The Chart
| Tina Porter-Kennard | |
|---|---|
| First appearance | Pilot (episode 1.01) |
| Last appearance | Last Word (episode 6.08) |
| Created by | Ilene Chaiken |
| Portrayed by | Laurel Holloman |
| In-universe information | |
| Gender | Female |
| Occupation | Chief Development Executive for Peabody-Shaolin Film Studios |
| Family | Lovers = Bette Porter (wife),Eric, Helena Peabody, Henry Young, Brenda, Carrie = Children = Angelica Porter-Kennard (biological daughter) unborn baby boy (miscarried) |
Tina Porter-Kennard is a fictional character on the Showtime television network series The L Word and The L Word: Generation Q, shown nationally in the United States. She is played by American actress and painter Laurel Holloman. Tina lives in Los Angeles, California, and mostly hangs out in West Hollywood. She is the mother of Angelica Porter-Kennard and initially the life partner of Bette Porter. After she and Bette break up, the two become on-again-off-again lovers for the rest of the series, and eventually marry and divorce between the events of The L Word and Generation Q. Then reconnect and remarry in the third and final season of Generation Q.
In the context of the six seasons of The L Word very little is said about Tina's background and nothing at all is revealed about her family. Only in the interrogation tapes, released online after the airing of the final episode of season 6, does Tina reveal some 'truths' about her upbringing. As a child, Tina and her two siblings were abruptly moved to Atlanta, Georgia by her mother when Tina's politician father refused to end his extramarital affair.
Tina's first sexual relationship was an abusive one - her older sister molested her for three years when they were children. Her sister later became a born-again Christian to deny her own homosexuality, while hypocritically shunning Tina for being bisexual. Tina kept her abuse history secret from everyone, including Bette, and only confessed it to interrogating police officers after Jenny Schecter's death.[1]
Prior to meeting Bette, Tina lived largely as a straight woman and had a few relationships, along with two abortions in her early twenties.
Bette and Tina met when Tina's then-boyfriend Eric took her to the Bette Porter Gallery, where the two instantly became attracted to one another. Bette noticed Tina's right earring had fallen off. Despite the fact that Bette returned it to her, Tina left her earring at Bette's gallery so she could come back and get it later. Bette had kept it for her. While Tina was picking it from her hand, Bette kissed her. Shortly after, Tina left Eric to begin a relationship with Bette.
At the beginning of the first season, having been a couple for seven years, Tina and Bette are in the process searching for a sperm donor so that Tina can be artificially inseminated. After a successful insemination, Tina conceives, but suffers a miscarriage before she is even showing. This event is very traumatic for Tina, who finds comfort in working for a charity organization. Though she finds fulfillment there, her new career drives her further away from Bette. Bette then has an affair with carpenter Candace Jewell to fulfil her sexual needs. Tina eventually finds out, and in the ensuing fight, they have sex.[2] Tina later moves out of their house to live with Alice.[3]
During the second season, Tina lives with Alice, and under her advice, decides to seek legal advice over her separation from Bette. Tina gets into contact with Joyce Wischnia (Jane Lynch), a gay civil rights lawyer who eventually makes a sexual pass at her. Tina then learns that Joyce is known in the lesbian community for sleeping with her clients, and ends their association. It is then revealed that Tina secretly inseminated herself before she learned of Bette's affair, and is now several months pregnant. She initially had kept it secret fearing another miscarriage and not wanting Bette to suffer again. Tina hides her expanding body with loose clothes. After refusing Joyce's avances, Tina returns to live in her former house (sleeping in the guest room). She has a dinner with Bette and plans to tell her then about the pregnancy, but is derailed when Bette begins dominating the conversation with discussions of her work problems. After her charity organisation is granted money from the Peabody Foundation, Tina begins a relationship with Helena Peabody. It is Helena who reveals Tina's condition to Bette, and the two are shown as having a rivalry for Tina's affections. Helena's promiscuity and possessiveness and Bette's changing and calmer attitude towards Tina, bring her back towards Bette, who in turn is reaching out to her over the loss of her father Melvin. Though Tina experiences a difficult and traumatic labour, her baby girl Angelica is delivered safely, and at the end of the season it is revealed that she plans to move back in with Bette and raise their baby together.
The third season is set six months after Angelica's birth, in which Tina and Bette are shown suffering more marital strife (including Bette losing her job at the CAC, and showing little interest in finding a new one). The couple appears to be more distant than ever; Bette seeks partner support from an overwhelmed Tina, who starts looking for the protection Bette cannot give her outside the home. Helena Peabody has just bought a movie studio, and offers Tina the chief development executive position.
