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“Chasing Life” recap (1.20): Past Tense

Previously on Chasing Life, Leo declared his love for April, Graham did the exact opposite with Beth and broke up with her, Greer and Brenna got back together, and Natalie started hooking up with Dom.

We begin with April being all nervous about her staff meeting at work, because it’s time to appoint a new Editor in Chief. And, of course, that new editor is Raquel, because she already acts like a boss anyway. Raquel makes a speech about needing to up their internet game and looks directly at April and says that just because you were doing well doesn’t mean you can rest on your laurels now. It’s game time.

After the meeting, April stops to congratulate her, and wants to make sure she was just being paranoid about that last bit being directed at her. But Raquel tells her that actually yes she’s exactly who she was talking to; April is one of the most valuable players on the team, and Raquel is going to be hard on her to make sure she keeps it up. She tells April she should be grateful, Raquel being bitchy to you is like being kissed by the pope in the land of Boston journalism.

At Casa de Carver, Grandma Emma is playing cards with her boyfriend when Sara finds out the rent on the storage unit that holds all of her ex-husband’s belongings is going up. Emma tells her to go through it, because it’s about damn time, and offers to go with her daughter for moral support.

After work, April listens to Beth rant about Graham as she gets drunker and drunker. She starts to get sassy toward Leo, who promptly redirects Beth’s attention to Natalie by ordering more beers. Beth tells Natalie that she promises she has her key tonight and by the way where even was she when Beth locked herself out the night before? Natalie dodges the question like a pro and disappears to get them more beer. April tries to cheer Beth up by telling her that she booked them a best-friend vacation to Bermuda for the weekend in a few weeks, which has its intended effect, and makes Beth tell Leo that she might just need to steal April away from him.

The next morning, April is ignoring her family in favor of work emails because she wants to get ahead of the game so she can hang out with Leo that night. Sara teases her about being in loooove and speaking of love Greer is just hanging out in the Carver fridge like it’s the most natural thing in the world. Greer tells the fam that Brenna will be right down, according to a text she received. April asks if her and Brenna are back together, but when Brenna appears and they kiss, the answer is clear.

The girls exchange “I missed you’s” and April teases them for being so cheesy, since they were only a floor apart. Sara asks Greer if she talked to her parents, and while she hasn’t really had much conversation with them, her dad did ask her to hang out after school. Sara’s glad, because she doesn’t like the divide between the families, which April says sounds awful Shakespearean. Sara giggles and calls them Juliet and Juliet and Brenna gets all embarrassed and calls her family lame. It’s actually kind of the best. It’s just so…normal. Though being learned women, I hope they’re not vying for Brenna and Greer to have the same ending as Romeo and Juliet.

At work, Danny scoops April on something and is a complete douche about it, as per usual. Raquel accuses April of going soft, and tells April that she’s going to have to make sacrifices if she’s going to get anywhere in this world. Raquel gave up the white picket fence for this job and she has zero regrets. April promises to work harder and get an awesome headline.

Sara and Emma go to the storage unit, where Emma’s job is to lounge and lighten the mood via snark while Sara goes through the boxes. Emma’s really hoping they find something extra scandalous, but all they find is a box of George’s old books. Emma asks if Sara will tell George, but they had a clean break and Sara isn’t sure if she should muddy the waters again. She keeps going through the boxes and finds a few children’s books inscribed from Thomas to Natalie. At least with Natalie, there is no ambiguity. Sara knows just what to expect: Hostility.

Natalie and Dom are making some bad decisions together when Natalie says she still feels kind of squicky about going behind April’s back about all this. Dom tells her again that they’re not doing anything wrong, but in a kind of creepy demanding way. He literally says, “We talked about this,” as though she wasn’t allowed to still have these feelings because they discussed it once and he declared it totally fine. I was very much Team Dom early this season but I am very much no longer playing for that team. Natalie gets Dom to agree that they’re going to tell April about them next time they see her, and Natalie tries to get him to practice what he’ll say, but he’s not taking it seriously despite her getting increasingly anxious, so she just gives in, says she’ll do it, and makes sexyface at him instead.

