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Pose … you really, really had me worried there with the nine month time jump! We went from a delightful episode where Blanca finally found some romance … and then you snatched all that goodness away from us! Did Blanca and her lifeguard/medical student ever hook up again? Inquiring minds want to know! Instead you hit us with the realization that Blanca is sick, really sick, the AIDS virus taking a toll on her body (perhaps due in part to moving her nail salon to her apartment and inhaling all those chemicals). Now we start the finale with a spectre hanging over the episode and I’m already clutching my box of Kleenex! And then we learn she hasn’t even spoken to Pray Tell since they had that falling out prior to the beach trip? His showing up just as her health was deteriorating was not giving me a good feeling, but thankfully he was there to get her to the hospital.
This is how much we care about these characters. Blanca is the heart and soul of the show. She can’t die now. It was bad enough losing Candy this season, but ending with Blanca passing away will just not do. So, yeah, I was worried. Thankfully Pray, Angel, Papi, Elektra and Lulu rallied around her and with Judy’s care, got her nursed back to health. I am so happy that Elektra and Blanca are now more friends than frenemies. Mother Elektra has really stepped up her concern for Blanca and even though they are now heads of rival Houses, along with Lulu’s House, they are still family and having that positive representation on television is major, especially in our current political climate. We see how the LGBTQ community, particularly the Trans members of that community, were treated back then and we think that almost thirty years later we’ve advanced as a society but instead we have an administration that now wants to make it legal to fire someone from a job simply because of the gender identity. Now more than ever, Pose is essential viewing, holding a mirror up to our society today. Why can’t we accept people for who they are? We’re all flesh and bones, we’re all human, we all have beating hearts that should give us compassion for others.
But as it is now, it was the same then. We saw this week how Angel lost her modeling contracts because some mouthy queen outed her as transsexual (this storyline is, in fact, based on a real person, Tracy Norman, the first Black Trans model who appeared on a Clairol box who was then outed and lost her career but is now making a comeback in her 60s). While it was heartbreaking when Angel received the news, it was also heartwarming that Mrs. Ford didn’t react with anger when she learned the truth. She actually showed Angel compassion. And even better was Papi’s reaction to the news. He is behind Angel 1000%, even if she doesn’t believe in herself, he believes in her. He knows she can still model and he decides to become her manager, even printing up business cards and hustling around town to all the Trans girls in the ballrooms to offer them representation. Getting anyone to take him seriously is the hard part but Papi has perseverance if nothing else. He even goes directly to Mrs. Ford and makes her an offer — mentor him, take him under her wing, he knows he can book Angel and the others some work, he’ll even bang on doors while people are having dinner (something Mrs. Ford advised against). But she actually saw something in him, and unlike Lou Grant on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, she liked his spunk. So she offered him a cubicle and two weeks to book a job. If he could do that, he was in. And lo and behold he did! He got Angel booked for some sort of beverage campaign in Germany — complete with the acknowledgement of her truth, which the company said made her more exotic — and now all they have to do is get on a plane.
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I never expected when the show first started that Papi would grow into this character he’s become. Once he got involved with Angel, he’s become a new man, completely devoted to her. It has to be one of the sweetest relationships on television right now. Who couldn’t want the best for these two? When he gave Angel the big news at the Mother’s Day Ball, the love between the two shone bright and when Angel got down on a knee and Papi got down on his knees, and they counted to three and popped the question to each other, millions of hearts bursts all across the land. It was a wonderful moment and I loved how everyone gathered around them to show their support.
This episode also tackled the issue of misogyny in the ballroom. Yes, even among the ballroom culture, the women (Trans or not) were always looked down upon. They were always judged by men as they walked, it was the men who took center stage when voguing became huge. As Elektra matter of factly told Pray Tell, the men were getting all the acclaim stomping down the ballroom floor that was built by the women. The judges are men, the council of emcees are all men. Things need to change. Pray actually took what she said to heart and presented the notion to the council that they needed to do something to show solidarity with the women of the community. The solution — they would all don a pair of heels (and a dress, wig and makeup) and walk in those women’s shoes at the Mother’s Day Ball. The scene with Elektra teaching them how to walk in heels was priceless, but it also gave us a really nice moment between Pray and Ricky, who was also participating. Ricky could see that Pray was struggling to embrace his femininity, and Pray related to him how his father would try to beat some masculinity into his son. Ricky has had a similar experience but he likes to ‘queen out’ once in a while and wants Pray to know it’s okay. I don’t think we expected this relationship to last nine weeks but here we are nine months later and Ricky has grown immensely after getting his diagnosis and being with Pray Tell. He may come and go as he pleases, but it seems the love Ricky has for Pray is the real deal.
