Article by Pam Cole

It is difficult to analyze a story that has gotten as off track as season 2 of The L Word. Logic and human sensibilities no longer apply. Writing becomes dictated by the pregnancy of the day, or perhaps the over processing of lesbian democracy. Ilene Chaiken claims that every script is discussed and processed and discussed again, which is perhaps the problem. Because there is a problem with this writing, and the audience is painfully aware of it. Where to begin? Perhaps at the end.

I am possibly the only diehard L Word fan who did not watch the finale of Season 2 when it first aired. While I had a pretty good idea of what might happen from careful examination of the episode teasers, I couldn't bear to watch the final trick that might be played on the audience. The trick was this: it was Jenny who had the grand finale, not Bette and Tina.

Jenny

Chaiken clearly sees Jenny as one of the show's leading characters, a kind of narcissism since Jenny is the reflection of a young Chaiken. While Jenny's story has been bizarre and overly dramatic, not enough credit can be given to Mia Kirshner for her interpretation of this confused and confusing character. Difficult, demanding, unclear, and unceasing in intensity, Kirshner rules this role; she makes us hate Jenny, tire of her struggle, question her sanity, and yet always we believe that Kirshner is Jenny, whoever this twisted character may be. In my opinion, the high point of the season finale was the scene sequence where Jenny self-destructs into a cutter. On the bus and in the bathroom, and then with Shane discovering Jenny bleeding and nude — this is the caliber of craft we have greedily come to expect from Chaiken and her crew. Mia Kirshner is just brilliant in this complicated role, accolades I don't often offer.

Many season two highlights revolved around Kirshner's performance as Jenny, though we often turned away in sheer frustration at not understanding her story. But there were sparkling performances: Jenny befriending Bette at the reopening of The Planet; inviting Shane to cut her hair; that first utterly unassuming strip tease. Kirshner is one of the show's stars, and yet we have dismissed her because we simply can't relate to, or empathize with, her tortured journey. I call this a writing problem, a disservice to this talented actress who gives a thousand percent, trying to breathe believability into the scenes she is handed.

Bette & Tina

The season finale for Bette and Tina was so unsatisfying, despite that rosy circle surrounding Angelica at the end. Recap: Tina wants to come home. Hooray! But wait, Bette doesn't look happy about this — her face goes from shock to disbelief to uncertainty, then back to disbelief as only Beals can do. There is no celebratory hug, no kiss, no resolution at all as the scene abruptly ends. Whoops, did someone lose a tape? Or is this an intentional hint to lead us into another season of separation in season 3.

Then Tina, with baby due any moment, attends a rock concert where, of course, she goes into labor. Okay, this is good drama, this has potential. But the script goes into hysterical overdrive as Tina loses it, first in the ambulance, and then in the operating room. (Not since that absurd outburst with Helena after Tina and Bette made love has our subtle Holloman been allowed such an outbreak of acting.) Perfectly understandable in these circumstances, I suppose, but Bette's reaction is — shall we say — awkward? The thing with the umbilical cord, with our Bette whining, "I wanna cut the cord," was pathetic.

The cruelest ending of all was to leave Tina on the operating room table in our final look at her in season 2. I wasn't really sure that she was alive until I read the spoilers for season 3. All the drama in that operating room would certainly lead us to believe that she would die there. If not, then why all the high drama? Even when Bette told everyone in the final scene that Tina "was fine," I didn't buy it. Horrible, to not show them sharing this happiness together, after all the season of waiting! I'm guessing this was a case of bad timing on the part of the real birth of Laurel Holloman's baby (unless it's another hint at things to come in season 3 — Bette and Tina still separated), but I'm thinking this would have been a shot worth waiting for — the money shot, as they say.

Which brings up the other Bette & Tina money shot that was totally missing earlier in season 2. When Bette learns that Tina is pregnant in episode 5, and the scene ends with her saying "What condition is that?" I couldn't believe it! How could they not give us her reaction? Did she just walk out of the room? Did she lose her cool and blow up? What did she do when either Tina or Helena (we don't even know who spilled the beans) said that Tina was pregnant? And how did they say it?

"Tina's going to have a baby."
"I'm pregnant."
"She's with child, you idiot!"

