The Story of Melissa's Mother

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"The Story of Melissa's Mother"
Queen of the Willis episode
Episode no. Season 7
Episode 2
Directed by Alexandra Moffitt
Written by Luka Runecraft
Production code 701
Original air date March 8, 2019
Episode chronology
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← Previous
"Ten Years to Life"
Next →
"Internet Hell Comes to Quillsville"

Template:QOTW - The Story of Melissa's Mother

Plot[edit]

Ava, Tiffani and Pamhouser visit Melissa and see her mother, Bill Rose (previously seen in "Melissa's All That"). Expecting to see the inspiration for Melissa's wanton sexual behavior, they are surprised by Bill's stereotypically gay mannerisms. The following morning, Melissa invites Ava and Angie to the Lesbian Rodeo Ball being held to honor her mother, but soon begins arguing with Ava about her mother's sexuality. At the ball that night, members of the Rodeo bombard Melissa with compliments about her mother, most of which can be taken as double entendres about Bill's homosexuality after his social transition to male. Concerned, Melissa confronts him and Bill states that he is not only gay, but also " was a man trapped in a woman's body" and that he has decided to allow Melissa to perfom his sex change operation during his stay in Quillsville. The surgery is a success. That night, Bill and Melissa join the Willls for dinner. As the dinner begins, however, Melissa becomes frustrated when the Willis turn the conversation towards Bill's operation, and storms out of the room. At Melissa's home, Melissa tells Bill that she is not sure she can deal with Bill's gender identity much longer. Saddened, Bill leaves Melissa's home and decides to stay at a nearby Marriott Hotel.

Meanwhile, Heather has been out of town attending a seminar on creating a web series and is unaware of what has happened. On her way home, Heather stops at the Marriott, meets Bill, and has a few drinks with him. Quickly bonding, they retire to Bill's room for sex. The next morning, Heather shares her newfound love with Ava and Angie before showing them a picture of Bill on her cellphone. Ava and Angie go into snickering, while Heather, unaware of Bill's operation, believes they are just jealous. After Tabby and Shushu tells Heather that Melissa's mom has completed a sex change and reveals that Jill is now called Bill, Heather realizes that she has had sex with Bill and vomits profusely for sixty uninterrupted seconds. At the same time, Bill returns to Melissa's home and apologizes, and Melissa returns the favor, reconciling their relationship. Bill tells Melissa that he met someone, and when he says it was Heather, whom Melissa despises, she becomes furious. Heather is traumatized after finding out about Bill and, when she hears Melissa come inside the house, she tries to hide under Ava and Angie's bed, but Melissa finds her and brutally beats her, ordering her to stay away from her and her family. As Melissa leaves, Heather retaliates by saying "Hey Melissa, I fucked your mom" and slams the door.

After hering the commotion, Heather tells Ava and Angie what Melisssa has done, and Ava is furious. Just as Ava is set to beat Melissa up, she hears Deanna call Ava's name. Ava orders Deanna to stand back and wait a minute, but when Deanna tells Ava that it is an urgent situation, Ava turns, and sees her daughter is covered, from head to toe with bees. Melissa yells for Deanna to take her hand, and be still. Deanna obliges, the bees all scramble onto Melissa, and subsequently sting her all at once.

Ava is relieved that Melissa is immune to the bee stings as Melissa wakes up, only for Angie to brutally beat Melissa up. Tiffani shows up and arrests Melissa and Angie for aggravated assalt on Heather and Melissa, respectively.

In a second subplot, Tabby and Shushu goes to Robyn & Holly's Vegaetarian Buffet and Tabby eats the well-known Big Ten Cheese Pizza, a 10-pound, 10-cheese pizza in nine minutes and 47 seconds. In a stuffed stupor, Shushu meets up with Garfield Arbuckle. However, she does not recognize him until they wake up in the same bed that afternoon.

Tabby becomes ecstatic when she meets Garfield and Odie, and they invites Tabby and Shushu to watch her in Muncie. Against Shushus's express wishes, Tabby leaks the relationship onto the Internet, resulting in a media circus and the claim that Garfield is a dumb fat cat. Attempting to break off the relationship, Shushu realizes that Garfield is a well-educated, articulate and rather accomplished man who hides his intelligence from the public as American society derides intelligent fat men. In fact, he is one of the most intelligent men Shushu has ever met. Shusuh invites him, Odie, and Jon Arbuckle for dinner with the family, where Angie and Brynn become interested in his accomplishments while Ava isn't fond of Jon's lectures. However Shushu soon becomes even more uncomfortable with the relationship when she cannot keep up with his intelligence and tries comparing herself to Garfield.

