Boob(s On Your) Tube: “Queen Sugar” Breaks the Bordelons and Our Hearts

Welcome back to another episode of Boob(s On Your) Tube! This week, Mey wrote about Janet Mock’s appearance on Daytime Divas. Valerie Anne recapped Wynonna Earp and Orphan Black. And Kayla started recapping The Bold Type. I’m going to have to catch you up on Younger and The Fosters next week; I have a pinched nerve in my elbow, which has rendered my left hand pretty useless, but my doctor prescribed me some meds and a brace that makes me look like a robot and I should be able to type normally again next week. In the meantime, I’ll let Carmen and Natalie lead the way!


Queen Sugar

Written by Carmen

With all of the outside turmoil that the Bordelons have faced, I never paused to think about the possibility that the siblings would ultimately be their own undoing.

Today Charley becomes the first black mill owner in the state of Louisiana, and she’s desperately trying to keep everything under control. Her hair and outfit are flawless, her words are carefully chosen, but her smile is tight and tension ridden. The opening ceremony is lavishing! Politicians, business leaders, and farmers look on as Charley dedicates the mill to her father and “those farmers who work the land with dignity; we honor you by creating a place that treats you fairly”. To this end, each member of the black farming collective has brought a small amount of their crop to put into the hopper simultaneously, so that the first cane bundles the mill produces sugar from will be of their combined strength and unity.

Unfortunately, their symbolic gesture combined too much cane for the grinder. The mill will have to be momentarily shut down while workers clear out the choke. Remy reminds Charley that this is common, she should let the workers do their job, but Charley is already lost in her own thoughts of imperfection and panic. She takes off her designer coat and starts to clear out the choke by hand. Her breath quickens and sweat grows on her brow, her voice raises to hysterics. The mill employees, Remy, Micah, and Nova look on, frozen, until Nova reaches out for her sister.

Nova grabs Charley from behind. She holds her in the fiercest of bear hugs and whispers “C’mon sis, they got this” over and over as Charley’s cries continue, first in wails with mouth agape, and then in whimpers. Nova moves them together away from the group, never letting go of their hug. She takes off her head wrap, and uses the fabric to clean Charley’s hands. The lasting image of the ground up cane’s bright, lush green is breathtaking in DeMane Davis’ overhead shot.

I’ve written before about how much of myself I see in Nova. But, I would be disingenuous if I didn’t acknowledge parts of myself in Charley as well. The parts that I am least proud of; the parts of me that always strive for untenable perfection, the parts that don’t know how to let others in. Those parts of me that believe that imperfection is ugly and asking for help is weak. I’m often quick to shun Charley because I don’t want to deal with those truths. Watching the Bordelon sisters love each other is a healing balm. We need more of it.

The entire family comes back together to honor the engraving of Earnest’s name on their family headstone. The Bordelons have a plot behind their farm and a standing marker with the names, birth, and death dates for their elders dating back to the Civil War. Together they pay tribute to Earnest as he joins that hallowed tribe. After the ceremony, they all sit down together at Vi’s dining room table for a family meal, and that is when the final bomb of the episode goes off.

Blue tearfully realizes that Kenya isn’t really Kenya, but a replacement bought by Darla. In consoling his son, Ralph Angel promises that he won’t lie anymore. Earlier in the episode, the two had encountered a store clerk that Ralph had robbed early in the first season, and he is still shaken from the memory. He wants to be honorable. So, he sits down at the family table and releases his last major secret: he has a handwritten addendum to Earnest’s will proving that their father actually left the farm to Ralph Angel’s sole possession.

That news is not taken well by either of his sisters. The tensions boil over. Every resentment and family secret gets laid bare. No one knows how to cut and draw blood like those you keep closest to your heart. Ralph Angel accuses Charley of never being around while their father was alive, too busy living in wealth and luxury in California. Nova counters that Ralph was in jail while Earnest was forced to take part time work as a janitor “to keep your son [Blue] in clothes and food”. Ralph’s next truth perhaps cuts the deepest, he turns to Nova and hurls, “You fighting for every brother locked up except your own.” Vi watches, heartbroken, as her nieces and nephew use their words to injure each other in the cruelest, darkest of ways. The camera pans to each and every one of our Bordelons, shell shocked and tears streaming down their faces.

WELL DAMN THEN. Just like that, my favorite television family just broke apart.


Claws

Written by Natalie

Episode 104

Previously on Claws, Desna gets stiffed on the money she’s promised by her boyfriend, Roller, and then, along with his mistress, tosses his stiff body into a boat and sets it on fire. Virginia regales Uncle Daddy with a sordid tale of kidnapping by someone named Titus. Jen tries to convince Desna to train her husband, Bryce, the ins and outs of the pill mill business and the training goes so well, Bryce promptly gets jacked for $88,000 of drugs. And Polly returns to the salon, fresh from her “vacation” upstate, sporting some new hardware around her ankle.

We pick up this episode where the last one ended, with Roller sliding into Desna’s bed. For a moment, things feel as good as they used to — his body against hers, the quiet affirmations of affection between them — but things quickly turns menacing. Roller squeezes Desna’s neck tightly and threatens her — promising that Uncle Daddy will soon figure out what she’s done. Desna fights back, slapping and yelling, and wakes up with a start.

Dean’s pounding on Desna’s bedroom door, having heard her cries, and she assures him that she’s okay — it was just another one of her nightmares. Convinced that his sister and her eyebrows are okay, Dean returns to bed and Desna collapses in tears against the door.

Over at the salon, Quiet Ann’s stocking shelves, while Polly entertains a client with a story about her soldier uncle turned fortune teller. In strides a new client, Sally Bates (Gina Torres), who recognizes Polly as “Heather Milton.” In the blink of an eye, Polly’s entire demeanor and voice changes — much to the shock of Quiet Ann — and she greets Sally warmly.

Polly Heather tells Sally that her husband, Otto, died a few years back and to escape the boredom of her lush life, she decided to write a book about a nail salon. Polly Heather’s slumming it at Nail Artisans of Manatee County purely for research purposes. Sally loves the idea and asks Polly Heather if she’ll give her a set of designer tips. Within seconds, and thanks to some prodding from Polly, Sally overhears stories about Virginia’s kidnapping, Roller’s murder, the search for Titus, the clinic and Bryce’s recovery.

“Everyone here’s so colorful,” Sally proclaims. “Your book’s gonna be a bestseller. I mean, it’s just like…a multi-ethnic Steel Magnolias.”

(Sidenote: They pronounce Titus, not like TI-tus, as in Titus Andromedon from Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, but like tit-us. I swear, it makes me laugh every single time. Clearly, I have the sense of humor of a 13-year-old boy.)

Back at home, Dean’s stretching and getting ready for his first session with his new trainer, who can “bring out the Jackie Chan in any man.” He spots a brochure with a picture of an old white couple on the back and that launches him into a full-blown panic attack.

“I thought the Coombses were in Tallahassee,” Dean shouts. “I-I thought they were in Tallahassee.”

Desna, recognizing the couple, quickly hides it from Dean’s view and rushes to calm her brother down. It’s a dance they’ve clearly rehearsed several times before — Desna repeats that he’s okay and tells him to put his hands up, as she puts on his favorite song, Jeffrey Osborne’s “On the Wings of Love.” Dean paces around the room, his hands in the air, tears streaming down his face, singing along, while Desna picks up a call from Uncle Daddy.

Unsurprisingly, Uncle Daddy, who set up the clinic’s robbery in the first place, is calling in Desna’s debt. She doesn’t have it, so he suggests a weekly payment plan instead. He hangs up before she can respond and Desna returns to comforting her brother — swaying along as Osborne hits the chorus, On the wings of love, only the two of us, together flying high.

