It’s your Friday queer TV round-up! Welcome to the weekend and Aja’s glorious disgust with Grey’s Anatomy’s Penny!
UnREAL’ The Faith Diaries
On Lifetime.com
Written by Riese
If you’re anything like me, you binge-watched an entire season of the Lifetime series UnREAL because you heard there was a lesbian character and boy were you surprisingly not disappointed! I believe it was merely two weeks ago that I dropped mention of “The Faith Diaries” into the Pop Culture Fix having no idea what I was talking about, and now there is nothing I care about more than “The Faith Diaries”! Y’all Faith was the cutest part of UnREAL season one and for some reason LIFETIME of all networks decided that in the off-season, they’d give the lesbians a gift of a little web-exclsuive series JUST ABOUT THE LESBIAN. AND! AND! In this little web-series, the lesbian moves in with an old butch lesbian couple and one of the women in the couple is played by actual lesbian Dot-Marie Jones, and there’s even a phootshoot scene where our very own actual lesbian Haviland Pekor Stillwell plays an important fancy person. Look I’m not gonna recap it for you because I think it’s totally within your power to go out and witness the whole damn thing for yourself and I’d encourage you to do so. Go. Do it.
Empire
Wednesdays on Fox at 9:00 p.m.
Written by Carolyn Wysinger
Here is my deep dark secret.
I did not hate this week’s episode of Empire. Out of the two episodes that have aired in the second half of the seasons I have only disliked one and that was because they killed the lesbian couple. Otherwise, I have had a hard time playing my designated role as Empire Grinch. I am still angry about killing the evil lezzie couple. I mean they could have shipped them off to prison or put them in identical season-long comas. That would have been very nighttime soap of them. However, the Lawd hid a ram in the bush of our on-screen queer existence in the form of Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta. This week Mona Scott added two Trans Women of Color to the LAHH cast. One came out with her guns blazing calling out transphobia amongst the cast. The show is still over the top dramatic but I always encourage support of QWOC visibility. (Look for a standalone post about the show from me soon here on Autostraddle.)
Back to Empire. Hakeem is holding the most dramatic memorial service for Camilla. He makes a commitment to keep her fashion brand alive with Andre’s wife Rhonda as the head. Meanwhile, the Empire writers keep up their commitment to giving Cookie at least one horrible gay slur per episode. Referring to Camilla and Mimi as a “carpet munching Romeo and Juliet.” It’s interesting that Lucious is supposed to be the evil homophobic one but Cookie is the one that does the most damage with her words.
After the memorial, the Lyon clan gets together to talk shit about the demise of Camilla and their return to power at Empire. Lucious accuses Hakeem of killing Camilla and Mimi. I truly believe that if the police ever initiated a murder investigation Lucious would absolutely try to sell them on Hakeem as the killer. What an ass. Cookie reminds the family that her birthday is Sunday and it will be her first birthday outside of prison in 17 years. All she wants for her birthday is a peaceful dinner with her family. That’s pretty wishful thinking.
Later, Lucious and Cookie take a trip to their native Philadelphia where they are going to film a video for “Boom, Boom, Boom.” The video will be based on his life as Dwight Walker and his relationship with his mother. We see the concrete lion he slept under as a child when he ran away from his mother. This is the first time you ever see Lucious with visible anxiety, but it won’t be the last.
Jamal and Hakeem come up with the bright idea to do a track with Freda Gatz. I won’t be condescending about the idea because she is the most musically talented of the cast so this is a smart move. Hakeem is certain she won’t go for it because the bad blood between them runs deep. I will also remind you about that telling moment last week where they gave Freda a brief cameo before offing the lezzie couple. I’m certain a major story-arc featuring Freda is coming. There are some additional signs pointing to this later in the episode.
Tiana’s tour has started and so has the drama between Tiana and Laura. Tiana feels that Mirage a Trois (yes I spell it different every episode because I can’t figure out how to spell this made-up-ass name) is slighting her by going over their time every night. Tiana and Becky lay into a clueless Laura as soon as she gets off the stage. Tiana gives her the side-eye of death and then takes the stage.
