The Quagmire or the USS Callister?

What if you met your wife for the first time in Paradise? This week, Leigh (@lshfoster) and Ellie (@elliebrigida) talk about the 2016 episode of Black Mirror - San Junipero for this Lez-ssentials episode, a recurring segment on the essential movies and TV shows in the lesbian canon. If you haven’t seen this episode of Black Mirror yet, go watch it! It’s only an hour long and unlike most episodes, it is less horror, more sci fi romance. 

This story is unique because it both does bury the gays and also doesn’t. All things considered, it actually has a very happy ending for our sapphics, if you just ignore that they’re technically dead and have had their consciousnesses uploaded to a digital afterlife. It’s the sort of bittersweet happiness that we absolutely eat up, or as Ellie says, “It’s giving Notebook vibes.” 

There is just something so sweet about watching Yorkie get a first shot at love after her incredibly traumatic accident and Kelly getting a second chance at a love that she never really envisioned herself having after losing her husband and daughter. Yorkie is such a relatable baby gay and honestly between her sheltered homophobic upbringing and the car accident happening the same night she came out, we are just so happy to see her get to experience the lesbian life that she could never have even imagined was possible for herself.

With Kelly, she is a little more hesitant to allow herself to fall in love as she is not planning to stay in San Junipero. We get very little good bisexual representation on our screens and Kelly is top tier, hands down. She was married to a man and very much in love with him for over 40 years, but that does not in any way invalidate her bisexuality or stop her from dating and hooking up with both women and men in San Junipero. So often society writes off bisexual women as soon as they marry men and it is really important to show the world that getting married does not suddenly erase a person’s sexuality. 

The fact that we get to see Yorkie go from completely missing out on life due to homophobia to regaining her freedom and chance for love through gay marriage is amazing. She was hesitant to even dance with Kelly at first, because she thought it would be improper for two girls to be seen dancing together and within the span of a few short weeks she is literally married to her. We love to see it!

At the end of the episode, stick around to hear our original song based on San Junipero titled “Paradise” written by Leigh Holmes Foster and produced by Ellie Brigida. Join us on Patreon at bit.ly/lezpatreon for mp3 downloads of all our original songs or find us on Bandcamp to purchase songs individually.

Follow along on Twitter: Lez Hang Out (@lezhangoutpod) and answer our Q & Gay at the end of every episode. Leigh Holmes Foster (@lshfoster) and Ellie Brigida (@elliebrigida). You can also join us on Facebook.com/lezhangoutpod and follow along on Instagram (@lezhangoutpod).

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