The L Word: Let’s Get This Party Started (Episode 54)

Lez Girls

Is it my imagination, or are Lez Girls getting meaner this season?

Instead of the usual breakdown, I’m gonna mix it up this week. Rather than dividing up among couples, this week we have “Those at the party” and “Those not at the party.”

Those AT the Party: So, there’s this really cool club opening called the Shebar. Hot, sexy girls from Miami, all the cool dykes will be there, don’t be left out. That kinda place. Bette, Jodi, Tom (her interpreter), Kit and Shane are there. As is Jennie (and her trailing puppy dog), Tina and her new flame, Brenda the Heart Surgeon.

We learn about the party while the girls are at a self-defense class, supporting Kit in her efforts to be ready next time a couple thugs stick a gun in her face. Is that something you’re ever ready for? Anyway, amidst the hubbub about the new club, who’s going and who’s not, we also glean that Jenny is throwing a hissy because the studio wants to cast some actress named Nikki Stevens to play her, er, I mean Jessie, in Lez Girls. I’m still scratching my head over why she wanted Natalie Portman, but whatever. And Adelle…that little mousey girl is really quite bright behind those huge glasses. She very sneakily arranges for a watch to show up as a gift from William, Jenny’s billionaire backer, with his enthusiastic thumbs up for Nikki as Jessie. Then, at the party, she arranges for Nikki to “run into” Jenny and proceed to literally BEG for the part with that great line, “I will give you everything that is inside of me for this role.” Oh yes, Adelle is good.

Bette doesn’t want to go, ostensibly because she doesn’t want to support a bar that will compete with her sister (The Planet has girls’ night on Thursdays, which I didn’t remember). She’s so full of bullshit. She’s just old and doesn’t like to party anymore. We also get to see later that all isn’t perfect in Bette/Jodi-land. Some student artist pulled a pulled carved out of soapstone and acted like he was going to shoot himself and called it art. He’s in Jodi’s class. Bette had to pull her Dean hat out and ask Jodi to be more sensitive and Jodi’s all up in arms and gets somewhat insulted, with good cause, I think. Bette really is a wet blanket.

Shane hasn’t decided if she’s going. I mean, why torture yourself, right? And you gotta know it’s been too long when you start picturing all the girls walking around you naked. Shane’s reputation precedes her, as the owner, “Hi I’m Dawn and this is my lover Cindi,” have heard of her and give her a VIP pass for the evening. They later trap her in the VIP lounge and proceed to have their dirty dirty way with her. Not that Shane is fighting it. She may have finally found a solution to the “NO DRAMA” life she’s looking for.

When Kit has had it up to here with Shebar and is ready to leave, Bette sends Jodi on home alone and stays to find Shane, who she promised she wouldn’t leave without. Bette finds Tina in the private little bar that’s curtained off from the rest of the club, all alone and looking very sad. Turns out, Tina is hiding from Brenda, who is just too much of a wild child for her. Hmmmm, could she and Bette have more in common than they think? One would think so by the way they are sucking face when Tina gets up to leave and Bette reaches out and pulls her into her arms. What will Jodi say? If she finds out. Oh, who am I kidding. They always find out.

Those NOT at the Party: That would just be Alice and Tasha. Instead Alice got invited to some hush-hush, Hollywood Underground party for all the gay people who are still in the closet or just don’t want to flaunt it. But, first, Alice gets a little drama of her own.

The military sends a couple of butch guys to her apartment, clearly in an attempt to intimidate her into confessing something that they can use against Tasha. They prowl around her apartment, looking at books and magazines and The Chart. This after bullying their way inside. Assholes. When Tasha gets home, she’s livid and rightly so.

Tasha marches straight over to Beech’s house and pretty much reads him the riot act for not only allowing such a thing to happen, but not notifying her that it even might. Beech’s wife comes down to hiss at them to keep it quiet so their son doesn’t wake up and … this part I love… Tasha humbly and sincerely apologizes to her for the rudeness of coming to her home and disrupting her family, pointedly looking at Beech the whole time. Needless to say, he got an earful when she left. Heh.

So, thanks to Mrs. Beech, he pays the ladies a visit while they’re laying in post-coital bliss in Alice’s bed the next day. The man has made a complete 180 regarding Tasha’s defense and even managed to charm Alice (and visa versa, of course). My faith in humanity is restored!!!

Now, on to the super-duper sekrit gay party. Alice drives up and provides her code sentence, “Aunt Sally is here.”  *snort*  When they get inside, Tasha immediately recognizes one guy as a point guard for the NBA. He’s dancing and snogging some cute boytoy. Now, there’s some really important, influential people here who do NOT want their sexual preferences known (including Tasha), and that’s made clear by their host. So, what does Alice do? Sneaks a picture of Mr. NBA with her camera phone. How. Stupid. Is. That?

Next week, shit hits the fan on many fronts.