To L And Back: An L Word Podcast

By now you've surely heard that The L Word: Generation Q is no more, and boy are we sad about it! Come join us to commiserate the end of our problematic fave, to talk about the state of queer television at large, and what We, the hosts of To L and Back, would have happen to all of the characters after the end of this season! Follow us on Instagram and Twitter at @tolandback Follow Riese everywhere at @autowin and her esteemed website @autostraddle. Join our membership program, A+, to ensure our site lasts as long as this show did!  Follow Drew Gregory (@draw_gregory) and Analyssa Lopez (@analoco_ & @analocaa) Theme song: Be Steadwell @besteadwell Gen Q Logo: Jacqi Ko @yojaxko Episode Produced, Mixed, Edited: Lauren Klein @laurentaylorklein  

If this season was all episodes featuring a big event, this sure is a fitting finale. This week, on the final episode of the season, Bette and Tina wed, and finally stroll off together, hand in hand, into the sunset and (presumably) their long-awaited happily ever after. So much of what happens at the wedding is delightful: Bette and Tina get locked in the walk-in fridge, Alice is responsible for booze and calling Tasha (to save the brides, of course), Sophie and Pippa share a beautiful flirtatious afternoon. G Flip and Chrishell arrive, and Roxy is back to play and Dani is on drugs! So it's also a big bummer that Tess, Micah and Maribel specifically end the season in truly dour places. From the low of a relapse storyline to the highs of every single second Tasha was onscreen, this feels a fitting send-off to the season we loved to discuss so much. We love you, we'll miss you, we hope you enjoyed the ride! Follow us on Instagram and Twitter at @tolandback Follow Riese everywhere at @autowin and her esteemed w

A strong breeze has blown into Los Angeles this week and with it, the return of Bette and Tina!  Angie's moms are back to get her out of bed and performing at her creative writing class reading and discover the relationship that has her sulking unshowered in bed. Shane and Tess are fighting over the second bar, but in a new and more final way. Finley is helping Carrie recover from her (obnoxious, to us) heart attack. And of course, Alice's movie meltdown has gotten her cancelled again, with one of our season-long prayers answered (no spoilers) as a result!!  Follow us on Instagram and Twitter at @tolandback Follow Riese everywhere at @autowin and her esteemed website @autostraddle. Join our membership program, A+, to ensure our site lasts as long as this show did!  Follow Drew Gregory (@draw_gregory) and Analyssa Lopez (@analoco_ & @analocaa) Theme song: Be Steadwell @besteadwell Gen Q Logo: Jacqi Ko @yojaxko Episode Produced, Mixed, Edited: Lauren Klein @laurentaylorklein

In case you're family drama-ed out after all of the winter holidays that just passed, The L Word Gen Q is here to provide a fresh supply! It's Thanksgiving at Dana's, and Finley's mom has arrived! Sadly, she did not bring a green bean casserole, just a bad attitude. All roads lead to Dana's in this episode, as it becomes the go-to location for Dani and Dre, who are spending the holiday together, Carrie and Misty, who are turkey trotting, and the entire Suarez family who are still mashing potatoes upon arrival.  Follow us on Instagram and Twitter at @tolandback Follow Riese everywhere at @autowin and her esteemed website @autostraddle. Join our membership program, A+, to ensure our site lasts as long as this show did!  Follow Drew Gregory (@draw_gregory) and Analyssa Lopez (@analoco_ & @analocaa) Theme song: Be Steadwell @besteadwell Gen Q Logo: Jacqi Ko @yojaxko Episode Produced, Mixed, Edited: Lauren Klein @laurentaylorklein

In a world where there is a major social event every single weekend, it is now time for an album release party! Fletcher's album release party, to be exact, which Dani is throwing, Micah and Maribel are cruising (for sperm donors), and Sophie wreaks sapphic chaos upon! And if that's not enticing enough, there's also skinny dipping! Elsewhere, we're delighted by a Carrie-Finley messaround, and Alice attempts to revisit a different ex this week: Tom! Delightful side plots ensue. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter at @tolandback Follow Riese everywhere at @autowin and her esteemed website @autostraddle. Join our membership program, A+, to ensure our site lasts as long as this show did!  Follow Drew Gregory (@draw_gregory) and Analyssa Lopez (@analoco_ & @analocaa) Theme song: Be Steadwell @besteadwell Gen Q Logo: Jacqi Ko @yojaxko Episode Produced, Mixed, Edited: Lauren Klein @laurentaylorklein

