Episode five of Survivor’s Remorse opens at yet another press event for Cam Calloway. He’s signing posters and hitting on hot girls while cheerleaders shake their pom poms and old friends from Dorchester come out of the woodwork. Jay Holbrook approaches Reggie as he is ending a conversation with a Chinese shoe company who may be interested in signing Cam on an endorsement deal.
Reggie is surprised to see his old friend, especially since he is supposed to be serving time in the Massachusetts state penitentiary for stealing a car with a baby inside, right after high school. Lucky for Jay the prison system is overcrowded and there are sick fucks who have been incarcerated for committing worse crimes than he did and he was released on time served. Unfortunately he was released a month too late for the minor league baseball try-outs in Boston, so he took a 17-hour bus ride to see if Cam and Reggie could get him a spot in the tryouts in Atlanta.
Reggie seems hesitant but Jay assures him that he has changed. He isn’t the same fuck-up he was back in the day. Reggie tells Jay that he’ll make a call. He asks Jay if he needs any money and Jay insists that he didn’t come down there for that. He does however want to go see Cam who is several feet away signing autographs. But Reggie convinces him to wait for now. He doesn’t want to get Cam involved until he knows whether or not they will be able to help Jay out.
In the very next scene Reggie is on the phone with Jay as he strolls around in his back yard while Missy plants flowers in the garden. He blows him off with promises of steak dinners and floor seat tickets when He and Cam are back in Boston and hurriedly gets off the phone. Missy asks who is trying to blow off and Reggie explains that Jay was friend and fellow baller back in high school. As a matter of fact, he was the best baller in school until he committed a felony, lost his full ride to Syracuse University, and earned himself 10 years in prison.
When Missy suggests that maybe Jay has changed, Reggie goes on a long rant about how people don’t ever really change no matter how well ex-cons excel at making you believe they’ve turned over a new leaf. Missy believes in redemption but Reggie claims that he has too much going on to deal with Jay such as weighing endorsement deals and finding a house for Cassie and M-Chuck. It seems that the apartment they were living in was only leased from month to month because he knew that after a couple of months of living in the same building, Cam was going to want some more space.
Cut to: Cassie Calloway walking into a gorgeous kitchen in an expansive home. As the real estate agent gives M-Chuck and Reggie a tour, Cassie stays behind to appreciate her favorite room in the house. Delia, the owner of the house, walks in to retrieve a pie out of the oven and she and Cassie talk. Turns out Delia’s last name is Calloway, too. And like Cassie Calloway, she loves to bake. When Delia forces Cassie to take a bit of her peach pie, Cassie is in awe.
“Girl, is that cayenne in there?” Cassie asks.
“Honey, cayenne is the secret ingredient. What kind of super palette are you working over there?”
Cassie takes the plate of pie right out of Delia’s hand. “Don’t play with me,” Cassie says. “I knows how to work it in the kitchen.”
Later, Cassie and M-Chuck lounge on Adriondack chairs in the back yard while the real estate agent and Reggie talk about the property. Cassie has decided that this is her dream house and she must have it. M-Chuck agrees.
“I like the high-rise but this is a back-motherfucking-yard!”
Reggie warns the ladies not to sound too eager in front of the owner but promises to look at the comparables and talk to Cam about it.
Cassie is so excited that once she is back home, she begins making pies. Unfortunately, the news isn’t good. The asking price is a half million higher than their budget. And there are multiple offers on the table.
“You’re just going to have to give us raises, ” M-chuck suggests. But before they can discuss it further, Cam comes rushing in. He’s pissed at Reggie.
“When were you going to tell me that Jay Holbrook reached out?” he demands.
“Jay Holbrook from Dorchester? M-Chuck asks.
“His daddy owes me some money. Where the motherfucker at?” Uncle Julius pipes in.
“I was leaving practice and he jumped in front of my fucking car!”
M-Chuck is still in shock. “Wait. Jay Holbrook is in Atlanta?”
Cam goes on, “I jumped out of my car, gave my boy a hug, bought him lunch and got him a room at the intercontinental because that is what you do when one of your boys has just done a bunch of years at Walpole.”
“He was the last boy I wish was my boy. Sexy eyes. Dick like a museum piece.” M-Chuck says dreamily.
Cam continues to argue with Reggie. “This ain’t some no-name. Jay’s one of us. He’s one of the original squad.” Cam takes Reggie outside and makes a call to get Jay a spot at the tryouts. Then, he demands that Reggie gives Jay the royal treatment.
Meanwhile, back at Cassie’s dream house. Delia, Cassie and M-Chuck sit in the dining room eating pie while Julius stands in the kitchen behind them. Delia admits that Cassie’s pie is very good but isn’t going to budge on the price. That’s when M-Chuck brings up the history of their shared last name. M-Chuck claims that when looked up their families on Ancestry.com, she discovered that Delia’s ancestors once owned Cassie’s family. She suggests that Delia come down on her prices as a way make amends or make reparations for the sins of her forefathers. Delia is shocked and doesn’t know what to say at first. Then she asks for the other Calloways to follow her. She takes them to the hallway where she shows them a picture of her great, great grandfather: a black man. It seems that her great, great, great granddaddy is Lucius Calloway, and she is part African-American, Cherokee, and Irish with a smidgeon of French thrown in. She tells Cassie and crew that as a strong Nubian queen, her half-pint of black blood makes her immune to white guilt.
“Well, you white-passing, steel ball negotiating bitch!” Cassie says.
“See you at Essence Fest, sistahs!” Delia replies.
While this is going on, Reggie was waiting at D league tryouts for Jay. He shows up four hours later, completely missing his opportunity to try out. He has a bunch of excuses of course, but once Reggie sees through all of those, he admits he was to busy getting high and getting laid to show up for the try-out. Jay tries to get Reggie to help him out by setting up another try-out, but Reggie sends him a way with a bag of swag and an envelope of money.
After hearing a tempting pitch from Nike for a 30 million dollar, five year endorsement contract, Cam and Reg sit back and talk about Jay’s failure to show up for his one chance to turn his life around and Cam’s guilt about not being able to help him out. Cam can’t help but feel like Jay’s story could have been his own. But Reggie disagrees. He gives Cam an impassioned speech about how Cam has gotten to where he is.
“It’s your heart is what got you to where you’re at. You’re heart is big, inexhaustible. Your heart got you practicing, got you eating right, got you not doing stupid shit like getting in cars that weren’t not yours, or mistreating women, or picking up guns. Not doing blow. It’s got you appreciating people and making sure that when you get in spots where you might succeed you did so. You don’t owe anybody for busting your ass to become you. Busting your ass and being on time and not doing crime is a life available to everybody. Where we come from it might be harder than most, but you did it! It’s not your responsibility to make sure other people do it, too.”
Cam knows that Reggie paid Jay to go away, but Reggie insists that you can’t make somebody do what they don’t want to do. Reggie is about to take Cam and his family to the next level and cam seems satisfied to let him.
