Welcome to the sixteenth recap of the second season of Faking It, an online farmer’s market that connects cartoon animals with real ones, from the network that brought you House Of Food.

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We open in a chic hot spot cafe where all the bohemians go to enjoy soy milk lattes and tiny vegan cupcakes on brightly-colored fiestaware and talk about their moon signs and whether or not Karma wearing a hat would help her get in touch with her true self and therefore become more or less compatible with Liam. Amy insists that the only thing Karma needs to be is “Karma,” although let’s be real — it’d be nice if she was a little bit gayer.

But then! The girls spot Molly cross-cafe with two other young Moms and a bunch of empty plates — two Moms who are just heavens-to-Betsy bowled over with JOY to finally meet Amy and Karma, “the out, proud and madly in love lesbian couple”! They do so very much hope to see these two lesbian ladies in love at their upcoming Hoe-Down/Square Dance (title TBA) fundraiser!

Cut to Karma’s home / backyard, where Karma’s pissed that Molly’s yet to tell PFLAG that Karma isn’t actually a lesbian after all!

Molly explains that she just really needs PFLAG right now — she lost her home, she lost her ahead-of-her time medicinal marijuana business, she needs to beat that bitch Jackie who’s got an actual gay son in the next round of PFLAG President Elections and she’s been working so damn hard on this fundraiser. What makes money better than fake lesbians, you know? Just ask Truck Stop! Or the porn industry!

Karma and Amy have been trying to live their truths for about two minutes and six seconds and are therefore wary of this plan, which would cause them to fall off the WAGON OF LIES. Dad implores them to go along with it, for Molly’s sake, and Amy’s won over. She explains to Karma that Molly’s always been there for her and well this is the least she could do, right? (Sidenote: Why hasn’t Amy just offered to let Karma live with her for now? This has been bugging me all season! Think of all the sleepover tension!) Karma’s worried that this isn’t good for Amy with all of her hot groin-area love-type feelings for Karma, but Amy insists that those feelings are “ancient history.” Karma, unsurprisingly, seems surprised and maybe a bit sad to hear this. Also, I mean, it’s a lie, but whatever!

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Back at Liam and Shane’s Basement Lair, the two boys are eating stale pizza, yelling at video games, and wondering if Duke is wearing a shirt (okay, that’s just Shane). Liam takes a quick assessment of their lives and declares that it’s time to return to their douchebag personalities from Season One:

Liam: We used to be Liam and Shane! We were hookup hunters and the world was our prey. It’s time to pick up our spirits and get back on that horse.
Shane: I had a horse once. I loved it but it ran away.

Look out, ladies, Liam and Shane are back in the saddle! Starting tonight!

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We then shimmy on over to Chez Fawcett, where Lauren is trying to eat her cereal but is having trouble not sticking her spoons through Farrah’s eyeballs. She’s tossing passive-aggressive insults at her Step Mom while her perfect Dad Bruce thinks Lauren’s still riled up over their show-down at the pageant. He says not to take her frustration with him out on Farrah.

Welp, that’s the last straw, Lauren can no longer sit here and watch her father treat Farrah like she isn’t a fuck-up — and then, of course, who should show up but Amy and Hank? Bruce is just gosh-darnit-so-thrilled to finally meet Hank the Tank, although his suggestion that Hank stay for dinner is swiftly rejected by everybody in the room and probably everybody not in the room, also.

Oh and one more thing! Amy told Hank all about her lesbianism and he’s totally cool with it. In fact, “he totally gets it. It’s so nice to have a parent who supports me for once.” Ouch.

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Speaking of supportive environments for LGBTQ youth, we then box-step on over to the Big Austin PFLAG Party For Howdie Doody Gays and Their Families. It’s quite a production — go-go dancers of the male and female persuasion, large bales of hay, grown-up royalty-free stock music from the MTV catalog, and, of course, a mechanical bull. Basically, it’s Rodeo Disco, but with boys.

Molly is appalled by this sexual state of affairs, but Jackie’s having a gay ‘ol time!

Jackie: It’s called a FUNraiser for a reason!
Molly: FunDraiser. You forgot the “D.”
Jackie: That’s a first!
Molly: How is this event supposed to help anybody?
Jackie: Help them with what? We should be celebrating! We got the fun kids!

Speaking of, Jackie can’t WAIT to introduce hot lesbian couple Karma and Amy to her big gay son Shane and his friend Liam! Yup. You know how that shit go.

