Happy Yellowjacket Friday! Kayla not only wrote you a recap this week; she also made you a list of shows to watch if you love Yellowjackets! Also, on the recap beat is Drew, who both recapped Drag Race and interviewed Peppermint about her new comedy special. In brand new TV this week, Kayla reviewed Dead Ringers, Shelli reviewed Slip, and Netflix dropped the trailer for their new reality show, The Ultimatum: Queer Love. A.Tony wrote about how they’ll watch anything where survivors get justice. And Riese let you know where the cast of The Real L Word is now.
Notes from the TV Team:
+ I’m sure that Carmen will have plenty to say about last night’s episode of Station 19, but I wanted to take a second to note the passing of the torch behind the scenes: as Krista Vernoff hands over showrunner duties to Zoanne Clack and Peter Paige. I’m not as familiar with Clack’s TV work but Paige’s hiring feels like a real gift. A former actor on Queer as Folk turned creator/producer of The Fosters and Good Trouble getting to shepherd the next chapter of Maya and Carina’s love story? That feels like such a win. — Natalie
+ On Grey’s Anatomy there’s nothing explicitly gay (though we do get a Helm sighting, as she shows up at Teddy’s office to defend Intern Yasuda the love of her life and tells Teddy to do something about burn out culture among the interns, which I loved). But I wanted to note that Amelia is really mourning Kai. Addison showed up and gave one of my new favorite Addie/Amelia sisters scene. Honestly, if they just wrote Kate Walsh back into the show permanently I would be so happy. I genuinely think she could be a linchpin to this entire new era of Grey’s and if we have to break Addison up with her Private Practice husband Benjamin Bratt to do it, well that’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make. Henry’s about 10 years old now? He could move to Seattle with his mom.
Anyway, the last thing I wanted to say was that there were references to old Grey’s galore, including Addison’s love of Hot Chocolate juju, that so many of the doctors are mass shooting survivors, and at the end…. A NOTE FROM CRISTINA FUCKING YANG (!!!) with medical supplies, telling Addison to keep up the good fight. And yes, I did cry. — Carmen
+ Your Friday night TV plans are about to get a lot more exciting: Friday night WNBA games are coming, every week, to ION. — Heather
Station 19 615: “What Are You Willing to Lose”
As far as I’m concerned, this was easily a Top Two Marina episode — and there’s a strong argument that it’s not #2. Despite my proud Love Is A Lie badge that I carry around in my wallet at all times, there is nothing that gets me going quite like an epic Shondaland romance. And last night Carina and Maya proved once and for all, if they were any doubters left, that they deserved to be listed among the greats.
After their last fake!first date ended with delivering a baby to a woman who had gone on a real!first date with Carina not too long ago, Maya and Carina decide to try again. Carina’s exhausted though, so they scrap Maya’s original plans and decide to head to Joe’s Bar. The very same bar where they first met (and yes there was a shot-by-shot recreation! It was perfect!)
At Joe’s Bar they encounter Helm (has anyone else noticed that Helm or Kai always show up like mascots when an episode is going to be especially gay?), who is bartending for a Bachelorette Party that going on now hour 17 of partying. Of course, the bachelorette falls and busts her face open, which leads to Carina and Maya tending to her.
While taking care of the freaked out bachelorette, Carina tells her that if she’s marrying the person she’s meant to be with, the bruises on her face won’t matter. None of it will matter. Her person matters. Maya agrees, saying that the day she married her wife was at once the most grounding and best day of her life. Yes, this is when I started squealing into my elbow.
The bachelorette party realizes that Maya and Carina are actually married to each other!! Prompting the bride-to-be to declare that they’re the hottest couple ever (correct) and that she now regrets marrying a man (also correct!!).
Then, in what I do believe was meant to be a stand in and shout out to the Marina fandom directly, Helm tells Carina and Maya that they are hashtag Goals and role models of what’s possible. Which, in another world, would maybe be too on the nose? But in this moment? Just felt perfect.
(Also it’s reminiscent of when Helm thought Meredith Grey was Goals, Helm is a queer woman who falls in love with unattainable women over 35 and that is probably the most authentically lesbian thing about her tbh.)
Ok so then Maya jokes that they really can’t seem to get through a fake!first date with out a medical emergency, so Carina, still all caught up on their love confessions from just a little while earlier, lowers her voice and looks at Maya beneath her eyelashes and suggests maybe… they take the date back to their apartment, and take a hot shower. You know.
You know that means they have sex. Extremely hot sex. Calzona Season Six Shower Sex, but Maya goes down on Carina whereas in ye olden days of Grey’s Anatomy the camera cut away, which probably means this is the hottest gay sex scene we’ve had yet in Shondaland. Thoughts? Let me know in the comments.
Later, safe and warm and in their bed, Carina worries that their shower sex Means SomethingTM that she’s not ready for it to mean, that being back in their apartment is too soon. It’s all too soon. The last time she was here, she was so hurt. Maya hurt her. Maya left her alone.
And Maya — ok this is when, an episode that already had me near tears from joy, and then for a while, lust, and now in absolute just, devastating, emotional honesty — Maya holds Carina, hair still wet from the shower, and promises her this: She knows that the day she was committed, the day she yelled at Carina that “We’re OVER” — something died between them that day. She knows that. But this? This part that comes next. This part that they are rebuilding? It’s going to be stronger, more brilliant, than everything they had before.
I, for one, cannot wait.
