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“Last Tango in Halifax” recap (2.6): Save the Last Dance For Me

We begin the Series 2 finale of Last Tango in Halifax a mere moment after our last scene of last week: Gillian looking over Caroline’s sleeping form on her couch, repeatedly poking her and saying her name, anxiously offering tea. She needs to know what Caroline’s next course of action will be after she confessed to the murder of her husband, Eddie. Will Caroline hate her forever? Will she turn her into the police?

More than anything, once she rouses herself, Caroline seems befuddled as to why Gillian told her in the first place. Just being extremely pissed isn’t an adequate reason when it comes to something like this. Caroline ruffles her hair and suggests they never speak of it again; pretend it never happened. This answers some of Gillian’s questions, but not all. On the upside, herein begins a series of Caroline somehow looking astonishingly sexy while being supremely hungover, a feat only the most magical of creatures can attain.

A few minutes later in the kitchen, Caroline seems to answer her own questions, as Gillian seems incapable of doing so herself, perhaps understandably. Caroline wavers on the line between irritation and empathy, finally concluding with what sounds like the truth: “You told me because you needed to.”

They get themselves together enough to drive back to the fancy wedding hotel, where Caroline has left her phone and Gillian has left her car. They are both clearly busy in their own heads, and the laughter of the evening before seems far, far away. But as they prepare to leave each other, Caroline has one last bit of advice for Gillian. She says, “I think you’re right about you and Robbie.” Gillian glances down at the gravel for a moment and replies with a little smile, like she is 13 years old and admitting to a longheld crush in the schoolyard, like the alcohol is still affecting the truth filter on her brain: “I know. I really like him.” Caroline, who is soberly back in reality land, stares at her and clarifies that that’s not what she meant. What she meant is that Gillian and Robbie could never work, as Gillian had explained herself last night when the whole I-committed-murder conversation started. Caroline implores her to just move on. Gillian shakes the cobwebs from her brain, says, of course. Caroline asks her to promise her. Gillian says, you’re right.

And when Caroline gets into her car, she seems almost 100% Caroline again: mad at John, ready to go take care of her kids, already backing away in her shiny vehicle, focused on the tasks ahead. But as Gillian stands outside of her dusty Land Rover, she just seems a little diminished, sad, preparing for the rest of her long hard life, alone on the farm.

Meanwhile, Celia continues to be a bitch to her sister, and now that Caroline has her phone back, she’s heard about the whole John-losing-Lawrence ordeal. Interestingly, Lawrence ended up at Kate’s house, a solution William had suggested when Lawrence called him, alone and upset, because Will is the best. When Kate returns Lawrence home the next morning, John is relieved, yet neither apologizes for his own buffoonery or thanks Kate for taking his son in. Another good moment for John!

But don’t worry! Caroline is ready to swoop in and make up for John’s lack of gratitude. She soon shows up at Kate’s door with flowers. Flowers! Oh, Caroline!

She asks if she can come in, to say the things she can’t say on the doorstep. They make polite conversation about the baby; Kate affirms that Greg is out of the picture now that his deed is done, that that was really his only part of the equation. It was still a bad part of the equation, but it’s good that we can move on from it, hopefully.

And then Caroline suddenly begins talking about the weird night she’s just shared with Gillian. And for a moment, the small part of you that questions how loyal Caroline actually is to Gillian wonders if she’s going to let Gillian’s secret slip, but she doesn’t. That’s not really the point of her monologue at all. Kate asks why a person would be as horrible as Eddie was to Gillian, and Caroline replies that it’s arrogance; it’s control; it’s power. And in a small way, while she is very far away from the abusive husband that Eddie was, it appears that she is actually talking about herself.

She says that it all just made her realize what a good thing it was that they had, her and Kate. She apologizes once more for all she did wrong, and that if they could give it one more go, she promises, she would be better. It’s all very open, vulnerable, genuine. And if it were me, Caroline’s almost-teary blue eyes would be all that I needed. But Kate’s face hardly registers any doubt before she answers rather quickly, “No. Thank you.”

Caroline returns to her car. She doesn’t cry; she doesn’t shout. But she sits for a moment, staring out the windshield, those blue eyes resigned to Kate’s rejection once again, which is almost worse.