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Shane’s not convinced that Amy’s truly over Karma, or that dating Reagan helped Amy “get over” Karma — he’s pretty sure she just briefly eclipsed Amy’s burning love for Karma and that this little charade they’re doing tonight can’t possibly be healthy. Amy’s plan to avoid slow-dances, romantic speeches and hand-holding is definitely 100% a prediction of what’s about to go down.

Esteemed Human Liam Booker refuses to believe that Karma is doing this for her mother and then announces that “Old Liam” is back. He’s gonna go find a new high horse to ride. Bye!

Karma suggests they ignore those stupid boys and just be girlfriends, because of course! It’s just that easy. Molly wants to corral them into sharing their sweet love story with “the group,” although Jackie would rather open her legs and ride a bull (her words, not mine!) than open her heart to a “share circle.” Basically, Molly is Melissa Joan Hart in Can’t Hardly Wait,  wanting everybody to sign her yearbook and but everybody just wants to get laid and lose their virginity.

Lauren’s about to make a strong showing for unhappiest camper at the hoe-down: her parents have decided to surprise her by bringing her to the PFLAG party! Bruce hopes will show Lauren he’s supportive of her intersex identity. This will definitely work because Lauren LOVES talking about being intersex.

Back at the Share Circle, Karma’s gushing about Amy, basically saying everything Amy wishes Karma would say in real life with real facial expressions and true words. But she sounds so sincere, too, when she says them.

Karma: Every day that I’m with Amy I just feel like the luckiest girl in the world. We’re not only best friends, and lovers, but, um… we’re soulmates.

Farrah’s shocked to overhear the news that the winsome twosome are back to-fake-together again, and even more shocked that Hank made it to the party, and slightly less shocked that Amy says Dad “gets it” when it comes to the Fake Lesbian Game and you don’t so BYE. Hank makes some kind of “kids these days,” offhand remark to Farrah in the way that a Dad can when he’s not actually the custodial parent who has to deal with the fallout when the fallout happens and the fallout will definitely happen.

Dad wants Lauren to get out on the dance floor and meet other members of her community!

Lauren: This is not my community! There is no “I” in PFLAG.
Bruce: Actually, they’re inclusive of everyone. I called the national office. They’re real nice.

Bruce tries to make friends by introducing Lauren to a family as “an Intersex,” causing her to immediately flee the scene.

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While Liam and Shane strike out at picking up hot lays by telling stories about their heartbroken hearts and lying exes, Karma’s learning that being a lesbian isn’t the only lie Molly told her PFLAG friends — apparently Karma’s also at the top of her class and builds houses for homeless people! Unclear why Jackie’s not already busting these lies like a bucket of balloons via her son, Shane, but whatever:

Karma’s bummed that Molly isn’t proud of her for any of her actual accomplishments, which admittedly are pretty sparse these days except for one major thing — she’s financially supporting her entire family! Lies upon lies upon lies, these people. “Lying is in my DNA,” Karma sadly suggests before Amy suggests they not let Moms ruin their night. Let’s just have fun, she says, just the two of us, like two totally not-gay girls acting gay without having to try very hard! First stop: riding the mechanical pony to tuna-town!

Speaking of what’s embedded into everybody’s genetic code, Jackie’s very disappointed that Shane and Liam are being mopey about their exes instead of sleeping with strangers. “What happened to the 12-year-old who hit on my 18-year-old daughter?” Jackie wants to know. Well, I hope somebody put chewing gum in his hair, wherever he is. Jackie threatens to take away Shane’s X-Box if he doesn’t go home with this gentleman in red across the dance floor…

…and then turns her attention to Liam, who insists that after Karma, he just can’t magically become “old Liam again.” The most interesting part of that sentence, to Jackie, is “Karma.” Not because she’s shocked somebody actually named their child “Karma,” but because she really only knows Karma in a “Karmy” context so what the hell is this nonsense. Meanwhile the girls are bucked off their bull:

Karma and Amy topple off the bull into a heap, and Karma fixes Amy’s hair with her magic fingers, thus lulling Amy slowly back into Supercrush Uncontrollable Burning Love mode. Karma: look at yourself! Just take a moment, take a big step back and look at yourself in the mirror right this minute and tell me what you see! KARMA AND AMY, ALMOST K-I-S-S-I-N-G!

“Such a cute couple, you should be proud,” Jackie says to Molly as the crowd instagrams Amy and Karma’s tender moment for their fan tumblr snapchats. “Too bad they’re faking it.”

