‘Harlem’ Season 3 Episode 1 Recap: ‘Ex…pecting’

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Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.

Do y’all hear that sound? Of course, you do! It’s the sound of shenanigans, mess and real life situations (that is!) colliding in the world of “Harlem,” which is back for its third and final season on Amazon Prime. I couldn’t be happier. First, a bit about me. 

Hi, I’m Panama Jackson, and I love television that centers the Black experience, whether that happens in Los Angeles, Atlanta, Baltimore, Lagos or London. I especially enjoy shows set in Harlem, New York City, because like so many people who grew up far, far away from the five boroughs, I have this romantic idea of New York, and Harlem in particular, that has persisted despite having visited the city many, many times since my first time laying eyes on that famous skyline in August 2001. 

This brings us to “Harlem,” a show about the lives of four women (yes, you can think “Sex In The City” but with mid-career Black women) set in the legendary neighborhood that has meant so much to the Black experience in America. I love the shots of the city, and I know it’s kind of corny, but it really makes me yearn for the years when living there might have made sense. Le sigh. 

In the slight chance you’re reading this recap but don’t know anything about “Harlem,” the show centers around Camille, played by Meagan Good. Say it with me, “Meagan Good, all the time and all the time, Meagan Good.” Camille is (was) a professor at Columbia University going through relationship ups and downs and professional uncertainty. Camille has three besties: Quinn (Grace Byers), Angie (Shoniqua Shandai) and Tye (Jerrie Johnson). Camille has a longtime on-again-off-again boo in Ian (Tyler Lepley) who is poised to figure heavily this season in the world of “THINGS JUST GOT REAL.” 

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‘Harlem’ just dropped its trailer for Season 3 marking end of the series — and it’s juicier than ever (WATCH)

Anywho, as we start season 3, Camille and Ian are doing their messy exes-with-benefits thing until Ian pushes the pause button on her, leaving her (effectively) on “read” and untouched for two months. I wonder what could make a man do such a thing? As you can no doubt imagine, we will find out shortly. Professionally, Camille wasn’t offered tenure at Columbia and decided to leave, but through her work and an exhibit she put on last season, she convinced those who needed convincing that they should attempt to keep her with an offer of tenure, but Camille is still out, about to forge her own path and write a book. We’ll be back to Camille very, very shortly. 

Everybody else in Camille’s world is doing pretty well. Tye, for instance, developed a dating app that is being purchased by a venture capitalist firm. You go, girl. For a lot of money! Go further, girl. This also happens to coincide with her desire to fall back from dating since her last excursion ended with the revelation that her jump-off was the daughter of her main thing. I’m with Tye on this one; that kind of situation would make anybody take a break. But what happens when you try to take a break? As usual, a fine something something pulls up on you. In this case, that fine something something is Eva (Gail Bean), who is on the team trying to invest in the app and take it to the next level. Eva is a baddie and she’s giving Tye all of the green lights. I’m sure this is going exactly where we think it is. 

Angie is engaged to Michael (Luke Forbes) and planning their wedding while professionally living out Broadway dreams. She’s happy. We can table Angie for today. And Quinn is taking some much-needed time to focus on herself and making herself happy but, like Tye, ends up meeting a baseball player for one of the Chicago teams, Seth, played by Kofi Siriboe. They both agree to just having some fun but when a haberdashery mishap puts Quinn in the stylist role for Seth at the Espy’s, you can already see that their spark is just the beginning. 

So let’s spin the block with Camille. Aight so boom, Ian ghosts her and we find out bruh has been dating his best friend in life — you know, the woman that’s “like a sister” to him — Portia (Logan Browning) and they’re doing the whole exclusive thing. That doesn’t sit well with Camille who rightly is annoyed that Ian didn’t have the balls to just tell her straight up that he was moving on; she had to find out the hard way. I agree with her on that one; he easily could have just said that he was getting serious with somebody instead of hitting her with the Heisman for two straight months. Camille could have just ridden off into the sunset to find a new boo, then. Except…

….Camille is pregnant, and Ian is the baby daddy. Egads. This is especially curious because Camille was under the impression that she couldn’t have kids, which is why she and Ian broke up in the first place; he wanted to be a pappy. 

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is where we end with episode 1 of season 3. I’m excited to see where this is going and where Camille and Ian’s relationship goes because life…just…got…real. 

Up in Harlem. 

Panama Jackson is a columnist at theGrio and host of the award-winning podcast, “Dear Culture” on theGrio Black Podcast Network. 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).