Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
This weekly recap might as well be titled the “Ronnie Report” because, really, I spent the ENTIRE episode looking for any clues from anybody that maybe, Ronnie didn’t actually kill Unique but, ya know, mostly kill him. I was hoping there’d be some scene of Unique laid up in a coma, but sadly, it wasn’t meant to be. Nobody’s found his body yet but the streets and the police are all working with the belief that Unique Mathis is with the ancestors now. I did wonder where the Unique story was going to go. I suppose it was always going to end up with him dead or in jail but this just seemed unfair.
This, of course, creates a ripple effect of things. For starters, Pernessa (Unique’s baby mama) runs up on Raquel with a gun like she’s going to kill her, and well, those who aren’t made for the streets rarely win those battles. Raquel does manage to give her some advice and make some suggestions about Unique’s likely killer: Ronnie.
Ronnie, on the other hand, is now trying to get back into the game and visits Juliana to let her know that Unique won’t be coming back and thus gets some work.
Let me take a sidebar right quick; do you mind? I hope not. Anywho, I’m really struggling and have been struggling with the idea of Ronnie as some kind of head of a drug organization. Ronnie seems like the least personable human on the planet, and I can’t imagine him being charming enough even in the short term to make allies. I can imagine him as an enforcer, but enforcers aren’t the head of the snake. Was Ronnie THAT good at selling heroin that everybody revered him and thus realized there’s money to be made with him? Ronnie’s disposition is so off-putting I find even that hard to believe. Anywho, I’m just struggling with the idea of Ronnie in his former life as the head of an organization of any size. Even when Pernessa said that Ronnie wouldn’t kill Unique because he loved his brother, I was confused. Ronnie is confusing.
Anywho, Kanan has drawn the notice of Ronnie for how efficient his weed setup is, and Ronnie has decided that Kanan needs to meet the big dogs at a club. Kanan ends up in a picture with the major players of the area, and I’m wondering if this picture won’t somehow end up screwing him later down the line.
Quick tangent, but related to Kanan: Famous is going through it, y’all. Famous is struggling with having killed somebody and put it in his music and that compels him to find a need to shed his demons, one of which is the fact that he knows Raquel put the gun in Kanan’s bag that got him hemmed up a few episodes back. As you can imagine, this information does not sit well with Kanan, who is now done with Famous for not only being a liability in the drug game but for also ALLOWING Raquel to put a gun in his bag … for money. Not for nothing, I’d be out on Famous for that, too.
Jukebox’s girl group is having some issues with leadership because nobody knows who the leader is, and the one who wants to be the leader isn’t fit for the role. I have to say, again, I promise you I am waiting for the moment (or moments) that turns Jukebox into the psychopathic human we knew in “Power.” Jukebox, while coming from a family of not-good people, seems to have a heart. She’s seen some things and been through some stuff but there’s still that bit of optimism and the belief that she’ll make it out. Whatever changed her was tragic and terrible. I’m almost afraid of getting to that part of the story.
Marvin continues to try to be a better human, and I love that for him. I cannot stress this enough. I also realize that maybe what changed Jukebox’s life for the worse has something to do with her father, Marvin, who is so likable now that he almost has to meet his end in the most tragic fashion possible.
Raquel tries to mend fences with Lou-Lou, who really wants nothing to do with her (neither does Kanan), and her selfish attempts send Lou-Lou back into drinking, which ends up with him CONFESSING TO SCRAP’S MOTHER THAT IT’S HIS FAULT THAT SCRAP’S DEAD. WHAT?!?!??!!?
Bruh. This dude Lou-Lou is trippin’. This cannot end well. Oh, and a small thing: Raquel wants back in the game.
Southside.
Panama Jackson is a columnist at theGrio. He writes very Black things, drinks very brown liquors, and is pretty fly for a light guy. His biggest accomplishment to date coincides with his Blackest accomplishment to date in that he received a phone call from Oprah Winfrey after she read one of his pieces (biggest), but he didn’t answer the phone because the caller ID said: “Unknown” (Blackest).
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