The L Word Generation Q Episode 3 Recap: There’s a New Hot Priest

Almost as immediately as news broke that a reboot of The L Word was finally, actually happening, it reignited the conversation about how the series could “atone for the sins” of its past. (Among them: its treatment of transgender and bisexual individuals, class, and race.)

Thankfully, the cast of The L Word: Generation Q is devoid of cis actors playing characters who are trans. It’s also notably more diverse, thanks to a whole crew of younger, fresh faces who’ve joined the familiar ones of Bette Porter (Jennifer Beals), Alice Pieszecki (Leisha Hailey) and Shane McCutcheon (Kate Moennig). But there is still plenty of sex, and the show’s interpersonal intimacies still drive it. Which is why these recaps will take the form of snippets of Alice’s legendary OurChart, tracking how each of their storylines intersect. (And not just sexually—no offense, Alice.) Here are the relationships that defined episode 3.

Finley and Rebecca (aka Hot Priest)

Up until this point, the only real indication that Finley, played by Jacqueline Toboni, might be a bit more conservative than she lets on has been the fact that she constantly uses the word “fudge” instead of “fuck.” The more she gets as much screen time as fellow Gen Q’ers like Dani and Sophie, though, the more it turns out that—aesthetics aside—she’s far from the Kristen Stewart-slash-Shane wannabe she appears to be. Case in point: The painful rejections upon rejections she’s met with before finally successfully propositioning a woman named Rebecca. Not only does Finley seem genuinely surprised that Rebecca gets in touch after their one-night stand—not to mention goes home with her in the first place—but she takes her hook-up’s follow-up seriously. “I wanna be drunk but not like dizzy drunk for this girl, you know?,” she tells Micah at the end of episode 2.

Episode 3 finds them in bed the morning after their reunion, where they’re adorably cuddling, giggling, and reminiscing on their early sexual partners (in Rebecca’s case, a doll named Sylvia). “I wish I could be in bed with you all day,” Rebecca says, prompting Finley to enthusiastically suggest that they call in sick. “So tempting, but I can’t,” Rebecca responds; she has a date, it turns out, with Jesus H. Christ.

Absolutely aghast, Finley fills Sophie in as soon as she gets to work. But Sophie, who’s in full wedding-planning mode, has no time for sympathy; she just wants to know if Finley will take her to the church, so that she can consider it as a wedding venue. Finley predicts they’ll burst into flames upon entering, but it turns out the Lord’s wrath has more nuance than that: It only takes a few minutes for Finley to realize that the person she’d been “fudging all night” isn’t just a believer, but a priest. “I’m actually more closeted about being Christian than I am about being queer,” Rebecca eventually tells Finley, who’s still in shock, sprawled out on one of the pews. Turns out Finley was raised “very, very Catholic”—and suddenly, the scene in which she almost vomited mid-sex with Rebecca starts to make sense. The episode ends with another heart-to-heart on one of the pews. This time, Finley is in tears—and apparently ready to accept her very own (Gay) Hot Priest as her savior.

Dani and Sophie (and Rodolfo)

Infidelity hasn’t (yet) entered the picture, but a third party has most definitely caused a fissure between Dani and Sophie, who seem increasingly unlikely to ever wed. Still mourning her mother, Dani is obsessed with making sure the wedding is everything that her father, Rodolfo, has ever dreamed of—never mind that he clearly didn’t even want Dani to get married to her “friend,” Sophie, in the first place. Ostensibly to make up for his lack of enthusiasm, Rodolfo books a tour of the Biltmore—a swanky hotel that “offer[s] a certain level of luxury and sophistication.” It also offers a certain level of shade at Sophie’s side of the family, who clearly don’t make the cut when it comes to class. Somehow, Dani—who works as the megaphone for someone bent on calling out inequity—still has yet to notice the obvious sociopolitical divide. Meanwhile, the Suarez family has taken it in stride. “So what?,” one of one of Sophie’s sisters, played by Jillian Mercado, says when Sophie expresses her doubts. “You’re going to have a big fun wedding like rich people.”

As the absurdities at the Biltmore mount, so do the Suarez’s snickers. (When yet another dirty glance prompts one of them to reflect that she “should have gone home and changed,” Sophie’s mom replies: “Into what? A ballgown?”) But Sophie and Dani struggle to find the levity in the situation—particularly after Rodolfo reveals that he already confirmed everything, right up to their wedding date, because he wanted his coworkers would be “comfortable.” A later argument between Sophie and Dani proves the latter still can’t seem to grasp why her relationship with her father, not Sophie, seems to be her real priority. And it doesn’t seem like she will any time soon; the only relationship on her mind is one involving her boss, after she accidentally comes across Bette and Felicity’s late-night rendezvous.

Alice and Nat (and Gigi)

“Boring” is the last word any viewer of the original L Word would use to describe Alice. And yet, for three episodes now, Alice has somehow become a bore; after all, she’s never dated someone has nice (and, yes, boring) as Nat. It’s hard not to be thankful, then, that episode 3 is heavy on the suggestions that their relationship might soon come to an end. It starts out promising enough, with Alice selflessly insisting that she’d be happy to watch the kids if it would mean Nat would go out with her friends. Nat insists she doesn’t have friends anymore, prompting to Alice to point to one in particular: Nat’s ex-best friend Gigi, who’s of course also Nat’s ex-wife.

Cut to Bette’s debate, where Nat and Gigi are whispering and giggling so much that even Shane feels compelled to ask Alice what’s going on. But that’s just the beginning of the trio’s night together, which abruptly comes to an end when Alice interrupts the pair, who are gabbing back at Nat’s apartment. “Well, good night.” Alice suddenly tells Gigi, who takes the hint and gives Alice and Nat the room to fight. “Are you okay? I knew this would be weird,” Nat says to Alice, who confirms that “it couldn’t be weirder.” Once again, she starts to sound like a child: “I didn’t think you were gonna laugh that hard. At Gigi. I thought I was the funny one.” Nat, to her credit, maintains her composure, comforting Alice and ending the conversation with a suggestions that they go watch Naked and Afraid. But it’s hard not to wish that she didn’t; for their sake (and that of the viewers), it seems high time their relationship comes to an end.

Related: The L Word: Generation Q‘s Jacqueline Toboni is Living Her High School Dream