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“R&B Divas” recap (3.2): Loss and Opportunity

This week on R&B Divas, the enragement from last week begins to settle down, and we get to see more of what’s actually been going on with the different divas. And boy, is there a lot going on. We begin with Monifah and Terez in Mo’s kitchen, starting to actually make plans for their fabulous day of matrimony. Mo wants to make sure the planning doesn’t stress them out too much or bring tension between them. There’s one thing they definitely agree on, though: it’s going to be in a warm climate, on an island that supports marriage equality. Mo just wants a pretty bouquet and a beach. Don’t we all! We’ll discover later that there’s more Mo wants for this wedding, but for now she and Terez end the conversation with a hug.

We also get to see a lot of Syleena this episode, which is awesome, starting with her sitting down at a fancy restaurant and lookin’ fine with music exec Wayne Williams. He tells her that a million and one record companies wants to give her a deal! But it’s actually him who really wants her, as he and R. Kelly have just started their own record company and she could be one of their first artists. There’s just a tiny problem. To secure the deal, Syleena has to show him some songs, and the exact number of songs she currently has recorded is one. One is not enough. Syleena has to get a lot of music done, and fast.

There are a number of reasons why this is especially stressful for Leena right now. One, the producer she was working with last season, Bangladesh, got busy with other projects. She’s working with someone new now, but is still behind. The biggest factor, however, is her sister and manager and partner in crime, Syleecia. As they sit on the beautiful red couch in Syleena’s house, we get the full story. Syleecia was recently seven months pregnant when she learned her baby’s heart had stopped beating. She then had to endure 30 hours of labor to deliver her stillborn child. Holy. Shit.

This episode promised “real talk,” and this is as real as it gets. Syleena needs her sister’s help, but Syleecia doesn’t have a lot of motivation to give. As she says, “I’m never going to be the same again.” She says that she hates this industry because it “punishes you for being a woman,” that no one cares that she’s going through this, that she still feels pushed to organize release parties on the same day that she’s going to the hospital to deliver her dead baby.

Later, the sisters sit around the table with their mom, and Syleecia suggests that they need to bring someone else in to co-manage, at least for the moment. Momma Johnson jumps in to say she can help out. Syleecia asks how she’ll manage that when she can’t even use a computer. Momma rejects that assertion: “I watch Facebook, YouTube, I’m good!” Momma Johnson is increasingly my favorite person. This provides a welcome bout of laughter from both sisters.

Syleecia says she thinks she’ll stick with looking for a manager outside of the home.

Perhaps the most amazing moment of the episode comes when Monifah and Syleena and family gear up for a 5K for Kile’s World charity, in honor of Tameka Foster’s son Kile who was killed a year and a half ago. Although Monifah casually refers to it as a marathon. 5K, 26.2 miles; I mean, who’s counting? I love you, Mo. Anyway, it involves Syleena’s mom huffing and puffing from the get-go and complaining about looking like a bumblebee in their yellow shirts, all while fitness expert Donna Richardson shouts them on. It is amazing.

It’s on this 5K run/walk (they kept saying they were running, but it appeared to be more like a brisk walk most of the time), that Mo makes the announcement that she wants to get liposuction. Fitness expert Donna Richardson freaks out. Syleena’s mom shouts, “Don’t let them suck that fat outta you!” Monifah says she wants to look good in her wedding dress. I say from my couch, “Aw, Mo.”

Even though almost everyone seems to be giving her flack about it, Monifah proceeds to go in for a consultation with her plastic surgeon. She expresses her only true fear about the surgery: that she’ll have to take pain killers afterwards. And now that she’s sober, she doesn’t want to even tempt any type of addiction monster coming back at her. The doctor assures her that she doesn’t necessarily need to take narcotics if she doesn’t want them. She then compliments Mo’s butt and boots, which makes Mo happy. There’s just one last barrier: telling Terez.

Terez ends up giving her the look that I would give her too, the skeptical and slightly incredulous look of disapproval. There’s a hilarious moment where Monifah, scared by this look, denies that she’s already had a consultation. Seconds later, she breaks down because she can’t lie to Terez, and says yes, she has. She uses the “it’s what I want for our wedding” plea, and eventually Terez says this lovely line, that signifies the green light: “You know how to suckerpuck every one of my internal organs.” Mo squeals in glee and jumps off the couch to call her doctor.

I have a lot of feelings about plastic surgery, and they’re not good ones. However, I’m working on holding back on my judgment of what other people (other women, particularly) do with their bodies, and what they find empowering. Like Mo says, other people can protest, but when it comes to her body, the only ones who get to decide are her and her creator. (But still, for what it’s worth, Monifah, you’re beautiful however you look.)

We also get a very brief moment with Meelah and her four-year-old son, Zacariah. They share some play time at a local kid’s store with Zacariah’s father, Musiq Soul Child. He and Meelah are friends and co-parents, but are not a couple. I’m glad that Musiq’s around for Zac, but he says a few kind of strange things about Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) when Meelah expresses some of her worry about Zac’s speech delays. Musiq mumbles a little so I may have misinterpreted what he was saying, but it sounded like he was equating boys just having funny quirks with autism, which, um, is not the same thing. He assures Meelah that once Zac grows and develops new interests that he can really latch on to he’ll be fine. This may be true to a point, but still, Meelah, girl, stop worrying that you are worrying too much. You’re a mom, and it seems like you’re doing just fine.

We later see Meelah in the studio with Musiq and her manager, as she attempts to move on from her history with 702, move forward from always being so occupied with Zac, and actually spend some time on herself, as she attempts to kickstart a solo career.

Meanwhile, our other new diva, the ridiculously attractive LaTavia, has invited Keke out to lunch to get to know her a little better and discuss what the heck was going on at The Enragement Party from last week’s episode. Later, Mo will also sit down with Keke to talk about it, and then Syleena will. And in all this talk about the fallout of her behavior, it appears Keke still doesn’t quite understand what her behavior was. She maintains that she was just “joking” at the party, and she rejects the notion that she always needs to be the center of attention. It’s like she doesn’t know what she’s doing when she acts badly, and then develops amnesia about it afterwards. There are some almost-silly, almost-sad, “Oh, Keke,” moments, like when Mo asks why she didn’t reach out after the engagement party to explain herself, and Keke answers, genuinely, “I texted you a sad face!”

Still, there is some legitimate stuff going on with her, when she’s calm enough to explain it. The simple (but not really simple at all) thing is that she’s lonely. Since she grew up in a world of boys and brothers, her lack of female friends has always been a sore spot. She feels like she finally got some of that community with the divas, but now a lot of the divas are busy and she doesn’t know how to reach out to them and she feels alone again. When Mo says that she doesn’t even know how she feels about inviting Keke to her wedding because she never knows how she’s going to act, it twists the knife even further.

Keke also mentions to Syleena, though, that she has some hormonal stuff going on that she doesn’t even understand, and when she finally sits down to talk to her brother, Keever, she says some seriously trippy things about stuff she’s been experiencing. How she feels like she’s outside her body sometimes, how she can’t breathe, how it feels like she’s going to swallow her tongue, that her stomach is unsettled. While it’s clear she has some serious anxiety issues going on, Keever, after offering her his unwavering support, asks the question that’s also been going through my mind, and that MUST have also gone through hers at some point: is she pregnant?

“Oh God, I hope not,” she replies. And then she keeps repeating it: “I really hope not.” Last episode, Michael had commented that he and Keke having “a million babies” was stressful. Well, you may just have a million and one, Mr. But we’ll have to wait and see.

I can’t wait to see even more interaction between all the divas, more wedding planning, more family, more music. What do you hope this season will bring?

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