Molly hightails it over to Karma, sitting on a hay bale, telling her they’ve gotta get out of there quick ’cause Jackie knows THE TRUTH! Karma’s just bummed that her Mom tells stupid lies about her to Debby Novotny and all the other ladies at PFLAG.

Molly: “This is not about you, this is about me. I don’t know if you can understand this, but sometimes I say and do things that I think will make people like me. And I hate that about myself, that I care so much about what these people think. but I don’t think that I can stand to stay here and watch Jackie tell everyone that I lied.”
Karma: “We can go if you want, but Mom, but if these people only like you because of something that isn’t real, they don’t actually like you. And they’re not worth all of this.”
Molly: “How did my daughter get so wise?”
Karma: “By pretending to be a lesbian.”

Try actually BEING a lesbian! You basically become a genius overnight.

This episode does present a pretty complicated set-up in the world it has created: a world where it’s so okay to be gay that a PFLAG Mom prioritizes sexualized mechanical animals over raising funds for necessary goods and services. This is a world where being queer becomes like anything else about a kid — a pawn in a larger, more self-centered game. Here we have Farrah and her ex, competing for who can be more accepting of their daughter — an argument that’s not really about Amy, but about the terrors of parenting post-divorce, further complicated by inexcusable infidelity. Karma wants her Mom to be proud of her for more than her (fake) sexuality — this came up last season, too — but that’s not really about Karma anymore, either, it’s about her Mom wanting some kind of pride in herself, which maybe comes from never really being able to fit in with the other Moms, which’s even harder when everybody else is rich and you live in a juice truck. Pretty much everybody in Lauren’s life except for Lauren wants her to be more invested in an intersex “identity” than she is, including her father, who’s decided based on what he’s heard out in the world that his job is to be Proud At All Costs, which is so adorable but also really tough for Lauren. She’s still an intensely private person not comfortable being fully out yet, and that hesitation comes from a lot of places but she’s gotta get through it on her own terms. Meanwhile, Shane’s Mom has placed an outsized investment in her own sexual marketability which she’s now projecting onto her son and his best friend, because sex must be the most interesting and important thing about them, too. Maybe somebody here should start a book club?

Farrah, for her part, apologizes to Amy for reacting so severely to Amy playing Fake Lesbians with Karma again: says she’s having a great time with Hank — she’d forgotten how funny he is! (Oh g-d) — and saying she was just looking out for Amy’s heart when she confronted her about Karma, even though I’m pretty sure this is an idea she thought of just now, not back then.

Farrah: “I know how complicated things can be with a first love. I just didn’t want you holding onto hope like I did with your father. You know, it’s years later and hes’ finally here —”
[Amy gives look of alarm]
Farrah: “— for you!”
Amy: “Mom—”
Farrah: “I’m just saying, maybe people really can change.”

Yeah, a bad guy can become a good guy, but it’s no easier to turn a gay person into a straight person than it is to turn a straight person into a gay person. Unless, of course, that straight person wasn’t that straight to begin with and is just starting to figure that out? Amy looks across the room, Karma gives her a tender wave. KIDS THESE DAYS, Amirite, Hank?

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Outside the ho-down smashburger cowboy palace, Lauren’s leaning on a wet car in a white party dress which means she’s obviously lost her mind. Liam, ever the valiant knight, arrives with a jacket to warm the cockles of her cold little bod, and she proceeds to tell him everything: how Farrah’s cheating on her Dad but she doesn’t wanna hurt him by telling him, how he thinks taking her to this thing is supportive when it’s actually really difficult and embarrassing. Sure, she doesn’t want to feel ashamed about being intersex, but that doesn’t mean she wants to talk about it publicly or for everybody to know, either. You can want to keep a thing to yourself for reasons besides a “lack of pride,” after all.

Liam says he moved out two weeks ago and his parents haven’t even called ’cause they don’t even care, or else are pissed about all the trees that were killed to make his post-it note art, and at least her Dad is trying and hasn’t written Theo any large checks lately. Although you know what, Theo could probably really go for a check twice the size of regular checks.

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Meanwhile, Shane may have found a winner — he’s cute, he’s smart, his glasses probably aren’t real, his parents are therapists, and he tells Shane the best way for them to approach this night together is for Shane to take ten minutes talking about his ex, then this guy will talk about his ex for ten minutes, and then they can talk about each other or whatever it is boys do in their secret clubhouses.