Hakeem and Jamal make another super smart decision to go to the hood looking for Freda Gatz. This is actually hilarious and illustrates a commonly held vision of what happens when modern day rappers visit the hood. Their driver even suggest that they tuck their chains, which Hakeem scaredy-ass does with the quickness. But this is Empire. The place where wack Hakeem beat Freda Gatz in a rap battle with wack lyrics. Instead of them getting hilariously getting run out of the hood, we got a cute rap cypher with a little kid. That’s cute for you Empire. Freda finds them in the cypher circle and asks them what they are there for. They bring up the idea of doing a song together but she shoots it down reiterating that Lucious has been like a father to her. Ya know, after her murdered hers and such. Jamal warns her that he always turns on his own kids but she isn’t hearing that and sends them away warning them not to get jacked.
Upon their return Becky lets them know about the beef brewing on Tiana’s tour. “It’s bad. Like Keyshia Cole vs Black Twitter bad.” HA! That’s not bad; that’s HORRIBLE! Hakeem thinks sleeping with his artists is the point of being a CEO. Perks and such, ya know? So he decides to join the tour so he can smooth things over with his two boos. Which is him trying to sweet talk them both with a little extra for Laura. Unfortunately for him, Tiana witnesses him booed up with Laura. Ain’t nothing smoothed over there. This storm is just getting started. But what happened to Tiana’s girlfriend, though? Hmm?
Lucious is on set at his music video trying to explain his life to the little boy playing him. Freda walks in with her crew and asks about the changes they have done to the video. It was originally supposed to have castles and dragons or something. Lucious lets her know that they concept has been changed and that her verse has been taken out of the song. A song that she ghost wrote most of. Who warned her that would happen? Jamal. Who does she immediately run to? Jamal. She doesn’t even have to tell him what happens. They immediately get to work on a track together.
Back on set, Lucious’ anxiety over telling his story is building. When he sees the woman that will play his mother in full costume in “their apartment,” it’s too much for him. He is much more comfortable telling the story of him becoming Lucious, not his home life as Dwight. Cookie continues to push for him to tell his story. I’m sure most people are reluctant to feel any sadness for Lucious, but we know that most people who have the type of narcissism and grandiose personal view that Lucious does has one helluva dark story to tell. He is being forced to confront his darkness. We have seen the flashbacks of his mother forcing him underwater, but we haven’t seen what happens next. Lucious shares with Cookie that after his mother tried to drown him, she took a gun and killed herself. After that, he slept in abandoned buildings until a neighbor lady took him in. It was then that he met Frank Gathers (Freda’s father Frank Gathers), who turned him onto selling drugs. Remember that Lucious had Frank killed because he had a hit out on Cookie. Don’t forget that.
Lucious returns to set and tries to go over the scene with the young actor again and it still doesn’t work out. Cookie clears the set so that she can refocus both Lucious and the little boy. She promises the young actor that he will be a hero for a lot of people. Lucious gives Cookie that look he always gives her when she saves his ass and shows she has his back. It’s a look of love and admiration. Too bad it only appears when he is at his lowest point.
Tiana’s song is terrible. I’m sorry; it had to be said. It goes up there with “Drip Drop” as songs that should never be heard again. We are forced to suffer through it twice this episode and that’s more than one person should be forced to handle. After this second performance, Hakeem and Laura join her own stage for this really weird collaboration. I wonder when they hell they were supposed to have recorded it? Before or after they started hating each other? And why does it stink like that episode where Lucious and Mimi had that horrible threesome?
