'Queen Sugar' Recap: Season 3, Episode 11

Black America Web Featured Video

Let’s start with the good news – this was one of the best episodes of this third, sometimes uneven season of Queen Sugar. But the good news continues. Anthony Sparks, already a supervising producer for the show, will replace Kat Chandler as showrunner next season. I don’t want to cast any aspersions on Chandler, as I have no clue about the internal workings on Queen Sugar. But the show was off in some respects this season and I trust that Sparks will make it more seamless.

The fourth season renewal was announced along with his promotion, though I never thought that was in question.

The bad news is that Episode 11, “Your Passages Have Been Paid” means that there are only two left this season, which is down from 16 last year. I always feel withdrawal when the Bordelon clan is on hiatus and as usual, they always leave us with some unresolved situations so we’ll head back to find out if, or how, they were resolved next season.

And there is a lot to resolve. Darla (Bianca Lawson) and Ralph Angel (Kofi Siriboe) are in the midst of their custody battle, one that has made me try to figure out who I’d like to slap more – Darla or her mother Darlene (the always glorious Michael Michele).

The struggle that Ralph Angel has gone through this season has not only allowed Siriboe to add to the layers in his acting tool box, it has allowed the world to see how many Black fathers will fight to be present parents despite all the obstacles thrown their way. While I see Darla’s point about establishing a more formal custody plan, she went about it with ill intentions.

Ralph Angel has gone above and beyond for a child that is not his bloodline. That a future heartbreaking conversation with Blue (Ethan Hutchinson) is in order is no doubt wearing on him, but he’s fought hard to contain his feelings about Darla’s many betrayals and focus on co-parenting only to be met with this latest assault.

That is also the case with the pariah of Queen Sugar, Davis West (Timon Kyle Durrett). He, too, is trying his best to be a father – both to his now not secret child and to Micah (Nicholas Ashe). Now that Micah has become a person of interest in the plantation fire, he’s been called in for reinforcements. And he does a great job of it, by using his own mistakes to encourage Micah to do the right thing by not turning himself in.

Or was that actually what he said, because the resolution to their conversation is unclear. Although that was also Nova’s advice, and Charley’s, I’m unsure that’s the wisest course. Shouldn’t Micah be held accountable for his choices? On the other hand, they are in Louisiana.

That’s why seeing what happened to Too Sweet (Issac White) is, well, sweet. He’s thriving in college and he’s grateful to Nova (Rutina Wesley) for helping make it happen. She, however, is feeling guilty because he got busted with the weed she was selling. But Too Sweet won’t let her take that guilt. After all, he was the buyer. Once again, it’s about being accountable for your choices.

This has come to haunt Darla as well. Instead of trying to work through Ralph Angel’s earned reluctance to give her equal co-parenting time, she decided to play it out in court and allowed her mother to escalate it. She chose to allow Ralph Angel and his family to believe Blue was their blood and to put Ralph Angel on the birth certificate. She chose to leave Blue with the Bordelons while she and Ralph Angel got themselves together. And she chose to tell him her inconvenient truth. So when a defiant Darlene goads him into admitting he took the paternity test, they are both stunned to find out that Ralph Angel is not the father. At least biologically.

Aside from being upset at Micah, Charley must handle the family business. So when she finds out that a vote has already been taken to turn Landry land into the prison, she’s stunned. Is Landry’s sister really working with her or against her? In local Louisiana politics, Charley has little power. But this is Charley we’re talking about. So we’ll see who ultimately wins the long game.