Episode three starts with the students getting their refund checks from financial aid. After working for an HBCU, this always feels like Christmas.
We move to The Pit where we see students eating a seafood boil. For this series to never establish anyone being from Richmond where Hillman is set, they are spot on about seafood boils. You can throw a rock and hit one here.
Anyway, the crew is talking about their headliner for Friday Fest dropping out. In season three, episode six, we encounter the same issue. Dwayne and Whitley have to work to create a benefit concert but disagree on what the campus would want to see. Whitley, who is basically rich, thinks the students could benefit from an opera or something classical. Dwayne, being from Brooklyn, HEAVILY disagrees and calls his friend, Heavy D and the Boyz, to come through. The scene with him and Whitley talking about “Carmen” always makes me smile. If you don’t know, Heavy D went to Mount Vernon High school. Who else went to this school you might ask but didn’t? Dick Clark, Pete Rock, and Al B. Sure. This is also the episode where Theresa Randle plays Elizabeth, a single mom who is raising a son. She becomes Ron’s study partner and he becomes enamored with trying to help her raise her son.
Timeline here has gone from August, when students usually arrive on campus, to October/November, when homecoming rolls around. Rashida teases Deborah about having never been on a committee. She mentions her time at Cho. If you watched “Power: Ghost,” Tariq St. Patrick attends Cho, which is short for Choate Rosemary Hall—an exclusive boarding school in, you guessed it, Connecticut. Angela Valdes also went to that school. Ghost could have gone with her but didn’t.
The camera follows Rashida back the register to reveal Jaleesa and Colonel Bradford Taylor. They order oxtails and hushpuppies. Oxtails feels new but I remember Jaleesa ordering hushpuppies in the original series.
Moving to just outside The Pit, Ron greets Shaquille coming down those famed outside stairs leading down to The Pit. He stands with is brothers of Kappa Lambda Nu. This is the fraternity he and Dwayne were supposed to cross but Dwayne got fed up with the antics and quit. That was season two, episode 16. Season four, episode 21 is where Ron got to be big brother showing his roaches the importance of being on line. That was when Terrance was on line. This is also the episode where Whitley was big sister and Kim and Gina were on line. They were bullfrogs. Michael Ralph was also on line, and was also the firefighter in the episode where Ron and Whitley threw a rent party, AND he was Spencer Boyer.
Shaquille is down most of this episode since later we find out that it’s been two years since his mom passed.
I found it hilarious when Deborah says she knows Summer Walker only for her girls to ask her about it and she say no. It was the way she said it that made me laugh. For reference, Summer Walker last performed in Richmond in 2019 at The National.
Just a few minutes earlier, we meet Teedra who should look really familiar since she has her mom’s face. She is Imani Guy Duckette, Jasmine Guy’s daughter. They both worked on Guy’s book A Different Girl.
Dwayne and Whitley are in therapy, They tell us that they’ve been separated for six months. He explains that she starts Glitter by Gilbert (terrible name. I’m not sorry) and wants more while he wants less. The series pissed me off with this because we never expressed an actual problem. Her wanting more and him wanting less has always been a thing with them. That cannot be the problem now because that’s stupid. Case in point, in season four, episode 13, Julian calls Whitley to invite her to dinner. Whitley thinks Julian wants to get back with her, and because Julian is wealthy, she goes to dinner. While at dinner, Julian reveals that he is engaged to a model. This ruins Whitley’s entire mood for the week, which also ruins Dwayne’s week. He mentions to Ron that Whit wants more and he can’t give it to her. At a certain point, he screams, “I don’t need this, and I don’t need her.” He claps himself off screen. As we know…they ended up married with three kids now, so….what was it?
He mentions that he left his job at Kinishewa for a career in academia. If you recall, season three, episode one has produced that well-known meme of Dwayne and Whitley meeting on the plane. This is when Dwayne was coming back from Tokyo after his internship with the tech company. Later in the series, in season six, episode 19, he goes in for a management position with this company only to find Kinu as his interviewer. She was the woman that he told Whitley had has in season three, episode one. He thought he didn’t get the job because she was still angry with him for choosing Whitley. She was married and the man who got the job was more qualified. For the season finales of the original series, Dwayne tells Whitley that he got a job with Kinishewa but it was in Japan. She tells them that they will be having their first baby.
Divorce is a sensitive topic for Whitley because of her parents’ divorce. The divorce was entertaining for us but a nightmare for Whitley—exacerbated by the fact that her dad took a younger bride, Monica. Funny enough, Monica is the name of Jasmine Guy’s sister.