Tina says to have rediscovered her attraction for men. Because of this revelation, Bette tells her to explore those feelings. Their relationship become more and more difficult though, for Bette's difficulty to find a new job that might suit her and for a social worker who doesn't accept their life choices, Tina (who has already had an online fling and also an attempt at fulfilling her interest with a male movie producer) meets Henry Young (Steven Eckholdt), a divorced man with one son, Mikey. While the problems with Bette keep growing, Tina seeing no future with Bette, starts first an affair and then a relationship with Henry. As Tina and Henry continue settling in, Bette decides to visit Joyce in order to obtain full custody of Angelica. Later on, Bette decides to withdraw her sole custody petition, but the notification unfortunately reaches Joyce too late. After receiving Bette's letter, Tina decides to withdraw her consent for allowing Bette to become Angelica's other legal parent. At Shane and Carmen's wedding, Bette attempts to reason with Tina, but it's useless. The season closes with Tina discovering Angelica is missing, having been kidnapped by Bette.
Bette returns with Angelica after a short time away. Joyce Wischnia informs both her and Tina that a custody battle would both become a media nightmare and would risk to have consequences on Angie. Though relations are generally strained between them at the start of the season, things gradually improve between the pair and they agree on shared custody. Relations with her close friends also show strain, as Alice and Jenny react negatively to Tina sleeping with men and using the "heterosexual privilege". Tina is still working in the movie studio, "Peabody-Shaolin Film Studios", and acquires the rights to adapt for the screen a novel of Jenny Schecter's, "Lez Girls". Work on "Lez Girls" strains the relationship between her and Jenny due to their conflicting opinions on how the piece should be adapted, and also leads Tina to meeting Kate Arden (Annabella Sciorra), the selected director for "Lez Girls"; it becomes apparent that there is a mutual attraction between the two. Tina meanwhile understands that her relationship with Henry was just an escape and leaves him. Tina slowly renews her friendship with Bette and witnesses her enter a relationship with sculptor Jodi Lerner. She subsequently realizes how much she wants Bette back but decides to respect Bette's feelings helping her to get back with Jodi, something she talks about also with Kate Arden.[4]
Tina repeatedly clashes with Jenny while producing Lez Girls. Shane and Alice try to be Tina's wingmen but Tina's love for Bette affects her dating prospects. Tina eventually meets a woman, Brenda, and sleeps with her on their first date. Bette finds out and expresses jealousy during a self-defence class, where in an exercise together Bette and Tina seem to reveal a still intense sexual tension. Later that evening, they catch the other alone in a bar lounge. Bette kisses her and emotions overwhelm her bringing Bette to cry in her arms. But they both don't know how to cope with their new feelings for a while. Finally Tina and Bette can't hide the passion for each other anymore and start an affair, During a blackout, Bette and Tina get stuck in an elevator on their way to their Couples therapist. They reminisce on past events and Tina finally acknowledges how badly she treated Bette while she was with Henry, but despite all of it, Bette tells Tina that she still loves her and they live another very intense sexual moment. They both agree to keep their new feelings a secret until after the Subaru Pink Ride. The truth of the affair comes out during the camp fire "I Never" game. Bette admits to her sister Kit that she loves Tina while Tina also admits to Shane and Alice that she too still loves Bette. Jodi brushes her off when Tina tries to apologize as Jodi picks up Bette at The Planet. After Bette breaks off the relationship and endures a shocking public humiliation at the first exhibition of a new Jodi Lerner piece, Bette finds comfort with Tina at the Lez Girls' wrap party.
Tina moves back in with Bette, and they decide to adopt a second child. In preparation, they begin to add an expensive extension to their house.
The pair finally meet young pregnant Marci in Nevada, a caucasian woman, already single mother, expecting a half African-American son. Despite the fact that Marci's family rejects the notion of giving the child to a lesbian couple, Marci agrees to give Tina and Bette her child. However, this agreement is threatened when Joyce Wishnea informs the pair that Nevada law does not permit adoption to same sex couples. A solution is reached when Bette and Tina agree to board Marci during her pregnancy, but when they arrive to the Los Angeles bus station to meet her, Marci is not on the bus.
Meanwhile, Tina's job at the studio is threatened when the Lez Girls negative is stolen. Tina's boss Aaron believes Jenny is responsible for the theft and orders Tina to retrieve the negative from her. But when Tina confronts her, Jenny claims innocence and soon suggests that the film's hedge fund millionaire producer William was probably the true thief. Later, the negative is ransomed via correspondence faxed to the studio, signed by Tina and thereby implicating her as the thief. Tina is incredulous and afraid for her job, but finally decides to call it quits, accusing Aaron of mistreatment and William of theft.
