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Why Are You Here?
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They were silent for a few moments.
Tina: Bette are you okay?
Bette: Physically, I’m fine. Emotionally, I am still a bit bruised and I’m still hurting, Tina. The last three years have not been a walk in the park for me. And when you have a teenager looking to you for answers and you have none, what do you do? You carry on the best you can, that is what you do.
Tina: You know that you have disclosed to me this morning some things I was not aware of.
Bette: Like what?
Tina: You really do not know why I left. May I ask what you told Angie?
Bette: Yeah sure. Do you want to discuss this while we are eating?
Tina: Perhaps we should wait until we have finished eating first.
Bette: You know it’s really cold outside.
Tina: You are just use to the Los Angeles weather. It’s going to turn really cold when the snow stops falling. That is when it gets too cold to snow.
Bette: I hope I brought enough clothes. Otherwise, you are going to see me wearing a bedspread on top of my clothes.
Tina: Its rather comfortable in here. The fireplace helps.
Bette: There is a nice pile of wood on the porch. If we burn everything in here, we may need to bring in a load or two. I hope the electricity stays on.
Tina: Well, if it doesn’t, we still have the fireplace. We would just have to pull the mattresses to the living room and one of us keep the fire going all night. That was a wonderful lunch. That soup was delicious.
Bette: There is more if you would like some.
Tina: No, that was plenty. Now, let me clean up the kitchen.
Bette: Sure. I’ll tend the fire.
They both completed their task and went to the sofa to continue their conversation.
Bette: You asked me what I told Angie when she asked where you were and why you were not home and why we got a divorce.
Tina: Yes. What did you tell her?
Bette: I told her that evidently, living with me did not make you happy and you decided that you needed to leave and seek your happiness elsewhere. She asked me then what happened that made you unhappy. I told her that I honestly did not know. We – you and I- had never talked about it. In fact, I did not know you were unhappy until you said “I have to leave.” She then asked me was it something she did? I told her that even though I did not know why you were unhappy, that I am certain beyond all doubt that she had done nothing or failed to do something which made you decide to leave. Then I told her only you knew why you needed to leave. And I hoped that someday you would disclose that information to us. Tina, from time to time she would ask me again the same questions. And I would give her the same answers. She believed that I was withholding information from her. It has only been recently that Alice told me that she really believes that I truly do not know why you left. I’m not sure what convinced her that I had told her all I knew. Of course, if I had been in her shoes, I’m not sure I would have believed me either. For how is it that two people can live together, share a bed for more than twenty years and one not know that the other is unhappy? Surely there was a sign, a conversation, an incident which would give someone that close that something was amiss? And you know, whatever that was, I missed it totally. Am I that oblivious to who you are?
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It is a challenging task to take on the Generation Q nonsensical plot line, especially Bette and Tina ever having gotten divorced. You have written an interesting “moment in time” offering the readers one possibility of what happened. I would imagine from your description that the cabin is a small claustrophobic place and Bette and Tina are both nervous and somewhat kinetic in the way they interact with one another and move about. Neither able to relax. Trying to respect each other and each other’s space. Watching the clock. Watching the snow. With nowhere to go. Also, it is next to impossible to make sense of the Tina that Marja gave us. No one recognizes her. I think you have given it a very good shot. I also appreciate the way you wrote Bette struggling with her emotions and all of the hurt. Tina is a mystery. Why would she ask Bette if she loves her? Bette’s reply is spot on. She loves Tina but no longer knows her. She loves her because she is Angie’s biological mother. She was able to remain respectful to Tina but also get to the heart of the matter: Why did you leave me? Why did you leave Angie? That’s tough stuff. It would have been much easier to write a story that pretended away the fiasco that was Gen Q. You took it on. Well done, Martha.
Billy,
Thank you for reading and commenting. Gen Q, for me, simply decided Bette and Tina were divorced and never fleshed out why that happened. IMO, the writers never believed that they would need this backstory when they put it into the script. But for a couple as iconic as Bette and Tina, they should have known that sooner or later, they might have to reveal that backstory. But in true Gen Q fashion, it never was addressed.
So when Laurel returned for Season 1, the writers have Tina give an explanation to Angie that she needed to find herself. And then another explanation to Bette which said that Bette simply overshadowed her very existence. Neither explanation rang true for me. And I accepted Bette’s declaration to Shane under the influence of marijuana, that she did not know why Tina left and that Tina had never offered an explanation. So, when they brought in Carrie, I was even more confused as to why Tina left and who Tina Kennard was. And despite some of the fan’s responses of adoration for Carrie, that relationship simply did not reflect the Tina Kennard I so adore and love. And then in Season 3, where we get our reunion and wedding which I desperately wanted, but the path seemed more like a fairey tale than anything which could be close to reality or reasonable. The conflicts were between Bette and Tina seemed artificial and were put aside with a few soft words. Determining what the conflicts were required the most vivid of imaginations and the ability to take the darkest moments of their past and project it to their present. Bette and Tina have a long and rocky history. But the Bette and Tina I know would never dig into that bag of history and use their bad behavior as a club to justify current behavior. I feel this is particularly true for those issues which they had analyzed, apologized and forgiven the other for. Whatever the reason for Bette and Tina’s divorce, it had to be something new or something we are completely unaware of. And I do not completely explain why the separation and divorce happen, I at least ask the question. And I still believe that question can only be answered by Tina.
I am glad you mentioned the cabin. It’s a place designed for no more than 4 people as a temporary getaway. I imagine the dining table has 4 chairs in a standard square shape. The kitchen is a galley style kitchen in which it starts to get crowded with a second person. I imagine that the main purpose is to provide housing for skiers visiting the area during the winter and hikers during the summer.
Addressing this aspect of the Gen Q story is not easy. I think that getting into Tina’s mind and understanding her motivations, her thought processes, and the environment surrounding her when she made her choices is a difficult place to go. For me, the things which might explain this seem so unfathomable that I cannot make my mind go there. Things such as cheating, falling out of love, mental illness or shear boredom with the relationship simply cannot be possible in my world for these two. And they are far too intelligent to allow a misunderstanding to keep them apart. Bette and Tina have been through too much and have weathered too many storms to believe they would ever purposely pursue a path that would destroy their relationship. I also believe that it is simply not possible for the two of them to make any decision in which they did not consider the impact of such on the other. They simply love each other too much for that. So, the bottom line is that we the writers are left to try to explain the unexplainable….
My thanks for your continued support….
Well thought out and literate reply. I totally agree.