Jamal joins Cookie in the editing room as she works on Lucious’ video and she begs Jamal to come to her birthday dinner. He refuses and then accuses her of falling for Lucious again. She doesn’t deny it. She says that they have is very deep and it must be since it seems that he is the only one still coming to her birthday dinner. It seems that he is but actually the whole family is there and they join in a half-ass version of Stevie Wonder’s Happy Birthday. After dinner, Cookie screens Lucious’ video. This is the sons’ first time learning anything about their grandmother. It doesn’t take long before they make the connection between their grandmother and Andre. Watching their grandmother shoot herself triggers Andre’s memory of trying to kill himself in the studio. Andre turns off the video and confronts his father by asking straight up if their grandmother was bipolar. Lucious loses his shit and says he sent him to schools to try to fix him, but honestly he was ashamed of his mother and ashamed of him. Welcome to the world of black folks trying to talk about mental illness.
Hakeem leaves the party and is waiting for Laura outside of the show. He needs a loving family like hers ’cause his is crazy and he asks her to marry him. Tiana sees this and all I can say is something is about to go down.
Rhonda leaves the party and the only person waiting on her is crazy Anika. She, too, needs time away from the Lyon family and Anika offers her time away at her house. Lawd, say no, girl! (Of course she says yes.)
Hakeem and Jamal are working on his track in the studio where Cookie joins them. She is shocked when Freda Gatz joins them. (Sidenote: I know I’m a little older than your average Autostraddle reader and I remember when finger waves were actually in style. Are they coming back? Or is this just another hairstyle fail for Freda’s glam squad?) Anyway, Freda and Jamal go into the booth to lay down their verses. In her verse Freda mentions her father’s murder. Cookie hurries to stop the track and ask her if she knew Frank Gatz. Apparently, Cookie didn’t know that Frank was Freda’s father. Cookie tries to keep it together when Freda asks if she knew her father. But she ultimately runs out of the studio like she saw a ghost.
I told y’all. It’s goin’ down.
Grey’s Anatomy
Thursdays on ABC at 8:00 p.m.
Written by Aja
This week’s theme is All bleeding will stop…eventually.
It’s a two-hour doozy in which a whole lot goes on in the first hour between the Chief and her husband, Ben Warren. Long story short, he made a call during a Code Pink lockdown that cost not only a premature, hack job cesarean baby its tiny little expired life, but the mother’s as well. Not only did Bailey brazenly ignore a patient’s DNR in a risky gamble herself, but at the end of the day, she’s the chief and Warren’s still just a resident. An older resident with years of prior experience as a doctor, sure, but a resident surgeon, nonetheless. The whole thing made me physically ill, and my wife and I debated for a good long while whether the punishment she doled out was fully warranted.
Has Warren learned and experienced enough to truly and accurately measure that kind of medical risk? Clearly, no. Does he have the best intentions and believe utterly in his own ability and purity of his desire to save lives? Of course he does (and of course Bailey does). Did the advisory panel clear Warren of any wrongdoing? Yes, unanimously. Have 84,000 other characters on this show survived suspensions and career-threatening setbacks? Yes, yes, yes. Did he shit all over Bailey both before and after they made up their Church & State rule? Absolutely, and I can’t abide a double standard in which one person’s semi- or straight-up abusive outbursts aren’t okay, and another person’s are. It’s a tough one, and I hate seeing them torn apart and at chasm-wide odds. I think the scene where she didn’t wake him like they always do when of them’s been paged to the hospital wrecked me the hardest — they do that to make sure little Tuck doesn’t get lost in the on-call shuffle, to keep his daily life and routine stable, and watching that small symbol of their love and care stumble so badly broke my heart.
Elsewhere, the Riggs plot thickened to a molasses-like slog, and Jackson and April go a few more rounds before finally making peace, but not before Arizona accompanies April to a custody lawyer for emotional support. Why is this relevant? Because Sofia suddenly reemerging in the show’s last few episodes hasn’t been for naught; that walking discarded dorm mattress of a human being, Penny, and her stupid little award are moving to New York, and guess who’s going with her? Yup. Nope. YUP. NOPE. I cannot even with this, you guys.
