Although
the pilot of the new Fox series Wonderfalls
kicked off on March 12 with the myth of the Maid
of the Mist, the show features two other figures that are often
considered a myth by both lesbians and TV execs alike: the lesbian
Republican, and the bisexual woman.
Wonderfalls
is a dramedy revolving around Jaye (Caroline Dhavernas), a recent
college graduate who is now back in her hometown of Niagara
Falls, living in a trailer and working at a souvenir shop, when
inanimate objects suddenly start telling her to do things and
effectively turn her into "Fate's bitch." She also
has a full-time job antagonizing her respectable WASPY family--including
her older sister Sharon (Katie Finneran), a Republican immigration
attorney whose permanently-single status is a constant source
of frustration to their mother.
In the pilot, Jaye set Sharon up on a blind date
with a UPS delivery man, Thomas (Gabriel Hogan). During dinner,
when Thomas won't accept Sharon's polite dismissal that he's just
not her type, Sharon finally tells Thomas she's a lesbian. Thomas
repeats this information to Jaye just before he develops an allergic
reaction to his food and has to be rushed to the hospital by Jaye
and Sharon. "What was that crack about you being a lesbian?"
Jaye asks Sharon on the car on the way there. "I mean, it's
not that horribly surprising, but are you?" "What do you
mean, it's not horribly surprising?" Sharon asks defensively,
to which Jaye points out "You drive an SUV."
Later
at the hospital, Thomas' ex-wife Beth (Kari Matchett) comes
to see him, and meets Sharon. "Are you his girlfriend?"
she asks. Mesmerized, Sharon blurts out "I don't have a
girlfriend," and Beth smiles knowingly, then leans over
to wipe the ink off Sharon's cheek in slow-motion. A few minutes
later, we see Sharon and Beth gazing at each other over Thomas'
hospital bed, until finally Beth offers to give Sharon a ride
and they go off together.
The
fourth episode ("Pink Flamingo") airing this
Thursday, April 1, at 9pm, is about Jaye's efforts to
take down an old high-school rival, Gretchen, per the instructions
of the talking chicken in Gretchen's hairclip, but it also picks
up again on the relationship between Sharon and
Beth, as Sharon's closetedness derails their attempts to get together.
The episode includes a funny scene in which Sharon introduces Beth
to her mother as the woman with whom she carpools, and a truly hilarious
one in which Beth's father sleep-walks in on Beth and Sharon making
out in the living room.
Complicating
matters is that Sharon discovers in this episode that Beth is "not
exclusively" gay" (that's TV talk for "bisexual").
"Does it bother you that I've had sex with a man?" Beth
asks Sharon, and Sharon stops to consider this. She then asks, "Will
you again?" to which Beth responds "I don't know."
Sharon is obviously uncomfortable with this answer, and raises the
issue again in Episode 8 ("Safety Canary"), when her attempt
to make Beth choose between chunky versus smooth peanut butter quickly
escalates into a different conversation altogether and leaves both
women unhappy--until a walk in the woods looking for a pair of lost
birds makes Sharon reconsider her position.
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