With Dean’s nerves still frayed, Desna cancels his appointment with his trainer and brings him with her to the salon. Turns out, those white folks on the back of the brochure were one of Desna and Dean’s foster parents who treated them like animals.

“I still want to cut their eyes out,” Dean says, as Desna reminds him that the Coombses can’t hurt them anymore. Once at the salon, Dean resist getting out of the car until he hears Virginia’s voice. He promptly gets out, greets her in Vietnamese and walks back into the salon, hand-in-hand, with her.

I didn’t mention much about Dean in my introductory piece on Claws, but it’s worth tackling here: like Quiet Ann, Harold Perrineau’s portrayal of Dean is a fraught one — a step in the wrong direction and nuance could easily give way to the garishness that occasionally pollutes the show. Already, though, I’m encouraged by Perrineau’s portrayal — first, because Perrineau seems committed to the work of getting it right, but also because Claws is striving to build Dean into a fully formed character. Far too often, TV uses disability as a means to teach us about the caretaker, not the person with the disability, and Claws has avoided that thus far. Yes, Dean grounds Desna, but the show’s giving him interests — art, bodybuilding and learning Vietnamese, apparently — that are independent of Desna.

Desna heads to the clinic to talk to Bryce and Dr. Ken (Jason Antoon) about a way out from Uncle Daddy’s thumb. She wants to increase foot traffic in the clinic, selling ten times more at a slightly higher price. Traffic at the clinic’s slowed dramatically and Ken can’t imagine selling the high volume Desna wants without publicity and more money to cover the cost of the drugs. Desna hands Ken $20,000 to order the pills and promises to bring in new customers. As Desna walks out, she steps over Roller’s ghost who reminds her that that was his money.

Back at the Salon, Sally and Polly Heather make plans to meet for two sets of tennis at the local country club. Afterwards, Desna rallies the girls to come up with a way to increase foot traffic to the clinic. Polly, with her voice returned to his natural timbre, recommends incentives, while Virginia recommends the rubber-glove day that Uncle Daddy used to drum up business at the strip club. Quiet Ann suggests stealing customers from the other pill mill in town, Peter Pain, and Jen talks about the time she stood outside a car wash in a bikini to raise money for an abortion. In the end, Desna decides that they’ll use Jen’s idea, but instead of bikinis, they’ll break out the Vanity 6 costumes they once used for karaoke.

“Wait, wait, wait, hold up,” Virginia says, interrupting the girls’ excitement. “Who is Vanity 6?”

The others respond with disbelief — in the same way that I do when my nephew suggests that “Steph Curry is the best basketball player ever,” as if Michael Jordan never existed. Desna says, as I probably should, instead of arguing with a nine year old, “I cannot with you right now.”

Brabkeb mentioned last week that Claws‘ producers seem to think that the humor of the show’s gaudier moments, grounds the show. And, I agree with them, in part, humor can ground a show…but it’s not the kind of humor that comes from sitting in a silk robe, watching your boy toy perform with a team of synchronized swimmers (which happens later in this episode). This is the kind of humor that grounds Claws — relatable humor between these five incredible women — and I’m astounded that the producers don’t get that.

Continuing his trend of popping up at the worst possible time, Uncle Daddy and Bryce come through the salon’s backdoor requesting Virginia’s services outside. The young nail technician walks outside, petrified that the truth’s been discovered, only to see Bryce drag a man out of the car that Uncle Daddy believes killed Roller. The businessman, who works for Titus Industries, once had beef with Roller over an invoice two years ago.

Virginia is frantic, crying out that he’s not the one who kidnapped her and murdered Roller. When Daddy turns the gun towards Virginia, the girls jump to her defense — Desna, shielding the entire crew with her wingspan. A short while ago, these same women were literally dragging her out of the salon, now they’ve got her back as she faces a gun. It’s quite a testament to how their bonds have grown.

Sometimes, when you’ve done something wrong, you imagine that the worst thing that can happen is someone finding out. It’s not. If you have a conscience, the worst thing that can happen is watching innocent people being held responsible in your stead…and that’s the lesson Desna and Virginia learn, as Uncle Daddy pumps a slug into the man’s chest. Bryce and Chip (Elvis Nolasco), the crooked cop on Uncle Daddy’s payroll, take the body, while Jenn, Polly and Quiet Ann scrub the parking lot of his blood. Desna promises a dumbstruck Virginia that they’re going to sell the drugs and get away from Uncle Daddy.

Bryce is not meant for this life…maybe drug addicted Bryce was, but sober Bryce — the one that who imagines himself as the Tony Robbins of Palmetto and who wants to spend his days taking his girls to Chuck E. Cheese — is not meant for this life. And so, it’s not surprise that, as Bryce watches Chip saw the businessman into pieces, he hurls up his lunch. He’ll get his turn soon enough, a smiling Uncle Daddy tells him, the gators can’t feed themselves, after all.

As promised, Polly Heather meets Sally for tennis at the club. Sally laments that her husband hasn’t died yet and that she’s been forced to take care of him as he battles Alzheimer’s. As they walk, Sally’s kegel ball falls out and she concedes that she’s “trying to keep [her] kitty tight” for her Cuban lover. Sally invites herself over to Polly Heather’s place for a swim and lunch the next day, but Polly Heather says her home is under renovation, so they relocate the party to Sally’s place. Polly Heather can even stay in the guest house while her home is being renovated, an offer that Polly is elated about.

Later, the girls are working at the race track in their Vanity 6 leopard print, trying to drum up business for the clinic. Their effort is interrupted by Jen’s daughter who calls to let her mom know that “Daddy Bryce came home, and he’s acting funny.” The girls rush to Jen’s house to discover a despondent Bryce, stained with the businessman’s blood, burning a grilled cheese sandwich. The stakes raised even higher, Desna revisits the ideas for attracting people to the clinic, ultimately going with Quiet Ann’s recommendation to poach customers from the competition.

Desna awakes the next day with Roller’s ghost next to her, filing his nails. She closes her eyes tightly and covers her ears, hoping to shield herself from her recurring nightmare. Meanwhile, Jen wakes up in a chair outside, watching over Bryce and her kids, as they sleep together on a lounge chair. And then there’s Uncle Daddy, relaxing poolside in a silk robe and gold chains, watching his boy toy, Toby, perform with a synchronized swim team.

When I talk about Claws‘ unnecessary garishness, this is what I mean. There is no storyline that’s served by watching this pool scene — it’s completely immaterial to everything else that’s going on. Sally’s escaped kegel ball could easily fall into this category but, at least that leads to an important revelation about her. The audience wouldn’t be missing anything if they left the synchronized swimming scene out completely.

Jen shows up, looking flawless, to talk to Uncle Daddy about Bryce. She reiterates that he’s not Roller and warns that if Daddy pushes Bryce too hard, it could cause problems for the Dixie Mafia. He promises to take her words under advisement.

Desna, Jen, Virginia and Quiet Ann are promising Peter Pain clients the moon to get them on the bus and over to the clinic. Dr. Ken hovers nearby trying to limit Desna’s promises but to no avail. But the plan works and the clinic has a line stretching out the door. Once the numbers are in, and after Desna’s seed money is repaid, their debt to Uncle Daddy is down to $15,000. Bryce stores the day’s profits in the clinic safe and notices Dr. Ken’s gun.

Polly skips out on the outing to spend the afternoon with Sally. She’s able to avoid the dip in the pool by not bringing her suit but Sally insists on massages by the pool before they sit down to lunch. Everything is going swimmingly until Polly’s ankle bracelet starts beeping. Her secret exposed, Sally demands to know who Heather really is and, while cornered, we get the most honest version of Polly we’ve seen since Claws began.

“I’m just a little girl from Saluda, North Carolina,” she cries. “My dad worked in a factory that makes car interiors, and my mother, she taught learning-disabled children. I may not be a blue blood from Hilton Head or whatever, but that doesn’t mean I don’t deserve a piece of the pie, right?”