Amir is cutting hair in the dorm, and it kind of reminds me of when Lena decided to make gumbo for everyone and almost burned the dorm down in season five, episode three.
Hazel meeting Jaylen feels like when Freddie met Dwayne and was fawning over him in season two, episode one. Hazel is played by Kennedi Reece. More things from Deborah and Rashida’s room. Just above Deborah’s bed is another Broadway poster, “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” The movie version of this play was released on Netflix in 2020 and stars Viola Davis and the late and brilliant Chadwick Bozeman. If you look closely or maybe when there is a better shot, you can see dance stills. They look like still from the Allen Ailey Dance American Dance Theater in New York. We’ll come back to look at more stuff in their room later.
Moving on to Dwayne giving a speech to the alumni outside of The Pit. Weird place to give a speech to potential donors, but who am I? Whitley tells Dwayne that the Taylors have a farmhouse in South Carolina and a gaggle of grandchildren. Colonel Taylor had two children with his first wife. They were Suzanne and Terrance. We met Suzanne in season two, episode eight when she was trying to hid from her boyfriend Dwayne who her father was, and we met her little brother Terrance in season four, episode one. Towards the end of the series, we see a very pregnant Jaleesa who later gives birth to a daughter they name Imani. She’s born in season five, episode 24. Jaleesa clarifies that they have four grandkids. Not sure the mix.
They continue the conversation where we find out that Marion was the first born of Whitley and Dwayne because Jaleesa says that she is one year younger than Imani. No word on what the middle boy’s name is but I would assume they named him after Dwayne’s dad or Whitley’s. I’m going to bet on Dwayne, but then again his dad’s name was Woodson, so maybe not.
Whitley moves to talk to a Charlene and we see Gina Deveaux and Charmaine Tyesha Brown (played by comedian and actress Ajai Sanders and Karen Malina White). Wasted cameos, in my opinion, but I digress.
Deborah makes a campaign that is “Lashes on Debo.” They talk to Kayla, the lash tech for Summer Walker. Behind Deborah, you can see another Broadway poster. This time, it’s for “Piano Lesson.” Netflix released the movie version of this production in 2024 and it stars John David Washington, Danielle Deadwyler, and Samuel L. Jackson. In that production, it’s tug of war between Boy Willie and his sister over their interpretation of legacy. I noticed that there is a quilt over Rashida’s bed. This reminds me of the episode of “Family Matters” where Laura accidentally sold her family’s quilt and then learned of its significance when they got it back.
Dwayne, Ron and Brad talk with Shaquille and Kojo. Ron mentions that they used to call him Dr. War. Season two, episode one of the original series is titled “Dr. War is Hell.”
Shaquille mentions that he’s not riding a horse for a brand deal, noting the “Old Spice” commercial where actor Isiah Mustafa was on a horse for the commercial years ago.
Whitley catches Charmaine and Gina gossiping about her and Dwayne’s separation. This was often a trope for the both of them. Charmaine says that her made up cousin and boyfriend had a “toxic but enduring love.” This is a common discussion amongst avid, hardcore fans of the show.
Jaleesa comes to really talk to Whitley. She mentions she had an affair with Walter. Her and Walter were supposed to get married in season three, episode seven, but ended up not going through with it. It’s one of my favorite episodes for two reasons. The line Whitley says about wanting a man who is “educated, enterprising and ambitious.” Dwayne asks her if she would still like that type of man if he was poor. She responds, “That kind of man is never poor.” This is also the first time we got to see Dwayne act on his interest in Whitley by pulling her in for a kiss.
As a side note, Walter Oakes (played by Sinbad) is back on stage. He recently posted about working out in CA.
During the scene where everyone is gathered on the yard ready for Summer Walker, Ellington finds Deborah. We’ll talk more about Ellington himself later, BUT he sports the number 29 on his sweater. April 29, 1992 was the series finale of “The Cosby Show.” On February 29, 2024, the original cast of the show kicked off their HBCU College Tour.
Behind Ellington and Shaquille, at a certain point, is a sign that says “Class of 1989.” Now, the cast, in the show, did not graduate in ‘89. They graduated in ‘91. 1989 was the start of season three of the original show. It is also when Dwayne and Whitley started to take dating each other more seriously, and when Dwayne and Whitley visit Denise in New York. It’s when they get caught in the car during that snow storm. This is when we find out that Denise is married. Dwayne is heartbroken, needless to say.
Fast forward to Dwayne and Whitley cutting Deborah off. This is ripped from season four, episode four where her mom faced the same fate from her father, Mercer (played by Ron O’Neal). This catapulted her into finding a job…just like Deborah does in the next episode.
Alright, what did I miss?!
