10 Thoughts About Queen Sugar and Last Night’s Season Finale

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Warning: There will be spoilers. You have been warned. If you haven’t seen it yet, get your life.

1. It was fun watching the postshow special and trying to see myself in the crowd (I didn’t, but I also didn’t watch the whole thing—had to get the babies to sleep and whatnot). The experience of being there and watching the sausage get made was a first for me and highly entertaining, but also I never realized just how scripted those things are to minimize hiccups.

Also, Oprah just be out there walking around like she don’t own everything we all touched, like she all normal, like it wasn’t her floor. I walked on Oprah’s floor. It’s got to be crazy to be like, “All this is mine.” I get excited about the plastic cups I own and look at folks crazy for what looks like scheming on them. Neither here nor there, but I just wanted to talk about how awesome the entire experience of being there at OWN was.

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Off to the show ...

2. Kofi Siriboe’s ugly-cry game is on a hundred thousand trillion. Listen, over the past, say, four episodes, Siriboe’s acting game has been like, “Nothing can stop me—I’m all the way up.” He’s nailed the proper emotion on all of those scenes.

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The last scene when he’s talking to Blue about his name and all that, man, or the opening scene in the last episode where he tells Hollywood to gather the family because he can only say what he has to say once. Or the scene where he and Darla are at the pool. Good gracious. He went for it. She did, too, but he really did. Somebody get that man an award for reaching emotional depths that I’m sure even surprised him. At the very least for taking the art of the ugly cry to new heights. Sheesh. I couldn’t even tell if his eyes were open half the time. That’s talent.

3. Tell me you weren’t afraid something bad happened to Darla. That she was gonna get into a car accident? Or overdose on drugs? Or ANYTHING. Ralph Angel trying to find her was love. He got over himself to be concerned for her safety. He can’t trust her, but that’s Blue’s mama and, even if they can’t be together, the woman he loves.

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4. Darla just gon’ up and bounce on Blue without saying bye? Yo no comprende. Where dey do dat at? How, Sway? I want Darla to win so badly because I like her and Ralph Angel together. And I believe they will get it together. I’m not even mad that Blue might not be Ra’s son, but like Ra said, “You say, ‘I’m pregnant; it might not be yours.’” Blue is the most important thing to that man.

5. Which is why “Blue is the blood in my veins, even if mine ain’t in his” took me all the way out of there. While there were a few scenes in the finale that seemed a little forced (only a few), they are all forgotten with lines like that. It’s so deep and let Darla (and us) know that Ralph Angel would never stop being that boy’s daddy. I didn’t doubt it, but still ... Mama, there goes that man.

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6. I don’t blame Remy for bouncing on Charley. She’s too good at “the game.” I don’t even know what “the game” is, but she’s about that shit. Like she said, she’s fueled by negativity (paraphrasing) and I think Remy realized that for Charley, winning her way is more important than the costs. Even when she basically said as much to White Man Boudreau (his name escapes me—you know the one, the one who’s intoxicated by her), I wondered if it was performance or real. I don’t trust Charley, and Remy came to that same conclusion even if he hates it.

7. Can we talk about the music of Queen Sugar for a minute? My Shazam button worked overtime during the course of this show. On last week’s episode, I was introduced to Ngaiire’s song “Fall Into My Arms,” which has been on REPEAT (you hear me?) ever since. Good lord, that song speaks to my soul, and its placement was SO perfect. I was introduced to the Francis and the Lights song “My City Is Gone” (featuring Kanye West) on last night’s finale like, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL MY LIFE?

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The whole season has been like that. At this point, I want a one-hour special on the music of Queen Sugar. I’d even host it. You hear that, Oprah?! Let me host it! (We call that “shooting your shot.”) All jokes aside, I’d love to watch that special because the music is as much another character as the land.

8. Y’all, Oprah called herself “the land” when asked how she might view herself as a character of the show. Game. Set. Match. If LeBron and Oprah don’t do something where they both call themselves “the Land,” I’ll be disappointed.

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9. I love how Queen Sugar has had entirely female directors for the entirety of its existence. The vignette during the postshow where they discussed that made my heart smile. Opportunities in that industry seem to come few and far between unless they’re specifically created, so shouts out to Ava DuVernay for being a creator. And to Oprah because Oprah. You know, the land and shit.

10. I want to say how much I appreciate this show. So many facets of life, black life specifically, have been addressed with care and nuance that there really is no other show on television like it, nor has there been. That speaks to quality casting and people respecting the material. It also comes from having the ability to be fully black with the work and not have to worry about other folks not getting it or appreciating it.

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The show includes both timely references and current events in a way that is realistic and necessary. Obviously I’m a fan of the show and the actors and the creators, but ultimately I appreciate black art—especially the kind we can all be proud of while participating. Queen Sugar is one of those shows for me, and thank goodness we’re getting more seasons.