Unmoved by Polly’s admission, Sally quickly asks her to leave, even threatening to call the police.

“We’re both con artists,” Polly says, “It’s just, only one of us knows it.”

It’s a heartbreaking scene, beautifully acted by Carrie Preston, only eclipsed by the scene that follows — Polly sitting at the back of a crowded bus, her face stained with tears, sobbing as she calls Desna. She can’t do it anymore, Polly cries, sounding almost borderline suicidal. They meet outside the salon and Desna comforts Polly. Ever the caretaker, Desna promises her that everything will be okay and that they’ll achieve their dreams together.

When Polly finds out that Desna’s $15k short of repaying Uncle Daddy, she has an idea. The crew rushes over to Sally’s place where she’s having a tryst with her Cuban lover. Polly films the scene, Sally’s boy toy in a horse’s mask and Sally as a Britney Spears impersonating dominatrix. Polly blackmails Sally with the scene, earning the crew the extra $15k they need.

As Desna goes to pay the debt, Toby tells her that Bryce figured out who killed Roller and he and Uncle Daddy have gone looking for them. Desna rushes back to the van and tells Quiet Ann and Polly to take Jen back to her house to wait for Bryce. Meanwhile, Virginia and Desna, scared that they’ve been found out, rush home to get Dean, pack a bag and get out of town. Her fears are compounded when Roller’s ghost shows up, assuring her that Bryce doesn’t believe her story about where the seed money came from. She yells at Dean to hurry and get a bag pack.

A call from Jen alleviates her anxiety: Bryce thinks Dr. Ken killed Roller and he’s on the hunt for him, hoping that this will finally rid him of his ties to Uncle Daddy. Desna, knowing that Ken couldn’t bust a grape in a fruit fight, tries to warn Ken, but he’s too busy trying to break up his freaky ex-wife’s engagement party. Desna rushes out to try and stop Bryce from making Ken into alligator food.

But Bryce was not meant for this world…and he thinks his only way out is to kill whoever killed Roller…so he grabs Dr. Ken, puts a pillowcase over his head, tosses him in his trunk and peels away from the party.

Episode 105

Bryce is not meant for this world and everything he does after he stuffs Dr. Ken into the back of his Camaro only confirms that. He ignores Desna’s phone calls and drowns out the sound of his phone and Ken’s screams by turning up his radio. Once he gets to the swamp, the recovering addict takes a long pull of vodka to calm his nerves. He pulls the hooded doctor from the trunk and walks him deeper into the marsh, ignoring Ken’s bargaining efforts. A flock of birds startle the pair, giving Ken enough time to pull off his pillowcase hood and escape from Bryce’s clutches.

Meanwhile, Desna’s rushing to track Bryce down, as Ghost Roller sits in the backseat of her car, taunting her. She picks up Jen, who knows where Bryce might be, and they arrive at the swamp just in time to hear the first shots go off. They run towards the sound of the gun shots.

Bryce fires into the air, hoping to scare Ken from his hiding place, and starts reciting a Tony Robbins quote to psych himself up to do what needs to be done. Ken exposes himself when he hears Desna’s call only to be face to face with the barrel of Bryce’s gun. Desna and Jen arrive just in time and work to convince Bryce not to pull the trigger. Jen tells her husband that Ken didn’t kill Roller and begs him to think of their children. Convinced that killing Ken is his only way out of the Dixie Mafia, Bryce brushes aside her pleas and steadies his gun in Ken’s direction.

Desna steps in front of Ken and begs, “Bryce, we are not murderers, okay? This is not you. You’re an Abundance Life coach. You inspire football players and addicts…Bryce, you’re not gonna be able to live with yourself if you do this.”

Slowly, Bryce’s resolve starts to crack, his eyes fill with tears and he hands Desna his gun.

Back at the salon, Polly’s re-opened another revenue stream at the salon, waxing, because AmWay rejected her application…which feels like the most unreleastic thing that’s ever been said on this show. Desna fills the girls in on what happened at the swamp and Polly urges her to get away from those people”When God gave out crazy, the Hussers got a second helping.” Desna assures her that she’s tryingshe’s repaid Uncle Daddy and she’s going to look at a new salon today.

Meanwhile, Bryce and Jen are walking out of an Abundance Life meeting. Though his debt to Uncle Daddy’s been repaid, Bryce won’t commit to breaking away from the Dixie Mafia until Roller’s killer has been found. Jen urges him to let Uncle Daddy’s thugs handle it and even offers anal sex and fried peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to entice him break away, but to no avail. Bryce assures her that he’ll be okay and that they’ll manifest the life that they’ve always dreamed of.

Uncle Daddy’s crooked cop, Chip, shows up in Palmetto Plaza, with his partner, Detective Arlene Branch (Suleka Matthew) in tow. She spots Quiet Ann settling into her perch outside the salon and introduces herself. Aviators, leather jacket, confident stance and flirting by means of historic trivia? I’m sold on Arlene already and so is Ann, who watches the detective intently as she walks away.

Desna’s touring a shop with Mandyit’s not as a nice as the one Desna previously fell in love with, but it’d be a step up from their current location. Her tour of the salon is interrupted by a call from a neighbor, who spotted Dean up on a billboard on University Highway.

When she arrives, Desna finds Dean, spray painting “evil people” on a billboard featuring their old foster parents, realtors who’ve just moved to the area. Desna tries to talk him downexplaining that this isn’t the right way to handle this, but Dean persists, wishing the Coombses dead for what they did them as children. It’s not until Desna plays her trump card”Virginia was asking about you!”that Dean relents. He agrees to come down as long as he can draw one testicle on their face first.

Back at the salon, Desna explains what happened to the crew and Polly suggests that she take Dean back to the doctor. Desna would but Dean refuses to go and she refuses to put him into a group home, worried that it’d be a repeat of what he’d already experienced in foster care. All she has to do, Desna maintains, is get Dean away from here.

Jen picks up the flyer of the salon Desna visited earlier and everyone is underwhelmed. Where are the chandeliers, the big ol’ throne chairs? Quiet Ann, who’s been calmly massaging Desna’s shoulders the entire time, adds, “Des, you always told us not to lie to you. You are better than this.” Before Desna can respond further, she gets a text from Uncle Daddy, asking for a meeting with her and Virginia (who he called “Saigon,” much to my chagrin) at She She’s. Jen agrees to tag along to stop her family from doing anything else crazy.

Turns out, Chip’s trip to Palmetto Plaza yielded a new clue in the search for Roller’s killer: multiple people saw Desna and Virginia fighting over Roller on the day he was killed. Virginia and Desna admit to the disagreement but rather than offer details, Desna asks what the confrontation is all about. When Bryce chimes in that they’re just trying to figure out who killed Roller, Jen chimes in, in defense of her crew.

“Well, it sure as hell wasn’t them. You are letting Uncle Daddy and his oki-doke ideas mess with your head,” she says, chastising her husband. “First Dr. Ken, now my best friend? She’s the godmother of your goddamn children.”

It’s great show of friendship and loyalty from Jenone that almost leads to blows between her and her mother-in-law (Dale Dickey)but I can’t help but imagine what the truth might do to Desna and Jen’s friendship down the road.

Virginia adds another lie to the ones she’s already told, in an effort to placate Uncle Daddy. Because it dovetails with his pre-existing theory that Roller was killed and robbed by his drug dealer, Daddy seems mollified and tells the girls they can go.

Outside, Desna confronts Virginia about her lie and the $50,000 she stole from Roller’s safe. Virginia refuses to back down, telling Desna that they had to say something and that by taking the $50k, she made it look like a robbery. Desna tries to school herthe more lies you tell, the easier it is for you to be found outbut Virginia is not having it.

