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“Chasing Life” recap (2.02): They don’t make us wear signs or anything

Previously on Chasing Life, Dom was being weird around April so Natalie broke up with him, April found out she wasn’t in remission and has to start a clinical trial, Natalie found a novel their dad wrote about planning his own death, and Brenna joined her school’s film club where she met a super cute college girl.

We open on April floating in a pool, eyes blank, mind wandering.

I can’t decide if this was supposed to be a death fake-out or not.

Then we flash to two days earlier. April and Leo are being cute in the Carver Kitchen, sassing back and forth about things like the fact that April’s not changing her last name and exactly how many seconds Leo will live without a flesh wound if he ever calls April “woman” again.

They were going to go get their marriage license, but they would have to get married within 60 days, and April has to pick a clinical trial today, so they decide to put it off.

April goes to Dr. Hamburg and asks for a few more days to research, but when Hamburg suggests a specific one that happens to be outpatient, April decides to just go with it. She’ll start on Monday.

She looks thrilled about this option, eh?

Sara is at the house going through the bills, April’s medical expenses starting to catch up to them, especially now that April is out of a job. Emma jokes that if Sara pushed her down the stairs they’d be able to cash in, but Sara and I don’t think that’s very funny. Sara realizes they’re going to have to make some sacrifices, and figures that since Brenna hates her fancy school anyway, that will probably be the first thing to go.

Speaking of Brenna, she’s leading a film club project about how fluid modern sexuality is. In this film, Ford will play a girl torn between two men who end up being more into each other than her anyway. One of the dudebros is worried about other people seeing it, but Brenna says it will look good on applications, so they’re in. An argument that impresses Margo. (Someone Ford is also trying desperately to impress.)

I like Margo. She can stay.

At the hospital, April’s friends tell her to trust her gut more than her doctor when it comes to clinical trials, so she jets to Beth’s apartment, her head spinning. She decides she needs to turn off for a few days, so she invites Beth to go to Bermuda with her, since they didn’t get to go last time they planned it. Beth has a huge conference call for work that she can’t miss, but she decides she can do that from a hotel by the beach, so she’s in.

However, as soon as they get to their new slice of paradise, April starts pestering her about working, and convinces her to take a shot and go out with her instead. While they’re out and about, April is talking to a guy and joins his friends for some shots, when suddenly the guy notices her engagement ring. Despite the fact that she never said she was single or interested in him as anything other than a new friend she met literally 60 seconds ago, the dude is highly offended and calls her shady even though all she did was reveal a truth that shattered his assumptions and illusions.

Back home in Boston, Brenna is getting ready for dinner and a concert with Ford when Sara asks about Charton and how things have been going now that Greer’s gone, and if she’s ever considered starting over somewhere new. She had been hoping her daughter would say she couldn’t bear the sight of the hallways without her tennis love, but Brenna has been getting really into school lately, and she’s been really digging her new film club.

I would have kicked my mom out of that bathroom SO FAST when I was her age.

At the concert, Ford is not really into the folk-ish singer, who I swooned over by the time she hit the second note. (Her name is Fay Wolf. Excuse me while I Spotify every song she’s ever sung.) Ford teases Brenna, asking if she’s sure she’s bi because she’s being a super-lesbian right now, but Brenna’s used to Ford’s ribbing by now and teases her back about the underground rap Ford listens to. Margo shows up at the concert, with a man named Jackson, and asks to join their little group. Ford mouths to Brenna that she loves Margo, which is kind of adorable since Ford hates everyone.

Brenna, Ford, Margo and Jackson play pool when Ford asks how long Margo and Jackson have been dating. They joke that this happens a lot – they’re just gay best friends, but they “crotch block” each other because everyone assumes they’re together. Ford calls herself the token straight girl, effectively outing Brenna but in a gentle cute way (since Brenna is anything but closeted) and Margo and Brenna exchange adorable smirks.

Time for a Greebound.

Later, Ford tells Brenna she should get with Margo for the both of them. And this is yet one of the many reasons why I went back and forth 100 times trying to predict if the kiss we saw in the promo will be for a film thing or real life.

In Bermuda, April keeps finding her engagement ring getting in the way of her getting high so she puts it in her pocket. She encourages Beth to dance with a dudebro and shares a blunt with a handsome stranger. It’s all very un-April, but that was kind of the whole point of this trip.

April’s handsome fella walks her home because he’s a British gentleman, but she stops it immediately, saying she is engaged. He doesn’t really believe her but he leaves anyway, leaving April feeling guilty for quasi-cheating on Leo.

But at least she looks good?

