The Season 5 finale of Queen Sugar aired Tuesday, and I am all caught up now.
I know there have been production challenges specific to COVID-19, but I am glad they found a way around them. I am grateful that they found a way to reflect the hellscape of a year that was 2020.
The first eight episodes of the ten-episode season were all titled after dates, starting with late February 2020. I had almost forgotten what "before" felt like. It all came back as characters started seeing and hearing news: that growing sense of dread.
Then they started talking about the vulnerability of the elderly. Fear for Mister Prosper clenched my heart. No, that's why we met Hollywood's mother, dammit. But then, the risk of contraction was not the only risk for the elderly. Prosper had to deal with loneliness, and repetitive watching of the news, and feelings of uselessness and helplessness.
Thank Heaven there are people who love him.
I have seen some of that. We try and keep tabs on people, but this has all been a lot.
There has been relief in watching something so emotionally true and looking at it with fresh eyes.
It has been helpful that there are still so many scenes of joy.
I have been especially impressed with the cycles that characters have gone through. That is in reference to their relationships, but not exclusively.
Darla and Ralph Angel have been torn apart painfully, and reunited, twice. Between those reunions there was growth. Now they are growing together, getting better all the time.
I have complained about other shows rushing breakups and makeups, resulting in none of it really mattering. I am amazed at how much Queen Sugar covers in such short seasons.
It is not impossible to believe that Davis can be better now, and that it could make sense for Charley to consider trusting him, even though he blew up her life so thoroughly before. After all, she had to work through that with Nova too.
In thinking about this post, I reviewed other times when I have written about the show. Not every single mention is down below, but there are a few. What struck me most was noting Nova's tendency to skip asking for permission, probably to avoid hearing "No". When I wrote that it was just about Too Sweet's bail; that was nothing compared to her book!
The book was intended for healing, and healing did happen. Could everyone have healed in a better way that respected boundaries? That sure seems likely, but the most overwhelming feeling is gratitude that the healing did come anyway, and that the ruptures that have happened have been healed.
Therefore, as we faced one final bomb dropping in this last episode of the most recent season (Is that 5 for 5 now? I think that's 5 for 5.), I find it completely possible to believe that there is a path forward.
Even thinking that on the penultimate episode -- that there had to be a way forward for Nova and Calvin, and how that might look -- I did not picture it going in that direction. I thought there might be a step, but if we are looking at that level of reconciliation, that is going to cover a whole season, and there can only be a hint.
But that particular hint?
And yet there is still hope.
And that, of course, is the point. The characters of Queen Sugar are fictional, but they are gloriously human: flawed and beautiful, capable of good and evil, deserving of growth and love, sometimes finding grace, but having to work for it all the same.
So as humans, that all applies to us too. There are prices to pay, but there are wonderful possibilities.
And as much as we need to make it through this, just clenching and gritting until it is over will never get it over with.
Make room for other people, and love, and beauty, and whether you have a chance to create joy or just grab on to some that is already there, take it.
For all of the things that may not be possible, love and healing still are.
Previous posts:
https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2017/08/the-men-and-future-men-of-queen-sugar.html
https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2017/08/a-death-in-family-via-queen-sugar.html
https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2017/08/queen-sugar-nova-and-charley.html
https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2017/12/queen-sugar-making-amends.html
https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2019/06/juneteenth-black-music-month-and-queen.html
https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2020/08/director-spotlight-ava-duvernay.html
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