For one thing, Callie has lost her goddamn mind. She’s known this train wreck for all of what? Like three months, maybe four? Penny just met Sofia. By accident! An actual accident, for god’s sake! Callie’s all about family (chosen or otherwise), and home, and having a village. She will absolutely bend backwards, sideways and inside out to accommodate or shift or make a thing work when it comes to the humans she loves the most, she never takes the easy way out of things, she’d never just up and leave the way Grey does without thinking twice. This makes no sense whatsoever, nobody buys this! There is no reality in which Callie would be so breezy and careless about arbitrarily moving Sofia 3,000 miles away, especially not without consulting Arizona about the possibility — the possibility! — let alone just deciding. For everyone. Also? Penny doesn’t know fuck-all about, like, winning at life, to say nothing of raising children or coparenting or what life away from home doing an intense grant thingee looks like, never mind winning at the grant thingee and a lover you scarcely know and their small human in the most notoriously fast-paced, brutal, overwhelming city this country has to offer. This is BULLSHIT. It doesn’t compute. You don’t have serious heart-to-hearts with your ex/baby mama one week, giggle together about her running into you making out with the idiot mash mouth resident in a supply closet the next, and then immediately and unequivocally shut her out of this massive and disruptive life-altering change without sitting her down to discuss it first. Come the hell on.
So there you go. Arizona’s all lawyered up, and I’m so pissed and disgusted at this whole thing it took my all just to write about it.
Give me a break when IRL we just talked about what superior parents we are.
SHONDA, DO YOU NEED ME TO CONSULT ON YOUR SHOW? I’M AVAILABLE.
YAY!!! i’m so happy you’re going to talk about the faith diaries bc it was the cutest thing I’ve ever seen! i loved it so much!!! and unreal is such an amazingly good show! yay!
Woah you really hate Penny. Remind me what she did that was so horrible?
Simply: she’s an annoying and useless character.
KILLED DEREK
(okay, that’s actually not totally her fault and I don’t miss him, but also she’s just a milksop)
Watching Penny Do Anything is still worse than Watching Paint Dry
There’s just no way Callie would ever fall in love with a human shaped piece of styrofoam in a sensible skirt it’s not believable
I’ve always liked Callie but those scenes with Penny make me cringe. I literally hide under my blanket whenever these two come on because it just makes me so incredibly uncomfortable.
JUST DID THIS. I hid my face under a blanket & my wife went on her phone so that we didn’t have to seeeeee
Penny: You can’t be dull and weak and expect me to root for you, you know? Never mind the fact that the show’s done a very poor job of giving us a convincing whirlwind, overnight romance between she and Callie. They just haven’t. There’s no there there.
In terms of Callie chasing love around, it seems reasonable to expect that a certain amount of that energy would have grown, matured or at least become more self-aware once a child entered her life. Had they *really* sold it, if Penny had been awesome, if we were truly rooting for them…all of this would feel different. It would feel hurt-y and bittersweet and we’d be so torn up at the idea of Arizona being left behind but also so excited and happy for Callie and Penny, because HOW COULD YOU NOT LOVE PENNY?! But we’re not, because she’s the worst.
As for Arizona, I think there are two things that explain (not justify, but certainly explain) her going to the lawyer:
A. She is fresh off of seeing with acute clarity what happens to a straight couple in the nascent stages of a custody battle, all the maneuvering and ruthlessness. To be unnerved by that and then have Callie drop this out of the left field and know it’ll likely be nastier and more vicious because you’re same-sex parents? Sure she’s spooked.
B. When Arizona cheated, Callie very abruptly and without warning moved both herself and Sofia out of their home and was unresponsive to Arizona’s attempts at contact initially. She’s been separated from her daughter once before, and it resulted in what would eventually become a joint custody arrangement (kind of) dictated by Callie. Maybe that’s all been triggered between the lawyer visits with April and Callie’s declaration re: the move.
Anyway, this whole mess sure has us all talking, so that’s a thing!
Aja, in both this comment and in the recap you took all my rage and laid it out so eloquently, so thoroughly, so exactly on the nose (And with the appropriate amount of swearing. Because this is a situation that REALLY CALLS FOR SOME F*CKING SWEARING).
Aja you are a superhero.
