Phew, was there a lot that went down in this week’s episode! Some good, some bad, some drama filled, some hopeful. I can’t believe there’s already been six episodes this season-it feels like we’re only getting started! But this episode also felt like a turning point of where things might be headed for the rest of the season.
We begin with everyone minus Syleena and Faith gathering at Monifah’s apartment, to help fill in Angie Stone and LaTocha about how “Divas Simply Singing” went down last week. When Angie hears about the divas coming on stage to support Nicci during her breakdown, she once again is moved by a “we can do this tour as sisters” spirit. She says, “I firmly believe women can work together.” Hallelujah.
We then move on to Syleena, who’s at a gym where she’s promoting a Mommy Boot Camp thing in support of new fitness projects she’s got going on, including a DVD called Mommy’s Got Soul. The event seems to go swimmingly, except for one awkward bit: Syleena doesn’t actually have the Mommy’s Got Soul DVDs to sell at the event (which would have helped her and Syleecia make bank) because they still haven’t received permission releases from Nicci Gilbert, who’s in the DVD. Wuh oh. But let me ask the most pressing question here: who is that fierce ass lesbian standing next to Syleena Johnson?
Making our way all around Atlanta, we now head to Keke Wyatt’s new house, which is huge and gorgeous, and which is currently hosting every single one of the divas. While the ladies take turns pouring champagne and holding some of Keke’s million babies, Faith drops a truth bomb on them all: she’s officially taking a step back from the divas. Traveling back and forth between LA and Atlanta and everywhere else is too much when she has teen boys at home, and she’s decided to spend more time with the fam. The divas feel the way we probably all feel: understanding, but sad. I can’t say this is surprising, as Faith was showing her lovely face less and less each episode, and I had heard rumors that she wouldn’t be involved in this season at all. So I’m glad we got to see what we did of her. And lord knows I’m still interested in watching the rest of the divas. But still: sad.
Angie Stone announces she’s ready to step in and take Faith’s place as the mother hen of the group. She says she knows she was brought in for a reason, and I know that probably was the producers’ (and Faith’s) idea. But I don’t know about that: I love me some Angie Stone, but Faith is such an important figure in bringing everyone together. It’s almost impossible for Faith to offend anyone, and everyone obviously reveres her in turn. Whereas, as we saw in that earlier disaster of an episode this season, the way Angie preaches doesn’t speak to everyone, and has a very high potential to create more drama, regardless of Angie’s good intentions. But we shall just have to wait and see.
Speaking of Angie, though, we also see a brief bonding session between LaTocha and herself, which I always enjoy, but which I especially enjoy this week because it takes place while riding Angie Stone’s ri-dic-u-lous motorcycle, which is painted hot pink and filled with her own face. It’s also some type of megabike with training wheels, but who cares, it looks hella fun anyway. Angie’s talked about divas being women who act first class, but I think what she really meant to say is that divas ride motorcycles with their face painted on the front.
And don’t worry, we haven’t seen the complete last of Faith, at least not in this episode. The ladies all get together for one last night out. And as Angie’s letting Faith know how much they all love her, Faith shocks them all by letting loose some tears. Syleena says, “Seeing Faith cry is DEEP. She don’t never cry.” Mo is also freaking out over it: “I am buggin’.” And then they share a verse right there in the restaurant, and they sound GOOD. Aww, Faith feels!
The rest of the episode is a scattering of promotion for individual ventures the divas are pursuing: first, Angie comes out with the fact that she is going to be part of a sitcom that she’s producing and acting in called Nana Knows Best. She invites the divas to the first table read, and also opens the possibility of possible acting cameos in it, which Mo and Syleena both seem down for. Acting is a whole ‘nother realm and I don’t know how I feel about all the divas stepping into scripted roles when what I really want is for them to be on the concert stage. But Mo at least has some acting experience in her background as well, and I know the life of the singer and the actress can frequently go hand in hand. And heaven knows, I’ll support any TV show with an all-black cast, as we always need more of those on our screens. Girl with the scarf and the leggings, I’m particularly excited to see more of you.
Nicci, meanwhile, is churning up talks of restarting Brownstone, and Syleena goes ahead and reshoots her workout video without Nicci Gilbert after meeting with her lawyer and realizing there’s no real other possibility. Angie also meets with Keke to work out where she is in relation to the divas and a possible tour, and while things seem much more amicable than the first time they met, it still seems like Keke Wyatt is too invested in her own thangs right now to have any real interest in the divas. Which I still think is a bummer, but, you do what you gotta do, girl.
But as for the drama portion of things, here we go once again with Nicci and Syleena. Angie actually does take on her Mama Diva self pretty well in this episode in trying to bring things together. At her table reading, she has the divas who are there put their hands together in a promise of being each other’s sisters’ keepers:
But as Syleena says, if you put your hand into the circle without your heart in it, too, it don’t really matter. “We can throw our jewelry in, throw our weaves in,” and it still won’t accomplish anything. Syleena FTW, because that weaves comment was my favorite thing in the whole episode.
Syleena, Nicci, Angie, and Mo then meet at a club to throw around tour ideas, which seems to be going decently until Nicci says that the thousand elephants in the room surrounding her and Syleena need to be resolved. Which is true! Everyone agrees on that! But then things turn ugly fast, and it’s hard to unpack all of this as it’s edited, because it’s clear there are a lot of things that were said that didn’t get to fit into the episode. But in the end, Syleena does “what the devil never did for you,” and leaves Nicci at the table. And from what I could see, Monifah and Angie aren’t too pleased with Nicci afterwards, either. Maybe they are all realizing that Nicci’s stubbornness is what’s bringing everyone else down.
Then after this, our last scene is Nicci meeting with Big Jim about relaunching Brownstone, and she throws in a few vague comments about working with the divas, too. But she also says that her tour business is “pretty much resolved.”
So at this point, I don’t really know what the hell is happening. I hoped that “pretty much resolved” meant she is out of the tour (and out of the show?) to focus on Brownstone instead, which would be fine with me. The other divas (aside from Faith and Nicci) are clearly much more resolved to work together in a healthy way. And they’re all I need to see.
In any case, it felt like there were a lot of things that went down in this episode. Faith’s leaving, Angie’s TV show, Brownstone, who will or will not be involved in a divas tour — what are your thoughts on it all?
