a sports bra. The next second, she’s whipped it off.

No sports bra comes off that easy, mates. It’s always a struggle, particularly if you’re sweaty.

Back to Dana’s.

Dani and Gigi? They’re going to smash. That about sums up their plotline for the week.

Alice is hanging with Shane and Bette, having a gossip. Damn, I would kill to be sitting in a gay bar having a goss right now.

Alice then decides to invite her book editor. Honestly, I know I should look up his name, but I keep thinking he’ll leave the show.

He and Alice have no chemistry. NONE. The faux ‘quirky’ vibe between them is just awful to watch.

At this point, I should add that this show has historically done a really poor job of representing bi+ people.

Remember how they treated Tina when she hooked up with that cis dude? Yikes. Or when Alice was dating that lesbian man? I can’t look back at the way they framed that whole thing without experiencing some severe discomfort.

But, let’s be honest, bi+ representation in the media has always been terrible in general.

Outside of queer media, there are basically no bi+ cis men, trans, or non-binary characters I can think of. The only example that comes close is David in Schitt’s Creek, who’s pansexual.

On the other hand, there are many representations of bi+ cis women – except they’re usually depicted as some kind of faux bi+ character. They tend to be framed as lonely, sexually unfulfilled women who just need men to set them straight, and when they do hook up with women it often seems as though it happens just because the writers think it’s hot.

Alice is one of the first characters I can remember who actually identifies as bi+. The writers of this show should know about the history of biphobic representation (including in The L Word), and I was hoping they’d treat this storyline with a lot of care.

But what do they do? They have Alice hook up with a guy she has no real chemistry with. And then, when they have sex and he puts his dick in, Alice says, “WOW.”

I’m seething over this. SEETHING.

Firstly, let me clarify that there is absolutely nothing wrong with being excited over someone’s genitals, or with any other body part. However, Alice has slept with a wide range of people in a range of different ways, so it’s hard to see why she’s fucking losing it just because she has a cis-man’s penis inside her while doing missionary.

No shame to missionary either though. That shit is good. What’s not good? The fact that this scene makes it all about some cis-man’s penis.

The idea that Alice would act this way seems rooted in homophobia, where sex without a cis-man’s penis is “not real sex”.

UGH.

Anyone of any gender can have a damn penis, flesh or silicone, anyway.

This is a show that claims to represent a diverse range of sexualities and genders. But its writers clearly haven’t considered that they should be cautious with their representation of bi+ women so as not to risk perpetuating the myth that they are really just straight women who need a cis-man’s penis.

I wish we could see some good bi+ representation in this show. Because honestly, this was a fucking waste.

Another major fail this week is Maribel; the writers have done her dirty.

I was so excited to see where Maribel and Micah would go. Particularly after reading a thread on Twitter in which the actor who plays her, Jillian Mercado, talks about representation of people with disabilities and sex scenes (or lack thereof) in media.

Instead, Maribel becomes this mean jerk. Micah’s confused because Maribel has ghosted him. When they’re all at Dana’s, Micah goes over to say hi, and Maribel is cold and distant. Micah asks if she wants to hang out, but Maribel makes it clear she doesn’t want to.

Micah’s still confused, but he takes this as her wanting to be left alone and does so. Fair enough, right? But later, he’s chatting with some guy, and Maribel comes over to accuse him of just using her. When he defends himself, she gaslights him.

This is really unfair to Maribel’s character. She’s the most upfront person in this show. She’s always talked about her wants and feelings. Realistically, she would have just asked Micah what was happening for him. She would have also been understanding about the fact that he was processing his feelings for her because, up until now, he thought of himself as gay.

The way Maribel yells at Micah for talking to a guy also comes across as super biphobic. Micah hasn’t said he is bi+, but it seems like Maribel expects him to only like women all of a sudden, which is so weird.

Up until now, Maribel has always been so cool. She wouldn’t give a crap what genders Micah’s into. I really hope they fix this plotline next week.

The show is also continuing to ruin my beloved: Bette.

Gigi goes over to say hi to her and chat at Dana’s, but Bette is just mean. She absolutely decimates Gigi with some horrible remarks.

As I’ve said before, in the original series, Bette was so Bette. She was tough and, yeah, a bit mean, but not actually toxic mean. Now she’s being mean to Gigi, and it’s definitely toxic mean. It’s such poor behaviour.

Look, I know Gigi and Bette really weren’t right for each other either. And I know Gigi as a character isn’t fantastic either. She’s a real estate agent after all, and real estate agents really are one of my greatest sources of agony.

However, Bette is just plain cruel to her here, and it’s in a way that’s not true to her character. Oh Bette.

Things are also tense with Shane and Tess.

Cherie Jaffe ends things with Tess via text.

Ouch.

Then Shane and Tess have a fight about it, and Tess leaves the bar mid-shift. Shane decides to go after her, so she asks Finley to look after the bar.

Except Finley is, of course, getting serenaded by Sophie. First they’re slow dancing together, then they’re back at home and Finley’s whipping off her sports bra.

Look, I know it’s just a TV show. But it really bothers me that none of these people ever seem to work. Plus, Shane, you’re having some financial difficulties. I think you need to actually run your bar.

Instead, Shane’s explaining to Tess that she told Cherie Jaffe to back off. What Shane didn’t tell Tess is that she loves her, which she clearly does.

If I’m honest, these two are going to be a cute together.

So, here we are: we’ve reached episode six!

Things are still continuing to be problematic, and it seems as though we’re not going to get quite the show we dreamed of. But, we’re strapped on/in for the ride now.

Oh, one last thing: at one point, I swear Finley said to Shane, “I have fed the rats for you.”

Did I hear that correctly? Honestly, what did it mean?

Read Jess’ recap of the next episode here!

Jess Ison is an aficionado of queer media and loves every bad lesbian film ever made. In her professional life she is a researcher at La Trobe University. She lives with her dog on Wurundjeri land. Find her on Twitter.