Back at home, Greer tells Brenna that her dad had wanted to talk to her because him and Greer’s mom are getting a divorce. Well, a separation for now, but still. He’s moving to Nantucket and wants Greer to come with him and go to school there. Greer’s torn because she sure as hell can’t live with her mother and she can’t not live with either of her parents…or can she? Brenna gets all excited and says she can just live here with her until graduation! Problem solved. Greer thanks her for caring so much about her.

And Brenna jokes about just wanting to keep Greer close so they can keep hooking up.

Meanwhile, at The Boston Post, Danny hacks into April’s computer and steals a lead for a story she has because he can’t stand someone else being better at something than he is. April had gone to get them both a coffee, but when she realizes what he did, she pours his right out into the trash.

April packs up to head to Leo’s party when Danny jumps into the elevator. When she realizes how aggressively Danny is trying to hijack her story, she know she can’t just leave him in the office alone. They both go back upstairs to try to out-work each other and April has to cancel on Leo, though he seems pretty understanding about the whole thing.

When Sara gets home that night, she finds that Brenna has made dinner for her. She inquires after Greer, but Brenna tells her that Greer is at a tennis match and won’t be home until late. But speaking of Greer, there is something they need to discuss. Grandma Emma, because she’s the best one, asks if Greer is cheating and threatens to cut her. You know, like grandmas do. Brenna updates Sara on how Greer is being forced to choose between her evil mother and a faraway island and asks if she can stay until graduation. But graduation isn’t just in a few months, it’s almost two full school years away. Sara says she wouldn’t feel comfortable just agreeing to take in a girl who still has a parent who wants her, but Brenna convinces Sara to think about it, which is all she needed to hear.

Staying at work late ended up being a good idea, because April managed to break the story before Danny after all. Danny is mad because April seems to have it all and this is literally all he wants from life, but he stops himself before he reveals any feelings and congratulates his cube-neighbor on her win.

The next morning, Greer, Brenna and April share the bathroom while they brush their teeth. Brenna asks about Greer’s tennis match and Greer tells her that her dad actually came to the match, which she thought was really nice of him.

He’s really trying to get her to come to Nantucket, and honestly she’s thinking about it, but Brenna says don’t worry, Sara is also thinking about letting Greer stay. Greer gives a little smile and thanks her before bopping out of the room.

When she’s alone with her sister, April tells Brenna that maybe Greer doesn’t want to stay, but Brenna takes that as April saying APRIL doesn’t want Greer to stay and starts to go on the offensive. But April assures her that’s not the case, and that maybe she read the situation wrong, but hopes that Brenna will support Greer, no matter what she decides.

Natalie goes to the storage unit and starts off with the snark on full volume, but Sara offers her an ear and a shoulder while she goes through this difficult thing and Natalie actually appreciates it. Natalie suggests pretending everything is normal until it is, and Sara is on board with this method that lies somewhere between denial and forgiveness.

Later that day when Beth calls April in a full panic, April does her best to calm her friend down on the phone since she can’t drop everything and run to her like she’s been doing these past few days, not with Raquel as her boss. She asks Beth if there’s anyone she can call for reinforcement, and before you know it, Leo is there, proudly getting a pedicure alongside her, and making her laugh like she hasn’t in far too long.

When Brenna gets home from school, Sara tells Brenna that they have to go see Dr. Hamburg for a chat. Dr. Hamburg tells her that she’s a match for someone who needs a bone marrow transplant, and for them to reach out to a minor, it must be a good match and a last resort. After all the nonsense of not being able to help her own sister, the idea of saving someone’s life delights Brenna to no end.

She’s ready to change into the hospital gown right now, but Dr. Hamburg tells her that it’s a big decision and that she should take time to think about it. It’s a big sacrifice, but that sometimes you have to endure some pain to give someone what they need.

