this new plot line on last man on earth where erica and gail are lesbians and in love is honestly really bugging me? like i don’t want to say that people can’t sleep with men and then later realize they’re lesbians, and i definitely don’t want to turn down whatever lesbian representation i can get, but the way it was written just seems really lazy… like they displayed what seems like really legit attraction to men in earlier seasons while maintaining a close friendship, and then now all of a sudden they’re not only attracted to one another but say they always have been? and they’re not bi, or at least they never use the word. i don’t think they ever actually say the word “lesbian” though either, just “gay,” which seems vague and safe. and they also don’t kiss or even put their arms around each other or anything like that and it just seems weird and slightly tokenizing. not to mention the big age gap? i realize when there’s 7 people left on earth you can’t be picky but i just feel like it’s weird idk is anybody else a fan of the show who wants to comment?
They’ve kissed four times so far:
(gifs by @lizmitches)
And they’ve been holding hands and such plenty, even in episodes where they’re not the focus:
(that last gif is Erica kissing… uh, some part of Gail, can’t quite figure out the hug pile.)
(gifs by @royalarmyofoz and me)
And in series one they do reference having a sexual relationship back when they thought they were the only two people left on Earth (Erica: “This lady will have you doing things that you never thought you’d do” etc) but yeah series one was kind of terrible so I like to think the writers dissected it at some point and decided to bring back and improve the bits that actually had promise, and Erica/Gail was one of them.
And in series three Erica specifically names Gail as someone she loves – “Melissa’s right, Gail’s dead. Why? Because everyone I love dies” just a few episodes before the time-jump and the getting-together which happened in that time. So I figure Gail’s near-death experience and Erica’s reaction to that/her own impending childbirth (bearing in mind especially that Gail was the only one who stood a chance of being able to successfully deliver the baby) brought them together in a way they hadn’t been for a while and well, we saw the results.
BUT also yes someone really, really needs to say the word ‘bisexual’ and it irritates me no end that they haven’t.