Also in this season, Bette meets again her bisexual college crush Kelly Wentworth, and the pair open an art gallery together. Though Kelly rejected Bette during their college days, Kelly makes constant flirtations towards Bette in front of Tina. Tina sees how Kelly wants to seduce Bette but she's not convinced and just shows Tina once again how she only loves and wants her. Later on, while Tina is in New York for a job interview with Focus Features (she'll get the position), Jenny manages to film an encounter between Bette and Kelly on her cellphone; as Bette is picking up broken glass from the floor, the angle from Jenny's window makes it look as though she is performing cunnilingus on Kelly. Jenny threatens Bette that she will show the footage to Tina, unless Bette confesses the alleged indiscretion first.
Tina and Bette decide to move to New York so Tina can take the job; Bette asks her to marry her once they move, and she accepts. For their goodbye party in Los Angeles, Jenny prepares a video montage of several friends wishing them farewell. In the meanwhile Shane leads Tina to Shane and Jenny's attic, where she has uncovered the missing Lez Girls negative. Tina is enraged, believing Jenny has stolen them and lied to her. Shortly afterwards, during Tina and Bette's goodbye party, Jenny is found dead in Bette and Tina's pool. The series continuity ends with Tina and her friends being interrogated by police regarding Jenny's death.
One day after the television series ends, footage of Tina's police interrogation appears on Showtime's L Word website ("The Interrogation Tapes"), during which she reveals certain elements of her early life such as her adulterous father and having been victim of sexual abuse by her sister.[5]
By the time of Generation Q, set over ten years after Jenny's death, Bette and Tina have separated again. Dialogue reveals that at some point, Bette and Tina eventually got married, but got divorced after Tina fell in love with another woman, Carrie. Bette is shown to have primary custody of Angelica, who now lives with her and refers to Tina as "Mama T", though they still communicate over matters regarding Angelica.
In season one, after Bette comes into conflict with Tyler and Felicity Adams, both of whom seek to sabotage her campaign for Mayor of Los Angeles (since Bette once had an affair with Felicity while she was married to Tyler but refused to commit to her), Tina returns to offer Bette emotional support, having been called by Angie. It is revealed that Tina left Bette partly because she could not cope with Bette's controlling nature, and did not attend Kit's funeral after she died of a drug overdose, something which Bette never forgave Tina for. Despite their troubled past, after Bette gives a speech revealing her reason for running for mayor and determination not to drop out, Bette and Tina admit that they still love each other to a certain degree, and share a hug, during which Bette asks Tina not to leave. Later, Tina meets up with Bette and Shane at Shane's new gay bar, "Dana's", where Tina asks Bette to dinner. The two meet up at Bette's house, where Tina reveals that she is moving to Los Angeles in order to be closer to Angie. Though Bette hopes to renew their relationship, Tina reveals that she is actually looking for a place for herself and Carrie, who she is going to marry, and that she wants to reveal it to Angie along with Bette and Carrie. Though obviously devastated by the news, Bette gives Tina her blessing. In the season finale, both Bette and Angie accept that Tina is not coming back, and Bette finally decides to move on from Tina by accepting a dinner date with Maya, a lesbian reporter who was covering her mayoral campaign.
In season two, both Tina and Carrie are drawn further into Bette and Angie's lives when Angie does some more background information about Marcus Allenwood, learns that she has a half-sister, Kayla, and discovers that Marcus is dying of kidney failure and wants to see if she is a suitable donor for a transplant. Though Bette continuously treats Carrie with contempt and rudeness, Tina does not once stand up for Carrie, to the point that Carrie eventually lashes out and asks Tina how she ever married Bette in the first place; when Tina tells Carrie not to talk about Bette like that and says that Bette's acceptance has to be a part of their relationship, Carrie becomes angrier and accuses Tina of still prioritising Bette over her even though they are divorced. At a charity poker game while Tina is away, after Carrie confesses her past of isolation and desire for acceptance as a lesbian to Shane, she proposes to Bette that they be more civil to each other, but Bette coldly and rudely turns her down. Carrie subsequently becomes drunk and despondent to the point that she admits to Shane and Tess her second thoughts about marrying Tina. Tina later learns of Bette's behaviour, and while visiting Marcus in the hospital to persuade him to see Angie, she asks Bette why she cannot be happy for her and Carrie, going as far as to ask her directly if she is still in love with her, but Marcus dies of cardiac arrest before Bette can answer. Later, at Alice's celebration party for her new autobiography, Tina is approached by Bette again, who tries to answer Tina's question after having learned of Carrie's second thoughts from Shane. Though Tina denies that she is in love with Bette and that Shane should not have told her that, Carrie overhears the conversation. Finally Carrie officially calls off the wedding and leaves, despite Bette's attempts to apologize. Tina confronts Bette and accuses her of sabotaging her relationship with Carrie out of spite before leaving, but later, just as Bette is leaving to join her lover Pippa Pascal at her new art exhibition, for reasons unknown, Tina appears at her doorstep, asking to come in.