Also, lets not forget that in therapy Callie implied that Arizona didn’t love Sofia because of how she came about, which is a pretty huge accusation that hurt Arizona deeply. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her as fired up as she was in her response to that! It’s obviously a sensitive subject and something I’m surprised took them that long to address in the first place. I’m sure it might come up again if they do in fact end up in court over this.
If there could be negative chemistry between two people, these people have it. And how that’s possible with Sara Ramirez, I don’t even understand.
I’m having the opposite conflict with Empire that I had with The 100 before Code 307. With The 100, I was always squicked out by the lousy treatment of POC, but the queer rep was so, so promising that it seemed worth the trade-off. And now, with Empire, I’m always squicked out by the truly legendary bi erasure, but it’s also quite possibly the most unapologetically black show I watch (though I’m open to other suggestions!), and I’m having trouble letting that go. Like, all the soapy silliness aside, that Andre scene at the end was one of the most deeply moving and relatable things I’ve seen on my TV recently. So scared Empire is going to have its own Code 307 moment that leaves me feeling betrayed. But that seems to be the hard truth of intersectionality – if someone doesn’t respect one aspect of your identity, they really can’t be trusted with any of it.
Yes to all of this Cee. Just drop the mic after that lol
This is such a fantastic comment. ALL OF THIS.
Re other black shows, have you tried Undercover? It’s airing on the BBC in the UK right now (*cough*available elsewhere with Tunnel Bear + BBC website*cough*) and has totally blown me away. Sophie Okenedo is a British defense attorney with an unapologetic agenda to correct racial injustice who decides to run for office; Adrian Lester is her loving husband and father of their three kids who is blackmailed into spying on her by the police; Angel Coulby is the journalist in need of redemption who investigates. The first 25 minutes of the first episode is honestly the most riveting thing I’ve EVER seen on television.
Obviously they’re British and so don’t have the African-American vibe of Empire, but the show feels intensely and unapologetically black in its take on the police and justice system. I believe it’s based on a real investigation by Guardian newspaper. And the acting is incredible.
I’ve also heard very good things about Underground, the historical drama on WGN about a group of African-American slaves escaping on the Underground Railroad, though I haven’t seen it. But I have definitely heard favorable comparisons of it to Empire.
I don’t know anything about LGBT representation in either show. Anyone else have suggestions?
Faith Diaries was super cute and light hearted. It made me really crave a good lesbian love story: the women start off together, no men, all love and happiness. If only it were longer than 20 minutes total. Baby steps, I suppose.
In which Sara Lance fulfills at least one AU fantasy on “Legends of Tomorrow”.
God I can’t wait for England to catch up on this show. Damn! We’ve not even made it to Betty McRae yet.
omg please tell me this doesn’t mean Callie is leaving the show. Losing Christina was bad enough, I don’t think I could be convinced to watch this season if I know Callie ends with it.
I hadn’t once considered that and had no idea about the contract or Broadway stuff mentioned elsewhere here! ACK!
Ah thank you for these great recaps of Empire and Grey, Carolyn and Aja. Lets me enjoy these shows without having to watch them, ha!
Re: Empire. Cookie’s homophobia makes me so sad b/c one of my favorite moments early in the show is when she tells babyJamal “I got you.” It just squeezed my heart and I want that Cookie.
Grey’s:
It’s just hard for me to watch these two episodes without yelling “REMEMBER DENNY? REMEMBER IZZY?” at the screen. Idk maybe Bailey is fed up with that nonsense, but it’s hard to believe she wouldn’t go with some sort of rehabilitative option. I totally get why she’s so angry and, tbh, even if Ben is being honest about not seeing the doors, it’s kinda disturbing that he didn’t see them. It would help if he did show remorse instead of lapsing into constant indignation. To be honest, their storyline has been really sad for me this season. I feel like Ben was supposed to be the opposite of Bailey’s first husband – that he was supposed to get it and be okay and supportive of her ambition, but he has always seemed uncomfortable with her being Chief and I’m not surprised that it’s finally reaching a head. I just want Bailey to be loved and supported.
