Queen Sugar: Making amends

In my last round of writing about Queen Sugar (it's only going to be one post this time, I am pretty sure), I wrote about fears for Blue. He is so well-loved and so sweet that the vulnerability was hard to ignore. Something happened, but not at all expected.

Blue's mother Darla had been out of his life due to drug addiction. Two years clean meant that she was not only in Blue's life again, but that she was working a good job, and engaged to Ralph Angel. The engagement led to a reunion with her long-estranged parents. Then she told Ralph Angel that Blue might not be his.

I have noticed that Darla really uses the steps and processes that she has learned in recovery to keep herself functioning. I think that telling Ralph Angel was not done well, and it was because she wasn't thinking about steps.

I blame that on the pressure from her father, telling her that she had to tell. A part of me wonders if it was somewhat deliberate, knowing it would lay waste to the life she had built. I can't be completely against them either. Her mother said some things about how difficult it was having an addict as a daughter, with the disappearances and the broken promises, and I don't doubt there. There was nonetheless a certain rigidity to them that I don't think did their daughter any favors.

(And if they were hoping it would give them Blue, they were mistaken.)

I saw a lot of comments about the storyline that this is the kind of thing that you take to your grave. I'm not necessarily in favor of that either, but this confession that wouldn't just blow up Darla's life (though it really did), but also Ralph Angel's. If you have wronged someone, and need to confess it, then I think you need to think about reducing harm.

What really drove that home for me is that even though Darla told him that Blue might not be his, Ralph Angel told his family that Blue wasn't his. He only took in the worst information. I have seen that happen before. If you tell someone something horrible enough, it blots out the surroundings. It was also pretty horrible that she told him right at harvest time.

If Darla had felt less pushed by her father - and by guilt - could she have thought about that? She could have done a paternity test first, and eliminated the unknowns. She could have waited until after harvest, both to help Ralph Angel be able to concentrate and to not take a staffer away from the mill at a time when they really needed someone on the phones. She could have put some support for Ralph Angel in place. You can't take away all the pain, but can mitigate.

That is my cerebral response. Emotionally, I hate that it happened at all. They love each other so much, and have been through so much, and it's hard to believe that they can really be happy apart. There was a grace in their final parting that was beautiful, but also tragic.

She has grown stronger, and so has he -- they have shown the most growth out of any of the characters -- but this shattering of trust may be irreparable. It hurts and it should hurt, but maybe it could have hurt less.

Anyway, that was the thing I had thought about most. Otherwise, I think the interest that all the younger Landry's are showing in Charley is really creepy, especially given the family history. I believe in her ability to destroy them, but I question whether it will be worth the cost.

And I can see that in many ways Nova and Remy could make sense. They have a shared commitment to service and community that they fill in a lot of different ways, but, I did not see that coming.

That would blow up some things too.