Season 5: 2008
| Series # |
Series # |
Title | Directed by | Written by | Original US air date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 51 | 1 | "LGB Tease" | Angela Robinson | Ilene Chaiken | January 6, 2008 (2008-01-06) |
| Bette's gesture of good faith to Jodi backfires when she returns home. Shane experiences problems in her relationship with Paige and again falls back into old habits. Helena is sent to prison for stealing from Catherine. Unable to reach her mother, Helena now faces a grim life behind bars. Jenny returns from a vacation to Mexico, more cold and deranged than ever, with an eccentric hedge fund billionaire financier, named William Halsey (Wallace Shawn), to help her launch a creative takeover of "Lez Girls" from Tina's studio. Also, Phyllis has second thoughts about getting tied down to Joyce during a "coming out" party that Kit throws for them at the Planet. | |||||
| 52 | 2 | "Look Out, Here They Come!" | Jamie Babbit | Cherien Dabis | January 13, 2008 (2008-01-13) |
| Tasha returns having not been shipped off to Iraq and she tells Alice that she's being investigated by the U.S. Army for "homosexual conduct". Meanwhile, Tina's obvious, lingering affection for Bette affects her dating prospects. Out of work while WAX is being repaired after the mysterious arson fire, Shane's takes a last-minute gig of styling hair at a wedding for Jenny's boss, Mr. Halsey, whose daughter is getting married. The job, set up by Jenny, results in a hilarious series of erotic encounters when she scores with both of the bridesmaids and the mother of the bride herself. Meanwhile, Kit and Max have a run-in with Adele (Malaya Rivera Drew), an obsessed fan of Jenny's work whom they get hired as Jenny's new personal assistant. In prison, Helena is saved from a severe beating from the inmates by her tough-minded cellmate Dusty which seems to bring them closer together. Elsewhere, Phyllis tells Joyce that she's not sure where they stand on their romance. | |||||
| 53 | 3 | "Lady of the Lake" | Tricia Brock | Ilene Chaiken | January 20, 2008 (2008-01-20) |
| Shane decides to temporarily swear off sex and reap the health benefits of new energy and focus by taking exercise classes and having Jenny, Alice, Tina, and others tag along with her. Bette goes away for the weekend with Jodi to a mountain cabin upstate where Bette soon becomes uncomfortable with Jodi's brash artist friends. Back in Los Angeles, Tina's dating woes finally improve when she goes on a date with an attractive art collector. Meanwhile, Max ponders a mutual same-sex attraction to Jodi's sign-language interpreter Tom (Jon Wolfe Nelson). The Planet is burglarized and Kit is attacked after hours; when Bette hears the news, she leaves the cabin early and Jodi joins her. Tasha meets with a military lawyer, named Captain Curtis Beech (Ted Whittall), for help in her upcoming "homosexual conduct" case. Jenny tries to adjust herself with her new assistant, Adele, who seems to enjoy Jenny's demanding and difficult requests. As Helena slowly adjusts to prison life, her angry mother, Peggy, finally arrives to post her bail. But despite being free, Helena realizes that she's not entirely free from her mother's grasp and decides to skip town for good. | |||||
| 54 | 4 | "Let's Get This Party Started" | John Stockwell | Elizabeth Ziff | January 27, 2008 (2008-01-27) |
| Bette's jealousy over Tina's new girlfriend is the probable cause of a surprising romantic moment. Meanwhile, Jenny takes over casting for Lez Girls and while quarreling with Tina and the production company over the process is lobbied for the lead role by an up-and-coming actress named Niki Stevens (Kate French). Alice receives an unwelcome visit at home from two military officers investigating Tasha's case. Two new characters are introduced, a lesbian couple named Dawn Denbo (Elizabeth Keener) and her lover Cindi (Alicia Leigh Willis), who open up a new lesbian club, called SheBar, down the street from the Planet which could spell trouble for Kit while the gang attends the grand opening of SheBar, and the owners show an interest in Shane. Alice skips out on the grand opening of SheBar when she gets invited to an underground Hollywood party with Tasha where she sees a few celebrities she knows. | |||||
