The L.A. Complex, episode 6 (finale): how to make it in America with sex (and fire)

The season finale of The L.A. Complex hammers home the theme that is central to the series: namely, how to make it America (or, how difficult it is to be that one in a million). For Nick, it means stealing another comedian’s material  (he also has sex with her) to get on the bill for Just For Laughs. And for Alicia, it means dispensing—at the very least—a blow job to get an audition for a Will.I.Am video (oh the humanity!) from the only straight choreographer in L.A. Not reaching for your telephone to alert their parents? Our take on more moral torpidity after the jump.

Proving that a show with a six-episode first—and potentially last—season run requires some closure (hey, it may not return), the show packed as much as it could into the finale: Abby remains pissed off for most of the episode—not because she finds out that Nick had sex with another girl, but because he stressed her out right before her big audition (come on, man!); Abby gets her first job in Hollywood without having to audition, even though she made it all the way to the airport to fly back to Toronto in defeat; Raquel struggles with the love of her rich dentist benefactor and tears up his cheque to prove a point (what a woman!); and Tarick gets punched out by his rapper-boyfriend Kaldrick King after the two are caught mid-makeout in the studio (just when it looked like they were becoming official!).

Set up in interesting parallel this week are the contrasting narratives of Connor and Alicia. Connor spends the episode in the hospital after last week’s bar fight that resulted in his money-making face getting slashed—he’s understandably resigned to the fact that his career is over (hey, we don’t make the rules). Alicia, desperate to prove her worth as a dancer (not a porn actress), dispenses sex to make up for an audition she missed. And when both discover that they have a future after all—Alicia gets a gig on the Usher tour and Connor’s injury will be written into his show because of the mad hits from TMZ—Alicia floats like a dead fish in the pool and Connor decides to light his apartment on fire. That’s Hollywood, kids!

Much like the arc of its first, excellent season, the fate of The L.A. Complex is unknown. Will it get picked up for a second season? Will it crossover to the States, despite its Canadian trappings? And how will the homosexual rap storyline translate for an audience that wasn’t brought up with emotional hip hop (um, Drake, for example)? Fasten your seat belts, we’re in for a bumpy ride.

The L.A. Complex is a veritable Frankensoap, mining the backlogs of other prime-time dramas for inspiration. Here, our weekly look at what they stole and from whom:

• We loved the scene between Alicia and her choreographer guru (so much slapping of the face!), and thought his long, brilliant monologue about the price of fame was straight out of Center Stage.

• It was revealed this episode that Connor has been off his Zoloft for six weeks and is obviously coping with severe mental health problems. If he starts seeing his dead brother in the mirror and crying into a bucket hat, he’ll be Andie from Dawson’s Creek. Or possibly (hopefully) The O.C.’s Oliver Trask.

• A woman floats like a dead fish in a swimming pool. Welcome to Melrose Place.