The news of Blanca’s illness made its way to Damon in Europe and he surprised us all when he showed up at the hospital just as Blanca was about to be discharged. He’s doing great with the Malcolm McLaren tour, he’s got a negative status, McLaren wants him to choreograph a video, and he’s even started a Paris-based House of Evangelista with himself as the House Father. Mother Blanca’s children are flourishing. And now with Damon’s help, Blanca is determined to make it to the Mother’s Day Ball come hell or high water. Even if she has to be wheeled in. What probably helped Blanca regain her health was the news that Mrs. Norman was going to jail for arson. Yep, she burned down the salon herself to collect the insurance money and get Blanca out. Meeting with her lawyer, Frederica was informed that bail had been denied because the judge considered her a flight risk. Frederica made it clear that, as a woman, they were just trying to make an example out of her because women were not allowed to be successful, they had to be subservient to men. Her only regret is that she denied another woman her dream and she would gladly serve time for that but she was not going to go quietly as another victim of a male dominated society. If only she could have channeled that girl power into Blanca and her salon, things may have turned out differently for her.
And this year’s ball was the one to end all balls. Everyone was slaying their categories, and when it came time to announce the Mother of the Year, of course it was Mother Elektra Wintour who rebuilt her house from nothing. Her children were snatching trophies left and right, and she has truly grown as a person as well. It was a well-earned reward. And then it was time for the next category and we FINALLY got to see Candy’s Sweet Refrain, something that was promised at every ball to honor Miss Candy. This has been the first time since she died that we’ve actually seen the category on the show. But as Pray was ready to start bringing the contestants onto the floor, Damon ran up and whispered something to him causing Pray to take a pause and tell everyone that they had a special person prepared to compete but as she’s been battling a severe illness and still managed to get herself to the ballroom, he was going to push her to the front of the line.
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The music starts and out comes Damon waving a Rainbow flag and Papi waving a House of Evangelista flag (they have a flag?!). They raised their flags to reveal Blanca, being pushed in her wheelchair by Angel, lip syncing to Whitney Houston’s rendition of ‘The Star Spangled Banner’. The ballroom erupted in applause and tears, and when she got to the key moment of the song, ‘And the rockets red glare’, she tore off the jacket and tossed the blanket cover her legs aside to reveal a stunning red outfit as she rose to her feet. The ballroom erupted as she SLAYED that performance, and when all was said and done Pray told the other contestants to come back tomorrow because no one was going to top that.
And there was more! Elektra took over the mic and announced the very special moment that was about to take place, calling Lulu, Angel, Ebony, Kiki Pendarvis and the woman Elektra believes is the rightful Mother of the Year, her heroine and her heart — Blanca Evangelista. Elektra’s speech has ALL the feels, lemme tell ya. And Mother also gave Pray Tell a run for his money as she read each and every man who walked that floor in heels, and most of them really turned it out too. Pray was last and gave his best Diana Ross realness, tentative at first but finally giving in to the rapturous applause, doing that Miss Ross spin, Ricky screaming, ‘That’s my man!’ Pray didn’t win though (Miss Kiki gave him a 9 for payback) but in the end he was a winner.
But when it was all over, Blanca was still going home to an empty House. As Elektra said in her speech, she pushed her daughter Angel to never give up on her dreams of being a model, she inspired Papi to start his own business, she encouraged and supported Damon through his dance education to parlay that into worldwide acclaim … but with her children now ‘grown’ and scattering around the world, there is no House of Evangelista. But Pray reminded her that the ballroom is meant to be a place where she can come and not be alone, and while waiting outside for Pray to take her home, after Angel and Papi left to get some food, Blanca spotted two young kids on the street corner. The boy and girl had just arrived in the city, both had been thrown out of their homes and had met at the piers, but they had seen Blanca’s stunning performance. Ever the caring mother, Blanca asked if they were hungry and needed a place to sleep and they were introduced to Pray Tell, and the four of them went off to the new House of Evangelista.
I was really nervous throughout the episode that something bad was going to happen to someone, but I remembered that the people behind Pose have said they always want to end the season on a high note, one of hope, not despair or engineered drama for a cliffhanger. And for that, I think I can speak for pretty much everyone who watches that we appreciate that. We have grown to love these characters over the course of two short seasons — 20 episodes total — and that is due to the care that goes into the production, the writing, and all of the performances. That’s why Candy’s death hit us all so hard. Even the supporting characters matter, regardless of how much screen time they get. And if we can embrace fictional characters like this, we should be able to embrace our very real brothers and sisters of the human race no matter what. To paraphrase what Elektra said at the ball, we should all step out of our comfort zones and walk in the shoes of another. If we did, we would make a better world.
Let’s hope that the third season of Pose will continue to give us stories of positivity and perhaps help make the world a better place.
What did you think of this episode? Give us your thoughts in the comments section below.
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