| 55 | 5 | "Lookin' At You, Kid" | Angela Robinson | Angela Robinson | February 3, 2008 (2008-02-03) |
| Jenny throws a party at her house which introduces her friends to the actresses playing them in 'Lez Girls,' provoking both delight and distress as everyone meets Niki (playing Jenny's character 'Jesse'), Begoña (playing Marina's character 'Karina'), Isabella (playing Bette's character 'Bev'), Greg (playing Tim's character 'Jim'), Lauren (playing Helena's character 'Helen'), Marci (playing Dana's character 'Donna'), Susan (playing Alice's character 'Alysse'), Gretchen (playing Tina's character 'Nina'), Cheryl (playing Kit's character 'Cat') and Cammie (playing Shane's character 'Shaun'). Bette and Tina try to deal with what is obviously a rekindled spark in their romance and try to keep it from Jodi. Max confides in Jenny that he suspects Adele is not who she claims after catching her in a lie about her past. But Jenny, fully consumed by her ego and megalomania, refuses to even listen to Max and claims that he is the one who has a problem with Adele. Meanwhile, Alice angrily outs a closeted gay basketball star after he utters a homophobic slur, which sparks a media firestorm and increases the rift between her and Tasha. Shane stirs up more drama between Dawn and Cindi when she falls off the sex wagon and sleeps with Cindi, which escalates into bitter rivalry between The Planet and SheBar. | |||||
| 56 | 6 | "Lights! Camera! Action!" | Ilene Chaiken | Ilene Chaiken | February 10, 2008 (2008-02-10) |
| Production on Lez Girls finally begins with Jenny, having fully taken over as the director, co-executive producer, and screenwriter, deals with the headaches of filmmaking, as well as directing Niki and dealing with her newfound dynamic of having a relationship with the lead. Adele scouts Vancouver for location scenes while Jenny treats her to a full makeover and shopping spree. Back in Los Angeles, Bette and Tina struggle with their rekindled romance. The twisted Dawn and Cindi take their war against the gang to the next level in another strategy to close down The Planet when rats are discovered on the Planet's grounds, resulting in the health board shutting it down. Elsewhere, Tasha gets her things from Alice's place, while Phyllis deals more with her divorce and her daughter Molly's (Clementine Ford) resentment towards her. | |||||
| 57 | 7 | "Lesbians Gone Wild" | Angela Robinson | Elizabeth Ziff | February 17, 2008 (2008-02-17) |
| As filming on Lez Girls grows more chaotic and drawn-out, the manic and nasty-minded Jenny grows more desperate and crazy over directing as well as motivating the difficult Niki, who begins slacking off. But the crafty Adele convinces the frustrated and bored Niki to take off and she ends up in an arena ring of a female oil-wrestling match at SheBar, while Jenny tracks Niki down there and also lands in the ring. Meanwhile, trouble for Tasha increases when tough-minded, by-the-book military officer, Colonel Gillian Davis (Kelly McGillis), arrives to prosecute her for homosexual conduct. Alice, now co-hosting a new TV talk show, makes matters worse for both Tasha as well as Niki with her inability to stay quiet about their lives. Bette is stuck looking after Phyllis' uptight daughter, Molly, who in turn has a few harsh and friendly words with Shane who's now working on hairstyling for Lez Girls. Elsewhere, Jodi has a lunch date with her former partner Amy. Kit continues to seek a way to get revenge against Dawn and Cindi for the closing down of The Planet. | |||||
| 58 | 8 | "Lay Down the Law" | Leslie Libman | Alexandra Kondracke | February 24, 2008 (2008-02-24) |
