ERICA'S FAVES
“Onward” – Queen Sugar: Season 5, Episode 10 Breakdown
This Article was updated on August 4, 2021 by julianna torres
As every episode has from the beginning of the season, (Queen Sugar: Season 5, Episode 10 Breakdown) we start off with Ralph Angel and his family. Darla and Blue are preparing to make the trip to DC. In a recent episode they decided that the best thing for Blue was to allow him to attend this prestigious private school in Washington DC. After quite heated debates and arguments around Blue actually moving to DC to stay with Darla’s parents and go to this exceptional school, they decided that would be the best thing for him. He really wants to do it and it will allow for him to really grow intellectually and personally as well as establishing strong professional networks and giving him a leg up in life just from his proximity to more affluent things and ultimately I think that they made the right decision.
Of course this isn’t a decision that they made lightly because that would mean that Blue is moving away from the family that he really knows and while he does know Darla’s mom and family he doesn’t know them as well as he knows aunt Vy. He knows you know Charley and Nova he’s grown up with them even when Darla was struggling with her drug addiction and Ralph Angel was in prison Blue had Vy and Blue had you know Charley, Nova and Ralph Angel’s father to act as surrogate parents for him while his parents were you know on their journeys and dealing with what they had to deal with.
Queen Sugar: Season 5, Episode 10 Breakdown
That is why Vy is struggling so hard with this decision, in this episode we see her and Ralph angel are still at odds after some very heated words were exchanged in the last episode. To be honest both of them really hit below the belt Ralph Angel made a dig at her never having her own kids and then Vy made it big at Ra not being anything that his dad would be proud of and saying that oh you know his father would be ashamed of him and just really making low blows.
In this episode we see them not talking and Vy explains that Ralph angel isn’t speaking to her when I think that she’s also keeping her distance as well. It’s unfortunate because they have such a great bond again Vy has been such a huge support system for Ralph angel and I can see how that has tricked her into believing that she kinda is Blues parent because at the end of the day Ra is right. Ra and Darla are his parents they have to be able to make decisions and while Vy can disagree with the decisions that they are making she still has to respect the fact that she is not the parent and they are family, they are parenting and they have stepped up to assume the mantle and have been doing a great job as of late with Blue.
So the fact that Vy has her heels dug in about this one and really decided to go scorched-earth with Ra and completely sacrifice their relationship I’m just like girl you’re doing a lot especially in these times where we see the entire season play out over the course of the start of quarantine and the pandemic and it’s like this is not a time to be alienating yourself from your family.
Erica Vain
Thank God Hollywood has snapped out of what he had going on he’s getting back into his swing of things, his personality is coming back, he’s less depressed and he’s more hopeful. There were a few episodes this season after his mom’s passing where we really saw Hollywood fall into a very dark place and I wasn’t sure if he was going to be able to climb out of it but he has and thank God that he has because now he’s in a really great space to be able to call Vy on her BS.
In this episode in particular he tells her you need to apologize to Ralph angel, what you said was not kind whether you believe it to be true or not it was not kind, it was not helpful, it was unnecessary and at the end of the day y’all are family and you have to respect that that’s his parent. Ra is his parent and he also put into perspective that Vy is looking at it like her pain and yes she’s going to miss Blue but she’s honestly trying to usurp the fact that Ra is not happy about this decision either. He is not functioning like a complete depressed person in reference to like what you stereotypically would see when someone is depressed but Ralph angel is moving a little bit slower, he’s a lot more calm, you can tell that he’s processing that he’s sending his son away and he’s struggling with that.
I love that Hollywood is able to explain that to Vy in a way that she can understand and she can put better perspective to it so hopefully when we see season 6 pop off they can start to actually interact and we can see her go to Ra with a little bit more grace and understanding and not necessarily just putting herself in her feelings first.
Erica Vain
The bulk of Vy’s story in this season finale was centered around where she’s at with Ralph angel, we do get a little bit of moments of her talking with Charley and catching up in that regard. She’s still unaware of the fact that Charley had covid-19 and it was so bad and now that we’re on the tail end of this I like the way they allowed Charley to handle this and not necessarily lean on who she typically would or who we hope that she would in reference to being able to bring Davis back into the equation less specifically to Vy.
Aside from the large drama with Ralph Angel her diner gets to open back to 50% capacity so we start to see progress in that regard but the bulk of her story in the finale is centered around what’s going to happen with her relationship with Ralph angel. We kind of get left on a cliffhanger because at the end of the episode she decides that she will call Ralph angel but we don’t actually get to see the call happen so I’m looking forward to in the premiere of season 6 that that would be one of the first orders of business for Vy.