Later at home, Brenna and Greer are adorably online shopping together and Greer uses a question about her shipping address to bring up how weird it is that you live with your parents until you don’t…forever. And how that time is running out, and how if she doesn’t live with her dad right now, she’s already done living with her parents forever, and how weird that is. But she shrugs it off, saying it’s fine, that it’ll be fun living with Brenna and the Carvers for a few more years, that it already has been fun.

But Brenna is too smart for her own good, and took Dr. Hamburg’s advice to heart. So she tells Greer that Sara said no to Greer moving in for good, and that she only hadn’t told Greer yet because she didn’t want to upset her. Greer says she knows it was a lot to ask and that she’ll be fine with her dad, maybe too quickly to not be a bit of a heart-pincher, but calmly and normally enough that Brenna knows she made the right decision.

Downstairs, Emma wants to show Sara a funny video and notices her daughter has been looking up flights to a conference George is speaking at. Sara has decided to take her husband’s lovechild’s advice and just pretend everything is normal, and so far it’s been working. She wants to surprise George by showing up to this conference, but not in a romantic way, she swears. Emma says she’s fine with it, as long as it’s truly what Sara wants. But when Sara shows up at the conference, she wonders if it really is what she wants when she sees George greet another woman with a smile and a kiss.

That night, Natalie and April head to a bar for some sisterly bonding, but before they get inside, Natalie wants to clear the air about something. She confesses that she’s been seeing Dom and when April lashes out about it, she goes on the defensive, saying April doesn’t really have claim over Dom anymore, especially since she has Leo now, and she was really just telling her as a courtesy. April insists that it’s just weird, but Natalie thinks April is trying to say Dom’s too good for Natalie. While not quite the bonding Natalie was looking for, the fighting was at least somewhat sisterly.

April goes to talk to Raquel about the insane expectations she has for April lately and says she still loves the job and wants to be a great reporter, but she also wants to be a great daughter and friend and girlfriend. Maybe a year ago she would have been on board, but she has learned first-hand that life’s too short to not balance work and play.

Brenna comes home from school and finds her backyard has been overrun by table tennis. Greer appears and says it’s a parting gift of sorts, a poetic way to say goodbye, reminiscent of the early days of Tennis Love.

They hug and try to have brave faces, but Brenna’s voice catches in her throat as she tells Greer she has to stay in touch. But then she pulls away and teases Greer, and they begin to play one last game of tennis.

And so we say goodbye to Greer Danville, one of the most unique teenage lesbians in the history of television. I hope, though she’s gone, other writers of stories look to her for inspiration. Because she is proof of what we’ve been saying all along: We, in the LGBT community, are so much more than our sexuality. Every story worth telling has ups and down, problems and solutions, drama and conflict to make it interesting, to make it relatable, to make it real. And Greer’s story had all of that, but never once did a problem or conflict have anything to do with her being a lesbian. She never had a coming out storyline, because she never needed one, she was just out. She didn’t “turn” anyone, because Brenna denounced labels on her sexuality before she ever even really considered the bubbly blonde a friend, let alone a girlfriend. Her parents banning her from seeing Brenna had nothing to do with Brenna being a girl. Greer’s mental breakdown was about her parents and the medication she was on, not because she was a lesbian. Greer Danville’s is the kind of story my teenage self needed, and one I’m so glad the teenagers of today (and of tomorrow) have. To top it all off, Gracie Dzienny played her with charisma, poise and genuine heart.

And while I hope she will make a surprise appearance in Season 2, maybe in the back half, to shake things up, if this is the last we see of Greer Danville, it was a wonderful, albeit bittersweet, way to say goodbye.

In case your heart isn’t broken enough, the episode isn’t done pulling punches. Dr. Hamburg is on her way home from work when she gets one last lab report. The results of this report make her collapse on her couch and almost start to cry. She looks at her phone as if it’s her worst enemy, then leaves a message for April, using the best calm, cool and collected doctor voice she can muster, and asks April to come in to see her first thing in the morning.

What did you think of “No News Is Bad News”? What was your favorite thing about Greer and her storyline?

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

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

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