The L Word

Layup

Season 4, Episode 4, Aired 1/28/07

Episode Summary

Bette meets the new resident artist, Jodi, but a controversial arts project in her class upsets a potential donor for the college. Papi challenges Alice and the girls to a basketball game. Max reveals a secret to his girlfriend. Jenny schemes her way into meeting Stacey Merkin's girlfriend. Meanwhile, Shane is struggling to scrape up money for a hospital bill.moreless

9.0

EPISODE RATING: Superb

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Cast & Crew

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Janina Gavankar

Eva "Papi" Torres (Season 4-)
Dallas Roberts

Angus Partridge (Season 3-)
Daniela Sea

Moira/Max Sweeney (Season 3-)

Fan Episode Reviews (8)

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This is a great episode and is done very well!

9.5

"Superb"

By Alx48, Jan 31, 2008 Report Abuse

In this episode, Bette deals with an artist named Jodi whose work is politically incendiary and is a conflict to her work. In this episode they also have a basketball game with the usual against Papi's team. It is one of the funniest scenes of the show I have ever seen. In the game, Tina is rejected by her friends at a basketball game and joins the opposing team with Papi. During the game Jenny does nothing, Bette is, as always, a control freak about everything, Papi won't let up on Shane, Alice is sort of the team leader, and none of the people on Alice's team can shoot if their lives depended on it. It was just a very funny scene and a great episode. I highly recommend it. I love this episode and is very funny.moreless

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Mediocre. Not much character development.

7.1

"Good"

By Shana868, Sep 29, 2007 Report Abuse

I found this episode to be pretty mediocre. Maybe I just prefer angst and drama ;)

I just didn't enjoy it that much.

It started with the ridiculous sex scene with Alice - why are her sex scenes this season so unbelievably bad???????? Are they supposed to be comical or do they all just go horribly wrong?!? And it felt like we were supposed to be surprised by the fact that Alice was with Phyllis, when actually it was very predictable.

The stuff with Bette's work was pretty predictable as well. And there is no way she should have threatened Nadia with discipline That makes her look soooooooooo bad. Soon she'll be losing her job when Nadia complains

I quite liked the conversation about Tina's identity as a lesbian. It was a shame we didn't get a bit more of that. And Bette going after Tina was funny. Oh and why was Jenny the one who was most rejecting Tina? Jenny's the one who's all supposedly experimental and up for anything normally.

The basketball game was okay... quite enjoyable, but could have been better. Bette was so good in it I would have liked to have seen more of her shots.

I cannot BELIEVE where they are going with Angus. How stupid. That's not who he is at all. He's supposed to be head over heels in love with Kit, a genuinely good man. Why ruin that?!?! That nanny wasn't even that appealing - just a little - *I'm censoring myself*.

Jenny Jenny Jenny *sigh* Why can't they make it so she sees the vet is happy and lets her be. Jenny as a home wrecker. Hope she doesn't get too much airtime.

The Shane thing was kind of obvious from a couple of episodes ago. Nice photos. I wonder how the plot will develop though? And what the mom from the school will be like, if she'll be playing a bigger role.

Alice and Papi seem to be very good friends. Didn't see that coming.

Like everyone else I enjoyed Bette's 'la la laaa' at Alice

Not much to comment on with Helena or Kit.moreless

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Damn if the L Word isn't getting better and better this year. I actually wait to see the new episodes, don't fast forward AND re-watch them. Quite the change from last season, of which I probably missed a few episodes.moreless

10

"Perfect"

By fisken25, Jun 30, 2007 Report Abuse

Leisha is on fire with her Alice, who's even funnier than in the first season. She's quickly becoming one of my favourites, which I didn't really have before. Other than Shane, but that got old rather quickly. Alice in bed giving instructions is a great start for the ep. She and Phyllis manage to be both fun and hot.