Ralph Angel & Losing Blue
Touching on Ralph Angel a little bit, I am very proud of him, he’s had to make very hard decisions in reference to leading his family through this pandemic, through quarantine, through the loss of you know their farming season and not being able to bring crops to harvest and sending Blue to this procedure school. He has truly stepped up as the leader in his household and there was a time where you could not count on Ralph angel to do anything and to think about the last 10 episodes and how we have seen this young black man show up for his family it’s just beautiful to see. I think it’s chef’s kiss that by the end of the episode *spoiler alert: Darla announced that they are pregnant*, I just thought that that was chef’s kiss because Ralph angel has earned it and it’s not like oh you get a prize baby at the end and I’m not trying to say that. I just think that he’s now going to be able to shift out of this space of like sadness around Blue going away to go to school and get excited about something and really feel proud of who he is and how he’s showing up for his family.
Honestly he’s in a space right now where he’s had to make the tough decision to send Blue away and that doesn’t feel rewarding right now like it doesn’t necessarily feel like you’re doing the right thing when you’re in pain from missing somebody. But with a new baby on the way it’s like that can help him feel like he is making the right decision even when it’s hard, even when it feels like a big sacrifice, even when everything is telling you that you don’t want to do it or you shouldn’t do it but he is making the right decision. I kind of felt it towards the middle of the episode, I’m like something is going to come up I think they need to get pregnant or something’s going to happen I’m just happy that it happened so soon and we’ll be able to see them walking into season 6 preparing for a new baby and growing their family that’s so exciting.
Charley & Davis Reimagined
I absolutely love how they handle Charley’s story in this episode, if you missed it I did a ‘Is a Charley and Davis comeback destined to happen?‘ video where I talked about them trying to plant the seeds and when I say them the creators or the writers planting the seeds for Davis and Charley to reconnect. I didn’t expect for it to happen so soon but we were starting to get little Easter eggs around what Charley was thinking and she started to imagine what life could look like after Davis showed up and showed out for her when she contracted Covid and was just everything that she needed and more and in this episode we really get to see her go through the process of what does that look like.
She consults aunt Vy, she consults Darla and we can see her thinking about all of the pros and cons and weighing this decision of is this the road that she wants to go down and I thought this was a really great conversation to have. Before this I would have thought like there’s no coming back for Davis right like I never thought about her and Davis reuniting until after he showed up in this way for her. But then we get to see in this episode her actually questioning certain things and after she goes down the line she gets advice in which Vy gives her beautiful advice about you know Davis just being a stupid man, he made a stupid mistake but he’s not a bad person.
Queen Sugar: Season 5, Episode 10 Breakdown
Then Darla not wanting to give advice specifically about the relationship, reminding her that it’s about whatever she wants to do and whoever she’s in a relationship with, whatever they want to do because they are the ones who have to wake up to each other, have to love each other each day and it’s not really about what anyone else outside of them thinks and she speaks from experience with that and it’s just so staged in reference to what she imparts on Charley. Then we actually get to see Charley have the conversation with Davis and she gets to ask real questions and he answers in a way that’s not scapegoat like or not like you know not taking accountability which was so weird but refreshing to see. To watch this man stand in his truth and talk about how the decisions that he made in reference to fathering children outside of their marriage, the infidelity, the lack of support, the lack of acknowledgement of how amazing Charley was on a consistent basis all came from a place of disdain that he had for himself and when I’m watching Davis in this scene all I can think about is this man literally did the work in the last 4 years. Davis has done the work of going inside and really try to figure out why does he do the things that he does, what made him do what he did, does he want to continue to do these things moving forward, how does he want to feel, how does he want to make the people that he loves feel, like I feel like I don’t know who your therapist is but they need a bonus Davis Godlee.
Every single question that she had he answered and he and he just did so in a way that was just so honest and raw and I was just like I’m still processing it because I’m just like do guys really do this where are they at, where is the factory pushing out the guys having real honest conversation and being accountable chile.
Davis has changed; we love to see it!
