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Raina Has Two Moms on The Division
Sarah Warn, January 2003


Taraji P. Henson is Raina	Sally Struthers is Eve	Debbie Allen is Wanda	Raina confronts her mothers

The January 19th episode of Lifetime's cop drama The Division revealed that Inspector Raina Washington was raised by a lesbian couple.

Now in its third season, The Division revolves around a handful of female police officers--played by Bonnie Bedelia, Nancy McKeon, Lisa Vidal, and Tracey Needham--and one male one (played by Jon Hamm) in the San Francisco Police Department. Over the past two years, The Division has emerged as Lifetime's highest-rated series, and features storylines that intertwine the characters' personal and professional lives.

Taraji Henson joined the cast of The Division last season as Officer Raina Washington after the departure of actress Lela Rochon (Henson's character was promoted to "Inspector" this season). Previously, Henson had roles in films like Baby Boy (2001) and The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle (2000) and some appearances on TV series like Felicity and Strong Medicine.

Debbie Allen and Sally Struthers play Raina's parents, who adopted her as a child. Debbie Allen launched into the spotlight in 1982 with her role in the TV series Fame, and since then has alternated between acting in films like The Painting (2002) and All About You (2001) and directing episodes of shows like The Jamie Foxx Show, Sinbad, and The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. She has also produced the film Amistad (1997) and TV series like Fame and A Different World, as well as serving as a choreographer on multiple shows.

Sally Struthers has most recently been in a few television series like Gilmore Girls and movies like Out of the Black (2001), A Month of Sundays (2002), and the upcoming Reeseville (2003).

The storyline begins with Raina discovering that Eve (Sally Struthers) and Wanda (Debbie Allen) are splitting up after thirty years together. After talking with her mothers separately and pleading with each of them to try and "work it out," Raina secretly orchestrates a meeting between all three of them to get her mothers to "air their mutual concerns," with disastrous consequences.

Meanwhile, Raina tries to process the news in a conversation with Captain McCafferty (Bedelia). McCafferty shares some of her own experiences dealing with her daughter when she and her ex-husband were divorcing, and Raina talks about how much she loves her moms, saying "They've always been there for me" and "It's always been the three of us--our little 'unusual' family." A moment later, Raina adds "I wouldn't change the way they raised me for the world."

While initially Wanda simply tells Raina she left Eve because "we have grown apart," Raina pressures her into disclosing to both Raina and Eve that she left because she's "not in love" with Eve anymore:

"Eve and I have been together forever, and of course I love her. But not the way you think. We're like sisters, or buddies. There's no passion here. There hasn't been for years."

The confrontation ends badly, with Wanda telling Raina to grow up and stay out of their business, and then storming off, while Eve also gets mad at Raina for forcing Wanda to "go someplace she didn't need to go."

The last scenes of the storyline in this episode show Raina telling Capt. McCafferty "it's all my fault" and then walking slowly down the street in the rain.

What is truly remarkable about this episode was how unremarkable the lesbian couple is--with a few exceptions (such as the "unusual family" comment), almost everything Raina said about her mothers could have just as easily applied to heterosexual parents on the verge of divorce. This includes when Raina attempts to reassure Eve that they are just experiencing "empty nest syndrome" (Raina left home a few years ago), and then adds "a lot of marriages go through that."

The reasons for Eve and Wanda's marital problems are clearly universal, the kind of issues we've heard a million heterosexual television couples discuss. This was probably not accidental, as this creates a sense of familiarity that resonates with heterosexual viewers who might otherwise feel unable to identify with the lesbian couple. It allows lesbian and bisexual viewers to feel included in the storyline in a normative, non-exploitational way. A nice constrast to the more sensationalistic "lesbian episodes" featured on several other series recently, such as Smallville and Fastlane.

And for once, no one got killed and jailed! Well, no lesbians anyway.

One of the few criticisms The Division has received is that it doesn't have any lesbian or bisexual characters as permanent members of the cast, a somewhat glaring omission considering the series is set in San Francisco and it's a show about female police officers. The brother of Nancy McKeon's character did come out early on in the series in a well-handled episode, but there has been no comparable lesbian-related storylines.

While Debbie Allen and Sally Struthers are not expected to be regulars on the show by any means, the ending of this episode was open-ended enough to assume they will probably be back--which is at least a step in the right direction.