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Tina remembered the taxi driver assisted her with her luggage and took her to a hotel in New Jersey. She remembered that Bette called within the hour and it went to voice mail. She called again the next morning and the next afternoon. Tina had not responded to any of her calls nor the dozen or so text. She did not call Bette for a little more than two weeks. She had found a furnished studio apartment in Greenwich Village which she could rent on a month-to-month basis. She interviewed with Showtime and they had decided to send her on a new project as writer/production assistant to Toronto. She needed to be there immediately, as pre-production was starting in two weeks. The studio suggested that she get an apartment in Toronto as she would be there at least 6 months of the year if not 9 months if the series was a success. She had called Bette to check on Angie but did not tell her where she was or what was going on in her life. Bette begged her to come home and talk to her. Why had she left? When was she coming home. Tina remembered saying: “Bette, I need some time and space. I’m not ready to come home yet. I’ll talk to you when I can.” She then hung up and didn’t talk to Bette again for a month.
Tina was weeping again as she mounted the steps of the cabin. She never once during that period thought about how Bette or Angie would respond to her just walking away without giving a reason or cause. All she thought about was to get someplace where she was not suffocating from the life she was living. A life that Bette nor Angie saw. And not a clue that she was suffering. Why did they not know?
Then the word Bette had said earlier that day: “Silly me, I assumed you were leading the life you wanted to live. You gave me no hint that you were not happy.” Bette was right. She never once told Bette that she needed to pursue something outside of their home. In fact, Bette had offered to get a housekeeper or a nanny to take care of Angie in the afternoons so that Tina could search for the job she wanted. But Tina had rejected the idea and said she was fine being Angie’s caregiver. She was doing some part time work of reviewing treatments and scripts for Tribeca. But it was not giving her the challenge nor the satisfaction of being in production. Bette asked her multiple times in the first year after Tribeca had terminated her job, if she wanted or if she was pursuing other employment. When Tina was insistent that she was fine, Bette stopped mentioning it.
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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.