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“Private Practice” mini-cap: Mommy and mistress get married

Thursday night after the latest Private Practice aired, I had a dream about Bizzy (JoBeth Williams), Dr. Addison Montgomery’s mom. I had just moved into Bizzy’s palatial house as her girlfriend, but I had my own huge room where I lived with my cats. Bizzy was the same in my dream as she is on the show: stiff, aloof and grim.

For reasons not explained by my dream, I loved her. And I felt like she loved me — she just didn’t quite know how to do it. Her emotions were frozen. Where is Kate Walsh when I need her to heat up a scene?

Until Addison learned the true nature of Bizzy’s relationship with her assistant Susan (Ann Cusack), she saw the same Bizzy that was in my dream. Addy grew up watching her parents’ distance from each other and made two very wrong assumptions: that her dad was a cheat and her mom was unable to express love.

Then Addy found out that Bizzy had been hiding her ability to love – because it was directed toward Susan. And when Addison saw how warm and affectionate Bizzy was toward her lover, she couldn’t be happy for her. The situation was just too confusing. And unexpected. And wrong.

But Addison is not a homophobe. She, after all, was the one who first realized that Callie and Erica were attracted to each other in a totally gay way. Leave it to Addy’s BFF Naomi to hit the dysfunctional nail on the head.

With all of my frustrations about the lesbian relationships in Shonda Rhimes’ shows, I have to give her this: She treats lesbian storylines the same as everyone else’s. In this case, Addison is not upset that Bizzy is gay; she’s upset because her mom divorced The Captain and is marrying her lover. At some level, Addy still wants the happily ever after for her mommy and daddy.

Bizzy wants the happily ever after for herself and Susan. After Susan nearly died of cancer, she tells Addison, “For the past 20 years, I’ve had my proverbial cake: homes, husband, children, jewels, ladies auxiliary and the whole time, the love of my life waited patiently in the closet because that was my way. I almost lost Susan, but now she’s healthy and this time we do it her way. And she wants a wedding.”

Then, echoing all the lesbians in all the world who have come out to less-than-thrilled family and friends:

Will somebody please make a gif of that? Thanks. Love ya’.

Unfortunately (spoiler alert), the time Susan gets to do it “her way” may be short. She confesses to Addison that she knows the cancer is back. And she is not going to have further treatment. Addison, being a surgeon, is appalled that Susan won’t return to the hospital. But she agrees to let Susan and Bizzy have their day. And the wedding is lovely.

Best of all, Addison gets the thing she wants most in the world: her mom’s approval. When Bizzy praises her for the wonderful wedding, Addy can barely contain herself.

Aw, look at Little Addison’s face.

The happy couple leads in a night of dancing and everyone lives happily ever after.

Not really. This being Private Practice, we can’t really have a happy ending. Susan collapses — and ’til death do us part may be all too soon. We’ll know next week.

You can watch the full episode at the ABC website or on Hulu

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