“Does she have a pussy pussy?” Maura asks Davina as they sip on their hangover coffee. Shea got a little action last night with the marine they were all dancing with. The girls observe how much Shea is the picture of morning-after-party perfection. “She’ll get there,” Shea says to Davina after confirming that, YASS QUEEN, everything’s real below deck. Maura gives her best impression, too, which is notably weak at first-but Maura saying, “Yesss…queen” is the new YASS QUEEN. She’ll get there, too.
Sarah is dropping her kids off at school when she runs into Barb (Tig Notaro), running a Nitty Gritty Committee for trash cleanup. Sarah asks if Barb wants to go get coffee, and Barb immediately shuts that down. “Sorry if my boundary is your trigger,” says Barb. At least Tammy is MIA.
But clearly, the most interesting meet-up today involves Maura having lunch with her old Berkeley colleague, bringing along Ali for a new introduction and maybe unspoken moral support because that’s their energetic Moppa-daughter bond. Joining the group for lunch is Leslie Mackinaw (played by the legendary Cherry Jones.) Ali recognizes her name, and Leslie confirms she’s a poet. They chat for a minute about the women’s studies department being renamed to gender studies. “Woman is a dirty word around here,” says Leslie, bonding with Ali.
Leslie explains that she applies for the editorial board at Berkeley every year for a decade, and Maura blocked her each and every time-her and her sisters in arms. Maura realizes now what’s happening: Leslie was a member of the radical feminist group, Berkeley 7. Ali watches Maura’s face the entire time Leslie is speaking. How is Maura digesting the reminder that she only selected men to the editorial board (plus the one woman with big tits-so says Leslie)? Maura is apologetic, assuming it’s crucial she inform Leslie that the event was one that she does not agree with or stand behind now, one that she hardly remembers. And sure, Leslie’s reaction speaks for itself: “Why would you remember it?” It was something that happened to Leslie, and to all of the other women-being denied and rejected and looked over, by men. Leslie’s rhetorical question implies that because Maura grew up with white male privilege, she can’t possibly feel what Leslie experienced.
Later on at Maura’s support group, the women are discussing inappropriate questioning from internally transphobic, stuck people. They notice Maura’s being extra quiet today. She explains she was reunited with Leslie-describing the radical feminist group. “They thought we were holding them back. We did. We held them back.” Maura recognizes her past privileges in a male-dominated world to the group. “I hurt people,” she says.
Sarah decides to pop in over at Len’s house where she’s let herself into the house uninvited to “pick up a yoga mat,” scaring the shit out of Len. We’ve come a long way since Capris and minivans. The kids are totally disenchanted over her arrival, and hey-look! Barb’s hanging out. (We all know Len and Barb hit it off back in Season 1.) Sarah throws some shade at Barb’s “Itty Bitty Titty Committee,” which doesn’t slide with Barb, who literally can’t take a joke, especially not from Sarah. But, like, is she eventually just going to go buck wild on Barb and unzip her navy blue hoodie because she can’t it anymore?
Anyway, today there will be no former wives of Tammy Cashman flirting at this ex-husband’s house. Sarah exits and heads for the master bedroom instead of the front door. She flings her purse down on the bed because she doesn’t give a fuck, which is also exactly why she’s going to snoop through Melanie’s hot pink suitcase. Inside she finds the most giant eyeshadow palette ever made. We could restore the Sistine Chapel with this rainbow of eye paint. (She also has a nighttime eyegel mask on her nightstand; girl cares a lot about her eyes.) Sarah smashes the set closed, powder flies everywhere, and then she scrambles to clean up the carpet mess, but only rubs in the stain and makes it worse. Raise your hand if you, like Sarah, would then get the hell out of dodge and leave Len’s! (Me too.)
By now, it’s nightfall in LA so Ali and Syd check out Lezbowl, a bowling night for lesbians because duh-beer, bowling and girls? Also, lesbian bars are a dying breed, so, yeah, bring on Lezbowl. Ali is Google-stalking Leslie Mackinaw while muttering that she’s so pissed at herself about that drunken date raping her freshman year.
A few friends walk up, Nicol (Brittani Nichols) and Georgia (Cass Buggé). Ali asks if they’ve heard of Leslie, and Nicol is like, “I’m a lesbian-of course I have.” Leslie is apparently a BFD (big fucking deal.) Georgia knows someone who named their cat after Leslie. And so does Syd. Take this moment, their entire conversation, and tell me you haven’t had the same ones with other friends. I know a girl who named her cat Tegan Quin. Ali finds the poem of all poems and begins to read it aloud: “I’m always putting my pussy in the middle of trees…” It’s actually a poem by Jill Soloway‘s partner Eileen Myles. You can find it in her book of poems I Must Be Living Twice.
Ali recites the poem as she weaves her way through a sea of lesbians. The queer gaze is at a sexy high and everyone turns to watch her. Maybe Ali is new to Lezbowl. Or maybe everyone knows she and Syd are totes going to get together and they are stoked she’s here with her, so she’s going to get all forms of gestures-including what I endearingly respect and believe in to be “the lesbian nod.”
Ali is getting the ultimate nod. And tonight there will be beer and bowling and people who fucking know who Leslie Mackinaw is. Ali continues to read the poem, and the sea of the lesbians continues to wait their turn to bowl, standing in tight huddles, some kissing, some whispering, laughing. She and Syd get tangled up in that drunken buzz that comes along with new romance-and all these new layers that mean they can give into the sexual tension between them now. Anyway, this is basically lezbowl foreplay and we all know it.
As the episode comes to a close, we see Sarah in the darkness of her apartment having some kind of sexual abuse memory recall emerge, in which Sarah is getting paddled by her former school disciplinary Mr. Irons. Young Sarah (Kelsey Reinhardt) is perched against her living room wall, the school scenes blurring with the stillness of Sarah’s present. She climaxes as Mr. Irons taunts her, which is…well, distressing. But, yes, Sarah’s wounds are convoluted.
BACK AT LEZBOWL (seriously, the scene switches right then and there) we can see that Ali and Syd have purchased two tickets to make out town. This, of course, continues back at Syd’s place, and when they’re in bed, Syd asks Ali what she likes, what she wants. Ali tells her that she’ll tell her next time. There’s a lot brewing between these two, but will it become a long-term deal or will it fizzle faster than we can say “my pussy is a wounded soldier”?
Check back next Friday for a new Transparent recap, and stream Season 2 now on Amazon Prime. Follow me on Twitter @the_hoff to discuss all things #TransparentTV