As for Callie and Penny. Ick. Penny just has no substance, no feeling of strength or passion. Callie brings all this love and energy to the table, and even though she and Arizona clearly weren’t working, you can still see chemistry between them in their scenes. Penny is just kind of there. Callie needs a grown-up with some substance and backbone. I do find Callie’s decision to take Sofia with her somewhat believable because Callie can kind of rush into things sometimes, but I don’t think Arizona would go directly to a lawyer. It seems like she’d start by talking to Callie and then go to a lawyer if Callie didn’t rethink her plans.
Cookie’s homophobia is jarring for the exact reason you said, the originally wrote her as very supportive. BUT if you notice most of it is at the expense of Mimi and Camilla and never Jamal. I think that distinction is important cause so many people accept family members cause they are family but are still homophobic to the community itself.
I think the Ben thing is so real- just like Meredith and Derek’s career fights in the season before his death. I didn’t realize *ever*, until hearing a recent interview with Shonda (Fresh Air, maybe), that she had set out to write a show about badass, career-oriented women. I think she had originally even wanted it to be a military thing. But it put the show in a whole new light for me. What Miranda is going through is a real issue for high-achieving women (perhaps especially those in heterosexual relationships?). Navigating power in a patriarchal society goes beyond everybody’s good intentions. So I guess for me, it does hurt to see, but having been through something like it myself it rings true, and I’m glad they’re taking it on.
// UnREAL: The Faith Diaries //
I loved UnREAL (second season starts June 6) and can’t wait to watch Faith’s web series. Thanks for the heads up.
// Grey’s Anatomy //
Man, people are really mad at Penny…despite the fact, of course, that none of this is her fault.
I get that it’s easier to direct anger at the new girl that we’ve “just” met but it’s really not her fault. She didn’t ask Callie to come with her to New York. She wasn’t so presumptuous as to ask Callie to join her, even though she wanted to, because she knew about Callie’s ties to Seattle. She only asked Callie to join her when prompted. This is not Penny’s fault.
This mess is Callie and Arizona’s fault.
Has Callie lost her mind? No, this is wholly consistent with the person we’ve always known her to be. This is the same Callie that married George while he was still grieving. This is the same Callie that left her job to travel alongside Arizona to Malawi. She has always chased love–it’s why having a child was always so important–and so the fact that she’d follow this new love to New York isn’t surprising.
That said, she’s still wrong. She willfully misinterpreted Arizona’s comments as acquiescence and told Arizona they’d talk about it in an almost flippant manner…like she was talking about who’s picking Sophia up from daycare, instead of moving her all the way across the country?!
But Arizona took us to DEFCON 1 in no time. Why does everyone on this show go straight to a lawyer when things get a little complicated? She saw Penny living her life…kissing her wife and holding hands with her daughter…and, instead of doing the rational thing, and talking to Callie, she went straight to a lawyer. Didn’t she see how interjecting a lawyer into things negatively impacted the situation between Avery and April?
[Sidenote: It’s also worth noting that, as far as I know, Sara Ramirez has not re-signed with Grey’s for Season 13. Her deal expires in May. While I love having her on my television, I do wonder if Broadway’s calling her.]
All that said, I do want to give kudos to Shonda Rhimes. I’m continually impressed by how Grey’s, 12 seasons in, continues to keep me riveted.
// The Catch //
I’m still doing catch-up (no pun intended) on the first few episodes of The Catch but reviews of last night’s episode say there was some lady lovin’ going on. Does anyone know if we can expect more from Margot and Felicity or was this a one time thing?
(Also? Rose Rollins? Still fine as hell.)
// General Hospital //
No Kristina scenes this week but the preview for Monday’s episode has her, presumably, coming out to her older sister, Sam. You can catch up on the entire storyline, here.
I tried watching The Catch specifically to support Rose Rollins!! Because stars was my first TV crush and I will love her forever (and also, as you already pointed out, Rose is still fine as hell. Damn girl, Damn.)
