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Queen Sugar Ep 204 — Photo Credit: Skip Bolen / @2016 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved

It was a pretty packed Episode Four ‘My Soul’s High Song’  of Queen Sugar‘s second season. There are 16 episodes this year, but it seems like they’re going by pretty quickly. Sigh. The characters are so beautifully shot on this show and the family moments are so warm and beautiful that you want to just sink into the show like it’s a hot, lavender-scented bath.

We open this week with Charley (Dawn Lyen Gardner) and Ralph Angel (Kofi Siriboe) in the farm kitchen with Darla (Bianca Lawson) stopping through. RA gets that micro-loan check. That’s a nice victory for him. Charley is rolling along with the mill, as Charley does, hoping to win the support of most of the farmers.

Though they’re skeptical of the modern technology, you know Charley’s going to win them over eventually. Nova (Rutina Wesley) has a new editor-in-chief who wants her to slow down on the mass incarceration stories and focus on some solutions. He tells no lies when he says newspapers are struggling and she needs to balance her coverage.

Hollywood (Omar Dorsey) and Aunt Vi (Tina Lifford) are crazy in love, but Hollywood is getting bored. His Honey-Do list is not long enough because he’s fixed everything. Now he’s at the High Yellow getting in Aunt Vi’s way. Hollywood, we love you loving Aunt Vi, but baby, you need a job.

Micah (Nicholas Ashe) is still reeling over his arrest. So much so that when Blue (Ethan Hutchinson) gives him a binder he ‘re-designed,’ he snaps on him. Blue’s feelings are hurt. But it’s not as bad as when Blue, running up behind Micah one morning, gets knocked down by accident when a surprised Micah reacts.

Ralph Angel reacts, too, by yoking Micah up as Charley attempts to protect HER son, which leads the siblings to a tense moment. Tell me that didn’t look like a real-life family moment, though. And RA, Lawd, is he sexy when he’s protecting someone. Whew. But I’m glad they’re showing that as cute as Blue can be, he’s a child. RA’s going to have to discipline the kid at some point and so far, he’s proven woefully incapable. I guess he missed so much after spending four years in jail, he just can’t do it.

RA is stressed when he discovers some whitefly on the sugarcane crop. Fortunately, he has good advisors in Remy (Dondre Whitfield) and Prosper Denton (Henry G. Sanders). Thirty acres add up to about $1 million lost if it can’t be harvested, so first there has to be an aerial washing, then it has to be washed by hand. Charley’s going to pay for it, of course, but people think it’s funny that she’d be out there washing as well.

It’s crazy how Charley’s always being ragged on for being a “bourgie bitch” – she asks Nova if that’s what she thinks – except when it’s time to write a check. Then she’s cool. It’s a narrative I hate in real life as well as the show. Are you only ‘down’ when you’re broke or live modestly? If you make money, shouldn’t you be able to enjoy it the way you like without people coming for you? If you’re a businesswoman, shouldn’t you make business-minded decisions, especially when it’s your money being invested?

It’s a debate that she and Remy have over lunch after she takes him to see the lavish place she wants to move in with Micah. I could see how Remy’d be uncomfortable in that place, but Charley is used to living well. Why shouldn’t she be? But Remy thinks she’d be better living more modestly to show she supports the farmers as opposed to all the way in New Orleans. I get it, but still.

All this whitefly and his ongoing battles with Charley have RA a little stressed, so he calls Darla for support. He needs her, but she’s at work. She wants to be a supportive girlfriend, though, and if you remember, there was a time when she wasn’t part of Blue, Ralph Angel or the Bordelon family’s life.

Not to mention if Ralph Angel’s foine ass call and said he needed me, I’d have broken land/speed records to get to him, but Darla needs her job. She wants to pay for Blue’s swimming lessons. She tells her boss she needs to leave but can get a cover.

He asks if it’s because of Blue, and while in my head I was like “Girllll, lie!’ I understood it’s bad to lie on your child and that part of addiction recovery is being honest. So she tells the truth. Her boss, who cuts no slack, tells her to resolve her love life issues on her own time. Also, baby girl, Ralph Angel is not just your boyfriend, he’s your son’s father, and maybe that would have swayed dude. Regardless, Darla’s answering that Bat signal.

Ralph Angel is happy Darla is there, although he doesn’t realize the sacrifice. Charley’s getting her hands literally dirty but the cane is saved from the whitefly. Still, she and RA continue to have their issues. You knew it was about time he told someone in the family about the letter and fortunately he chooses Aunt Vi, who attempts to talk some sense into him. But it’s Ralph Angel, whose mix of pride, youth, resentment and finding his manhood without his father’s support are always going to get in his way. Aunt Vi knows it, but hopes RA will not choose the problems that she knows the letter will cause.

That showdown is delayed though, because once again, family comes through for RA when he most needs them. The po po is at the do.’ They want RA on a probation violation. Why? Because he’s not allowed to own a firearm and he shot at Henry Lee when he trespassed. You know those shady Boudreaux have the police in their pocket. Charley steps up like a champ, letting them know that the gun is her father’s and she’s the one who fired it.

Hmmm, its lucky they don’t call her bluff, but she turns on the charm and the police believe her. It’s rough out here when an ex-con can’t even protect his home. I think a rifle should be OK when you live on a damn farm. Micah, too, steps up, watching over a sleeping Blue when the police come in the house. RA apologizes for snatching him up and also acknowledges not really knowing the kid since they were so far apart geographically. Micah apologizes to Blue. Both scenes are pretty beautiful. It’s nice to see Black men show some emotional complexity and depth. Don’t make me cry, Queen Sugar!

Charley and Micah decide to move into the mill. This should be interesting. I hope she has good security since I figured the Boudreaux family may see an opportunity to get rid of all their problems at the same time. But there’s trouble ahead (I told you!) because Darla’s take no shorts boss has fired her. Damn, Darla. Who’s going to pay for those swimming lessons now?

OK, Sugar babies, see you next week. What did you think of this episode?

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