Desna comes home to Roller’s ghost sitting on her bed. He taunts herdoes she actually think she’s going to get out of Palmetto? She assures the ghost that she’s on her way to having her own salon and that she’s getting out from under Uncle Daddy’s thumb. When he laughs at her, she grabs him by the neck and chokes him until he passes out.

But, what greets Virginia when she comes home is, arguably, scarier: Polly baking cupcakes in her otherwise empty apartment. When Virginia tells her to get out of her house, Polly grabs a chef’s knife and imagines peeling Virginia’s skin off (“it wouldn’t take but a minute”). Sufficiently scared, Virginia accepts Polly’s invitation and sits down at the kitchen table.

“You can’t con a con (wo)man,” the saying goes, and Polly, the ultimate con artist, is not fooled by Virginia for a second. She knows that Virginia’s just pretending to be stupid because it lets her hide in plain sight, but inside, Virginia’s constantly plotting and is smarter that people believe.

“If whatever screwed-up thing you did gets Desna in trouble, I will cut a bitch,” Polly warns, the knife pointed in Virginia’s direction. “Are we clear?”

Virginia doesn’t answer right away so Polly punctuates her threat by tossing the chef knife into the ceiling. The second time Polly asks, Virginia responds back with a quick yes.

Desna tries to convince Dean that the Coombses are no longer a threat to them and, to an extent, it works. By the time Dean shows up for his training session with Monty (Arturo del Puerto), he’s not scared, he’s just angryhe wants to hurt someone. Instead of hurting someone to repay them for the hurt they caused, Monty suggests Dean confront them and tell them what he’s feeling.

Dean cuts his training session short and Monty takes him to Desna’s salon where he asks to go confront their old foster parents. Desna tells Dean that it’s not a good idea and, perhaps, they should revisit the doctor instead, but Dean is determined. Eventually, Desna gives in and they go to an open house that the Coombses are hosting that day.

When Dean and Desna are finally face to face with their foster parents, the Coombses don’t recognize them. Dean doesn’t share his feelings as much as just listing a string of their abuses and they are AWFUL. Mrs. Coombs (Sara Botsford) recognizes them eventually”Little Butterball Desna and Ricky Retardo,” she calls themand defends her actions as part of her work out save them. Mr. Coombs (Michael Cullen) pulls the cloak of respectability around themthey’ve got commendations from the governor, they’ve had dinner at Mar-A-Lagoand kicks them out of the house.

Outside, Desna tries to comfort Dean, promising him that she’ll always protect him, as she always has. Dean lashes out at Desnashe doesn’t protect him, he protected her. Desna begs for an explanation as Dean battles himself over whether or not to tell her.

“They had sex with me,” Dean admits, devastating Desna in the process. “They told me if…if I said anything that they would do the same thing to you.”

The next morning, Desna’s wakes up to the sound of gunshots. It’s not a dream, it’s not Ghost Roller, it’s Dean, practicing his marksmanship in the backyard with a gun he bought at a sporting goods store. This is Florida, he says, he’s going to stand his ground. He doesn’t feel safe anymore with his abusers in town. Desna promises to protect himshe’ll get an alarm, she’ll put bars on the windowbut she can’t let him keep the gun. For the second time in this episode, Desna’s trying to talk a man into putting down a gun.

Desna leaves her brother to meet Virginia and suggests they pin Roller’s murder on her foster parents. Virginia resists the idea at first, unwilling to give up her $50,000 score, but she relents after hearing that, unless Desna does something, Dean might go after the Coombses on his own.

The plan is simple enough: plant Roller’s money and coke in the Coombs’ house and sic the police on them. But who’s going to break into the house and plant Roller’s stuff? As it turns out, Virginia knows just the person.

When Desna and Virginia pull into the parking lot, Polly’s waiting for them. Desna’s quick with her refusal to involve Polly in their scheme. Polly tries to blackmail her way into the scheme, telling Desna that she’ll go to the police with what she knows, including the knowledge that Virginia killed Roller. Still, Desna is worried: one thing goes wrong and Polly’s back in prison.

“I am not gonna get in trouble,” Polly assures her. “After everything that you’ve done for me? You’re like my sister, Des. You got to let me help you.”

Once Desna relents, Polly asks if she’s sure about setting up her old foster parents. She wants the Coombses to pay for what they did to Dean. They need to be in jail, Desna says; she doesn’t want to risk that happening to another child.

Her ankle bracelet jammed by her hotel neighbor, Polly seeks into the Coombs’ house. She searches their drawers, pocketing some jewelry and a JimmyJane vibrator, as she looks for the perfect place to stash Roller’s bag. She shoves the bag in the air return and slips out of the house just as the Coombses are arriving home. Later, Desna uses a burner phone to call the police.

Uncle Daddy’s crooked cop gets wind of the call and tells his boss that they’ve got a new lead on who killed Roller. Daddy sends Chip and Bryce to take care of it.

Back at Nail Artisan, Mandy reports that Desna can put a deposit down on the underwhelming salon she saw earlier or she can try again with her dream salon which is back on the market. Refusing to break her promise to Dean or herself, Desna pushes to get the dream salon.

As soon Many leaves, the girls get the party going, celebrating Desna’s new salon with a choreographed dance routine to Patty Labelle’s “Lady Marmalade.” All the ills of the world are forgotten, as the girls work their way down the Soul Train and tossing glitter, as happy as we’ve ever seen them.

Meanwhile, though, Chip, Bryce and some Dixie Mafia henchmen show up at the Coombses and start beating them up. When one of the henchmen finds Roller’s bag in the air return, Chip pulls out his gun to shoot the couple, but Bryce pulls him back. Bryce is not meant for this world but when confronted with “proof” of the Coombses’ guilt and without Jen or Desna to talk him down, he’s baptized by the fire. He sinks five slugs into Mr. Coombs’ back and three into his wife’s.

Uncle Daddywho, really, has perfect timingcalls and interrupts the girls’ celebration. He tells Desna that Roller’s killerssome drug dealers, using high-end real-estate as a frontare dead, “thanks to some mercurial angels led by my handsome nephew, Bryce.” Daddy apologizes to Desna for any pain he caused and asks her to relay the message to Virginia as well.

The look on Desna’s face and on Polly and Virginia’s when they learn the news suggests they hadn’t even considered this possibility which, given what happened to the Titus businessman, seems ridiculous. Jen dissolves into tears upon hearing that Bryce was the triggerman. Still, at home, Desna is finally able to reassure Dean that they’re safe and that the pain caused by the Coombses and by Roller is finally behind them.

Only what she doesn’t know is that far, far away in a shack on the water, the Real Roller wakes up, the wounded, but definitely not dead, captive of some bizarre woman who calls him Mr. Emerson.

A lifetime of soap watching has prepared me for this exact moment. Rule #1 of soaps: if you didn’t see the body, the character isn’t really dead. I’m not at all shocked but I am worried about how short-lived Desna’s moment of peace will be.

Doubt

Written by Natalie

If you’ve ever taken a writing composition course, you’ve heard the expression, “show, don’t tell;” it was your professor’s way of telling you to focus less on exposition and more on creating an experience for the reader. Apparently, Doubt‘s writers slept through freshman comp because this show does a lot of telling. A lot. It tells you that, repeatedly, Sadie’s (Katherine Heigl) mother (Judith Light) is in prison for killing a state trooper. It tells you, repeatedly, that the firm’s namesake, Isaiah Roth, is someone committed to using the law to tackle social issues. But it took until the show’s sixth episode, for Doubt to show itself to be the show it keeps talking about…

Peter shows up at Cameron’s door early on Sunday morning — now, I’ve found most of Peter’s antics more cute than creepy, but this? Showing up on the doorstep of someone who didn’t give you their address? CREEPY. But he comes bearing news about a high profile case, the stabbing of a beloved baseball player — which Cameron brushes off until Peter name-drops the Sylvia Rivera Law Project. Once Cameron hears the SRLP is involved, she springs into action, inadvertently kissing Peter on the cheek on the way out.