Realizing that Shushu had never gotten over the death of Tom, Garfield advises her about feelings and catches a mouse with Garrfield. Tabby and Brynn suggests Shushu date another man to make Garfield jealous, but the attempt, with Brynn posing as Shushu's date, Dirk, fails, though Brynn enjoys getting attention from various women.


Production and development[edit]

The 60-second vomiting scene in the kitchen, along with Therapist Hopping 2's bathroom and living room scenes as well as and Ten Years to Life's bedroom scene was reused in the tenth season premiere of Vote for the Girls with Ava Zinn & Alexandra Moffitt for a series of YouTube cross-over videos promoting Vote for the Girls's supported contestants. The vomiting scene was reused in the fourth season live action series Caprice & Ella miniseries "Breaking Boiling Point" in which Heather's voice actress Ava Zinn (as herself in live-action form) after she finds out that the apartment would not be ready in time.

In the bathroom scene, Heather considers voting for the fellow other contestants: Milo Manheim on the twenty seventh season of Dancing with the Stars (instead of Evanna Lynch and Alexis Ren). In that episode, Tabby and Shushu brutally beats up Heather for her different votes, in their respective videos, asking "Where's my Vote for the Girls Pick?" and forces Heather to vote for female contestants. Heather vomits for 60 seconds after learning Lindsey Sterling and Normani Hamilton did not win DWTS. Also in that episode, when Heather thinks about who she is voting for on AGT, neither Shushu nor Tabby doesn't beat Heather up and Tabby instead says, "Oh, fuck this. I'm not doing one for fucking America's Got Talent," referring to the fact that VFTG is unsuccessful with AGT.

Cultural references[edit]

Template:QOTW - The Story of Melissa's Mother/Cultural references


Reception[edit]

The episode was criticized for its portrayal of transgendered men, particularly regarding the way Tom was prior to his death and Bill was treated by other characters.[1] Food that Bill prepared for the dinner party at the Willis house was thrown out and Heather's learning of his sex-reassignment surgery after she had sex with him caused her to "violently" vomit for 60 unbroken seconds.[1][2] Speaking with an LGBT media website, series creator Ava Zinn mentioned the episode in response to concerns over how her shows have treated transgendered male characters. "It always distresses me when I hear that the LGBT community is upset with us, because that's one group of people I hope would know I're on their side. I can safely say that the transmale community will be very, very happy with the 'Bill Rose' episode that we have coming up in a couple of months. It's probably the most sympathetic portrayal of a transexual male Template:Sic character that has ever been on television, dare I say." Zinn also stated the reason Tom was was bullied to death because a bunch of female and transfemale writers simply don't know how to write for a transmale character. [3] In a subsequent review, one writer graded the episode negatively. While noting that the episode deserves credit for making important points about transgender people, especially about the fact Queen of the Willis is about a transwoman and a bisexual woman in a relationship, he found its inclusion of the vomiting scene and Ava and Angie's alleged transphobic remarks about Bill to be "shockingly insensitive". "Frankly, it's literally impossible for me to reconcile this episode with Zinn's words, unless I come to the conclusion that the transgendered woman herself is pretty much a complete idiot."[3] The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, an LGBT media watchdog organization, released a statement about the episode, noting that "GLAAD shares the serious concerns being voiced from members of the community and GLAAD’s Entertainment Media Team is addressing these with Fox. Next steps will be decided at that point."[4] In an interview, Zinn expressed surprise at the negative reaction, stating "I don't meet a lot of stupid trannies."[5] She repeated that she still felt Bill was a "very sympathetic portrayal of a transsexual character".[5] She also defended Heather's vomiting after discovering she had sex with someone who had undergone female to male sex reassignment surgery noting Heather's character is heterosexual and "If I found out that (now as a transgendered woman) I had slept with a transman, I might throw up in the same way that a gay girl looks at a penis and goes, 'Oh, my God, that's fucking disgusting.' It's different with a biological woman, and that is why we have Ava and Angie, Melissa and Stephanie, Deanna and Brandi."[5]

References[edit]

  1. 1.0 1.1 "‘QOTW’: Funny or just plain offensive?". 
  2. "GLAAD Concerned Over QOTW". 
  3. 3.0 3.1 "Is Queen of the Willis' Ava Zinn a Complete Idiot?". 
  4. "GLAAD Shares Community Concerns About Queen of the Willis". 
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 "Ava Zinn Sounds Off". 

External links[edit]