Queen Sugar: Season 1/ Episode 10 "So Far" – Overview/ Review (with Spoilers)

Overview

There are quite a few setbacks, for everyone, in this episode, but there is always one person who creates some sort of silver lining. In that person, there is hope.

Review (with Spoilers)

As usual, Queen Sugar leaves you with a lot to process. Making it perhaps the most difficult show for me to review since I don’t want to take pauses to write notes since I am so engaged. Yet I love it so. The fact there are only two episodes left leaves me with somber feelings. Yet, like Bordelon family, I push on. But oh when you hear some of the stuff that happened in “So Far” it is going to make you think and your blood boil.

Main Plot (with Commentary)

Ralph Angel

It’s hard for a man like Ralph Angel to not be able to sign his own child’s permission slip. It is hard for a man like Ralph Angel to feel like his abilities as a father are questioned. Especially by Aunt Vi. She knows his story, as well as Darla’s and while she may defend Davis’ right to be a father she denies his. Heck, she denies Darla’s to be a mom. This don’t settle right with him and it eats away at that wall we see a lot of men build up to protect their emotions but for Ralph Angel, that wall is eroding away. Something Aunt Vi sees so she signs back his rights to him. However, she reminds him she is always there. No need to struggle, for Aunt Vi is there.

Micah

While school alludes Micah due to Charley wanting him in a private school, to seemingly not become like some members of her family, and because of that photo incident, Micah isn’t just sitting on his hands. Keke has become a part of his life now and that boy is smitten. Though Keke you have to sort of side eye just a touch. For while she seems genuinely into him, past the fame, there is this power she has that you can’t help but both admire and fear. For you just don’t know yet how she will use it with Micah. Will she use it to empower him or wrap him around her little finger? Either way, to my surprise, the boy has quite the interesting story ahead.

Nova

The opportunity to speak, have a platform, is such an integral part of not only promoting yourself but what you believe in. Thus when Nova gets the chance to speak amongst Melissa Harris-Perry and others, Chantal wants Nova to jump on that. Problem is, Nova and Chantal have different viewpoints on how to speak on social issues. Nova seems to want dialog and conversation, maybe to build her brand a bit so she isn’t just another person with a megaphone shouting “Black Lives Matter!” Chantal, on the other hand, sees a platform as just a way to make the issue bigger for no one man or woman is the entire movement. This conflict, alongside Chantal learning of Calvin, it pretty much seems to end Nova and Chantal’s relationship. Leading you to wonder, as is part of their argument, can a person separate their politics and the rest of their person? Must everything be politicized?

Aunt Vi

With Ralph Angel having Darla participate more in Blue’s parenting, this not only frees up Aunt Vi’s time but forces her to find purpose. Something which hits her right in the eye as Charley sucker punches her with a comment about sending Micah to a $36,000 so he can make more money than people like her who don’t make that in a year. So, taking that hit as a wake-up call, she goes down to the High Yellow, which has seen better days, and thanks to the Health Inspector being there, and boss man Clyde (Greg Vaughan) not knowing where anything is, she hustles a manager job with a pay bump and benefits. Something Clyde didn’t even give to his son.

Charley

Farm life ain’t easy. What makes it worse though is the murder has made it where she has no migrant workers, and she learns the Landry and Boudreaux family have a monopoly on the local mill industry. Then to make things worse, as if a 40/60 split ain’t bad enough, so comes the history of these two families, but in particular the Landry. Now, that strip of land Charley’s family has is important. Hence why Mr. Landry wanted it. What isn’t said though is that the Landry family used to own Charley’s back in the day, made them sharecroppers after, and only by sure will and determination did the Bordelon family purchase a bit of the land their ancestors were slaves on. Which came at a price. Their former owners, through hangings in Jim Crow era and politics, they did whatever they could to get that land back. Yet, between Ernest and those before him, a way was made no matter how many roadblocks were put up. Thus leading Charley to question this $4 million offer to sell. For while a lot of money, it ain’t nearly as much as the lives lost and the free labor given.

Things To Note

1. Hollywood still trying to win Vi back and has filed for divorce.
2. Too Sweet is out of jail, but his family got evicted and with the shelter being like jail, he is on the streets.
3. Between the Landry and Boudreaux family, they own 15,000 acres, the mill, and the sugar refinery.

Highlights

• Micah and Keke’s burgeoning relationship
• The discovery of the Landry past and how it relates to the Bordelons
• Chantal and Nova’s different viewpoints on handling their shared cause
• Charley’s conversation about privilege with Micah