TV Review: The L Word Episode 3.12

Sunday, March 26, 2006

From Showtime: The girls plan for Shane and Carmen's wedding while still grieving the loss of Dana. Shane goes to Oregon to meet her estranged father. Kit finds out she's pregnant. Bette continues to consider sole custody of Angelica, with Joyce Wischnia acting as attorney-at-large. Jenny realizes that Max's quest to fit in is not what she wants.

My Rating: 3 out of 4

Tonight's episode of The L Word titled Left-hand of The Goddess was the season finale of this third season of the series. The series will return next year with twelve more episodes. Let's talk about tonight's episode first though. The main focus of tonight's episode is the preparations for Shane and Carmen's wedding. It is six weeks after the death of their friend Dana, and the group is still mourning her loss. However, they have thrown themselves into the wedding preparation. Helena has gifted Shane and Carmen with a wedding in Canada. She is taking the whole group up for the wedding. However, before that happens there is some other business to attend to first.

First, being Shane meeting her father, who has contacted after his wife sees Shane in a magazine. She travels up to Oregon to meet him, and she also ends up meeting his family, including her little brother. Her father, Gabrielle, is played here by actor Eric Roberts. She tells her family about herself, including the fact she is getting married the following week. She does invite them to the wedding, and they agree to show. We also see the group picking out Carmen's wedding dress. Some of the others also try on dresses as well. During this opening sequence, we also see Lara and Alice have continued their sexual relationship, but it is unclear if there is anything more than sex to what is happening.

Once the girl's arrive in Canada, they find that Carmen's family has come up for the wedding. This is very surprising, especially since Carmen's mother handled the news that Carmen was a lesbian so not well. They are there for the wedding though, courtesy of Helena. Carmen's family steals the bride away because a groom can't see the bride the day before her wedding. This leaves Shane with her friends.

While there, Jenny meets a woman writing a story on gay travel destinations. These two become extremely close extremely fast, and we next see them in bed together. The rumor here is that this woman will join the cast next season. The woman even ends up at the wedding and beyond. Following the wedding, Jenny tells Max some things, and it makes you wonder if this was the end of the couple. Will we see Max return season four? Just by the tone of the interaction between Jenny and Max tonight that is unlikely.

The night before the wedding, the girls throw Shane a bachelor party. We have a couple of heartfelt toasts from Jenny and Alice, both of which certainly made me feel all warm and gushy inside, even if Shane isn't the warm and gushy type. Carmen even sends the groom to be a gift performance titled Pussy 101 that shocks everyone, while also amusing them and me to no ends. Shane even mentions the desire to have children of her own, commenting on the relationship Bette and Tina still maintain.

As for Bette and Tina, the two are doing better, but they are not together. They get along as best they can for the sake of Angelica. Henry and Tina are still dating, and Bette is going ahead with wanting sole custody of the baby. She does have a change of heart the night of the bachelor party, but her call to her lawyer is too late. Tina receives the papers from Bette asking for sole custody, and this ruins any hope of civility between the two.

The day of the wedding has the group off doing their own things. Alice meets the marriage coordinator that plans to marry Carmen and Shane later that night, and the woman helps Alice out with some conversation. Alice decides to talk to Lara about their relationship, as Lara has wanted to do. Shane's father has arrived, and we learn that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree when Shane catches him leaving with a young woman he meets at the hotel bar. We later learn he has taken the money Helena gave him to buy a wedding gift for Shane and run off with it and the young woman, leaving his wife there.

Following this, we quickly jump to the wedding, but we soon learn that there will be no wedding taking place that night. Shane has stood Carmen up at the alter. Carmen is heartbroken, and her friends surround her. Shane is nowhere to be found. Carmen doesn't want to even look for her. She just wants to go home with her mother and family.

We also soon see Bette has taken baby Angelica once Tina has said that she no longer wants Bette to adopt her. Soon following the wedding that never was, Peggy informs Helena that she is cutting her off financially because she needs to learn people will love her even if she doesn't have a penny to her name. In other shocking new, Kit finds out she is pregnant.

All in all a good episode, probably not the best season finale, but this was definitely one of the better episodes of this season. Season three of The L Word has been one of ups and down, predictable story lines, strange story lines, loss of characters, drastic character changes and much more. This season was probably better than season two because the second half of season two and the beginning of season three left me really wanting more. This season, however, pales in comparison to season one.

The wedding story line was right out of Queer as Folk's transcripts. True fans of this season had to realize Shane would not marry Carmen. It was just a matter of how it wouldn't end up happening. Jenny and Max would end up not working in the end because Jenny is lesbian, and Max is now becoming a man. Helena being cut off was probably the one shocker of this season finale that I didn't see coming, and Lara and Alice actually have me curious. Will these two continue on in season four? Will Max return? What happened to Shane? Where did she go? Will Carmen return season four as well knowing the marriage didn't take place? What about Tina and Bette? Will they reunite next season as well or will Tina actually marry Henry?

There are so many questions that could be asked. As I've mentioned throughout this season, my main problems have been with the Tina and Bette story line. The Shane and Carmen story line got on my nerves a bit, but I did love Jenny coming out stronger this season, especially in recent episodes. I was getting tired of seeing victim Jenny all of the time. I can't wait until this series makes its return in Winter 2007. The long wait begins now.