Or did they say nothing and just leave poor Bette to figure it out on her own, while Tina rubbed her belly suggestively. This omission, to me, is one of the great missteps in television history. I had been highly anticipating this confrontation and it never occurred. Days later, Bette goes to Tina's apartment to ask the most basic question: how did this happen?

Suspension of Disbelief

The willing suspension of disbelief can be predicated on many things, but utter nonsense isn't one of them. For instance, what nine months pregnant woman would go to a crowded rock concert? (And wearing ugg boots, for god's sake! Was this another attempt by the L Word fashion police to create a trend from absurdity? Remember those outfits that Jenny somehow afforded when she couldn't pay the rent?)

And why, oh why, is Helena so enthralled with pregnant women? The character of Helena is a whole problem in itself. I have never, for a moment, bought into Rachel Shelley as a lesbian. She should take lessons from Sara Shahi and Jennifer Beals, who are both straight women acting the hell out of lesbian roles. The fact that Shelley was given this part, and then brought back for season three, really boggles my mind. While Shelley was stellar in Lagaan, she is a heterosexual actor with no experience (real or imagined) to inform her performance as a lesbian. Bad casting. Still, I have my doubts that this character could have become believable even with great acting. Helena has so little genuine emotion as Helena that it's hard to tell if Shelley is acting badly, or if Helena is acting badly in her own superficial play.

Shall we even mention Mark? Regrettably, we must, given that so much of season 2 was handed to him. Were writers pressured to include a straight man in the story somehow? Mark is one part of the script I truly cannot analyze because it just makes no sense. Even if they were trying to give him an arc to become a better man, it seems they left it unfinished. What could Mark and Shane possibly have had in common to form the friendship we were meant to believe they had? Perhaps if Mark had remained an antagonist, the self-absorbed slime ball he came in as, it would have made a better story. This is one problem we won't have to deal with in season 3. Mark has been eliminated, and I don't even care why or how.

Melvin

Are we really supposed to believe that Melvin, that arrogant, homophobic, closed-minded man who throughout most of the season had no redeemable traits, was ever interested in civil or women's rights? What a shameless twist to write Gloria Steinem into the story. The character of Melvin made such valuable contributions to the season, that I feel this distortion in the end was demeaning. The scenes from Melvin's deathbed were magical (and deservedly Emmy-nominated):  the connection between he and Kit and Bette was completed with the sweet singing of that childhood memory; when he gave his blessing to Bette and Tina in his delirium, my greatest hope for their reconciliation appeared and then dissolved as they realized he was remembering another time.

Ossie Davis' death was just another in the bizarre life-imitates-art aspect of The L Word:  Tina wants to get pregnant — Holloman gets pregnant; Melvin returns to the show to die — Davis dies shortly afterward; Bette ends the season holding her new baby — Beals announces she is pregnant. None of this coincidence could have been scripted by writers who stumbled over the blurred lines between truth and fiction. The stories in The L Word get so off track at times that we lose interest, unable to follow the path left by mis-edited scenes and disingenuous dialog. It is truly odd how reality has visited this show anyway, leaving behind two births and one death in the same season.

At the end of season 2, writers strangely glossed over Bette's reaction to Melvin's death, or is Bette again muzzling her emotions in support of Tina, exactly as she did when Tina miscarried their first child? Bette's father, the man this daddy's girl adored most of all, dies in her home and under her care. Bette's love for Melvin rivaled her commitment to Tina, as we saw time and again. Then, for her devotion to her father in his time of need, she is suddenly fired from her job, a job that defined her and also rivaled her commitment to Tina. (Our ambitious Bette was personified by her position as the ultra-chic and powerful protector of the arts — the director of the California Arts Center.)

So here is Bette, with two of her most important underpinnings in life snatched away, and the third, her relationship with Tina, still on shaky ground. Her world has been rocked — in a big way. If it was me, I would be in a state of morbid depression for months — grieving, angry, unable to function. And yet, we see Bette going to rock concerts, cheerfully assembling birthing pools, and happily holding a new baby just days after her father's death and the loss of her job. Isn't Bette repeating the behavior that lead to her affair with Candace, by keeping her emotions locked down because Tina needs her to be strong? In real life, this would lead to another episode of acting out, another ultimate deconstruction since Bette has not learned her lesson. But will writers ignore (or forget) these details in season 3, since the story must again be skewed around an untimely pregnancy?

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