The L Word: "Last Word"

"Yeah, I think her heart's in the right place. I think she's just misplaced her meds." -- Bette Porter

In The L Word series finale, Bette was referring to Jenny Schecter with that statement. Subconsciously, though, she was thinking about Ilene Chaiken, the series creator/killer, when she said it.

Seriously... what the frak was that?

From the opening scene in the premiere, this final season was set up to be the "Who killed Jenny?" show, despite the fact that in six seasons, this has never been a show about mystery. The L Word has never been Desperate Housewives. Yet, I gave them the benefit of the doubt, hoping that it could be a fun ride nonetheless and certainly willing to enjoy the mind-boggling depths of crazy of which Jenny is capable. And the season definitely had its moments -- Bette & Tina's once-and-for-all total commitment to one another and their so-very-hot dance, Kit finally getting a man worthy of her awesomeness, the girls' hilarious reactions to Jenny & Shane dating, Helena & Dylan getting back together in the most painfully and simplistically beautiful fashion, etc. And then the curtain call arrived and... nothing. Jenny's dead, and? Nothing. There was no closure to the season-long story arc. There was no big reveal for the whodunit. Jenny was just dead.

WTF?

Memo to Ilene Chaiken: It's one thing to leave a story open-ended, giving the audience the sense that "life goes on". It's another thing entirely to leave a story -- A SERIES! -- hanging. There was very little resolution across the board, and zero closure to the over-arcing season-long storyline, and instead of letting these wonderful women go on with their lives, we left them in the interrogation room. In the middle of the interrogation! If this had been a season finale, it could have worked, and worked well. But this was the supposed celebration of the run of a ground-breaking series and the only feeling that it instilled in its audience in its final moments was disappointment. And perhaps anger. Maybe confusion too. That's how we are supposed to remember this series and these women? That's crap.

What is also crap is the bits of character assassination that needed to occur to get all of the various characters to the point of having motive enough to want to off Jenny. Niki is now solely a completely vapid, classless whore who wants nothing more than to party and to get in Shane's pants? That's not the sweet, sincere albeit confused Niki that we saw fall so deeply in love with Jenny last year. Dylan, despite betraying Helena in Season 3 and being so profoundly, wretchedly anguished about it, is now willing to lie to her about being aware of the test instead of coming clean right off the bat? That's not the Dylan we know who so desperately wanted to start fresh, begin anew with a clean slate with Helena, the love of her life. There's no point, nothing to gain in Dylan lying to Helena from the moment she realizes that she's being tested. Dylan is far too intelligent to risk Helena finding out about yet another lie that Dylan told. So why would she? That's right. Because she needed to fit into the little box that was designed for her to suit the story. Ugh.

All of the little threads that were left dangling in the wind -- are Alice & Tasha back together or is Tasha simply Alice's friend there in a time of need? Beats me. Is Max keeping his baby or just finally accepting that his body has a few changes to go through before he can move on with his life? Who knows! -- just remind us of how uneven this show often was. But the true fans didn't care because they finally saw themselves represented in primetime TV. All that was asked for was a fitting tribute to the beloved series that helped change the face of television. Instead, we got a three-hour long documentary tribute that included some asinine entries (Jodi? Thanking Bette & Tina and wishing them well? Really?).

The only fans that could walk away with any semblance of peace and joy were the fans of Bette & Tina. They finally got their happily ever after. They were content, settled, wholly committed, and crazy in love. And they were set to begin the new chapter of their lives together. In New York. As an engaged couple! Bette & Tina received their closure, but they're the only ones.

The few nods to history were lovely -- the salute to the pilot episode with Bette & Tina on the porch saying good morning to Shane who's just heading home, the familiar faces (Tim! Peggy Peabody! Carmen! Ivan! MARINA!) -- but they weren't enough. This show, this "framily" of friends deserved better. And amazingly... so did Jenny Schecter.

Oh, yeah. And Lucy Lawless? Seriously, she stayed behind on Earth for that? A handful of lines and barely any screentime over the span of two episodes? What was she thinking?

Talk about going out with a whimper...

Thoughts?