I'm not really sure how I feel about the whole Shane and Shay thing, but so far the storyline has managed to be better than one might expect. The scene at the school where Shane sees Shay's drawing is borderline too sweet, but Kate does the moved Shane well. And finally we got Kristanna, who has deeper voice than I remembered. And damn she's tall. For someone who's quite the opposite it's not uncommon to hear comments about her height, so I think it's only fair not to mention miss Loken's giant-like physique again.

Mia Kirsher mentioned in an interview that this season we would get "Jenny times ten" and she wasn't overexaggarating. And I'm totally loving her. Her, and her brilliant evil scheme to get to know vagina wig's girlfriend. And her sunglasses, and drinking coffee on a basketball field, sorry, court. And her running with the ball and away from it. We totally had girls like that at our gym classes, though we played volleyball more often.

I must be in the minority when it comes to Papi. I like her. It might tell a lot about my knowledge of the latina culture, but I don't see her as a caricature at all. She might come across a bit one-dimensional, but who cares. She loves the girls and isn't shy to show it. And she looks hot, with the tattoo shirt and the low-hanging cargo-pants.

Seriously, there should have been team sports way earlier this show. Not only is Alice totally adorable when she gets excited about "getting a little team together", she's also almost convincing when she states they're the kick ass girls. And good god I laughed at the team bourgeoi-ass when they arrived at the fi...court. The funniest part must have been Alice's bling bling. Although, I must say no one has had funnier scene in the entire run of the show than Leisha during the game. I couldn't stop laughing at her. The competitive Bette was also hot, but then again, she always is.

Weirdly enough, neither of the aforementioned got my attention as much as one of the girls from Papi's team. The one who Alice **** and who later tried to intimidate her. She was hot. Can't wait to see Tasha. And there should definitely be more basketball! After all, they do need more practice. At least Alice and Jenny.

Although I was disappointed in the way last episode ended, in the sense that it ended way too soon, before we got to see Bette actually having sex with Nadia, I did think it was the hottest scene in a while. And I was kind of hoping there'd be more of that in this episode, but sadly no. Nadia was getting annoying in the class room, so I guess it's for the best. And they did introduce Jodi, so off with the old lover, in with the new one. No one curses better than Bette, be it **** Alice" like in the last episode, or **** me" as in this one. I never thought I'd hear that Ally McBeal sound effect again, but it was amusing with Phyllis' hallway scene. And she was adorable while admiring the female form.

I might be high because of all the goodiness of this season has delivered so far, but I don't mind Max at all. I was feeling sorry for him when he was telling his secret, because it was so obvious he didn't think it as freaky, but also because it was so obvious the girl wouldn't take the news well. I even can watch the scenes with Angus and Kit, and be mildly interested in them. But not with Angus and the new nanny. That was bad.

Helena is one character I haven't really been fond of, but you have to admit she looks really good in Alice's clothes. And their shared enthusiasm for her scoring was again adorable. Leisha has had great scenes with everyone this season, but my favourites are the ones with Alice and Bette. They are so funny. Nonono, lalalaLAA!

I'm such an ass for not even realising they were all thinking of Dana when mentioning gay tennis players. Obviously the suckiness of last season affected my affections with the characters as well. But what a great ending for the episode with Shane, I sort of fell back into my old habits of Shane-lusting. And Peaches, yay!moreless

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i was just fine!

8.7

"Great"

By dAnRaD010, Feb 01, 2007 Report Abuse

i have to admit i was kind of disappointed with this episode.. it was funny and cute but nothing really important happened.. aside from the addition of the new character (sorry i don't know her name yet) this episode was not that interesting.. honestly i expected something more.. this is already their fourth episode this season and i thought by now they will have atleast one solid story line..

i just hope the next episode will be better than this one.. they should begin the relationship between of Shane and Papi already.. i've been waiting for that one for ages..moreless

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very revealing in the inner strengths & feelings,Shane feelings for her little brother, Bette's strength to end frisk before it to late, Alice's for keeping the group together as a team, Tina for not giving up on her friendsmoreless

10

"Perfect"

