The L Word – Summer DVD Review – Lacuna

photo: showtime

The L Word
Lacuna

Season 2, Episode 13

Angelique – Associate Staff Writer
angelique@thetwocentscorp.com

The season finale of the second season was a much anticipated episode. The Soup Chef is back. Jenny loses her mind completely, she reveals herself as a cutter who deals with her troubled life by self mutilation. And Tina tells Bette that she wants to move back in with her especially now that she is getting closer to her due date. And Shane finally takes the plunge into a real relationship.

Jenny who is heading hard for her breaking point decides to do a strip act live on the stage of a local strip bar. Shane who sees her is waiting for her outside the bar, she asks Jenny why she did it. Jenny states that in that particular situation she is in control, she is the one who decides when she takes her clothes of and it helps her remember some screwed up memories from her past.

Bette parks her car in the parking lot of the obstetrician, but before Tina and Bette can reach the entrance Helena blocks their way with her car. She insists that Tina meets her later that day for a lunch with her mother, Peggy Peabody. The woman who used to be the head of the Peabody Foundation who granted Bette and the CAC a couple of huge donations until this year when Helena became the head of the foundation and choose to give her money to the organization that Tina works for. Tina declines the offer and tells Helena to take one of her other girlfriends to the lunch. Helena tells her that her mother is looking forward to meeting Tina since she has told her so much about her. You can see that Bette is getting very annoyed but she tries hard to keep her comments to herself. I guess that she does that because she is happy that she and Tina have finally reached a common ground, they are closer then they have been in a long time and Bette is most likely prepared to do a lot to secure a future with her child and Tina.

Dana is training hard to become a better tennis player with a personal trainer. Even though she says that she’s rather famous for being an out of the closet lesbian then a number one tennis player, which she is joking about. She is pushing herself to continue. Her trainer ( my fellow Dutchie, Lucia Rijker, plays a cameo, she returns in the fifth season to play a different role ) has no pity on her when she is telling her to run up a hill when Alice drives up to them to bring Dana her boxing gloves which she forgot.

Bette and Tina need to assemble the birthing bath since Tina is convinced that she wants to have the baby at home. This is the only moment where Bette states that she hates being a lesbian, it is quite funny to think of Bette the uber femme in her nice and expensive clothes who is assembling a birthing tank. When she is done Tina tells her that she wants to have the baby at her home. Bette reacts kind of shocked when she asks Tina if she is sure after all Bette has made sure that everything is in order and ready. Tina’s voice breaks when she tells Bette that she wants to have their baby at their home. That she wants to come back home. It is such a simple scene but it is beautiful and in a good way heartbreaking.

So while Tina and Bette are taking the final step to get back together, Helena has to face her mother alone. For Peggy everything is about her standards and when she heard that the custody battle for the kids between Helena and her ex Winnie was getting ugly she invited Winnie and the kids to the lunch as well. In fact Helena is being tag teamed by Peggy and Winnie, right in front of the kids which is poor judgment on the adults behalf in my opinion.

While Bette’s life seems to be getting back on track, she is mourning the loss of her father, Melvin. Everyone meets up at The Planet after the memorial service. Lara, the Soup Chef, is now working at the Planet, since Kit is turning it into an even more popular place. She brings back some memories of her previous relationship with Dana who she is teasing. Alice sees the two former lovers talking and laughing together and jealousy is obviously written on her face. When Dana returns to her she asks Dana if she wants to move in with her. Obviously a request which is made for all the wrong reasons.

And then there is of course Franklin Bette’s boss who fires her at the memorial service. She’s bitter and blames Helena who of course is the one who brought Leo Herrera in. He is going to take Bette’s place. He tells her that she doesn’t have to worry about the future they will buy out her contract, which will give Bette enough money for the future until she finds a new job.

Bette confronts Helena only to be interrupted by Peggy Peabody, she asks Bette if she is alone because she feels as if she is the fifth wheel with Helena and her ‘new’ lover. Bette tells Peggy that she is with Tina, and that is when Peggy puts one and one together about her own daughter. Carmen comes up to Bette to tell her that Tina is in the bathroom and that she needs her.

Dana and Alice realize that having a relationship with your best friend is hard since there is no one you can turn to when you want to talk about your relationship. Dana thinks that they are moving to fast and that Alice’s behavior is suffocating her.

Bette and Tina arrive home where they planned to have the baby, but things don’t always go as you plan them. Tina is in a lot of pain and when the labour doesn’t progress she is being rushed to the hospital because the baby is in distress. All the while she is crying and begging them to not let the baby die. The baby is delivered by an emergency c-section. Tina tells Bette that she wants to call her Angelica. Her blood pressure drops and she passes out.

Jenny reached her breaking point and when Carmen and Shane are getting ready to leave for the hospital to see Angelica they hear her crying in the bathroom.Shane finds her sitting naked against the bath tub with multiple self inflicted cuts on her upper leg. She calms Jenny down enough to take her with them later that night Jenny leaves LA to go back home to her parents.

The whole group arrives at the hospital and finds Bette holding the little baby girl. Tina is still in recovery and Bette is waiting till they bring her down so she can show Tina her little girl who she hasn’t seen.

The next episode I’ll watch will be from season 3: “Lobsters.”