This happened to me on a date once except we both took about 90 minutes to talk about our respective exes and never spoke again. Good luck, boys!

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Out on the sultry dance floor, an extra croons “Fall to Pieces” while Bruce tells Lauren that he’s sorry for thinking it was best to keep her intersex status a secret, then announces I’M PROUD OF MY INTERSEX DAUGHTER which, of course, freaks Lauren out, but oh well, at least he cares!

Meanwhile, Karma and Amy slow-dance with an appropriate distance between them like a really chaste middle school dance. Or, I guess, a PFLAG Fundraiser.

Karma’s having a gay old time with her lil lady, sans boy drama or girl drama. “I wish it could always be like this,” Karma says, burrowing her little heteroflexible head into Amy’s chest like a knife. “Me too,” says Amy. Yeah, Amy, we know.

Alas, the slow-dance is interrupted by Molly taking the ‘mic ’cause she’s got an announcement to make. Amy and Karma, holding hands like — well, of course — LIKE GIRLFRIENDS — stop their canoodling to witness whatever fresh hell is about to go down.

Here we go:

Molly: My daughter Karma is straight. I let you all believe that she was gay because I wanted it to be true but I have to accept the fact that my mother will never, ever be a lesbian.

Yeah, tell that to Amy. Or don’t, ’cause as Molly continues her speech espousing Karma’s many apparently enchanting personality traits and her wonderful voice, Amy slips out, but Karma doesn’t even notice. Molly says she’d rather sacrifice her post then give up her straight daughter, and everybody applauds. I think the fifth horseman of the gay apocalypse is when a PFLAG fundraiser is co-opted by somebody wanting to celebrate their straight daughter. So everybody put your flags away and go watch Stonewall, the movement is dead. “That was nice,” says Karma, turning to find an empty space where Amy used to be.

Everything probably felt so close and possible to Amy for maybe an entire hour and now that’s it, now this particular jig is up. But: if that wasn’t really “close and possible” then what the hell is, you know?

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Where’s Amy? Amy’s going outside, just in time to hear her Dad tell somebody, probably that bitch Amanda, that he wants the assignment but that he just can’t go, he promised his kid he’d stick around. Amy tells Hank that she loves having him around but it’s not good for Mom. So, he can go now. His two-episode arc is over. Bye!

Amy explains how him being all fun and charming is just gonna give Mom false hope, and false hope’s the worst thing of all. So now the projection comes full circle — Farrah projects Hank and her onto Amy and Karma, and then Amy projects her and Karma onto Hank and Farrah. But Amy’s also right. Hank wants to be there for his daughter, but it’s time to go. So he’s gonna go.

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Back inside the party, Amy’s just finished telling Farrah that Hank took the job and is shipping out when Lauren shows up to announce that the jig is up, she can’t lie anymore, it’s just not fair to her. Bruce needs to know the TRUTH and he needs to hear it from Farrah! She’s just finished her announcement when Bruce strolls up, puts his arms around his family and announces that he’s just met some very nice folks and their son is a bi-sexual. Y’all, Bruces are have solid ally intentions. They just do.

Farrah tells Bruce she’ll drive him home, ’cause they’ve gotta talk.

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Inside, Molly’s gushing to her daughter about how she joined PFLAG to help people learn and grow and look, she was able to siphon off their real emotions into a learning and growing experience for her very own self! Isn’t that wonderful?

Karma gets a text from Amy that she’s had to go for family dramz. Molly, on behalf of the Karmy shippers, notes that Karma seems kinda especially bummed about that — is she sure that she’s straight? Oh and guess what? Molly dated a woman in college! Her name was Stacey and she was the gentlest lover! SNOOZE.

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Cut to the Shane-Liam-Jackies house, where Liam’s going to take a shower when who should appear on the other side of the door but PAIGE MCCULLERS. WHAT THE EVERYLOVING FUCK Y’ALL.

So uh, I guess that’s Shane’s older sister Sasha! She looks at Liam’s penis and says that he “sure has grown up.” What a neat way to end this episode. I’d like to quote my Executive Editor Laneia, who earlier today said, “i’m going to start eating my hair. just for fun. like a new hobby.”

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Next week, Hysteria High will be requiring all its attendees to bring a date to prom, which obviously means that Amy is gonna have to go with Felix. I will be celebrating this turn in events by sacrificing a stuffed animal to the goddesses on an overpass somewhere along 11 Mile Road and eating my hair just for fun, like a new hobby.

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