We’ll give The Chi‘s Papa a pass this week — he’s grieving his murdered father, after all — but does the kid really have to rip into poor Kenya like that?
Papa’s girlfriend comes to offer her condolences in the latest episode, and he wastes no time telling her that his father didn’t like the idea of their being together. Then he ends their fledgling relationship, recounting how Pastor Jackson said Papa wasn’t ready to handle the responsibility of dating the mother of a young child. “And now I see he was right,” he tells her. Ouch.
Still, like we said: Papa’s not in a great place during the episode. Read on to see how everyone else is doing as the pastor’s funeral unfolds in “Long Live.”
THE AFTERMATH | Bakari weeps as he comes for Nuck, shoving a gun right up under the older man’s jaw and demanding to know if Nuck looked the pastor in the face before he strangled him. Nuck, unbothered, reminds Bakari that his associate will retaliate immediately if the teen does anything to Nuck. So Bakari drops his gun, sobbing as he asks why Pastor Jackson had to die. “He was like a father to me, man,” Bakari says. But Nuck coldly replies that Jackson was talking too much, and that Bakari can’t trust anyone who isn’t involved in Douda’s operation.
Meanwhile, Kevin and Jake find Papa crying in the church, but he asks them to leave him alone; they reluctantly do. On their way out of the sanctuary, they bump into Bakari, whose arrival brings Papa to his feet. He strongly suspects that Douda’s people were behind the pastor’s death. “My dad was a noble man, and he got killed for it!” he shouts. A broken Bakari says he loved Papa’s father like he was his own. “He’s not your father, he’s mine!” Papa yells. “And now, he’s gone.”
But Papa’s anger at Bakari has cooled by the time they both go to the funeral home. As they stand before Pastor Jackson’s casket, they talk about what he would’ve wanted, and Papa says his dad would’ve liked for them “to be our best selves.” The boys hug, crying on each other’s shoulders.
Later, Douda has the unmitigated gall to show up at the funeral, but Mrs. Jackson immediately orders him out. He protests, saying he didn’t kill the pastor. “Of course not,” she replies. “You sent one of your pawns to do it.” Later in the service, when Papa is overcome while giving a eulogy, Jake and Kevin rush to his side and stay there to buttress him as he goes on. After the burial, the community gathers for a memorial candlelight vigil, organized by Victor.
KIESHA IS ONE FOOT OUT THE DOOR | Kiesha also knows that Douda was behind the death, and she’s so mad at Emmett for being wrapped up with the former mayor, she wants to leave: “If I can’t count on you to protect us, we’re not staying here.” He manages to change her mind, vowing that he’ll do anything to protect their family if she’ll just give him some time to fix things. “Fine,” she says, “but I’m sleeping in the guest room until you figure this out.” And if anything else happens, she warns, “I’m gone.”
Then, without telling Emmett, Kiesha goes to see Nuck and tells him Emmett’s relationship with Douda and the organization is worrying her. He, too, promises that he won’t let anything bad happen to her… and is pulled up short when she replies, “You already have!” (Ouch! And true!) She gently tells him that if he has her back, “then you’ve gotta have Emmett’s back, too.” Still, Nuck won’t make any promises about her safety. And of course, Nuck can’t help but rub his conversation with Kiesha in Emmett’s face later in the hour.
As if worrying about her family’s safety weren’t enough, Kiesha also undergoes a join therapy session with Nina. It’s rough. Kiesha says that she and Kevin didn’t have enough of their mom’s attention when they were growing up. In the truth-telling that follows, Nina confesses that she never planned to get married or have children. She quickly adds that she loves her kids, but all Kiesha can hear is that her mother never wanted her. “This is where the healing begins,” the therapist says as tears stream down the ladies’ faces.
ELSEWHERE AROUND TOWN | Maisha gets mad when Jemma shows up late to a recording session, and madder when she learns the manager was with Bakari’s sister… When someone tries to break into Deja’s place, Shaad grabs a gun and scares them off. But Deja is horrified to learn that he’s keeping weapons in the house. She demands that he get rid of them ASAP, so he throws them in a bag and returns them to Bakari outside the funeral home. A desperate Bakari then stashes them in Lynae’s closet… Victor and Fatima start talking about starting a family… In the interest of being as honest with Jake as he wants Jake to be with him, Victor confesses to his brother that he was there when Q was killed — except he doesn’t name Q, and he lets Jake assume that his involvement was limited to helping dump the body. “You can do s—t for the community if your ass is locked up,” Jake advises him.
Now it’s your turn. What did you think about the episode? Are you ready for next week’s midseason finale? Sound off in the comments!