'Queen Sugar' Season 3, Episode 8 'Bordelon Blues'

Right now on Queen Sugar, nobody’s happy. In Episode 8, of what is, this year, a 13 episode season (down from 16 last year) everyone’s trying to get there but struggling to do so. Charley (Dawn Lyen Gardner) is tasked with not only moving Prosper Denton (Henry G. Sanders) into her place but figuring out how to keep the family’s land.

Ralph Angel (Kofi Siriboe) wants to keep his son happy and stable but Darla (Bianca Lawson), who has become increasingly unlikable this season, isn’t making things easy. Aunt Vi (Tina Lifford) wants to make pies but her health is causing problems. Micah (Nicholas Ashe) wants to be woke, but the thought of getting arrested triggers bad memories. Nova (Rutina Wesley) well, she’s still writing her book and mooning over Remy and neither of those things seem to be getting done. (See what I did there?)

This honestly makes for a downer episode and one that feels like a filler song in an already lesser follow-up album. Queen Sugar‘s premise was to not just show the ups and downs of a Black farming family in the South but to showcase the beauty, not just of the actors, but their surroundings. But no matter how pretty the palette, the artwork has to move you.

Last week’s episode was such a great balance but this week…meh.

Prosper has to move and doesn’t want to bother his own daughter because she has a family but Charley can take on the world, apparently, so now he’s her houseguest. But when does she get a break? It likely won’t be when she finds out Woke Micah is planning a protest at the slave plantation.

This can’t go well. Charley also finds out through Nova that one of the Landrys went to school with a guy who’s a big timer at the Environmental Protection Agency. So there’s likely nothing wrong with any of the land, except that it s in the way of a planned jail.

Aunt Vi’s Pies is a sure thing and she’s ready to pitch her storefront when she has a spell in front of the man she’s signing the contract with. Damn. She eventually tells him she has lupus (But whyyyyy, Vi?) and although he expresses appropriate concern, suddenly he doesn’t seem as pressed. This seems off, since Vi is the person who didn’t even want a white man in her house several episodes ago. Now she’s trusting her partner to keep that revelation a secret?

As far as secrets go, Darla’s was a doozy and she and Ralph Angel are still feeling the ramifications. While online watchers seem to be #TeamDarla now that she’s pushing back at RA limiting her time with Blue (Ethan Hutchinson) we are #TeamRalphAngel over here.

Darla lied about the paternity of her child and then kept the lie going for years. RA is also feeling some kind of way that he’s not giving Blue the nice things that Darla is. Of course, Darla’s parents are financing her new life. When RA mentions it, she claps back with the farm and the house he inherited. Man, no one can get you like those close to you.

No, Darla should not be punished forever, but to expect Ralph Angel to just get over it is to diminish the level of damage her revelation did to their family. So yeah, girl, you should be a little more understanding. And Queen Sugar hair and makeup should get rid of that horrible wig Darla’s wearing this season.

Ralph Angel suddenly realizes that getting involved with someone new might be a little too much emotionally and he curves Trinh (Vivien Ngô) when he goes to pick up his check. But after a talk with Nova, who’s still hiding that she and Remy are feeling each other, he realizes he needs to stop trying to be so hard, mostly on himself. So that leads up to the final scene where Ralph Angel catches up with Trinh at work and lets her know they’re still cool.

Nah, still not feeling that storyline. It’s particularly perplexing that on a show with Black folks behind the scenes that it would be OK for RA to ask the first non-Black woman he sees out on a date, while he just using Black women for sex. As much as I hate this term, that’s problematic in my view. No Remy (Dondre Whitfield) or Hollywood (Omar Dorsey) or Keke (Tanyell Waivers) this episode and the show suffers without them.

With just five episodes left, let’s hope Queen Sugar can find its way.

Sugar babies, what did you think of this week’s episode?

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