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OPINION: Marvin’s trying to get better but the police are circling, and now Raquel has to deal with Kanan as competition. It’s just another day in Southside Jamaica.
Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
I don’t imagine Ronnie to be much of a romantic. In fact, I can’t imagine Ronnie containing a single romantic bone in his body. But revenge? