The old Mary Jane would have gone running back to David. The new, happier, slightly less insufferable Mary Jane has learned to butter the bread that’s in front of her.
Someone is forever popping up at M.J.’s house unannounced, so David’s mom is no different. M.J. leaves her white boo in bed to listen to David’s mom wax poetic about how David knows he messed up and life is short. M.J. is not really here for the forgiveness talk, so she asks her ex’s mom if she thought about M.J.’s feelings before randomly showing up at her door. Finally, she tells Mom that if she wants to help her, then make sure David doesn’t become like his mom.
If your memory serves you well, you know that in the last episode, Cece tried to extort M.J. out of more money for helping her with Talk Back. So imagine my shock to see M.J. show up at Cece’s bookstore to talk about black issues and sign autographs. Later on, we find out that this is a setup to have Cece arrested for extortion. She basically tells Cece that a publishing company is interested in their story for a book. In front of undercover federal agents, Cece tells it all when she thinks she’s recounting how the two became friends. It was just enough evidence to put Cece behind bars. Cece vows to write a book when she gets out and tips her hat to M.J. for pulling the wool over her eyes. M.J. is done with people taking it too far with her. And with that, Cece exits our lives. I’ll miss you, Loretta Devine.
SNC finds out that M.J. is trying out the swirl. Greg wants her to do a special on interracial dating as the comeback show for Talk Back. She is totally against it, but he pulls the “I’ve given you back this show, so you’ll give me what I want” card, which leaves her with no choice. Her think-tank crew would rather do police violence or anything that is not what they consider fluff. Too bad; that’s not an option.
In other SNC news, Greg is livid with Kara because he found out about her accusing Marisol of having an affair with him. Marisol plans to file a complaint with human resources, which Greg wants Kara to make go away. The new enlightened M.J. tells her friend to apologize, but Kara is not trying to hear it. Kara can’t imagine having to grovel in front of a chick who broke some kind of code by going over her head to complain to Greg.
After doing her mandatory interracial-dating segment, M.J. breaks up with white boo. She has no desire to explain to him why, as a woman of color, she has to overanalyze everything she does at work. M.J. feels that he doesn’t understand her plight as a black woman. “‘You and I’ is not a struggle that I’m going to choose for myself.” She wants black love, and to that I say, girl, don’t we all?
Kara tries the small talk with Marisol by complimenting her shoes. Then she apologizes in a “Look, girl, we’re both Latina” kind of way that doesn’t exactly suit Marisol’s taste. Marisol says she wants the anchor spot on Kara’s show and this can all go away.
While M.J. is getting barbecue with Kara, she spots David holding his new baby. The two exchange glances but don’t say a word. This makes me wonder what the deal is with Stephen Bishop’s contract. For him not to have a speaking role in the finale is weird.
Anyway, M.J. is unfazed, considering how rough a year she’s had. She admits to Kara that she misses Lisa and has a lot of guilt, but she thinks her car accident was a blessing. It put her back on her path of telling our stories the way they should be told. And now that she is Mary Jane Vanzant, she tells Kara that Marisol is her blessing. Clearly, Kara doesn’t think that, since Marisol ends up filing a complaint against her for sexual and racial harassment even after Kara complies with her demand.
As M.J. is applying her lipstick in the mirror, her life flashes before her. She remembers Lisa and Sheldon and David and Andre and her sick mom. There have been a lot of downs, some because of her own choices. But that’s all in the past because it’s a new day.
At work, two members of her think-tank team are watching yet another video of police violence against an unarmed black person. These are the stories they want to do. M.J. refuses to watch it until she walks up to see Niecy handcuffed on the concrete while her two children watch from the new car P.J. just bought her. The officer tases Niecy for having the audacity to question why he was pulling her over. Will Niecy die in police custody? Will M.J. do a big exposé on police brutality? Will Niecy sue the department? All questions we’ll have to wait until next season to answer.