Cameron can’t defend Delilah Johnson (Alexandra Grey) herself, much to Delilah’s chagrin, because, “that’s one too many trans people at the table,” so she calls Albert (Dulé Hill). The admission is one that, to anyone that’s ever been othered, needs no explanation but annoyingly, the show makes Albert (and, later, Cameron) give one anyway. When they go to meet Delilah in central booking, she, still battered, bloodied and bruised, explains what led to the stabbing. It is a slightly fictionalized version of what happened to Cece McDonald.

Delilah was coming home from a trip to the drug store when she’s harassed by a drunken Sokas. She had the audacity to respond back, so he lunged at her, grabbing her breasts. She escaped his grasp, only to have him attack her again, this time putting her in a choke hold. After that, Delilah can’t recall what happened, only that she came to, covered in blood, with her knife in her hand. Albert’s surprised that Delilah had a knife — “I always have a knife,” she says — but Cameron, clearly, is not, a fact Albert seems to pick up on.

Albert’s able to secure bail for Delilah and when the DA calls for a meeting, he assumes it’s to respond to public pressure to #FreeDelilah, but it’s not. The prosecution’s found video of the incident and in it, Delilah attacks Sokas as he’s walking away, after the initial assault is over. All of a sudden, it becomes a little more difficult to argue that the stabbing was self-defense. Delilah laments that she can’t remember Sokas walking away but reveals that that’s part of her coping mechanism.

“When someone comes at me, I get this surge of adrenaline and I think, ‘This? I know this, this is bad.’ And after, it’s all a blank,” Delilah explains. She’s had this experience multiple times before, dating back to her father, and they began the same way her encounter with Sokas did, with bigoted insults.

The prosecutor offers her a deal, five years probation, no jail time, which Delilah accepts. But by the time they go to announce the plea agreement, news breaks that Kevin Sokas has died of sepsis, and Delilah’s now being charged with murder. The prosecution rushed the deal so that Delilah would be on the record, having admitted to causing Sokas’ injuries, before he died. It’s a shady tactic but legal.

When the case goes to trial, Albert’s able to do what Cece McDonald’s counsel wasn’t allowed to do in her case: Sokas’ history of abuse is made public and an expert witness is allowed to educate the jury on the transgender experience, particularly the PTSD that comes from facing the threat of violence so regularly. Albert’s associate, Nick, finds a higher resolution version of the video, which shows Sokas threatening Delilah as he walked away. In Delilah’s mind, the attack was starting all over again.

Admitting that she overcharged, the prosecutor offers Delilah another deal — manslaughter 2, two to six years — and begs Delilah to take the deal. Fearing how she’ll handle two years in a men’s ward, Delilah declines and opts to go to the jury and her optimism is rewarded, as she’s found not guilty.

Meanwhile, Cameron’s recruited to help Sadie and Tiffany in a religious arbitration between the subtly named New Testament Rehab Center and the Hollanders, parents of former client who died there. Apparently, she’s the only lawyer at the firm who speaks Jesus. New Testament is alleging Eddie Hollander committed suicide but the parents think he overdosed after the rehab center failed to secure their pharmacy. On the first day of arbitration, the facility persists in claiming that Eddie committed suicide, while Sadie and Tiffany force an admission that only a cheap padlock stood between an addict and a room full of drugs.

Sensing that Luke Ensler (Joel Johnstone), the former minister who is in charge of the rehab facility, isn’t fully committed to his attorney’s strategy, Cameron leverages her knowledge of Scripture to push him to tell the truth. He does, revealing that Eddie wasn’t suicidal and had plans for after stint in rehab, and that he lied because his lawyer told him that he needed to in order to keep the rehab center. Ultimately, the minister overseeing the arbitration awards the Hollanders $500,000 in damages and orders the rehab center shuttered, temporarily, while it undergoes review.

Boosted by her arbitration win and being asked to take over as Sadie’s mom’s defense attorney, Cameron summons the courage to call Peter. This time, an unintentional kiss becomes an intentional one and it serves as a prelude to their first date. It doesn’t even strike me, as it happens, how consequential the moment is…both for Cameron, who’s realized that she deserves more than being someone’s secret, and for the audience, who’s witnessing the start of a love story starring a trans woman of color.

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Heather Hogan

Heather Hogan is an Autostraddle senior editor who lives in New York City with her wife, Stacy, and their cackle of rescued pets. She's a member of the Television Critics Association, GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, and a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer critic. You can also find her on Twitter and Instagram.

Heather has written 1719 articles for us.

25 Comments

  1. @c-p CARMEN! That final scene broke my heart in a gazaillion pieces! I was Violet, just desperately begging everyone to stay and talk and make peace.

    Okay, I have MANY FEELINGS about this episode, so bear with me.

    Firstly, I wanted to punch that smarmy reporter in the face. White dude, you do NOT get to tell a black woman what HER truth is. And you do not get to turn the story of the first black woman to own a mill in Louisiana into another salacious gossip column. Charley’s bargain with him is obviously gonna come back to bite her in the ass. Poor Charley just can’t help herself…

    On the subject of Charley, I’m glad you brought up the ways in which you see a bit of yourself in Charley. I don’t mention it much, but Charley is absolutely the character I identify with the most on this show, and it came out that much stronger in this episode – the perfectionism, the fear of failure, the overbearing mother, the need for outside approval – I understand Charley so well. Which is why she can be so FRUSTRATING when she constantly makes really stupid decisions. Wine, Charley?! For such a smart woman she can be so dumb sometimes.

    And I know I talk about this in every episode, but still, Charley and Nova’s relationship continues to sell me on this show every. single. week. Nova being the only one to understand Charley’s breakdown, to be able to get through to her, to be the only one Charley confides in. I just love their relationship so much. And it was sort of …nice? to see them on the same side this week for once, though it was painful that they were siding together against their own brother.

    On to that fight. God. No one has the ability to hurt you the way family can hurt you, eh? But honestly, though he should have told his sisters’ about the letter a lot sooner, I was on Ra’s side this week. He was right that Charley was busy living large in California, and he was %100 right about Nova not being there for him when he was in prison. Though he’s wrong about Darla and Charley, and I hope he doesn’t let his resentment towards his sister affect his relationship with Darla, or Darla’s sobriety.

    I read another review of the show that commented on how FRAGILE Bianca Lawson has made Darla’s sobriety seem. Just the way she acts, it always appears like she’s teetering on the edge, and it really adds a level of tension to the show. She’s just so so good. Same with Ra’s situation actually, which this episode brings up again. It always seems like any tiny little thing could get him sent back to prison. Props to both these actors for bringing something so true to real life to the fore in just their actions.

    Finally – I loved ALLL The deep cuts in this episodes, all the callbacks to the first season, all the way back to the pilot! I love shows that know their own history and continuity so well, and though this show is still young, this is something it’s shown it’s great at. I think this was the first time I’ve ever really appreciated the “previously on” at the beginning of an episode, because I definitely had forgotten about Ra’s robbery, and Ernest’s janitor job, and Charley’s last call with her father. It was really wonderful how those things all came back into play.

    Okay, I also want to comment on some of the things you and @pecola Natalie wrote last week. I agree that Robert showing up out of the blue was a little creepy, but I’m choosing to see it as a consequence of filmic conventions, rather than a character flaw. They had to have some way of getting the characters back together, and having Nova fly out to Atlanta again wouldn’t have worked, so he had to come to New Orleans.

    I also agree that I wish Nova had a more meaty storyline this season. I’m hoping this fight with Ra will lead to that for her, especially now that the mill is open and that won’t be so much of a focus.

    Okay, that’s my Queen Sugar essay! I can’t wait for next week, I’m so anxious about how the family is going to make up!