Happier times plod along for Celia and Alan, however, as they josh about having bachelor parties in Amsterdam, and Harry and Alan spend time together spiffing up Harry’s boat, much to Celia’s consternation. Harry even makes an amazing Spice Girls joke at one point. How I wish they were both my uncles!

Alan, Gillian, and Calamity also make a trip up to one of the most gorgeous cemeteries I’ve ever seen–is this what all cemeteries are like in England?–to visit Gillian’s mother on her birthday. Gillian and Calamity go off to visit another dead relative, and Alan stands in front of the flower bed where his first wife’s ashes are presumably buried. He tells her that he’s getting wed again, and that he hopes it’s okay with her. He hopes she would be happy for him. “We always said life were for living, didn’t we?”

He says that he needs to know he’d have her blessing. And then the wind rustles the flowering trees around him, and a single white petal falls into his hand while some lilting music plays in the background, and it’s the type of scene that I would laugh at if it were in a Hallmark movie, but that in Last Tango in Halifax, just makes me cry.

After that, through a series of quick but absolutely lovely scenes, time passes. The year fades from fall to chilly winter. Celia and Alan’s wedding date of Christmas Eve creeps ever closer.

At school, another teacher stops Caroline as her perfect heels make their way up one of the sweeping staircases on a day close to winter break. The teacher tells her that Kate’s driven herself to hospital, that she’s been bleeding. The teacher wasn’t sure if she should tell Caroline or not, she says, because Caroline has a lot of meetings, meetings that they probably won’t be able to reschedule until after Christmas, but Caroline isn’t listening, Caroline is already turning back down the staircase, Caroline is already gone.

At the hospital, Caroline sits next to Kate in the waiting room and assures her that at 20-odd weeks along, it would be very unusual, you know, and things might be just fine. When Kate’s called in, Caroline hesitantly asks if she’d like her to come in with her. And surprisingly, after Kate’s answered no to Caroline’s questions so many times over the last few months, she responds, “Will you?”

As the ultrasound technicians moves her magic wand over Kate’s stomach, Kate’s hand finds Caroline’s in the dark. Only a tense moment goes by before the technician tells Kate that everything is in fact fine, that sometimes a little blood is just something that happens. And that on top of that, she’s having a girl. And for a glorious moment we ponder how beautiful it would be for Kate and Caroline to raise a girl, a girl full of Caroline’s smarts and confidence and Kate’s kindness, and then suddenly Kate realizes that she’s still holding Caroline’s hand. And she not only releases it, she apologizes, as if what just happened was wrong, as if she hadn’t meant it in the first place. And Caroline’s eyes, which had been full of a quiet warmth and happiness, once again retreat back into themselves.

As the wedding day draws near, Alan’s brother flies in to surprise him and there are guffaws and smiles all around, and then all the boys share a pint the night before the wedding. And not being privy to the conversation Caroline and Gillian have had earlier, Alan has invited along Robbie, and spends quite a bit of time explaining to him why he belongs back with Gillian, and not with bouncy Sheryl. Although to speak in Sheryl’s defense, as we’ll soon see at the wedding, she does have some amazing accessorizing skills.

The girls, meanwhile, share a more refined dinner, where Celia is finally honest with her sister instead of being artificially pleasant, and they both seem to settle on not being able to change the past, but being happy for the present. Gillian and Caroline have also accidentally spilled the beans about Alan actually being the reason he and Celia couldn’t get that bungalow Celia so very much desired. He’s too nice to kick out the tenants in his old house and put it up for sale, or at least that’s the reason he’s giving. After Gillian and Caroline share some giggles in the bathroom over Celia’s reaction, they settle down and reapply their lipstick. Gillian looks over and says there’s something she’s been meaning to say, presumably ever since the drunken night of the confession. “Are we still cool, Vincent?” It’s a touch of genius on Sally Wainwright‘s part, one of those writing tricks, bringing a season full circle, that I will always love. And when Caroline says, “Yup,” this time, Gillian might just finally be convinced.

And now, it’s time for a wedding.

