When is Nova (Rutina Wesley) going to get it? Judging by this latest episode of Queen Sugar, not anytime soon, as her controversial book “Blessings and Blood” continues to be a runaway success. In this week’s episode, “Skin Transparent,” the book’s positive New York Times review leads to a six-city speaking tour.
Nova seems to be feeling her new life as a celebrity but is disappointed that her family not only isn’t planning on showing up to any of those book signings, they won’t even return her calls. The only one in her corner is Micah (Nicholas Ashe) but he’s still young. He seems to think telling the family secrets is a good thing and that everyone should get over it.
Spoken by someone who has been a son of privilege his entire life. Yes, he did deal with a traumatic incident with the police, but whenever anything happens to him, his mother or father step right in to deal with it. How could he know yet what it means to have lived things you don’t want the world to know about?
Aunt Vi (Tina Lifford) certainly knows. Jimmy Dale (David Alan Grier) is gone (for now) but his memory lingers. She’s uncharacteristically short with an employee. She rejects any intimacy from Hollywood (Omar Dorsey). She’s had to relive her traumatic first marriage and when Nova comes by the diner seeking – who knows what – Aunt Vi continually turns her away.
Ralph Angel (Kofi Siriboe)and Charley (Dawn Lyen Gardner) have taken up the activism Nova has seemingly abandoned. Ralph Angel has opened a prisoner re-entry program to give ex-cons jobs. Charley allowed her boo, Romero, (Walter Perez) to open a clinic for undocumented workers under a sanctuary law. But good deeds aside, Charley is still battling with the Landrys.
She meets Frances Boudreaux (Annalee Jefferies) at a garden party. Frances tries her best to flex on Charley, saying she’s read the book, that she knows how Charley operates and the Boudreaux/Landry family will prevail. Charley, being the boss bitch she is, isn’t cowed.
She tells Frances if she could handle big-time professional sports and all that comes with it, she’ll handle the Landrys. She has a point, but the Landrys have a lot of power in the area, which they’re using to make Jacob Boudreaux (Lea Coco) a city councilman.
They’ve strong-armed the person sitting in the seat to force her out and are doing so because they have a lucrative federal highway in the works. Problem is, it will cut through some Black farmers’ lands, including the Bordelons. Frances doesn’t see the problem as Charley will also get paid as a landowner and part of the Landry board. But the loss of land won’t be worth it. This scenario, which invokes real-life eminent domain tactics as a way to acquire land that people won’t sell, has hurt Black farmers. Charley vows to fight. But does she have any allies?
As if that weren’t enough, here comes Davis West (Timon Kyle Durrett) with his no longer secret daughter, Tia. While Micah is fine with getting to know his sister, Charley makes it known she’s not going to become the girl’s surrogate mother. Good for you, Charley.
It seems Darla’s (Bianca Lawson) getting to a happy place with her new love, good enough that he’s buying her record players to show off the superiority of analog music. Darla’s not entirely convinced, but she likes dude. It’s looking good. Until she reads her chapter of Nova’s book, which provides graphic details about her life as Star. She’s the latest to roll up in Nova’s crib and for a minute, I thought Darla might be the one to slap her. Don’t mess with Darla; she’s always been quiet fire.
While Nova laughably explains that she concealed Darla’s identity in the book as if everyone in small ass St. Josephine doesn’t know her story, Darla tells her she’s lower for exposing family secrets than she could have ever been as an addict. Despite that burn, Darla turns up at Ralph Angel’s house in tears. Man, Bianca Lawson can take a 3-second scene and sear it into your brain. Ralph Angel holds her, just letting her cry. Is it a bad thing to want those two to end up together despite all they’ve been through?
At her book signing, Nova spills yet another family secret. She was 10 years old, fishing with her father, when he ran into a group of white men at a bait store who said some foul things. A few nights later, she saw her daddy burying something in the cane fields. Those white men seemingly disappeared. Hmmm, Prosper (Henry G. Stanton) know anything about this, cause its doubtful Ernest Bordelon (Glynn Turman) killed three men all by himself.
So Nova is now going to jam up someone else with this book? Chile. This is when Aunt Vi says she don’t know nothing about that mess and if she did, she wouldn’t tell and that Nova needs to figure out that not everybody needs to know everything. We agree.
Nova is surprised by her old love Chantal (Reagan Gomez Preston) at the signing. She’s feeling the new Nova, but Nova curves her until she’s back in her place alone with no one returning her calls. Then she reaches out to ole girl who curves her right on back and advises her to work on herself. Haha. The episode ends with Nova’s increasing sense of isolation and Aunt Vi trying to hide from Hollywood that she’s crying her guts out on the bathroom floor. Everyone is shook by this book and its growing popularity. Who knows what’s coming next?
Sugar babies, how did you feel about this episode and this season so far? Read other recaps from this season HERE.
PHOTO: Skip Bolen for OWN
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