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Love brings joy to many people, but it can also end in heartbreak. Last week, Pose gave us a Blanca-centric episode focused on the death of her mother, and death is not taking a holiday in this week’s Pray Tell-focused episode. But the episode did not leave us hanging where we left off last time with Patty confronting Angel. Picking up right from there as the two have a sit down in a local diner, Patty was certainly perplexed as to why Angel was hanging out with all those ‘gay men and drag queens’ and was even more shocked when Angel told her truth.
Finding out that her husband is having an affair with a transexual (and Angel made sure Patty knew it was she who broke it off because she didn’t want to feel ‘kept’) sent her into a bit of a tailspin, running to the family doctor to demand an HIV test (even though Angel assured her they used protection every time). Patty’s results did come back negative, but the impact on her was so great that she started seeing a therapist and then dragged Stan in for some marriage counseling. Confronted with his affair made Stan realize that he’s not even sure now of who he is — straight, gay, or bisexual. One thing he does know is that his boss Matt was the one who spilled the beans to Patty and a brawl in their office left both of them bloodied. But will Stan have a job after that? He’s going to need it now that Patty has kicked him out, telling him he can live in the apartment he rented for Angel for the last month of the lease. And then what?
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Love was in the air for Blanca too as she was being wooed by a guy at the ball. She tried to brush him off, but he persisted and set a date for Saturday. All aflutter, Blanca went to a local clothing store (hooker clothing store by the looks of it) to pick out an outfit for her date. But Candy and Lulu Abundance were also shopping and Blanca learned the truth — her guy was a player who liked ‘the girls’ and they’d all been with him, including the shop girls (one of whom was former RuPaul’s Drag Race contestant Jiggly Caliente). Blanca didn’t keep the date — she had something more important to do for Pray Tell — but when the guy showed up at the ballroom, there was actually a showing of sisterhood as all the girls circled him like fresh prey and verbally let him have it. Blanca may not have found romantic love, but she knows she is loved and has much more to give to her friends and her children.
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And that is where Pray Tell comes into the story. We know that his boyfriend Costas is dying, it’s just a matter of when even though Pray Tell refuses to accept that, outwardly, always trying to give Costas and himself the (false) hope that he will get better. It doesn’t help that Pray Tell now feels as if he’s also living on borrowed time after his HIV-positive results. But he does what he has to do to keep the children of the ballroom in a partying mood … except everyone knows something is up because the only track Pray Tell will let the DJ play is ‘Love is the Message’ which is his and Costas’ song. Unfortunately, it’s driving everyone else crazy but Blanca knows something is up because Pray Tell is also drinking more than usual. So she decides to have a ‘funtervention’ to bring him out of his funk.
And it does not go well because Pray Tell shows up drunk and continues to drink rather than eat the dinner Blanca serves up, and take great offense at her and her children trying to teach him a thing or two, to spill all of his tea while he’s held on to so many of her secrets. It almost seemed as if he was going to blurt out her HIV status but he did manage to restrain himself enough to tell them all to fuck off before storming out.
But we also saw Pray Tell’s pain while at the hospital with Costas. He’s appalled by the dingy conditions of the AIDS ward and has a few snappy words for the attending nurse (played by Sandra Bernhard) who wasn’t afraid to give back. As she tells him, there’s no budget to make the place more cheerful, and it’s very difficult to bring cheer to a place where no one will leave alive. But if he’s so concerned maybe he should throw something together since he is an entertainer after all. I loved how he snapped back at her, ‘look at you being all helpful.’ She lit a fire under his ass and he was determined to put together a little cabaret event for the patients in the ward. He invited Blanca to come and sing, but she had her date, and he knew that was something she desperately needed so he told her to go for it.
I have to tell you, the rest of this episode was just heartbreaking even when Pray Tell was putting on what amounted to a one man show with a couple of streamers and a piano player (I really thought he’d get some others from the ballroom to perform). As Costas and a few others looked on Pray Tell belted out ‘For All We Know’ by Donny Hathaway. Billy Porter, who plays Pray Tell, is a Broadway vet and he has the pipes to prove it. It was a heartfelt, deeply emotional performance that was directed at Costas. I have no idea how he got through that entire song without completely breaking down — because I’m in tears just writing about it. It was a lovely moment and before the song was over, Blanca showed up to lend her voice to the proceedings.
Blanca stepped up to the mic and started to sing the song ‘Home’ from The Wiz, and damn if she didn’t sound like Michael Jackson. (Now there has been some question as to whether this was really star Mj Rodriguez’s actual voice because it seemed more pre-recorded than Billy Porter’s, but she has performed in an off-Broadway production of Rent as Angel, so I’m not going to question the authenticity of the performance.). But midway through the song, Blanca locked eyes with one of the patients and perhaps was overwhelmed by looking into what could possibly be her own future. Sensing that she was about to lose her composure, Pray Tell jumped in and made the song a duet that was simply amazing.
After the show, Pray Tell was spending time with Costas when he decided he had to say a few words to Pray Tell. Costas knew his time was short, and he implored Pray Tell to yell and cry and break things after he died … but for one day. After that, he had to move on, be happy, find love again. He did not want Pray Tell to mourn him for the rest of his life.
Some time later — there’s no real sense of time on this show so it could have been hours, days or weeks after they spoke — but Pray Tell got a call from Nurse Judy that Costas had passed and he needed to get to the hospital right away if he wanted to see him before they took his body away. At the next ball, Pray Tell was still playing ‘Love is the Message’ and hosted a few categories but suddenly he ordered the DJ to play a new track and everyone rejoiced (he went right to ‘I’m Coming Out’ by Diana Ross). After the ball, Blanca waited for Pray Tell and he told her what Costas said about moving on and that’s what he chose to do. And he also plans to scatter Costas’ ashes along Fifth Avenue because he loved to window shop so he’ll give him that chance to do it through eternity.
‘Love is the Message’ was just another great episode of the series full of emotion and some great dialog, but most of all it gave Billy Porter his Emmy moments, to be sure. It should also be noted that the episode was directed by Janet Mock, who has also written some episodes and is an executive producer on the show, making her the first out trans woman to produce, write and direct a primetime television show. The season only has a couple of more episodes before it ends, so hopefully there is enough of an audience to bring it back for another season. Pose is definitely one of the best — if not THE best — new dramas of the season.
Pose airs Sundays at 9:00 PM on FX.
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