Hold onto your hats because we have a musical episode! Not, sadly, a musical episode of this podcast, but this week The L Word finally graced us with the beauty of Rosanny Zayas voice, with the style of a 40s musical, and with an emotional gut punch of grief mixed with nostalgia mixed with TRUE LOVE. Before all that happens though: Alice is taking her staff (and Shane!) on a work retreat to do some ayahuasca and soul searching. Alice, Sophie and Shane experience hallucinations that drop them into three different musicals as they seek answers to their most pressing questions! Will Shane finally realize she's non-monogamous? Will Sophie figure out her sort of vague issue with Finley? Will Alice ever fall in love?! All this and more (namely, musical numbers!) await this week. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter at @tolandback Follow Riese everywhere at @autowin and her esteemed website @autostraddle. Join our membership program, A+, to ensure our site lasts as long as this show did!  Follow Drew Gregory (@draw_gr

Well well well, we are halfway through the season, and things are getting heated! Not necessarily in a sexy way, but in more of a fighting and fire alarm and first kisses kind of way. Alice and Taylor are arguing in a movie theater, Shane and Tess are arguing on a balcony, and Sophie and Finley are only not arguing because the fire department is on their way! We're also getting a little heated on the pod this week! Not necessarily in an angry way, but (hopefully) in more of a sharing our thoughts about writing and representation kind of way. What better time than mid-way through the season? Follow us on Instagram and Twitter at @tolandback Follow Riese everywhere at @autowin and her esteemed website @autostraddle. Join our membership program, A+, to ensure our site lasts as long as this show did!  Follow Drew Gregory (@draw_gregory) and Analyssa Lopez (@analoco_ & @analocaa) Theme song: Be Steadwell @besteadwell Gen Q Logo: Jacqi Ko @yojaxko Episode Produced, Mixed, Edited: Lauren Klein @laurentaylorklein

Spooky scary skeletons, it's a Halloween episode! We've got thrills, chills, and parties galore. One of the more realistic things that's ever happened in The L Word universe is the endless list of Halloween options for our Gen Q friends. Alice and Taylor are getting cozy at home, in the time honored tradition of three-straight days of gay sex. Sophie, Finley and Dani hit Dana's for a costume party, while Shane is hitting on Ivy. And in search of more parenting advice from queer elders, Micah and Maribel meet none other than very special guest and original The L Word icon, Max, back from living his own happily ever after far, far away (spiritually, I mean, he's still in LA) from all of these messy weirdos, to grace us with his presence once more. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter at @tolandback Follow Riese everywhere at @autowin and her esteemed website @autostraddle. Join our membership program, A+, to ensure our site lasts as long as this show did!  Follow Drew Gregory (@draw_gregory) and Analyssa Lopez (@

Winter has arrived in Los Angeles this week, bringing a chill in the air, some light rain, and something totally new: a Bette-Porter-free episode of The L Word! While Bette and Tina are presumably off in Toronto frolicking and kissing and looking at art, The Aloce Show hosts its 100th episode, and with it, a dating game to find Alice The One. All sorts of shenanigans take place on the set of the Aloce Show this week, from breakups to hook-ups and make-ups and makeovers! Also, that boy Angie kissed last week? Actually a grown man, and also her teacher. Yikes! Follow us on Instagram and Twitter at @tolandback Follow Riese everywhere at @autowin and her esteemed website @autostraddle. Join our membership program, A+, to ensure our site lasts as long as this show did!  Follow Drew Gregory (@draw_gregory) and Analyssa Lopez (@analoco_ & @analocaa) Theme song: Be Steadwell @besteadwell Gen Q Logo: Jacqi Ko @yojaxko Episode Produced, Mixed, Edited: Lauren Klein @laurentaylorklein

This week, of course, everyone is talking about Bette and Tina! Look, sometimes you have to get back together with your ex! While Bette and Tina are having their own season finale, we're also talking this week about Micah and Mari's potential baby (not as poorly as Finley though, we promise), Shane and Tess's metaphorical baby (the bar), and whether we generally feel insecure in our own romantic relationships (not all of us!). Follow us on Instagram and Twitter at @tolandback Follow Riese everywhere at @autowin and her esteemed website @autostraddle. Join our membership program, A+, to ensure our site lasts as long as this show did!  Follow Drew Gregory (@draw_gregory) and Analyssa Lopez (@analoco_ & @analocaa) Theme song: Be Steadwell @besteadwell Gen Q Logo: Jacqi Ko @yojaxko Episode Produced, Mixed, Edited: Lauren Klein @laurentaylorklein