But I couldn’t make it pass the second or third episode! If there is some semi-regular lady loving, I’d be willing to give it one more chance…
No no no Sara Ramirez has to stay!!! She and Arizona are the reason I watch Grey’s. The story is they will get back together and live happily ever after the end.
I agree with you about Greys 250%
And yes The Catch gave us some lady love
re:The Catch – there was some lady sex but not sure where it’s going to go…might end up being a con
also idk if they did that on purpose because the show is ~not great~ and i was really gonna quit but then a gay thing happened and now i gotta know more
I know hat feel bro
I am so thankful for that YT channel because sometimes I do not want to sit through a whole hour of General Hospital’s bullshit. Especially lately.
Nice middle name usage! #unREAL
Carolyn I didn’t hate empire this week either! I wasn’t even gonna tell anyone I was gonna just keep it a secret but you have empowered me to speak my truth
Speak it!! Shout it to the mountain tops! Lmao
I don’t want Callie to leave but Arizona is using a cannon ball to kill a fly. There was no need to go to a lawyer before trying to talk to Callie
There is no way in hell Callie would ever just decide to move 6 hours away without consulting with Arizona first and seemingly considering this to be no big deal.
Off topic I know but I just want to say, I caught up (to where England is) with Supergirl because of you Heather Hogan and I flaming love it so much. It may be my favourite superhero show out which I never would have believed would be the case. So thanks for the article about that, it convinced me to watch and it has brought me both joy, and tears.
I can’t help but think that it must be a great time to be 13, because 13 y/o me was watching the Star Wars trilogy remastered and Dean Cain as superman on TV. If I was 13 now I’d be watching a kick ass feminist Supergirl series, and Rey in Star Wars, and getting awesome role models.
Now I have to wait until Tuesday for the “Wynonna Earp” recap.
Penny has been growing on me the last few episodes, EXCEPT when she has scenes with Callie. I don’t what it is, I like her when she’s hanging out with Stephanie and Jo, I like her when she’s in the OR with Mere or Amelia, but when she and Callie are in a scene together, I just CRINGE. I think it might be because they have ZERO chemistry? Or because they’ve gone right to “I love you” and meeting Sophia, and we literally never got to see them meet, and date, because the show wanted to do this big dramatic reveal at Mere’s dinner party. And without seeing the beginning of their relationship, it just feels so FORCED and AWKWARD.
Callie and Arizona both made TERRIBLE decisions in the second episode. HOW could Callie even consider moving Sophia 3,000 miles away from her other mother? And HOW could Arizona ever think that immediately getting a lawyer involved would be the way to handle this!?
I swear. If Arizona pulls a Bette Porter and steals Sophia away, or if Callie even FOR ONE SECOND tries to argue that Arizona is not Sophia’s “real” mother, Shonda Rhimes is getting a strongly worded email from me.
Somebody’s got a flower for somebody else.
Let’s try that again.
Somebody’s got a flower for somebody else.
Have you seen this?
http://www.avclub.com/tvclub/once-upon-time-finally-gets-its-same-sex-couple-235449
I gave up on the show long ago, but I’d be interested in Autostraddlers’ opinion of this (spoilery) development.
I have no doubt that it will be addressed on this site.
After watching this week’s episode of the 100 I think Lexa will come back via the identical twin trope. They will find her identical twin that left Lexa a long time and then insert the chip into her and magically Lexa has returned and will battle Allie and beat her.
You know what, I would like that.
Greys Confession: I have never, not ONCE EVER, in the 8 years of Callie and Arizona’s tumultuous relationship been on Team Arizona.
I wasn’t on Team Arizona when the broke up over different future visions re: having kids.
I wasn’t on Team Arizona when she left Callie standing in an airport to go to Malawi.
I didn’t like the passive agressive way Arizona dealt with Mark while Callie was pregnant.
I was sympathetic with her after her amputation. I felt for her depression. AND THEN SHE CHEATED ON CALLIE AND TOLD HER SHE WANTED TO CUT HER LEG OFF TO EVEN THE SCORE!!!!!! So nope. Not Team Arizona.
