s3e08: Scene 8 Review

s3e08-09 - Is it Good? Is it good? It's not just good, it's bloody marvellous! So good that it deserves a post all of its own. Yes, this scene has it all, well that is except for good lighting. That and the sound of the sea; goodness it's so loud I wouldn't be surprised if they were actually on the beach at the time, not in Helena's bed. I can understand why the light is so low as maybe the scene wouldn't have been quite as intense had it been lighter, but honestly there really is no excuse for drowning out the all important dialogue with the sea. Whose stupid idea was that? And it is important, trust me. This episode, and therefore the dialogue in this scene, was written by Ilene Chaiken. The power the words bring to the scene, in addition to the fabulous performances by both Rachel and Alexandra, put it right up there with the best lesbian sex scenes, not only in all 3 seasons of The L Word but in my humble opinion in films too. I'd go as far as to say that it's now my favourite all time lesbian sex scene. But back to the sea (not Daniela, the ocean!), I had to turn up the sound and practically go deaf listening to the sea, just so I could actually hear the dialogue in this scene. Dialogue? I have heard from people who didn't realise there was any dialogue besides the usual "Oh God!" This is what I can make out: Helena: [breathlessly] "Are you sure you've never...." Dylan: "Never what?" Helena: [even more breathlessly and almost laughing] "Done this before." Dylan: "Is it good?" Helena: "Oh God!" Dylan: "I want you to come?" Helena: [gives Dylan the answer she was looking for] "Oh God!" Someone with closed captioning has reported that Dylan says "I want you to come", but it really doesn't sound like that to me. There aren't enough superlatives in the world to describe Alexandra Hedison's performance as Dylan in this scene. Just let me say that she is perfect, as you would expect she certainly looks like she know what she's doing and this is not the first time that she's done it. It's interesting that she doesn't answer Helena's "Are you sure you've never done this before?" question but instead replies with a question, "Is it good?" Alexandra and Rachel are so good together in this scene, their chemistry is palpable. I know that Rachel sometimes gets a hard time for not being a good kisser (hello, have these people seen the kissing scene in episode 6?) but her performance here is faultless, so faultless that I can't help wondering exactly where Alexandra had her hand when they shot this scene. :-) It's also interesting that again, we get to see more than 3 seconds of Rachel's nipples. Well in this case just the left one as Alexandra is on top of the right one. Rachel reportedly had a 3 second nipple clause in her contract for season 2, but maybe she was persuaded to extend it for season 3. The left one is on display in practically the whole of this scene. Not that anybody besides Rachel might complain about seeing them, because let's face it she does have the most amazingly beautiful nipples. The final interesting point to note in this scene is that Dylan tries and fails to kiss Helena, at the moment of orgasm. Perhaps that was no bad thing as Helena may well have sucked the life out of Dylan. Instead Helena pulls Dylan's head to her shoulder and then after a few seconds, having caught her breath, she lifts Dylan's face up for a kiss.