Recap.

For Bette and Tina, time has been hectic and disastrous for their relationship since bringing Angelica into the world.  Tina somehow managed to fall out of love, perhaps with some spite still being harbored with Bette focusing more on making sure she could be a legal adoptive parent to Angelica.  With both Bette and Tina dealing with their own feelings, goals, and wants, the relationship between them had fallen apart.  To make matters worse, Tina would wind up in a relationship with a man named Henry.  With Henry wanting to start a family with Tina, with Angelica getting to be his daughter, the tension would mount.  Joyce Wischnia would be brought in for the looming custody battle, but a short conversation between Joyce and Marina would change the tide of things between Bette and Tina, with Joyce agreeing with Bette to aim for shared custody of Angelica with Tina.  Instead of starting a war and kidnapping Angelica into the Canadian night, Bette would instead find herself with Tina, wanting to work things out as separated parents who love their child very much.  Bette would also find herself being there for an unlikely friend in need.

That friend would be Helena.  Leading up to Angelica’s birth, Helena and Bette were not exactly friends, but with the heartbreak of both Tina leaving her for Bette and also Leigh leaving her behind, Helena was left to deal with life alone.  She would befriend Alice, who was dealing with her own issues and through Alice would come to prove herself as a friend to the rest of the group, including Bette.  Things however would fall apart for Helena after purchasing Shaolin Studios and renaming it Peabody-Shaolin.  She would hire Tina, but would also find herself falling for a documentary filmmaker named Dylan, who as it turned out was scheming with her boyfriend, Danny.  This would result in a sexual harassment suit against Helena, breaking her heart and almost her spirit.  What was left of her spirit would become trampled in the wedding debacle in Canada, being cut off financially by her mother, Peggy afterwards.

The wedding debacle was supposed to be a wedding and celebration for Shane and Carmen, who had grown closer as a couple.  Then came Shane’s insecurities, part of which would involve Carmen’s close friendship with Lara.  Shane would eventually have a tryst with Cherie, a former love interest that was also doomed to fail.  Carmen would claim to have a revenge affair and given other events surrounding them would lead to more sadness.  Perhaps in an effort to save them from disaster, Shane would ask Carmen to marry her.  Eventually, Carmen would say yes and with Helena bankrolling the wedding in Canada, everything looked like Happily Ever After was finally going to start its way to being a thing for the couple.  Shane however would wind up meeting her birth father, Gabriel, or Gabe for short and would notice too many similarities, including the tendency to throw away good relationships, because that’s just who they are.  Shane would run away from the wedding, leaving Carmen to cry in the aisle.