    • Okay I lied – I’m not done!

      I liked the fight between Ra and Nova about her not supporting him in prison, and her shooting back that it was his own fault, not because I liked to see them fighting, but because I was so happy to finally be getting that backstory! Obviously, Ra’s time in prison had a huge impact on his whole family, and we still really don’t know anything about that.

      The other thing I’m really anxious to know about that the show is for some reason keeping a mystery is about Charley’s mom and Nova and Ra’s mom. We know Charley’s mom is alive, and Nova and Ra’s mom is dead, and that Charley was mostly raised by her mom, but we don’t really know anything else about the way they grew up, how often the siblings spent time with each other while growing up, what Charley’s mom’s relationship was to Ernest, or the rest of the family. Hell, I still have to call her Charley’s mom because even though we learn a little more about her in this episode, we still don’t know her name!

      So I’m just hoping that more of the family history gets revealed in later episodes, because the history we do know about the Bordelon’s obviously has a huge impact on their present, and it’s hard to really understand all the family dynamics well without that additional information.

    • @c-p, this week’s review of Queen Sugar is just so amazing and showcases why you were the perfect person to write these recaps. SO GOOD. If I’m going to share space with you in BOYT, I’ve clearly got to step my game all the way up.

      I must admit, I had some misgivings about this episode…I mean, certainly, this episode gutted me at the end–watching all these characters I’ve come to love explode in righteous anger and breakdown in fitful tears, was difficult to stomach. Like @arvan12, I wanted to be Vi, standing at the door, keeping the family from leaving so they could work through the tension.

      I was most disappointed with Nova…I mean, the contempt that she showed for Earnest’s work as a janitor, just seemed so out of character for her. I get that her anger was mostly about Earnest having to take any job but she spoke as if it were beneath him and demeaned the work. It felt very elitist in a way we’ve never heard Nova be before.

      And then when she tells Ralph Angel, “You’re the one who put yourself in prison?” What was that?! Why does she hold Ralph Angel to a different standard than everyone else?

      I don’t share y’all’s affection for Charley and, each week, I struggle to find reasons to like her…and she almost had me this week after that scene at the mill. But then there’s the interaction with the reporter which you know is just going to blow up in her face later…and the suggestion that she uprooted her life and her son’s life because of this lie Ralph Angel told? Chile, please.

      Davis uprooted Charley and Micah’s lives…and she could’ve gone anywhere to recover from his betrayal but she came back to her father’s house to make amends for not responding to her father’s calls. That had zero to do with Ralph Angel. And, I’d think, if preserving her father’s legacy was the real reason she opened the mill, whether she owns a part of the farm is immaterial.

      So, my sympathies were mostly with RA, though I wish he had kept the news about the codicil for another day. I also wish he’d been clearer about what he wants–I’ve never gotten the sense that RA wants the entire farm (and its profits) for himself…I think it’s about respect.

      And, finally, a word about Darla…

      I continue to be stunned by Bianca Lawson’s performance, particularly her ability to make us feel the tenuous nature of recovery. I love these short glimpses we’re getting into her life before addiction and the juxtaposition between Charley and Darla, who are really two sides to the same coin. I hope that Darla doesn’t become a casualty of the war between the Bordelon siblings.

      (Also? Every time Bianca Lawson does something awesome which, this season, is pretty much all the time, I get even more angry at Marlene King for killing her character on Pretty Little Liars.)

      • @pecola Natalie, I agree with you that Nova’s contempt for Ernest’s work as a janitor did seem really out of character for her. It makes sense that she would be surprised at the revelation, and hurt that he never told her about, and maybe even ashamed that her family’s farm couldn’t produced enough not to need him to take a job, but the derision, the way she spat out the word “janitor” seemed really out of place for her. I hope that maybe down the road they’ll explain that feeling a little more? Perhaps there’s something in her past, or her father’s past, that might account for that?

        And her words to Ra were very strange as well, but in that case, I’m almost POSITIVE we haven’t heard the whole story there. We know Nova was never really around for Ra when he was in prison, and his comment to her was completely warranted, but I have to imagine there was some REASON for that, which again, I hope we get more explanation about down the line.

        Charley is a hard character to love, I can’t argue with that. Pretty much every episode there is a moment when I want to scream at her (this week, it was when she offered Darla the wine. Like, c’mon Charley, use your brain!) But I love her because I understand her actions, and what motivates them, not because I approve of them. She has an unfortunate tendency of lashing out when she feels hurt or threatened – which is what she did with the reporter, and then again with Ra.

        And to your point about uprooting her life, Davis upended her life, and she ran away to St. Jo’s to get away from what happened. But she STAYED in St. Jo’s because of the farm, because she felt a duty to continue her father’s legacy that (she thought) he’d left in her hands. Maybe that’s splitting hairs, but I can understand how Charley, feeling hurt and betrayed by Ra’s revelation, would lash out at him about that. That being said, I’m still entirely on Ra’s side in that argument.

        • Hey! Love the comments on Queen Sugar and absolutely love that this site has fostered such a place for open discussion for this show! It absolutely means so much that we grapple with all the aspects of this show, because there aren’t so many black-driven character shows on television right now; that isn’t about focus on just being a gangsta or drugs and money. I don’t know if OWN realizes what a service this show is in general!
          Well, after saying that…I could not disagree more on my outlook on the family right now. I must say, I love every character individuality, but I don’t have this affection and overall “free pass” giving that I feel like a lot of viewers of the show willingly give Ralph Angel. This is an ADULT male, and yet and still, everyone seems to think it is perfectly fine that after he went to jail, (for what, we don’t know) and returns home, its fine for his father and aunt to take his responsibilities on their backs. Now, I will concede that Ralph Angel is, by all standards, an excellent father, but I believe much of that credit has to be given to the fact that he had an EXCELLENT father as an example. Not to mention, when he and his girlfriend both went through tough times, had a father and aunt Vi to pick up the pieces of raising Blue. And now, he sits at the table of two very accomplished black women in his sisters, and has the audacity to tell them that his father left him the family’s ENTIRE LEGACY…this, only after, he has used Charley’s brain, money, and labor to re-establish the family; and used Nova’s love, caring and labor to re-establish himself. I mean, let’s be serious, he has spent the last two seasons being handled as “precious,” by Nova and Aunt Vi…I can clearly remember when Aunt Vi and Nova both, basically told Charley, to give him a “thata boy,” because he was out working the land and making decisions on how her money was being spent on the farm. Now, mind you, the entire time, he knew that his father had left him and Blue this land and one day he planned on collecting on that promise from his father. After the buying of tractors, sugar cane, labor, pesticides, soy plants, co-signing for a loan; he sits at the table after Charley has become the first black woman in the history of Louisiana to own a mill and declares the land that the family has been working in order to supply that mill, HIS LAND! How arrogant, short-sighted and just plain mean…
          Now I was surprised at Nova’s reaction, but I believe that comes from a place where she just found out that her father gave up his passion to provide for his son and grandson; a son that was well beyond the age to provide for himself, and that hurt her. And I don’t doubt at all that she felt enormous guilt for being so close physically to her father, but blazing her own path in the world and neglecting to be present in his struggles. But let’s be serious, Nova has always been the emotional backbone of the siblings, but to think that Ralph Angel, after holding onto this secret for months, is coming to her and Charley to gain ownership of the farm now that it looks as if it will be a success, must be blood boiling. I mean, as the oldest daughter, who have been trying to keep the siblings together, what a spit in the face that must be. To know that your father, even though you can and have made your own way in the world, thinks it’s fair to leave 800+ acres of land to “his male heir” would make my stomach turn. And then Ralph Angel has pretty much used his sisters to reestablish this land, and now wants what’s by law, his…if I were Nova, I’d definitely want to leave the house too.
          I can’t say I have much contempt for Charley…she was obviously brought up to “play-act” even when things are crumbling at the foundation and that’s what’s she’s done her entire life. She has managed to make history, while juggling that jackass Davis, her teenage son, feelings for the only mentor she has in this business and really no idea what she is doing in rural LA. Now, it means a lot that Aunt Vi and Nova have embraced her with open arms, but it has to be soul-crushing to know that even though RA didn’t have a problem throwing her money and how she is raising her son in her face, he also had no trouble taking her money and farming HIS (by law and will) land. How sweet of him, right?

