‘Transparent’ Season 3: What’s Next for Amazon’s First Family

Warning: This story contains spoilers for the first three episodes of Transparent Season 3.

Based on three new episodes of Jill Soloway’s Emmy award-nominated series, Transparent, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival over the weekend, will offer more of the same in Season 3. And by “more of the same,” we mean exquisite, emotional storytelling. Presented back-to-back with only the opening credits sequences interrupting the flow, the first three episodes — which premiere on Amazon on Sept. 30 along with the rest of the season — played like a mini-movie, one that continues the storylines fans are familiar with, while also offering some new wrinkles that are poised to impact the assorted Pfefferman clan. Here’s our character-by-character guide to what’s going on with Amazon’s first family this season.

Maura
Everyone’s favorite Moppa (Jeffrey Tambor) is front and center in the season premiere, which eschews the family gathering structure of Season 2’s first episode (best remembered for its lengthy sequence involving the Pfeffermans’ trying to assemble for a family portrait) for a solo adventure. After feeling that she botched a call at the crisis center where she works, Maura tries to track down the worried, fearful voice on the other end of the line. The journey takes her to L.A.’s south side, where she searches health clinics and discount shopping malls, a backdrop that recalls last year’s indie hit, Tangerine, which also featured trans characters and performers. Maura finds the girl, but the stress of the experience takes its toll and sends her to the hospital — County General instead of her preferred Cedar-Sinai. The health scare convinces her it’s time to make some major life changes; those changes start with a new wig and escalate to a major announcement in the third episode: she’s going to be pursuing full gender reassignment surgery. It’s a plan that delights her trans friends, surprises her family … and upsets her new lover, Vicki (Anjelica Huston).

Sarah
With her lover-turned-spouse-turned-ex-spouse Tammy off finding herself, the eldest Pfefferman child (Amy Landecker) has moved back in with her other ex, Len (Rob Huebel). But don’t expect them to get hitched a second time; Len’s got another new — and this time much younger — girlfriend. Desperate to belong to another family besides her biological and or matrimonial clans, Sarah tries to get onto the board at the same synagogue where Josh’s almost-wife, Raquel (Kathryn Hahn), is the rebbe and her mother’s bearish boyfriend, Buzz (Richard Masur) is an influential member. Sarah being Sarah, though, she can’t help torpedoing her nomination.

Josh
The eternal “Is Josh a sleazebag or is he just misunderstood?” debate leans toward the “sleazebag” side when Jay Duplass shows up in Episode 2 sporting a skeevy facial hair combination of full mustache and light beard. His half-assed personal appearance is coupled with his half-assed approach to work at his record label, where he’d rather order guitar picks than participate in day-to-day managerial duties. Things start looking up for him in the third episode when he finds a new object of affection to obsess over, Maura’s trans friend, Shae (Trace Lysette). That same episode reunites Josh with a cherished childhood friend. And no, we’re not talking about predatory babysitter Rita, although their “first time” together is glimpsed in a flashback.

Ali
The wild child of the family (Gaby Hoffman) appears to be settling down, enjoying her career as a college teacher, and her top-secret relationship with professor and poet Leslie (Cherry Jones). But she can’t quite keep her mind from sliding to some strange places. During a trip to the dentist in the third episode, for example, she experiences a nitrous oxide-aided hallucination where she’s playing a Wheel of Fortune-esque game show alongside Caitlyn Jenner (whose cameo inspired a certain amount of fan backlash) and literary icon Ntozake Shange, author of For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enough. You have to be crazy or brilliant or both to conjure up that kind of vision.

Shelly
Previously the only Pfefferman matriarch, Shelly (Judith Light) can’t help but feel a little insulted by Maura’s stated intention to complete her transition to womanhood. But hey, at least it will provide more fodder for her planned one-woman show, a longer version of the inspirational talks she’s been giving at the synagogue, finding the humor in her own crazy life experiences. With Buzz providing her with lots of encouragement, this is a production that could be mounted before the season’s end. We can only imagine the fireworks that will erupt on opening night.

Transparent premieres on Sept. 30 on Amazon Prime.