Cliffhanger Finally Resolved! After a Long Wait, Arienne Mandi Sets Up Season 2 of THE L WORD: GENERATION Q

By BILL HARRIS Special to The Lede Season-ending cliffhangers have a special place in TV history, and SHOWTIME’s THE L WORD: GENERATION Q has joined the club in a unique way. THE L WORD: GENERATION Q is a revival series, set 10 years after THE L WORD (all episodes of both series are available for streaming on Crave). Major characters from the groundbreaking original show, including Bette (Jennier Beals), Alice (Leisha Hailey), and Shane (Katherine Moennig), have been combined with new characters such as Dani (Arienne Mandi), Finley (Jacqueline Toboni), and Sophie (Rosanny Zayas). The first season ended in classic cliffhanger fashion: Dani and Finley were both at the airport, about to board separate flights, and hoping that the woman they both love – Sophie – would join them in a grand romantic gesture. Sophie arrived at the airport, and started running through the terminal. But who was she running to, Dani or Finley? That’s where it stopped. Season 2 debuts Sunday, Aug. 8 only on Crave, so fans will finally get an answer. But the peculiarity of this particular cliffhanger is how long the wait has been: the Season 1 finale of THE L WORD: GENERATION Q first aired way back in January 2020. Due to all the shutdowns and delays in the entertainment industry related to the pandemic, this cliffhanger has been “hanging” for more than a year and a half! Mandi fully appreciates both the honour of having her character, Dani, be a major part of a classic TV cliffhanger, and also how the lengthy wait has ratcheted up the tension even more. “Oh my gosh, honestly, it is so cool,” Mandi said. “But it’s also a little daunting, only because, through social media, I’m able to see a little bit inside the minds of the fans, and people are very invested, you know? So yeah, it’s exciting.” Mandi added that even she was kept in the dark about what was going to happen from a storytelling perspective. “When we finished the first season, I was like, ‘Marja (executive producer and showrunner Marja-Lewis Ryan), come on, just let me in on it, I won’t tell the rest of the cast if you don’t want to make it a big thing, just between you and me, who does Sophie pick, Dani or Finley?’ ” Mandi recalled. “And she was like, ‘I’m not telling you. I can’t tell you.’ So I was hanging on this cliff as well. I didn’t know what was going to happen up until a few months before we started shooting. It was definitely a real-life cliffhanger for me, too.” The love triangle came to a breaking point at the end of Season 1 due to infidelity – Sophie was in a relationship with Dani, but cheated with Finley – so regardless of whether Sophie ultimately picks Dani or Finley, all three will have to deal with issues of trust as Season 2 progresses. “I think you totally hit it on the head – this season is about trust on so many levels,” Mandi said. “For anyone in that kind of situation, once something like that happens, and if you find out that someone has betrayed your trust in that way, it’s natural to kind of second-guess all your relationships, friendships, lovers, even your trust in yourself. As I’m thinking about this right now, you might even wonder if you have proper, you know, decision-making skills – like, do you even know how to discern if someone’s right for you, or if you’re in the right relationship, in the right place, at the right time? A lot of things get put to the test.” So all things considered, what message does Mandi want to relay to devotees of THE L WORD: GENERATION Q who have waited so long for the series to return? “Look, if you were a fan of the first season, the second season will just entirely blow it out of the water, from story, to relationships, to drama, to the highs and the lows,” she said. “There are tears. It’s a bit of a bumpy ride. But there’s just a little bit of everything and a whole world of fun.” It sounds as if Arienne Mandi would be a great PR person for THE L WORD: GENERATION Q. “Well, I mean, Dani is a PR person,” Mandi said. “Come on now.” billharristv@gmail.com @billharris_tv