April calls Leo to say she misses him, but is interrupted by Beth doing a walk of shame, still in her glittery dress, who missed her super important conference call by two hours. Now, I love Beth, and I see why she’s frustrated with April, but April didn’t force her to drink with her or not charge her phone or any of that. If she had done the call but hadn’t been prepared, I would have been more on Beth’s side for this. But I was squarely somewhere in between. Peer pressure’s not cool, but they ARE grown-ups…

Anyway, April tries to chalk it all up to a fun night, but Beth is furious because a few months ago, if the reverse had happened, April would have clawed Beth’s eyes out. Beth says she knows it sounds silly that fashion is her life now, but it is, and it’s important to her. April has cancer, and Beth can’t compete with that. Even though April’s life’s on hold while she makes big decisions, Beth’s isn’t, and she still has to focus on her career, even if she loses April.

Sad Beth hurts so much.

April starts to realize what’s happening and wants to talk more about it but Beth grabs her phone that has been charging for only the length of this conversation and runs away with it.

Sara is still stressing over money, and Emma suggests using Brenna’s college fund because Brenna won’t use it, so might as well put it toward her education now, but Sara hasn’t given up hope that Brenna will go to college. Which is funny, because it’s similar to the problem a lot of queer teenagers have with their parents, but not about the same thing. Even when I first came out in my early 20s, for the first few years, my mother would joke sometimes about maybe finding a man to change my mind. She was trying to accept me for who I was, but still held out hope for the future she had envisioned for me. A similar thing is happening here; Sara wants to accept Brenna and who she is, but can’t help but hoping her wild child will change her mind and conform to her own hopes and dreams for her daughter. Emma looks at her kind of sadly, knowing Brenna isn’t going through a phase on this thing, either.

In Bermuda, Beth finds April on the beach to say goodbye; she has to go home and try to save her job in person. April understands, but she’s sad about it. This take-your-mind-off-things, fancy-free vacation turned out to be anything but.

Plus she’s going to have weird tan spots.

And we’re back to where we began, with April floating in a sea of despair. (Okay, or the actual sea.)

Cut to Brenna, filming a scene where Ford’s character is feeling insecure and is trying to attract the attention of her boyfriend, who can only think of his soccer practice with his guy friend earlier that day. Brenna quickly realizes that she might not have cast her actor net far enough when her friends prove to be very difficult to work with.

But at least they look good?

April comes home from Bermuda early and Sara is super happy to see her, albeit surprised, but her enthusiastic greeting is met only with tears from her daughter. The two of them order pizza and talk it out, Sara telling April that growing up is hard. When you become an adult, suddenly your whole life is made up of your own choices. Which is great! Pizza for dinner three nights in a row? Go for it. But sometimes it’s hard and scary. Like which clinical trial do you pick to fight your cancer. Sara says the fact that April and Beth are fighting is totally normal, but that it’s just growing pains and they’ll make it through this. April is starting to learn that being an adult is more than just choices, but also about adapting as you go.

So the next day, while walking around the city, April calls Beth and says she’s sorry she didn’t adapt very well to her being the new, career-focused version of herself, and is listing all the ways she thinks Beth is fearless on her voicemail when she turns the corner and finds Beth waiting for her on her doorstep.

YAY FRIENDSHIP

Brenna’s on the way to school early to film a scene with Ford (that requires partial nudity!) when Sara interrupts to try to have a real-talk about finance stuff. One really great thing about this really great scene is that in the beginning, we see a flash of real teenage annoyance in Brenna that her mom is interrupting her to be all serious. It’s a perfect reminder that she’s NOT the grown-up she sometimes tricks us into believing she is because she’s so precocious and self-aware. She proves it further by going into full tantrum mode when she realizes Sara is saying she’ll have to leave Charlton to pay for April’s medical expenses. She accuses her mother of not caring about her opinions, her feelings, both in whether she wanted to stay at Charlton or not, as well as if she wants to go to college. Sara says she wants the college fund to be hers for when she enters the big bad world, even if it’s not for college, but Brenna. is. pissed.

WHY DID APRIL GO TO BERMUDA IF WE HAVE MONEY PROBLEMS?!

Newly single Natalie has been spending her free time reading her dad’s book, and she finally tells Beth about it. It’s basically about her dad’s life, with names and places changed, but it’s all about how this man planned his own death. Beth apparently doesn’t watch enough television, because she just shrugs and thinks it’s a coincidence. She doesn’t drop anything and start hunting for clues like any good Pretty Little Liars fan would have done. But Natalie doesn’t seem ready to drop this mystery.

April goes to the hospital and tells Dr. Hamburg that she wants to pick a different clinical trial than the one she was going to do. This one is newer and has more side effects, so Hamburg is hesitant to recommend it, but April did her research and she’s sure this is what she wants.

What did you think of “The Age of Consent”?

Here are some of our favorite #ChasingLesbians tweets from this week:

And the one and only Haley Ramm joined our #ChasingLesbians tweetfest last night, tweeting the best line from the night, and tagging Aurora Perrineau, who plays Margo.

Lesbian Apparel and Accessories Gay All Day sweatshirt -- AE exclusive

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