Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
After five episodes spent screaming, Googling bizarre questions, and running through the mall insulting security guards, Genera+ion has finally done it. In Episodes 4 and 5 Delilah (Lukita Maxwell) finally gave birth in a mall bathroom. As weird, upsetting, pointedly gross, and gleefully vulgar as this moment was, it also encapsulates everything that makes this HBO Max show worth your time. Spoilers ahead for Genera+ion Episodes 1 through 5.
Though most of Zelda and Daniel Barnz’s show takes place in high school, each episode has opened on a very different setting. Months after the main narrative, the beginning of each episode focuses on the typically self-assured Delilah alone in a handicapped bathroom stall at the mall, giving birth. It’s an intense way to start, but hey. Genera+ion is an intense show.
As the series has progressed so has Delilah’s unofficial bathroom baby birthing team. First there was Naomi (Chloe East), a true friend who screamed at adult women during their breastfeeding debates and who checked with the Sephora guy to see if he would extend the sale on a lip kit for her pregnant pal (He wouldn’t). Next up was the always irreverent Arianna (Nathanya Alexander), who came to the rescue with a pink inflatable kiddie pool and beat away nosey mall workers with her cries of “Reparations!” and “Why do you hate lesbians?” Finally Episode 5 introduced us to the father of Delilah’s baby J (Sydney Mae Diaz), a character we don’t quite know but who apparently finds it really funny to rip off his friend’s leg hair. So basically any teenage boy.
None of these moments have lasted long; typically Delilah’s birth only composes two to four minutes of an episode’s runtime. But there’s something perversely great about this weird introduction. More than any other single moment, these scenes capture the knowingly narcissistic yet sincere tone that makes Genera+ion so addicting to watch.
On one level, Delilah’s birth is presented as authentically as possible. Though the birth itself is relatively blood free and the baby is clearly too large to be a newborn, there is a level of believable grossness to the saga. Often a mysterious yellow stain can be seen on the ground, something that’s implied to either be Delilah’s water or her vomit. It doesn’t really matter as Adrianna face plants in it and Naomi tries not to puke. There’s also Maxwell’s performance to consider. As Maxwell pretends to have contractions, she contorts her face in ugly pained expressions. Sweat seems to cover every inch of her body as she screams out increasingly nonsensical explicatives through her pain. “What the fucking fuck?” stands out as an especially great one. It truly does feel like you’re watching a young woman give birth.
Once Delilah’s friends enter the picture, all of that earned solemnity is lost. Naomi and Adrianna, two teenagers who have been established to be shallow queen bees, often yell backhanded compliments to their friend, telling Delilah that she didn’t look “that fat” or that she was “looking kind of thick.” Naomi lectures Delilah based on her love of I Didn’t Know I Was Pregnant. Adrianna gapes at her as if Delilah is the monster from A Quiet Place.
None of these actions are helpful. But in their own warped way, they’re also authentic. This is how two teen girls more interested in shopping than hospital routes would react to their friend was giving birth, not through the language of support but in their own love language: biting insults. Naomi and Adrianna may be mean and they should have called the hospital hours ago, but they’re both present. They’ve both showed up for their friend and they’re equally determined to do whatever it takes to help her give birth, whether that means chewing out strangers or committing petty theft. These women are ride or die the way the strongest of high school friendships are.
The result is genuinely one of the funniest birthing scenes brought to television. Where else can you see a teenager giving life in a pool float that belongs on Instagram while a sarcastic version of “Little Drummer Boy” plays? Absolutely nowhere. Genera+ion seeks to present one of the most honest depictions of what it means to be a teenager today, and this trainwreck of a mall birth? That feels pretty on brand.
Two new episodes of Genera+ion will premiere on HBO Max Thursday, March 25, followed by one episode on Thursday, April 1.
