The L Word: Generation Q Review: Labels (Season 1 Episode 5)
On The L Word: Generation Q Season 1 Episode 5, “Labels,” everyone is dealing with the aftermath of a night of heavy drinking at Shane’s birthday party.
This brings some interesting new pairings together, as Tess and Finley make an unlikely but highly compelling connection, while Alice, Nat, and Gigi try to negotiate what their relationship will look like moving forward.
Tess and Finley’s friendship seems like a promising development at first — the two of them strike up an easy chemistry over breakfast, and it seems like maybe Finley has met the right person to help her gain perspective on her excessive drinking.
Instead, things take a sad turn as Tess ultimately makes the decision to have a drink after nearly two years of sobriety.
In my review of The L Word: Generation Q Season 1 Episode 4, “LA Times,” I mentioned that an actress of Jamie Clayton’s calibre deserved a role with more depth than Tess had been given so far. This episode absolutely delivered on that hope, providing her with a new storyline of her own and plenty of emotionally potent moments.
Director Erica Watson, who has also helmed episodes of On My Block and All American, does wonderful work with Tess’s scenes in particular. She keeps the camera close, lending an almost claustrophobic intimacy to the frantic calls Tess makes to Lena and her sponsor. The tightness of those shots heightens the tense, trapped feeling of the walls closing in around her as she struggles not to relapse.
When the camera pulls back, those wider shots are framed by the rows of liquor bottles or dotted with half-full glasses on table, a visual tactic that’s specific to Tess’s anxiety but is also consistent with the general sense of tension in the episode.
Every major romance has begun to feel deeply unstable, even though the involved partners are still committed to making things work.
Nat, Gigi, and Alice, for example, seem to have found a peaceful resolution as a polyamorous throuple — but Nat’s emotional insecurities, paired with Alice’s almost alarming eagerness to bring another woman into their home life, makes for a rather ominous combination. Alice seems to be using Gigi as a distraction in order to avoid addressing her compatibility issues with Nat head-on.
Meanwhile, Dani and Sophie are still having issues communicating with one another, which seems to be a longstanding problem in their relationship. It’s also one of the reasons I’m struggling to stay invested in them as a couple.
Dani has a tendency to handle situations unilaterally, acting without consulting Sophie first and then refusing to talk to her afterward.
Sophie, for her part, is always aggressively challenging Dani to open up and be more vulnerable with her. It feels like a fundamental misalignment in their values as a couple — and as Becca tells Finley elsewhere in the episode, you can’t expect to change people just through sheer force of will.
If these two are supposed to be The L Word: Generation Q‘s main couple — and I believe they are, since the opening scene of the pilot episode took place in their bedroom — then the show needs to build a more compelling case as to why we should root for a romance that remains so tenuous.
Despite its focus on conflict, the episode isn’t without its moments of sweetness. The way everyone turns up to support Angie’s school play, and especially the way they cheer on Jordie, is hilarious and endearing.
It’s also a lovely testament to the power of chosen family, which can take on many label-defying forms.
Sometimes a family is a mom, her non-biological daughter, a throuple of weird aunts, uncle Shane, and uncle Shane’s soon-to-be ex-wife, and that’s more than okay — it’s beautiful.
What did you think of this episode of The L Word: Generation Q? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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The L Word: Generation Q airs Sundays at 10/9c on Showtime.
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Ariel Udel
Ariel fell in love with storytelling on the night Flight 815 crashed on a mysterious island, and has been blogging about television ever since. She has an affinity for messy female anti-heroes and an enduring love of Battlestar Galactica, Xena: Warrior Princess, Lost, and Halt and Catch Fire.