Hello again! Did you miss us!? Most importantly, did you miss The L Word!?!? Then boy do we have a treat for you! After a quick one year time jump, the gang is back and we've got a big event: a fundraiser at Dana's. In other big events of the episode: Finley returns from rehab and sober living, Micah wants to marry Mari, and yes okay of COURSE we have the long awaited conclusion to Tina showing up at Bette's doorstep. Will these two crazy kids finally make it work? Let's find out together! Follow us on Instagram and Twitter at @tolandback Follow Riese everywhere at @autowin and her esteemed website @autostraddle. Join our membership program, A+, to ensure our site lasts as long as this show did!  Follow Drew Gregory (@draw_gregory) and Analyssa Lopez (@analoco_ & @analocaa) Theme song: Be Steadwell @besteadwell Gen Q Logo: Jacqi Ko @yojaxko Episode Produced, Mixed, Edited: Lauren Klein @laurentaylorklein

Get on in here to listen to the last episode of To L and Back of the season! Last week I said that things were starting to get capital-S Serious and well, I wasn't wrong. Relive the head-spinning relationship escalations of Tess/Shane and Alice/Tom! Yell with us about Finley's intervention! And obviously, obviously, let's all gasp together about that ending! And friends, because it is our final episode of the season, I will be honest and brave in this post and say: I did not dislike this episode as much as my pals Drew and Riese! But more than anything I will be honest and say we've had such a blast recapping this often infuriating, always entertaining television program this season and we hope you had a blast listening. If we made you laugh or cry or even just roll your eyes, please consider donating the Autostraddle fundraiser! And let's all keep our fingers crossed for another season, because as Riese says, even when we hate it...we love it!    Follow us on Instagram and Twitter at @tolandback Follow Ries

Much like Pippa Pascal on this here TV program, the hosts of To L and Back have some trust issues! We've gone from epic highs (the karaoke episode) to some extreme lows, and so despite our best efforts and despite the number of shindigs in this episode, it's a little hard to relax into this installment of our much beloved television series. Because yes, while it's firmly homecoming season in the real world, in The L Word it's prom night! Angie is wearing a suit and grappling with her feelings about not getting the chance to meet her donor. The adults gather at Bette's to drink, gossip, and make-out in inappropriate places! Meanwhile, Sophie tries to search for Finley by making phone calls to various law enforcement agencies while also fighting with her family because we only have one episode left so you know things gotta get capital-S Serious...   Follow us on Instagram and Twitter at @tolandback Follow Riese everywhere at @autowin and her esteemed website @autostraddle. Join our membership program, A+, to e

So is this is how season 2 implodes - not with a bang, but with a deeply confusing whimper? Welcome to this week's episode of To L and Back where, honestly, we have some notes! We spend quite a bit of time talking about the writing of this episode of Gen Q, rather than the actual events that transpire, which as Riese says is....not always a great sign.    But among the needless conflicts (Dani thinking Bette would want to see the Nunez name on the CAC, and gambling Pippa's show for leverage), the baffling conversations (Micah telling Claudia he has feeling for someone else to her FACE), and the upsetting events (Sophie and Finley's whole deal), there were still some treats! Micah's jawline, for one, and Gigi's tongue, for two. Throw in a sex scene backlit by the soft neon lights of the Las Vegas strip and you still have a tough episode -- but one that had a sex scene backlit by the soft neon lights of the Las Vegas strip.    Follow us on Instagram and Twitter at @tolandback Follow Riese everywhere at @autowi

It's another beautiful week in Los Angeles and you know what that means! Another big poker game, because that's what lesbians do for fun here! This particular game is a fundraiser for MS that Tess and Shane seem to have organized in one calendar day, but logistics like that won't stop this from being the new social event of the season! Until, of course, next week when it will be replaced by the launch party for Alice's book.   But for now, we've got Alice and Nat hooking up (again) then breaking up (again), Sophie and Finley having sex on set (again), and Bette being mean to Carrie (again, but worse this time!) Honestly, a lot of events transpire in this episode that we didn't love, including drunk driving! But in more wholesome news, Jordi asks Angie to prom while dancing in a fountain and SO MANY people kiss in the rain that we have to consider whether they WANT their hair to get frizzy. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter at @tolandback Follow Riese everywhere at @autowin and her esteemed website @autostrad

