All hell breaks loose between Mary Jane and Niecy. The ingrate niece has lost her mind, checking Mary Jane about her drinking habits while living in her house rent-free. M.J. is pretty insufferable, but Niecy is lucky a clap-back was all she received from her aunt.
Niecy reconnects with baby daddy No. 1, Cameron, who has been away at school for the past two years. He tries to jump back into Niecy’s life as if he’s been father of the year. Meanwhile, Mary Jane babysits with her head wrapped, talking to Mama Patterson about Niecy. “We’ll make up when that child can learn some respect,” Mrs. Patterson quips.
Niecy gives Cameron a lot of lip at the restaurant, but it doesn’t take long for the two to have sex, in M.J.’s bed. The audacity. Let us hold hands in prayer that Niecy is on birth control and he wore a condom. When M.J. catches them humping around, she’s livid because, I mean, expensive sheets! M.J. scolds Niecy on her constant mistakes and needing a job: “Being a baby mama is not a career.” M.J.’s mouth has no soul.
Niecy hits below the belt, too, by dropping the “I saw your hidden liquor bottles” bomb. Those who live in glass houses … Iyanla needs to fix both their lives.
When Mr. Patterson comes to take Niecy back to their home, he gets on both of them about the petty fighting. He’s tired of the bull. He calls M.J. by her birth name, Paulette, so you know it’s real.
M.J.’s producer Kara gets a visit from a top executive, who shows her a focus group of women in Vegas saying that M.J. is not relatable. As the network’s highest-paid talent, M.J. has numbers that are steady but not rising. Kara just wants to report great news without following trends. Kara is sworn to secrecy, so we already know this won’t end well.
M.J.’s married co-worker rubs her feet because somehow this helps with the insomnia caused by hormone shots. And M.J. really thinks that letting a co-worker—a married one at that—rub her feet is a good idea. Rich and elusive Sheldon (Gary Dourdan) pops up at M.J.’s office while she’s getting the inappropriate foot massage to talk about the coveted interview she’s chasing. His morning meditation led him to a come-to-Jesus moment in which he realized that he wants his people to fish. In other words, he wants black folks to also be successful.
As the determined news anchor walks Sheldon around the studio, she explains how she worked so hard and then had an epiphany that she was missing out on the clichéd marriage, kids and white picket fence. He’s seen her egg-freezing special and is transparent about the fact that he leads a private life.
M.J. and Kara are at the office well past normal business hours when Kara realizes that she’s late for her date with Gael, the tequila-in-a-red-cup guy. Professionalism is not necessarily M.J.’s forte, since she’s giving herself hormone shots while at work. Not only is she sticking needles in her stomach while on the job, but she has condoms in her desk drawer for Kara in case the date is a success. Human resources would be doubling over if they knew how many violations happened in these offices.
Most people would profusely apologize for showing up 45 minutes late. Not Kara. She’s a different kind of special. The overworked diva apologizes but quickly goes into defense mode about how she doesn’t need a guilt trip. She picks a fight with Gael about him being a proud Latino, all because he complimented M.J.’s story on immigration. Kara’s identity issues are screaming, “Run for your life, man!” Fortunately he doesn’t have to run because she walks out. This would have been a great candidate for BET’s now-defunct Hell Date.
Mary Jane tells Mark that she thinks Sheldon is gay because he’s never been married and has no kids at age 52. She also reveals to Mark that she’s “somewhere between OK and totally lost” post-breakup with David. The job is her distraction.
Now that Niecy’s moved out with the kids, Mary Jane is back to being alone again. Forget those fertility treatments—she can no longer deprive her taste buds of alcohol. Her shot of hard liquor doesn’t help her get to sleep as she tosses and turns in her bed adorned with fresh linen. Sheldon calls her at an ungodly hour to say that if he does the interview, it has to be pretaped in his office. Good news, but M.J. checks him with the quickness about calling her after hours, even though she was wide awake. Call at a more appropriate time, sir.
“He’s not gay!!!!” she texts Mark. My prediction about her having Sheldon wide open by this episode was slightly off, but trust, M.J. will bag him. Whether or not he’ll stick around is the true unknown.