In the fourth episode of the second season of Transparent—if you’re not caught up, go get caught up and come back to this (spoilers galore below)— Ali visits Grandma Rose in the nursing home. Grandma Rose has dementia, and Ali (played by Gaby Hoffmann) has a different hairstyle in every scene, so it’s no surprise that Grandma Rose doesn’t recognize her. What is surprising is that Grandma Rose thinks Ali is someone named “Gershon.”
Who’s Gershon? Ali explains to Syd (played by Carrie Brownstein): “I think Gershon was Rose’s brother, but it’s all very murky—they don’t tell me anything.” All Ali knows is that Rose and Gershon left Berlin in the 1930s…