There are few things I love more in this world than a karaoke night. This dates back to college when I stumbled into a karaoke night during an ill-advised Wednesday night out before finals week, and found a KJ playing saxophone while a regular named Rapper John performed "Gangnam Style." And (sadly, devastatingly) there is nothing that seems more ill-advised right now, in the middle of the ongoing pandemic, than being in a sweaty room full of strangers who are yelling their faces off to "Mr. Brightside." But luckily for all of us, there is no Covid in the world of The L Word and so there is nothing stressful about being at a bar, singing karaoke - except of course, for all the drama that could ensue. And ensue it does! Eyes are made across the bar, fights are had, drinks are sent. Big romantic gestures are made, and it cannot be said enough that, through it all, Gigi wears an absolutely absurd sweater. What a gift.   Follow us on Instagram and Twitter at @tolandback Follow Riese everywhere at @autowin and he

Oh baby, the boys are back in town! And of course by "the boys" I mean "Cherrie Jaffe" and by "back in town" I mean "standing in front of Shane, causing chaos." Yes, it turns out that Tess's new girlfriend of one week that prevented her from kissing Shane back last episode is none other than Cherie "rank little love nest" Jaffe (nee Peroni). She was summoned by all that remembering of the past that our friends were engaging in last week, and she's here to keep Tess and Shane from kissing any time in the near future! Speaking of affairs, Finley is attempting to get over Sophie this week by getting under someone else. Also getting under each other are Micah and Maribel! Riese is thrilled. Not getting any action this week is Alice, who is busy crying over Nat and then bonding with Tom over lobsters. And finally, let's all start the Jordan Hull Emmy campaign right now, everybody in? Follow us on Instagram and Twitter at @tolandback Follow Riese everywhere at @autowin and her esteemed website @autostraddle. Join o

Folks, it has finally happened. The members of our OG L Word cast have finally awoken from their decade-long collective dream and remembered that they have a past! Shane shares her regret about Carmen with Angie, and still definitely wants to get with Alice's mom. Alice, already busy crying over her break-up with Nat, decides to make us all cry by talking about Dana Fairbanks. Our friend Bette is too busy looking at Pippa Pascal in awe to remember that she has definitely done more stuff worth remembering than just "cheated on Tina seventeen years ago." (Justice for Jodi.) Meanwhile, our Gen Q crew is off doing things that they will conveniently forget to mention when they are in the next reboot 10 years from now. Sophie and Finley are starting to spend more time together, and of course Dani and Micah have feelings and thoughts about that (though Micah's thoughts and feelings seem to be growing in Maribel's direction, tbh). Listen to us unpack it all on To L and Back, and we'll even tell you our first AIM scre

Amid the break-ups, the make-ups and the new pairings we're excited about, on this week's episode of To L and Back (Generation Q...edition...), we also discuss the nuance required for meaningful conversations about tokenism and identity on television! Other topics include some ideas for a Bachelor / L Word crossover, some jobs Finley might actually be good at, and Angie's baffling DNA test results. If none of those interest you, there’s always Tess and Shane getting up to some illegal things! Follow us on Instagram and Twitter at @tolandback Follow Riese everywhere at @autowin and her esteemed website @autostraddle. Join our membership program, A+, to ensure our site lasts as long as this show did!  Follow Drew Gregory (@draw_gregory) and Analyssa Lopez (@analoco_ & @analocaa) Theme song: Be Steadwell @besteadwell Gen Q Logo: Jacqi Ko @yojaxko Episode Produced, Mixed, Edited: Lauren Klein @laurentaylorklein

Well, well, well, if it isn't the consequences of our Gen Q friends' actions! We're back for another episode full of talking, laughing, loving, breathing, and heavy on the fighting, as everyone deals with the fall out from the wedding, Shane schemes a new way to become richer, and Alice finally meets her editor. Meanwhile we discuss whether the people who hurt us deserve to be happy again! And also the top shortage. We're bringing that discussion back around. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter at @tolandback Follow Riese everywhere at @autowin and her esteemed website @autostraddle. Join our membership program, A+, to ensure our site lasts as long as this show did!  Follow Drew Gregory (@draw_gregory) and Analyssa Lopez (@analoco_ & @analocaa) Theme song: Be Steadwell @besteadwell Gen Q Logo: Jacqi Ko @yojaxko Episode Produced, Mixed, Edited: Lauren Klein @laurentaylorklein