Welcome to the penultimate episode of “To L and Back”‘s first season in the sun, “Locked Up.” This episode was a bit of a doozy so it’s not our best episode but listen IT’S FINE.
Who here can speak the language of the manatees? Well, not Jenny with that weird font, that’s for sure. Elsewhere this week, a protest breaks out at the California Art Center over whether or not it is true that Art = Filth, landing Bette, Candace, Alice, Dana and Shane in the ‘ol clinker, where Candace and Bette fight sexual tension with road trip games. Meanwhile, Dana’s monster girlfriend is left alone with her cat, Tina does 150 good deeds in one day, Kit starts a flirty friendship with a sexy drag king, Jenny and Marina both go on dates with Robin the Trapeze Artist and Tim enjoys beers and basketballs.
Episode Index:
+ All about Manatees
+ Karina Lombard’s website
+ Perez Hilton changing his ways because I told him to
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Riese is the 41-year-old Co-Founder of Autostraddle.com as well as an award-winning writer, video-maker, LGBTQ+ Marketing consultant and aspiring cyber-performance artist who grew up in Michigan, lost her mind in New York and now lives in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in nine books, magazines including Marie Claire and Curve, and all over the web including Nylon, Queerty, Nerve, Bitch, Emily Books and Jezebel. She had a very popular personal blog once upon a time, and then she recapped The L Word, and then she had the idea to make this place, and now here we all are! In 2016, she was nominated for a GLAAD Award for Outstanding Digital Journalism. She's Jewish and has a cute dog named Carol. Follow her on twitter and instagram.
Riese has written 3260 articles for us.
I’m still impressed that you got Perez Hilton to change
this was as good reminder to pat myself on the back again
Please tempt Karina Lombard into doing a phone interview with you by promising to sign up for her shapeshifting course.
I have a theory re: the manatees, which is that they figured they could film it at the Vancouver Aquarium and didn’t check to see if it actually had any manatees until it came time to shoot, then Ilene refused to change it to a story about beluga whales because she was particular about Jenny’s writing.
I think this sounds about right ha
Every single “where are they now” update (Ilene Chaiken has a bird Instagram! Karina Lombard teaches shapeshifting!) fills me with an inexplicable inner calm.
I’m kind of amused at the Candace/Bette having to be in a jail cell by themselves because it is SO fanfic-y. It’s just like that trope of “uh oh we booked a hotel but there’s only one bed something gay better not happen :O” Spoiler alert, something gay DOES happen. Always.
i know! it feels like it’s staged that way too. like the jail uniforms and the set they didn’t really even try for realism, it was more like a multi-cam sitcom level.
They’re jail outfits are so cute and flattering.
Their* jail outfits are so cute and flattering!
I don’t think I’ve ever rolled my eyes so hard at a TV person, Marina is peak insufferable this episode. As per usual I feel vindicated by this podcast though, thank you for your service xx
Will autostraddle be offering a shapeshifting class at the next camp?
Re: Manatees v. Beluga whales… I had the same thought as Elizabeth, but then I caught a very quiet and fleeting line from Jenny. She’s sitting in front of the tank, looking dreamily as she does, and murmurs to absolute no one, “I still want them to be manatees.” As though manatees has been her original plan, but she couldn’t possibly write about any sea mammal unless she could observe them in person, and since Manatees live in FLORIDA, Jenny couldn’t find any in L.A. and therefore was forced to adjust her inspiration.
Also, is Eros the Bittersweet the book title that Marina and Jenny both whisper into Alice’s ears in the pilot? I thought Marina might be testing Robin to see whether she was as “good a match” for Jenny as Marina, herself, was.
FYI in case you were wondering Karina Lombard lives in Venice California, not Italy.
Re: the controversy around non-manatees playing manatee-identified characters (including the two at the beginning who are swimming in the ocean and then Keela enslaved in the aquarium)- When Jenny is sitting in front of the giant tank watching Keela after her poem appears on screen, she says “I still want it to be a manatee” and then Netflix captions «whale clacking» after Gene Feinberg sits down. So I am led to believe that the writers, and Jenny, and certainly Gene Feinberg, are aware that these actors are beluga-whales and not manatees? I feel like, considering how bizarre «The L Word» is, that they (the writers, Jenny, Gene, Keela, etc.) still don’t know that these are beluga-whales and not manatees. Also, insert caviar joke somewhere. kthanksbi