Dear White People: Season 1/ Episode 3 “Chapter III” – Overview/ Review (with Spoilers)

Troy takes center stage and his storyline is sans a white girl and plus Nia Long.

In My Father’s Shadow: Troy

Dean Fairbanks (Obba Babatundé) has been a man Troy has loved and looked up to but has been absolutely controlled by as if his father had Jedi type powers. If Troy dared to do something which he disapproved of, which surprisingly includes dating Sam, he would shut it down. Thus leading Troy on his current path which has him going to his father’s school and being the exemplary young man he is today. One which shall become Winchester’s first Black student body president.

Something which Troy wants to be, and takes seriously, but he has so many issues outside his campaign promises. The main one being the fact he has been, since grade school, expected to look out for Kurt Fletcher (Wyatt Nash). Not just by his father, but also President Fletcher (John Rubenstein) who his dad has kissed the ass of forever. So with this “Dear White People” party, Kurt is looking for a social pardon. One which Troy had no intention of giving but with Troy being caught with Neika (Nia Long), who supposedly is lesbian and has a longtime girlfriend, and Troy having a video of them being intimate, he thinks he has something. Never mind the fact Coco is really into Troy but isn’t sure yet if she is his Jackie O or Marilyn.

So, needless to say, Troy got a lot of explaining to do and a backbone to grow.

Commentary

Troy dating Sam is the type of thing I need a breakdown for. Especially since it isn’t explained what the attraction was. I mean, we know why they broke up, because after a prompt cancellation of plans you know she was not dating a dude struggling under the weight of his father’s thumb. However, how that relationship began and developed to the point he’d even introduce her to his dad is of interest to me.

As for Troy specifically, there is some interest but it isn’t really all that strong. If only because Troy was such a strong focus in the movie that this remixed version of his life isn’t necessarily different enough to take note of what changed and didn’t. Though it maybe him being in this love triangle that brings some feigned interest.

On one hand, we got Coco, who I’m not even sure Lionel knows is the woman Troy is messing around with on the other side of the door, and then Neika. Someone who is not only a professor at the school but is strangely a lesbian in public and a Troy dick lover in private. Who, with the way Nia Long plays her roles nowadays, I’d love to see the reaction of when it comes to this Kurt thing. Cause I can fully picture the type of slap and threat that will make it look like Kurt got a tan and make Long seem more vicious than Olivia Pope on her best day. That is assuming that she even finds out though.