    • Wow! So many excellent thoughts and feelings across the board.

      Like Allison and Natalie said, I am with Aunt Vi on this one. I just want to block the door and force every last one of the Bordelons to stay in that room and think about what they have done! No one gets fresh air until we have all kissed and made up! Lol.

      Buuuuuuuut, as lovingly as I write about him, I agree with Shea (hey @shygemini, hey!) that Ralph Angel was in the wrong here. I know that there are those who think he should have told his sisters about the letter earlier (or at least at a different time than Earnest’s memorial), but I’m actually of the mind that he shouldn’t have told them at all. He should have burned the letter and made peace with it and move on. I think it was Aunt Vi who told RA, when he first showed her the letter a few episodes back, “don’t let your pride write a check that you aren’t willing to cash”.

      Even if Earnest wanted RA to have the farm (and I think he had legit reasons to do so- more on that in a bit!), at this point Ralph Angel knows that he would have never gotten everything back up and running without his sisters. It wouldn’t have worked. And so the only thing that letter can do now is hurt feelings.

      That said, I don’t think that Earnest left the farm to RA because he was the “male heir”, and I don’t think the show has ever implied- from Earnest, Violet, or any other family member- that he would have done so. I think that Nova has never shown any interest in the family business, she lives only 20 mile away and yet has been known to be the least directly involved. Charley would have perhaps made sense, but she lived half a country a way! And she was incredibly caught up in her own world, Earnest asked her multiple times to come home, even for a small trip. He wanted her help. He was incredibly proud of her business acumen. I think Earnest would have left the farm to her, if she had at all made herself available.

      As it stood in the months leading up to his death, Ralph Angel was the one of the “children” who was there. He lived in the house with Earnest. He was helping tend the land. Earnest was already raising Blue, who was also learning how to help on the land. AND Ralph Angel was the one in the most need of the financial assistance that a thriving farm could provide (as Shea noted, both his sisters already had their own successful careers). I completely understand why Earnest would leave the farm to RA, it’s the most logical conclusion for where both he and Ralph Angel were in their lives at the time the letter was written. But, that doesn’t make it the right decision, and I wish RA had heeded the wisdom to realize that before it was to late.

      And I don’t believe at all that Ralph Angel used or manipulated his sisters. He only found the letter himself a few months ago, long after the farm was back up and running, and after ground had already broke on Queen Sugar Mill. He has never wanted Charley’s money (that was the whole point of him getting an independent loan) and he hates that Darla is working for her. He has to be choked into asking for assistance from either of his sisters and his Aunt. And I can see the perspective of Vi treating RA as “precious”, but I would also counter that she didn’t trust him enough to give him back guardianship of Blue, even after RA got out of jail. She required that he EARN back that responsibility.

      As others have said, I think that Charley was projecting when she said that RA had manipulated her based on a lie, which is understandable, because she was attacked with some hurtful new information.

      Honestly? I agree with @pecola that I don’t think Ralph Angel even really wants the entire farm to himself. He hasn’t thought this through. I think he wanted to be treated as an equal by his sisters, in part because they don’t value his contributions to the farm and their family in the ways that they should. He doesn’t have their financial flexibility or social capital, but he is the one out there day-in and day-out. I get him wanting those contributions to be acknowledged.

      HOWEVER, he really needed to find another way to make that point without completely tearing down his sisters.

      I am less generous with Nova, because I think RA was 100% right in his accusations of her. Something is up when Nova, who spends her time fighting the prison industrial complex and the way it destroys people of color, is so stand-offish about her own brother’s incarceration. It’s…. hurtful. I agree with Allison that there is obviously a history that we don’t know yet, but until those colors get shaded in, this is the one thing about Nova that for now I cannot abide.

      So, I am really interested in the conversation that Allison and Natalie are having about Nova and her reaction to the reveal that Earnest was working as a janitor at the time of his death. I have been playing around with: Is it possible that part of her contempt and shame wasn’t for the job itself, but because Earnest was forced into it and none of them had even noticed? Earnest had been a self-employed as a farmer, and I think that was a source of pride for him. I can’t help but wonder if maybe Nova is projecting her own shame (and that of her siblings) that they didn’t pay enough attention to help their Earnest when he most needed it? AND ON THAT NOTE, Nova has a solid middle-class job, why was she not helping to pay for some of Blue’s bills while Ralph Angel was incarcerated? Earnest shouldn’t have been put in that situation to begin with.

      I really, really, really want to write more about Darla! Bianca Lawson is freaking killing this role! And I am excited because I think we are going to get to delve deeper into Darla’s layers as the season progresses, so there will be more opportunities to talk about her. For right now, I just want her to stay sober. I have worries that her announcement about her “2 years sober” coming up was a bit of a Chekhov’s gun.

      And Allison, we are meeting Charley’s mother this season! She has already been cast. I think the show has been laying a lot of ground work about mothers this season (Charley’s, Darla’s, Nova’s/RA’s) and now that we have fully put Earnest to rest, I can’t help but wonder if the show is going to dig more deeply into the maternal lineage. There is so much to be played with and learn about there.

      I wrote waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much! My apologies! But, this was fun!

      (I also wanna say that I think the QS writers deserve a kudos for that fight scene, however brutal it may have been, because if it can spur this many hundreds upon hundreds of words on a comment thread, then they definitely nailed the complex nuances of a family feud- you know?)

      • @c-p There is no such thing as writing too much! This show has so many layers, writing about it necessarily going to take some time!

        I agree with you and Natalie that Ra doesn’t necessarily want the farm all to himself – I think that’s demonstrated by the timing and motivation behind the revelation of the letter. He’s trying to be a better man, he promised his son he’s going to stop lying, and part of that is coming clean about the will. I think telling them about the will was more about letting them know the truth so they have all the information and the family can figure out how to move forward together, than about collecting on what he’s owed. And i think that’s why I’m mostly on his side in this family argument. I just hope Nova and Charley can get over their hurt and see that.

        I admit that it does look a little shady that Ernest essentially passed over his two daughters and left the land entirely to his only son, who is also the youngest child. But Carmen I agree with your reasoning as to why. At the time, it made the most sense, even if it doesn’t any longer.

        I am SO EXCITED to learn more about Charley’s mom, and their relationship, especially after some of the revelations we got about her in this episode.

        Carmen, thanks again for such a wonderful recap! The QS writers definitely deserve kudos, but so do you!

