Last week Dani and Sophie quarrelled over their wedding, a drunk Finley hurt Rebecca’s feelings, Lena cheated on Tess, Bette was still having an affair, while we got the threesome of Alice, Nat and Gigi as a present.
The story continues with the bed scene of Shane and Quiara which is idyllic up to the point when Quiara announces her pregnancy. Shane freaks out, but Quiara tries to make things chill by reassuring Shane that she doesn’t need her as a parent, but as her partner, and Shane doesn’t have to take part in raising up the kid. I might be old-fashioned, but it doesn’t quite add up. How can you be with somebody who has a boy or a girl, but then you aren’t part of the kid’s life? Of course, a few years ago I didn’t even know you could live as a lesbian woman, but I can’t really understand how this would work in an equally balanced romantic relationship if you shut a kid from the other person’s life. I doubt it’s good for anybody. Anyways, if your partner doesn’t want children and you broke up because of it, then don’t show up pregnant and ask her to be with you. This is simply not respecting her decision and emotions. Not cool.
Alice, Nat and Gigi - OT3 from now on (OTP - one true pairing for couples, but here 3 replaces the letter P as they form a throuple) - wake up together in Nat’s bed, but they can’t really talk about what happened the other night as the kids almost storm their way into the bedroom. I image this is exactly what it’s like when you have a one night stand with your ex-wife and then you wake up with her and another woman next to you. Gigi thinks fast and leaves through the back door, while Nat denies all this has anything to do with her. You almost believe her. Or not.
In the meantime, Bette is already dropping Angie and Jordi off at school. Angie doesn’t want Bette to come and see the school play later that evening, but after Jordi says her parents have cancelled the night, Angie gives in and allows Bette to be there.
Then we are back at Dana’s, where last night’s mess greets Tess, with Finley on top of it. From her phone call we learn that Tess has just been at an AA meeting and she is calling her sponsor because she really wants to drink. From this moment on, Tess becomes my absolute favorite character since she has been clean for two years, as it turns out later in the story, she works at a bar and is capable of not drinking any booze. This is so fascinating and empowering that I’ve fallen even harder for this character.
The break-up with Lena must be really hard for her, but she’s trying really hard to hold herself together and control the situation. She takes Finley to grab breakfast together, where she tells us her story, why she drank and how she doesn’t know what to do now. I see that the series aims to highlight that Finely is on this path, too, but it’s not authentic. Finley is just a twentysomething kid who enjoys partying hard, but it doesn’t make her an alcoholic. Getting wasted in every party is not alcoholism, this is just plain stupid. When you drink your coffee with a shot and you do this regularly and your life falls apart due to your drunkness, now that’s authentic. This is just forced.
In the meantime Alice, Bette and Shane, instead of having the usual morning coffee, are giving calls to possible voters from Bette’s office and of course they find the perfect cliche for every personal problem.
Sophie and Dani have a tough morning since Dani’s father has posted them a prenuptial agreement. Sophie first goes along with it, as she doesn’t want any conflict and this is a compromise she could make, but when they hear that one of the clauses states that Sophie’s biological children can’t have any claim for Dani’s wealth, she just loses it.
To top the scene, José drops ‘I love you’ to Micah and leaves. Interesting few minutes.
We are back with the OT3, and since the children are gone, we finally can see what everyone is thinking about this polyamorous thing.
Nat is against all this, since Gigi hurt her so much back then and she is afraid that she would lose Alice. Alice likes this new three-way life, she could bond with Gigi but she doesn’t want to force anything on Nat. Gigi is not against this relationship, she still loves Nat and it’s apparent that there is chemistry between them. Nat is so confused that at one point she sends Gigi away, but changes her mind. I don’t really understand why but I guess because she sees how open Alice seems to be. I’m sure this will be difficult for them, but I’m convinced that they will make it work. All three of them love children and I think they love each other.
Dani throws the prenup to her father’s face and she is amazingly brave to stand up for her relationship with Sophie, but when Sophie ask her about how they’re going to deal with similar situations in the future, we can see that Dani can’t cope with her father’s behaviour. She buries her head in the sand and she focuses only on the given moment. It’s very hard to face our own family’s homofobia.
In the meantime, Tess confronts Shane and Finely visits Rebecca to find out what she said to her the previous night, while being drunk. Rebecca acts like a real adult, and tells Finley why she thinks it would be unwise to continue this relationship. Finely is a child, who doesn’t understand that it’s not your partner that makes you whole, but first you must come to terms with yourself and after that you can enter any relationship as an equal partner. Finley is lost and she calls her father in her desperation, who is attending her sister’s engagement party and as his wife is approaching he hangs up on Finley. I hope the story of this family will be addressed in more detail later, because it might make Finley’s character more authentic. But we had to wait for four episodes for the other’s background story, so who knows.
Tess is suffering and is on the verge of drinking again, but I still haven’t lost hope when she gets that bottle of drink from the shelf.
Micah and José spend the afternoon together, and at first they talk about whether they love each other, but again the discussion turns into sex eventually. I can’t really place this plotline, we don’t know anything solid about Micah, not even his profession. I try to piece the character together based on some bits and pieces of information here and there, but I can’t see his place in the series. Nor can the creators, it seems to me, which is very frustrating. Because if he is a main character, then give him a proper storyline and if not, treat him accordingly, but these half-solutions are just very annoying.
We return to an intoxicated Tess working in Dana’s, and Finely is not helping with her alcoholism. My heart breaks seeing Tess like this. I know that setbacks are part of being an addict and then if everything goes well they are clean again, but here all I can feel is why you hurt her so much?!
Bette finally ends her affair, but Felicity isn’t taking it too well and storms away from their date.
It seems that the members of the OT3 have a day off because they just sit at their side table in their morning clothes with two bottles of wine and they discuss who should do what in this possible throuple scenario. It’s important to talk about the tasks relating to kids in a traditional two-party relationship or say in a household. Let alone a household of three women! At the end, we get a half-sentence hinting that it’s all just theory, but I can't believe it. This is already the beginning of wonderful OT3 cohabiting. I won’t be fooled!
Sophie necessarily pours out her heart to her sister about her day and she is mostly cross with Dani. Her partner is not willing to discuss anything and deal with their problems together. You wonder why she is telling this to her sister. How does this relationship work exactly?
Dani in the meantime channels her anger and despair into work and Bette proves to be a good listener.
Quiara tries a faint attempt to reconcile but Shane is not up to it, and they rather go watch Angie’s play. All six of them come to the show, where Jordi is the main character and Angie is just among the support staff.
Up until this moment, I thought how cool it was that practically six powerful lesbian women took a role in raising up Angie, but as they behave during the show it’s rather embarrassing than funny. Then until the end of th episode we learn that Finely and Tess are hooking up in the office, Angie actually likes Jordi (who would have guessed, right?!) and Felicity’s (ex?)husband is making a scene which is obviously more harmful to Bette (and her campaign).
I feel that this whole story and the plotlines are incoherent, the actions of the characters come out of the blue and nothing is explained. This episode adds nothing to the full picture, except for Tess’ line. There are three more episodes, I hope they will do better.