Not Team Arizona when she cheated with Leah Murphy and Callie got the black mark on her human relations record.
Not Team Arizona during their eventual, final divorce.
I have always been a Callie girl. I have never made any apologies for it. I’ve held a fictional grudge against Arizona on Callie’s behalf for many years now.
But this????? This is insane. Callie has lost her mind. (For the record, I think Callie falling head over heels in love and acting like a reckless teenager is totally in character for her. She married George in Vegas less than 4 months knowing him as well! But that’s neither here nor there, because she is 10 years older now and has a child and should have matured.) Callie is so horrifyingly in the wrong here.
So, for the first time in my Grey’s watching life, I am so on Team AZ. I am so happy that she lawyered up. Maybe it feels extreme to some, but I feel like she is facing an extreme situation. She has to do what is best for her and Sofia. Even if that means fighting for her.
I am so mad at Shonda for this entire plot!!! Like so, so mad.
Very well put
I also think that Arizona got a lawyer because I’m not convinced that she has a legal claim to Sofia. This is just a theory- and I *REALLY* hope that I am wrong, but we’ve never seen them go through with Arizona’s adoption of Sofia.
There’s a famous scene in season 8 (?) where Arizona tells Callie that she wants papers drawn up. And Callie reassures her that they will take care of it. But then the issue is dropped from the screen.
Here me out…. Callie and Arizona were not, to the best of our knowledge, ever legally married. That was a major plot pout of their marriage episode. They got married before gay marriage was legal in Washington. Following that same logic, in their divorce they wouldn’t have hammered out details in court.
So theoretically, they could have agreed to “consciously uncouple” (shout out Gwyneth Paltrow) and had a verbal agreement about Sofia. They could have just trusted each other and been mature about all of it.
In which case, there is still no paper trail connecting AZ to Sofia. I hope I am wrong, but that would be a strong reason that she would need a lawyer right away.
So if you are right how does this work then? Does she not have any parental right at all?
I do not have a law degree, so I’m not sure how it works. I know I’ve seen other horror stories where in a lesbian adoption/ divorce (esp in states where either gay marriage or adoption wasn’t yet legal), the bio parent gets full custody because the non-bio parent had no “claim” to the child.
There’s actually a famous case of it involving Jane Lynch’s ex wife. She adopted with her partner (before Lynch) who then later became a born again Christian and took away the kids to move in with her and her new husband. The state they were living in at the time upheld the decision. So Jane’s ex lost her kids. I think she actually first met Jane at a charity benefit about her situation?
Like I said, I’m deeply hopeful that this isn’t where Shonda is going with this.
That doesn’t seem plausible to me…
Yes, when Callie and Arizona wed, the State of Washington only recognized domestic partnerships, but when marriage equality became the law in 2012, those partnerships were automatically converted to marriages.
I suppose it’s possible that Arizona and Callie never got those papers but it seems highly unlikely…surely that would’ve been something that warranted a mention during the dissolution of their marriage.
I hope you’re right!
Empire: I recently decided to start crack-shipping Tiana and Freda Gatz for shits and giggles. They’ve never met but hey, they’re similar ages and both like girls and music and they’d look really cute all booed up together, so why not, right?
But Tiana’s song was so, so bad! It possibly takes the award for dumbest lyrics ever featured on the show.
Also I have a theory that Lucious’s mother is actually still alive and will come forward after the “Boom Boom” video is released. He seemed cagey about the details of her death, which was probably a combination of trauma and his usual shadiness. He seems to like rolling with whatever the better story at the moment is, and “I saw my mother kill herself” works better for that than, “My mother put a gun to her head and I got scared and ran away and don’t really know what happened to her.”
So I watched the UnReal Faith Diaries and by episode 5 I had tears in my eyes and I was falling in love with Faith.
Welp.
Just saw episode 10, bawling like a baby.
Gay love is so beautiful <3.
Riese, thank you so much for alerting me to the existence of the Faith Diaries. Just watched it, I feel like I have been giving a very special gift.