Celia, by the way, has managed to wrangle Kate into the wedding, too. Because after all, back before baby plans and hotel rooms, Kate had promised to play Celia’s preferred processional song on the piano: “The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba.” It’s just that she doesn’t know anyone else who can play it, you see. And as she mentions to Caroline just before they walk down the aisle, she’s also asked Kate to stay on for the reception, because really, it would seem rude otherwise. During Alan and Celia’s vows, Caroline glances over at Kate sitting at the piano, and Kate glances at her–just, as is fitting with their relationship lately, not at the same time.

At the reception, Caroline and Harry give speeches about the inspiring love story of her mother and his best friend.

Harry then hands the microphone over to Alan. But instead of giving a speech, Alan stands up and takes the microphone over to the dance floor, where he’s joined by Raff, Lawrence, Lawrence’s rascal of a best friend, and William, who is joyously back home from Oxford for the holidays, bringing along a dashing girlfriend with him. (Although Lawrence is still convinced he’s gay. And for once, I don’t disagree with Lawrence on this one.)

The boys proceed to perform an amazing rendition of “If I Said You Had a Beautiful Body, Would You Hold It Against Me,” a ridiculous country song from 1979, and while I was worried about dear Alan’s fragile heart giving way the entire time, my face pretty much matched everyone else’s in the audience.

As weddings tend to go, the night proceeds in bliss for those in love, and in an increasingly bittersweet torture for those who aren’t. Kate leaves the party rather early, and wishes Caroline a happy Christmas before she goes. Before she can stop herself, Caroline responds bitterly, “Yeah, and how likely is that?” She immediately appears remorseful and quietly apologizes. She wishes Kate a happy Christmas, too. Without saying another word, Kate turns and walks away.

An hour later, Caroline and Gillian sit together at a table, once again in a similar boat, watching others dance and thinking about what they want but can’t have. As Caroline describes Kate’s departure, Gillian lays her hand on Caroline’s bare forearm in comfort and rubs it tenderly, a gesture I can’t stop thinking about. Caroline says she’d love to have Gillian over for Christmas. Gillian smiles and says she’d love to, if she can get someone to feed the sheep. They are so sad, and so perfect.

Eventually, Gillian gives in to herself, and over Caroline’s disapproval, dances with Robbie, who obviously also wants to dance with her. While I know feelings about this will be mixed, my heart wants Gillian to be happy, while my brain knows that Caroline is right. Being with the brother of the man you murdered = not a very good idea, no. But at the same time, Gillian has been through so much. We build a billion barriers against love. Why can’t she have true happiness, just for once?

And gosh freaking darnit, why can’t Caroline, either? At least this must have been what Kate was thinking as she drove home from the wedding, because as soon as she got to her house, she turned around and came right back. When she walks in, she goes directly to Caroline, who looks up in disbelief from her chair as Kate holds out her hand and asks if she’d like to dance.

As Caroline stands, she pauses. She just wants to make sure. She asks Kate, “Is this like, um…forever?” Kate replies, “Well, to quote Prince, forever’s a mighty long time.” A beat. “You know. In theory.”

On the dance floor, they put their foreheads together. Kate strokes Caroline’s cheek. She lifts Caroline’s mouth to hers. And then, they kiss.

Lawrence covers his face in horror. He thought this shit was over! But his mom and Kate just keep making out. William looks over, and his face lights up with glee. Alan and Celia look over, and Celia sighs while Alan grins. Everyone looks at them. Everyone. But Kate and Caroline just keep. making. out.

I know we’ve had a pretty good queer year on TV. I know I’ve seen other long lady kisses on my screen. I know there are lots of other fandoms who are passionate about other romantic moments of 2013. But I can’t think of one that choked me up as much as this. By my count, this is the best lesbian moment of the entire year.

As the camera then pans over all the couples sleeping in their beds later that evening, we are even treated to a rare glimpse of bare, freckled, glorious Sarah Lancashire arm.

In contrast, the camera then amusingly pans over John and Judith, sloppy and asleep on her couch, and then finally, unsurprisingly, we see a sleeping Gillian and Robbie.

Even if Series 3 wasn’t confirmed, this episode would have been the merriest of Christmas presents to us all. What are your thoughts on the finale, and predictions for the future?

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