Nova’s been getting media traction after her article hit the front page. This episode opens with her and a local activist being interviewed by a couple of morning shock-jocks. Of course, the jocks keep bending attention to Charely and the messy allegations against Davis West. If you haven’t peeped Queen Sugar, Davis is a star player with a Los Angeles basketball team. I’m a bad viewer, ‘cause I don’t even remember the team name. It ain’t the Lakers… And I’m only a fair-weather fan for them, so whatever.
She caught Nova’s response and jumped from zero to pissed a nanosecond flat.
Poor Nova kept trying to keep attention on the injustices her article pointed out, but jokers be jokers. Somewhere in the segment, they asked Nova’s point of view about the Davis West mess. She didn’t get down into Charley and Davis’ biz-nizz, but she DID ask one question: When it comes to rape cases, why is the victim always assumed to be guilty or at fault somehow?
Somewhere on the other side of them-there airwaves, Auntie Vi was listening when Charley moseyed back in after a run. And, of course, she caught Nova’s response and jumped from zero to pissed a nanosecond flat.
Unrelated side note: Auntie Vi changed her hair to a more homely marm-bob. She actually looks like she could be their aunt.
Meanwhile, it seems things are looking better for the Bordelon farm, after Ralph Angel wasted 15 grand on smut-infested seed cane. Remy Newell asks Charley to take a chance on a new seed cane variety he designed. It’s supposed to produce more sugar.
Prosper Denton also says he’s in it to win it—but the Bordelon brood MUST listen to and work with him—and each other. I thought Brother Prosper was done with them folks, but Remy arranged a dinner at Vi’s house it to see if Prosper would come back and manage the Bordelon farm. Remy also had to give Charley tips on talking with Brotha Old School. No iPhones. Heck, it’s not about a brand. No phones, period, and folks gots-tuh look Brotha Denton in his face, sans phone, or he’ll see it as a sign of disrespect.
Nova rolls in with a bottle of wine… Charley threw shade her way, and the two had a tough talk. Charlie gets pissed off at Nova because the way she worded her on-air comment one could interpret—at least Charley did—that Nova was calling Davis’ accuser a victim. What Nova questioned is why folks assume rape victims are automatically lying.
So speaking of Nova, she’s keeping in contact with Too Sweet. He was discharged from the hospital, into a federal prison (If I understand correctly. Did he take a plea deal?) Poor child wants to know when he’s getting out. There’s a wait list for public defenders… While Nova is telling the dude to keep hope alive, he’s growing morose and says he isn’t going to make it.
Davis and Micah come to St. Josephine’s Parish. Davis meets Remy Newell. And brother sees what I see AND sense. There’s chemistry between his wifey and Remy.
Ralph Angel switched shifts at the warehouse. His shady coworker tries to force Ralph to swipe more boxes of merchandise as back pay for shorted checks. Ralph is trying to stay on the right side of Johnny Law’s nightstick, so he stands up for himself and refuses to steal any more products. His shady coworker, YES the SAME one with the play-play cousin who sold Ralph smutty seed cane, and his little skanky minions commence to beating Ralph down. Well, technically, not down. He was still on his feet while getting gut-punched. Just mean. There’s sin and perdition and probably an entry point to hell up in that joint. In comes the dastardly boss man and breaks up the fight. So he has some sense of right and wrong. It was not right to fight in his workplace. Too bad he didn’t see it wrong to short folks’ checks just because they’ve been to prison. Ralph tells boss man that he cannot work with Guy-with-the-smut-cane-cousin anymore. Boss man tells Ralph to get back to work or else. Ralph Angel challenges boss man to lay him off. Boss man fires Ralph. But Ralph ain’t stupid. He says something like “I’ll tell my parole officer about all the checks see you short. I’m sure his math is better than mine. But if you lay me off, no one will know.” The art of the deal. Boss man tells Ralph Angel to get his stuff and bounce.
That night cops show up to search Ralph’s home for stolen goods. They say the warehouse boss wants all employee residences searched. They look inside the house and outside…. Ralph gives Blue a phone and tells him to call Aunt Vi. I was about to soil my pants when the cops asked Ralph Angel to open this shed with a lock. Earlier in the episode, Aunty Vi asked why it was locked up. Ernest never locked anything up on the farm. And that’s where Ralph was hiding the stolen stuff—I think they were iPhones or some other Apple products. I was getting ready to cuss Ralph Angel out for getting himself into another pickle, but when the cops threw back the tarp covering the stolen stuff, they found a wood pallet. That’s it.
But Vi ain’t no dummy either. As the cops leave, Ralph Angel, looking all pitiful, apologizes. Vi lets him know he’ll never find the stolen stuff, because it’s at the bottom of the Bayou.
So… Charley and Davis meet with the lawyers of his accuser. They handover a $3 million check. (Dang. They had that cash to throw away. Must be nice.) But his accuser Melina wants to hold off on signing any non-disclosure agreement until AFTER Davis apologizes to her. Why would she want an apology if he raped her? This makes no sense. Turns out Charlie was right to stand by her man. Because Davis DIDN’T rape Melina. His skanky teammates did.
But it also turns out she CAN’T stand by that foo(l), because Melina thought she and Davis had a little something-something special. Yes, she knew he was married, but thought she was ONLY his, not something to be passed around between teammates. The night of the incident, Davis had to go because Micah had an asthma attack. He left extra money and bounced. Melina’s colleagues did not show up as expected, but the other teammates told Melina that Davis gave the okay for them to have a go at her. Davis denied it, but Melina recorded the conversation they had after the video went public. He told her the only reason he liaisons with her is because she’ll do things Charley won’t. Besides, their relationship started with a gang-bang, so Davis didn’t understand why she didn’t want to go along that time.
So no, Davis isn’t a rapist, but he IS a cad. I don’t know what he vowed when he and Charley got hitched, but she sure found out that faithfulness vow didn’t include on-the-road trysts.
Oh Melina… she was a woman scorned. And y’all know the furies of hell can’t compete.
Well well well… It looks like Davis is going have to put someone else on speed dial because he surely won’t be getting any-mo, no-mo from Melina OR Charley.
Wifey’s done.
So how long-you-think it’ll take for her to get with Remy Newell?
I give it two episodes. I have absolutely no proof, but I’ll stick with that.