By dark_lady22, Jan 31, 2007 Report Abuse

This was a very heart warming episode even thought there were some unuaul twists. I am glad that Bette ended the frisk with Nadia. I feel she was reaching out for some sense of belonging after she saw that Alice was having a date with her boss. Alice seemed to be gloating over the fact that she was going against what her and Bette had talked about in Bette's office. I don't think she was doing this to make Bette mad as much as to make her realize that she too has feelings and as a womam needs to act on them. Shane was trying so hard to be a big sister and mentor for her little brother it brought tears to my eyes. She knows how it feels to be abandoned by her father that she was going to do whatever it took to see that this didn't happen to Shay. Her feelings run real deep for Shay, eventhough she may have a hard time showing that side to other people. She has always had to be the "Nothing gets to me" type. She even went against her own instints to do the photo shoot to get the money for his arm. I only hope this doesn't backfire on her. I think the emotions were running high for Bette during the meeting with Jodi because of what she was going through with the Nadia. She was on the defensive from the word go. I don't think Bette would have reacted so strongly if things were going good for her. Alice dating her boss, Nadia making moves in class and then the sculpture...that's just too much. The most fun I had was watching the basketball game between the girls. I felt they came on a little strong when Tina showed up. I think they should have let her play for them and not said anything. Bette only wanted to know where Angelica was and never said anything when they started putting her down. If anything she acted a little ashamed of the way the were treating her. Jenny came down really hard on her for no reason. After all the relationships Jenny has been in and out of, she of all people should have not said anything in my opinion. I think it was awful how she treated Tina. Tina was nice enough to invite her to the get together at Henry's house....I loved how the paired up to guard each other...Bette & Tina...that was awsome when she rammed her from the back and said she was traveling than made that awsome layup. I have never seen Bette move like that. It was great to see her in some real life, kick back having fun situations. I don't know what to make of the Jenny storyline. Seems like the are grabbing at straws to give her a part with the group. Her and Max's storylines seem to be way out of sink with the rest of the girls. Even Helena's storyline is more in with the rest of the group than Jenny's and Max. I hope they find something more interesting for these two than what they have now. I get kinda of bored in their scenes. I hope this has not offended anyone but these are just my opinions on the LAY-UP episode.......moreless

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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Trivia
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- Goof: Caroline Cave is credited as "Lindsay" although the spelling of her character name is Lindsey. Edit
- Opening Teaser: Alice is moaning and giving instructions to someone going down on her. The connection: Alice has been trying "an older vintage" and hooking up with Bette's boss Phyllis without telling her friends about it. Edit
- The same green T-shirt Helena wears in this episode was worn by Alice in episode 3-1: Labia Majora. Edit
Notes
ADD NOTES
- In the behind-the-scenes video on OurChart.com, executive producer Ilene Chaiken tells that the basketball game scene in this episode took two days to shoot out of the eight days alloted for each episode. Rachel Shelley actually made Helena's over-the-shoulder backwards shot, and the production crew was able to film it in one shot even though they'd thought it would have to be done in pieces. Edit
- Marlee Matlin (Jodi) has been added to the opening credits. There is still one person in the opening title sequence whose face is yet to be seen. Edit
- Cybill Shepherd is credited as a Special Guest Star. Edit
Quotes
ADD QUOTES
- Tina: Stop fucking fouling me. Bette: Stop fucking traveling with the ball. Edit
- Phyllis: So, did you orgasm? You did, right? Alice: Phyllis, for future reference, when a girl your fucking screams really loud and goes completely limp like that, that's a pretty good indication that you made her come. Edit
- Papi: I've only been turned down once in my life. Alice: Who turned you down? Papi: Selma Johnson. My mother, god bless her. Alice: What? Papi: Her best friend. Alice: Oh, you got turned down by your mother's best friend. I mean, no wonder. Hello. Papi: Well, she turned me down when I was 12. But we hit it when I was 17. Edit
Allusions
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- Title: Layup Basketball plays an important part in this episode. Layup is a basic shot in basketball, in which the player approaches the basket, leaps up, and using one hand bounces the ball off the backboard into the basket. A variation of this is the layin, in which the ball is tipped over the rim straight into the basket. Edit