        • Wow! There is so much to talk about from this episode! I am going to sit down and watch it again, but I just have to say one thing about Nova. Nova does fight tirelessly against the prison complex system and how that system treats black males, but what I see is her fighting in very particular ways. 1. She fights for those who have likely done nothing to deserve any engagement with the cops, like Micah, who was pulled over for minding his own business. That type of engagement with the police for a black male is completely unwarranted; and 2. she fights for those who don’t have the resources to fight for themselves. With Too Sweet, who was found having one single marijuana cigarette on him, he was facing major drug charges and didn’t even have the resources to post bail. A lot of the time for young minorities, small misdemeanor violations like that can have them in the prison system for YEARS and ruin their opportunities when they finally do get out… yet, I have a hard time seeing RA falling into either of these categories. Now, we don’t know the backstory of why RA went to jail (at least I don’t remember why), but I get the lurking suspicion that it wasn’t for something like a small charge, and it wasn’t a case where he was wrongly accused, or didn’t have the resources for bail or lawyer. Not when we consider what this family is willing to come together and do for each other in times of need.
          The fact that the writers pulled from the first episode where he robbed a store, armed, is a bit telling. Let’s not forget that RA had Blue, and left him in the park to rob the store. And if memory services me correctly, they hadn’t planted that season, so no one was working the land at that point.
          I just feel that Nova has taken a little issue with RA categorizing himself with the people she fights for everyday (just as she did every time that Davis tried to inject himself in that same mold) because RA had privileges that a lot of black males who end up in prison never dream of! He has an extended family, who truly love and care for him, a father that stopped farming (which was HIS PASSION) to put food and clothes on his son and grandson’s back and Aunt Vi, who took custody of his son so he wouldn’t have to be put in the system (foster care). RA had every opportunity to choose a path in life, and what I think Nova realizes is that many black males in rural LA don’t have those opportunities. Now if we were holding RA up to only Charley, I could swallow how their upbringings were so vastly different that he may have something to gripe about, but from my understanding, he was raised in a loving, two-parent household just like Nova…he has no reason to believe that he didn’t have every opportunity she had.
          Now, as fair as his truth is concerned (which I love how this episode centered on that), I think it’s also telling that he never took responsibility for that robbery he executed in broad daylight, but this just felt like the right time to bring up that he held all the rights to the land. I just find it a bit odd that a person who doesn’t want the land just to himself, now that it seems successful, is now bringing up that he is indeed the sole heir. I mean, I understand where everyone is coming from when it’s said that RA doesn’t want the farm fully to himself, however, I just believe he doesn’t want the full responsibility of making it WORK on his own. In small business, having deep pockets that you “hate to run to” is a lot better than having no where to run to at all, and that’s not lost on Charley or Nova, it seems.

          • Shea, you raise an interesting dynamic about Nova that I hadn’t thought about before. In every one of her activism cases that we’ve thus far scene, the focus has been on black innocents. While I am not as quick to pass judgement on Ra (the man we’ve seen in the past season and a half is full of remorse), it is worth questioning what happened that we don’t know about.

            I’m wondering if whatever crime he committed, it’s tied to Darla and/or her addiction somehow. In season 1, either Darla or Ra tells Blue this bedtime story that is actually the story of how his parents fell in love. I don’t remember the specifics, but the gist of it was that they ultimately brought out the worst in each other. That said, they are both working overtime to put their past behind them (Ra hasn’t committed a crime since the pilot, and that was a crime of financial necessity I believe, Darla is nearly 2 years sober). I am willing to give them the olive branch they have earned as they put back together their little family.

            Now that Nova and Ralph Angel’s underlying grievances with each other have been brought forward, I hope the show fills in some of these questions sooner rather than later. Something is definitely going on there.

            And I can see where you are coming from about Ralph Angel and Earnest’s will , but the show hasn’t really made any of the Bordelons that devious or ill-intentioned with their motives towards their own family yet (and if they had- the closest would be Charley, who has paid off a sex worker to cover up her husbands crimes and already committed forgery just this year). I sincerely, genuinely don’t believe that they are about to start with Ralph Angel.

  2. There’s a person named uncle daddy? wow, that is such a great character name

  3. It’s okay Heather I haven’t watched the 2 episodes of the Fosters yet. I know it will make me mad with the kids stupidity so I’m going to need to watch on my time this season.

    • The second one is waaaay better than the first. Way more moms content and cliffhanger ending

      • Without getting too spoiler specific, after watching the second episode I feel confident that we are getting a moms centric plot in our future! So excited that we will have something to talk about this summer :)

        (I’m also really hopeful that Callie finally learns how to love herself)

        • Yes I am thrilled for the moms centric plot!
          I also want to take a baseball bat to Jesus’ TBI storyline because I am so sick and tired of it.

  4. Gays of Thrones!!
    Who else wants to adopt Lady Lyanna Mormont? She’s so badass! I used to want to bring Arya home too but she scares me now…
    The preview for next episode shows Elaria and Yara making out. Do you guys think Elaria is poisoning her (remember she poisoned Marcella with a kiss last season?) or I’m being paranoid and it’s just a case of sweet lady kisses?

  5. My apologies for overly verbose Claws reviews…I’m still trying to get a handle this whole recapping game (it’s harder than it looks!). That said, I hope the extensive recaps give folks an honest look at the show and helps folks decide if it’s a way they want to spend an hour of their time.

    (You should, if only for Niecy Nash in those jumpsuits… *fans self*)

    I’ll have recaps of episodes six and seven next week…hopefully with far fewer words.

    On Doubt…is this cancelled show worth recapping? Absolutely, yes–the trans representation on it has been amazing. Tony Phelan and Joan Rater familiarity with trans issues really shines through (their son is Tom Phelan, who you might know as Cole from The Fosters). Two weeks and four depictions of transwomen, all actually played by transwomen?! Amazing.

    But is a cancelled show worth getting into a Biblical debate about Delilah? Probably not…so I cut that part of my recap. For the record, though, I was really bothered that they’d name the transwoman, Delilah, especially in an episode that’s devoted, in part, to religion.

    We’re getting two episodes of Doubt this week so look for that next week.

    Something else that I’ll be keeping an eye on: it looks like, daytime’s #1 soap, The Young and the Restless, might take the plunge and finally tell a legit LGBT story. It looks like they’re pairing up, Mariah and Tessa for a summer romance. Both characters have been portrayed as straight until now and they both have boyfriends at the moment–Tessa’s boyfriend is Mariah’s half-brother and Mariah’s boyfriend is Tessa’s boss.

    I’m not sure what’ll come of this–soaps are prone to telling sort of storylines to attract summer viewers and then dropping them–but I’ll still keep an eye on it.

    • I haven’t watched Y & R in a very long time so I don’t know who Tessa is. Mariah is the girl with Cassie Newman’s face right? Played by the same actress.

      • You’re right about Mariah, she’s Cassie’s twin who was stolen from Sharon at birth and raised by a cult leader.

        Tessa is a relative newcomer to Genoa City so we still don’t know much about her. I wish they’d grounded the character more before stepping in this direction…it’s hard to ‘ship a couple when you hardly even know one of them.

        I’m trying not to let what happened with GH color my perspective too much do we’ll see what happens.

    • Girl, I feel you about the difficulties of recapping! I’m still trying to “find my voice” myself and am all the time worried that I’m overshooting it this way or that way. We’re definitely in this together!

      I am still behind on Doubt (I’ll watch last week’s episode tomorrow during the day before the upcoming double header), but once I do I will definitely be back to comment on it!

      I am also a week behind on Claws, though I saw both episodes you wrote about here. I think one of my hesitancies about writing about the show is that I can never get my finger on the pulse of what about the show bothers me? But something definitely does. I watch every week (or catch up on the off week), but I can’t seem to get enamored with it. And I don’t know what is holding me back.

      THOUGH, I agree 100% about Niecy in those jumpsuits! Bae material. Lol. (And I have been very impressed with Harold Perrineau’s performance as Dean, and -much to my surprise!- Karrueche Tran as Virginia/China Doll).

      • @c-p, I totally get the misgivings about Claws and I imagine I share most of them.I think part of the reason my recaps were so long was I’m still trying to reconcile my feelings about the show–I want to like this show (mainly because of Niecy) more than I actually do.

        And I’m with you on Karrueche… When I first heard she was cast on this show I thought it was stunt casting–just a way to generate some headlines–but she really has impressed me with her work thus far. She is a talented actress.

    • I really liked the claws recaps! They were a teeny bit long but I thought super spot on. I have been liking this show but also sort of watching through my fingers for fear of where they are going with so many things and these recaps really tease out what is great and what is a little troubling about it.

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