Needless to say I’m here for the reunions that we get to see Charley is going to step out on faith she’s going to go with her heart and she’s going to give Davis a try or another try. I’m actually excited for it before two episodes ago I was not feeling it I was just like I feel like y’all are trying to set me up I don’t know if we can forgive him I don’t know if you can come back from this and apparently he can because now I’m on board from just them having this real honest conversation I’m 100% on board. There was a moment there where I wasn’t sure if Micah had a problem with it because he finds out that Charley got sick and then as soon as she tells him that his dad was the one who helped her he just hangs up the phone like I’m on my way and I’m like oh wait is this about to be an issue. But we see towards the end of the episode that it’s all good they’re all together and it’s interesting because it feels like a very full circle moment. In the very end of this episode where we see Charley, Davis and Micah you know going through photos that he’s taken in some of these protests it feels like episode 1 before any of the fall out before any of the news breaks and it just feels like a family that loves each other and works so I’m excited going into season 6 to see where we’re going to land with the reuniting of Charley and Davis and if they can put their family back together.
I cannot finish this episode breakdown without talking about the most tense part of this episode which is the conversation between Nova and Calvin she actually brings to his attention the story of the young man who Calvin actually contributed to the breaking of his back in the police brutality/racially-charged police harassment in the beginning of Calvin’s career.
My heart goes out to Nova because you can tell that she’s really in love with Calvin and this breaks her, this goes against everything that she stands for, this goes against being in love with a person who is capable of this whether in the past or not.
Erica Vain
This is something that she is deeply struggling with and we see her struggle throughout the episode and she does not shy away from these tough conversations, she doesn’t run completely which is interesting because I don’t know if I could do it. I feel like I would have probably left and that would have been that because what do you say to your white lover/fiancé well soon to be fiancé because they were talking about marriage, when you find out one he’s a cop and you find out that he participated in the beating that broke the back of a young black boy off the strength of they picked this little black boy because they were racist cops, the boy didn’t do anything he hadn’t committed a crime.
Queen Sugar: Season 5, Episode 10 Breakdown
This is fiction and I'm like sitting here flabbergasted by what do you say to that, like is there anything that you can say to that?
The fact that Nova’s still there and having a conversation and trying to process this with him because for me it would have been a wrap and maybe it’s because I got to do a little bit more healing but it would have been a wrap. I did appreciate at one moment in the episode where Nova expresses to him how she wants to scream, how she wants to go off, how she wants to get violent like all of the things that are brewing inside of her I feel like she has been so transparent and so candid and I think that this was needed. I think this is a very different part of the conversation, so I’m just saying that I think that this is a backdoor way of how they’re having a conversation around Blue Lives Matter which is something that popped up after you know the big push behind Black Lives Matter and then of course Black Lives Matter sparked people saying all lives matter and then Blue Lives Matter. I think that what’s happening right now with Nova and Calvin is basically a backdoor way of having a conversation about Blue Lives Matter in reference to you know the actual cops that are doing these heinous acts, are they human, should they be forgiven and how do we hold them accountable if that was your loved one and what would you do. We get to see Nova struggle with all of that because there’s one part of the episode where she says that she is ashamed of herself for wanting to protect him and I just felt like this was so powerful.
I actually have a really great friend of mine whose father is a police officer and this is the conversation that we had early on when a lot of the protests started to break out last year and she was very worried about her father. In the moments where you know there’s tons of conversations around defund the police and anti-police conversations she really put into perspective for me of you know well my father as well as my sister they are police officers and I love them and I care about them in and until you’re in that space and you happen to love one of those people who are on the other side you don’t necessarily get to see the conversation or see it from that angle. So I thought that the conversation around Nova and Calvin, where they go from here? Where does love go from here? How can he be held accountable? I felt like this was Queen sugars way of having this conversation and specifically around him also being a white cop so I don’t necessarily know what that’s like, like my friend, so that also adds a different layer to it. But what about the white cops who are doing these things can we ever forgive them like how does that work and at the end of the episode we see Calvin try to atone and take accountability for the things that he has done by turning himself into Internal Affairs.
We don’t actually know where that’s going to go by the end of Queen Sugar: Season 5, Episode 10, so we have to wait till season 6 to see what happens next and honestly I don’t have any answers I’m still pissed at Calvin. I give Nova a little bit of props in reference to taking time to process it and try to think through it thoroughly and pray on it and all of that great stuff because I’m just infuriated and I just kind of stopped there and it takes a very evolved person to be able to go to the levels in which we see her go in this episode.
There you have it that is my episode 10 season finale breakdown for season 5 of Queen sugar. I hope you all enjoyed this season as much as I did I thought it was absolutely beautiful one of the things that I love about Queen sugar is I feel like their episodes are shot like movies and I definitely felt like this finale felt like a movie while I was watching it is so beautiful and cinematic and the pacing was great like I really, really, enjoy Queen sugar as a show.
Queen Sugar: Season 5, Episode 10 Breakdown
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