| Alice finds herself in a serious bind when she's called by Colonel Davis to testify on behalf of the U.S. Army against Tasha. Alice must decide whether to tell the truth about her romance with Tasha, or lie and risk facing charges of perjury. While testifying, Alice goes on the offensive and inadvertently strikes a nerve when she says that anyone, even Col. Davis, could be deemed gay by association. Col. Davis, fearful of Alice's new platform to out people on The Look, offers Tasha a deal in exchange for Alice's discretion. Tasha, however, chooses to unequivocally state her love for Alice, ending her military career. Meanwhile, Jenny continues her romance with Niki just as Niki's managers push into full-force damage control after photos of Niki's oil wrestling stint are posted in numerous tabloid magazines and internet sites. When one of Niki's movies opens, Tina and the producers ban Jenny from attending as Niki's date, and force Greg, the young male actor playing Jim, to accompany Niki to the premiere. Jenny asks Adele to sneak her into the theater, but the increasingly manipulative Adele instead uses her time inside without Jenny to network with many people about the movie. Across town, Bette and Tina's anguish over hiding their secret tryst begins to get to both of them emotionally as Jodi continues to slowly drift away from Bette, while Tina invites the Lez Girls cinematographer, Samantha, over for dinner at Jodi's house. Elsewhere, Molly continues to resent Phyllis' action concerning her divorce, and Shane tries to get Molly to see her mother in a more positive light. | |||||
| 59 | 9 | "Liquid Heat" | Rose Troche | Ilene Chaiken | March 2, 2008 (2008-03-02) |
| When a massive heat wave hits Los Angeles, Kit and the owners of SheBar, Dawn and Cindi, arrange a Mafia-type sitdown of talks with the whole gang to try to end their ugly conflict over business and "lesbo rights". But Dawn's self-serving and nearly impossible demands to Kit, Jenny, Alice, and everyone else nearly derails the discussion, until Bette steps in to negotiate a hesitant and short lived truce. Meanwhile, Shane has an "encounter" with Molly who continues to maintain that she is straight and not interested in Shane. But Molly later invites Shane to her house where another "encounter" happens, and her mother, Phyllis, walks in on them. Elsewhere, Jenny fires the "prissy" male actor, Greg, from the set after he makes a move onto Niki. Bette continues to drift apart from Jodi who begins to wonder why Bette has a lack of interest in her. Later, Bette and Tina get stuck in an elevator during a city-wide power outage while on their way to meet with their therapist, Dan, about their problems. As Tasha tries to get on with life out of the Army, Max and Jodi's intrepeter, Tom, have a date, and Adele continues to cause problems between Jenny and Niki. | |||||
| 60 | 10 | "Lifecycle" | Angela Robinson | Angela Robinson | March 9, 2008 (2008-03-09) |
| The girls all enroll themselves in the Subaru Pink Ride bicycle marathon as part of a breast cancer fund raiser as Team Dana. Tasha sees some of her old friends, and appears to be having a bit of a hard time balancing her desire to spend time with Alice with her desire to reconnect with her buddies. Tasha asks Alice to move in together, and Alice accepts. During their stop for the night, a campfire game of 'I never' evolves into an involved discussion of cheating where Bette and Tina end up unintentionally revealing their secret newfound romance to their appalled friends, leaving Jodi completely wrecked. Meanwhile, Molly's continuing interest in Shane leads her to follow her on the bicycle marathon, apologizing for the blunt conversation Shane overheard between Molly and Phyllis. Molly succeeds in getting back into Shane's good graces, and they hook up. Jenny brings Niki along with her to get away from work, and they unwind by making an explicit homemade video of some of their time alone. However, Adele secretly takes the tape that they made. | |||||
| 61 | 11 | "Lunar Cycle" | Bob Aschmann | Ilene Chaiken | March 16, 2008 (2008-03-16) |
