Ali Pfefferman, Transparent

Ali Pfefferman (Gaby Hoffmann)

On comedy series Transparent, Ali is the youngest of the Pfefferman children whose father coming out as transwoman is the main focus of the series. During the first season she was presented as the “screw-up” of the three Pfefferman siblings. Ali only dated men during the first season until her best friend since childhood, Syd, confessed that she had romantic feeling towards Ali at the end of the season, making Ali question her own feelings.

Season 1

One of her first plots revolved around her attempts to organize a threesome with her personal trainer Derek, whom she was already having sex with, and his roommate. She got them all high on drugs, and then suggested that Derek and his roommate have sex with each other and Ali ended up leaving when they did. In the sixth episode Ali met transman Dale and the two went out on a date in the next episode. When they first meet Dale thought Ali was a lesbian and said as much, to which Ali answered: “I mean, politically I am a lesbian. I see male privilege everywhere. And I’d love to be a lesbian, but I’m not a dyke — I’m really into dudes, like dudely dude dudes.”. Ali and Dale’s date didn’t go well and nothing more come from it.

In the ninth episode Syd confessed that she had romantic feelings for Ali and asked if they were reciprocated, which left Ali confused about her own feelings and left their friendship in an awkward stage.

Leading up to season 2 actress Gaby Hoffman talked to AfterEllen.com about Ali’s newfound queerness and the part it would play during the season:

“Ali is submerged in the world of very sexy, very hip lesbians,” Gaby said. “She’s exploring her identity and she’s trying something out. I think this [look] would be called—like, I’m making this up—but hipster queer. Queer hipster. I’m definitely in the queer world. I think [Ali’s] like, ‘I’m doing it. I’m trying it. I’m going full-throttle.'”

Season 2

Early in season 2, Ali tried to figure out what she wanted to do about the Syd situation, she finally kissed Sydney in the third episode, and they ended up making ou and later in bed naked together, implying that they were going to have sex. They spent considerable time together in the following episode.

In episode 5 Ali’s sister Sarah asked her about her sex life with Syd, and Ali explained she couldn’t have real, emotional intimacy with someone who hadn’t suffered from patriarchy. Sarah was deeply amused by this revelation. To her, that pointed to Ali being a lesbian.

Though Ali and Syd continued their relationship for the next few episodes, Ali’s reluctance to be in a relationship and her newly found fascination with powerful lesbian poet and professor Leslie caused problems for the couple. Ali suggested they would have an open relationship, however, that was not what Syd wanted and feeling like Ali wasn’t really in the relationship, Syd broke up with her in episode 8.

After the break-up Ali got dressed up and headed straight to Leslie’s house. She seemed unfazed by her break-up, instead raving about Leslie, calling her “extremely sexy”. In the next episode both Ali and Leslie were at a Music Festival and the end of the episode found Ali coming into Leslies tent to have sex with her.

In the season finale Leslie said she wanted Ali to be her T.A. at graduate school in the fall, but she also wanted her so she was going to leave it up to Ali to decide: “Take your pick. Do you want to be my student? Or do you want to be my old lady?”.

Season 3

At the start of season 3 Ali was enjoying her graduate career and life as a T.A., she was also seen continuing her relationship with Leslie throughout the season.

In episode 4 she admitted to having deep feelings for Leslie, but she still has problems opening up in relationships. She also told Leslie that she accidentally fingered a fellow grad student, mostly to see if Leslie would be jealous, which she was not. But the two decided to be more exclusive with each other at the end of the episode.

In the next episode Leslie revealed that she was falling in love with Ali, which left Ali puzzled and in the following episodes she started to withdraw from the relationship. In episode 9 Ali left for Kansas to help her brother just as she and Leslie were supposed to have their couple coming-out debut at an event where Leslie was to receive an award. Leslie called Ali out on running away from her problems right before she left for Kansas, leaving their relationship in limbo for the next season.

Season 4

Transparent was renewed for season 4 to air in fall 2017.

Female love interests:

• Sydney Feldman (Carrie Brownstein, bisexual, recurring)
• Leslie Mackinaw (Cherry Jones, lesbian, recurring)

Relationship story arc with a woman: Yes

Male love interests:

• Derek (Cleo Anthony, guest, 3 episodes)
• Dale (Ian Harvie, guest, 3 episodes)

Relationship story arc with a man: Yes

Filter Relationship Arc:

• Female (Recurring), Male (Guest)

Storyline during sweeps? No

[1] A relationship story arc is defined as explicit, developed on screen, and lasting more than 3 episodes. It is listed as questionable or subtext if romance is only implied, mentioned instead of shown on screen, part of a dream sequence, or otherwise not explicit for the viewer.
[2] Sweeps episodes air in February, May, July and November, the periods when advertising rates are set. A character is marked as "sweeps" when there is a very limited number of episodes that address their sexuality, all air during sweeps period, and the storyline is otherwise ignore/dropped.