| The twisted Adele finally goes over the deep end when, after weeks of malicious planning, she finally shows her true psychotic face and makes her move to take over Jenny's career and directing rights to Lez Girls by stealing Jenny and Niki's sex tape made during the bicycle marathan campout. She shows it to the producers and Jenny, stating that she will send copies of it to various TV networks if she isn't put in as Jenny's replacement immediately. As a result, the studio heads have no choice but to comply with Adele, and Jenny is ousted from the picture. Jenny tries to lead a walk-off the set to protest, but other than Shane, no one joins her. Jenny is incensed at Adele's betrayal. When Dawn and Cindi buy Ivan's 51% of the rights of The Planet in another attempt to close it down for good, Kit reaches her breaking point and goes to She-Bar to "do something stupid" with her newly bought gun, but is interrupted by Bette who asks her to pick up Angie from pre-school. After a terrifying moment when Angie finds and plays with the still-loaded gun, Kit disposes of the gun in a trash can. Meanwhile, Bette and Jodi get together to talk about Bette's betrayal, but nothing becomes stated because Bette confirms to love simultaneously Tina and Jodi. Tina, with problems of her own on the Jenny-Adele case, constantly calls Bette to check if she has broken up with Jodi. Tasha and Alice look for a place to move in, but troubles arise when they talk about expenses, and the details of splitting the rent. Alice is invited to a party by a New Zealand lesbian fashion designer, named Clea Mason (Melanie Lynskey), whom she met on the TV cable program The Look. Elsewhere, Shane and Molly finally go on a date and consummate their growing attraction to each other. | |||||
| 62 | 12 | "Loyal and True" | Ilene Chaiken | Ilene Chaiken | March 23, 2008 (2008-03-23) |
| Shane and Molly share a passionate and touching morning before meeting Molly's mother Phyllis and Joyce for breakfast. Phyllis asks Molly if she is taking the internship in Washington D.C. during the following summer that they once talked about; Molly replies that she will spend the summer surfing with Shane, who was unaware of the internship. Shane is later confronted by Phyllis who says that Shane is not worthy of Molly, especially in light of her past relationship failures, and she should break up with her to get it over with. Helena Peabody returns to Los Angeles to visit her mother in the hospital and is gifted by her family's wealth once again. On hearing of Kit's loss of The Planet while she was away, Helena brings a mighty tempting proposition to SheBar owner Cindi: the chance of escaping the evil Dawn's claws by giving them insider information, which will allow them to buy out SheBar's other investors. Cindi gladly accepts, and takes great pleasure in reasserting her identity — she's Cindi Tucker, not "my lover Cindi." Meanwhile, Alice almost kisses Clea Mason, but doesn't end up falling in temptation despite her continuing problems with Tasha. Elsewhere, Bette gives a kind and heartfelt speech at Jodi's art exhibition, but is humiliated by Jodi's new piece, which is about her and their breakup. Filming on Lez Girls finally wraps up, but the problems with post-production do not end as the distributors want the filmmakers to change the ending by having Jesse get back together with Jim. Tina soon clashes with both the producers and Adele, since they decide to make the change to make the movie less gay and more marketable. With her work on the movie finished, Niki wants to get back together with Jenny, who pushes her away for not having the nerve to stand up to Adele or the producers about their romance. William Halsey and the producers throw a celebration wrap party in the Hollywood Hills where everyone arrives full of glitz and glamour. At the party, Bette publicly reunites with Tina at last. The crafty and sneering sociopath Adele, gloating and reveling in her new Hollywood power and relationship with actress Begonia, gives what she thinks will be the closing speech at the party, only to be interrupted by Jenny who pushes her way into the party and sets the record straight by giving a powerful speech about her experiences on set, and also says how thankful she is for the rest of her friends' loyalty and trust. Ironically in that same moment, Niki and Shane are hooking up after flirting for much of the evening; Jenny walks in on them and angrily declares Shane's actions "the ultimate betrayal" and says that Shane has broken her heart. |
Read more about this topic: List Of The L Word Episodes, Series Overview
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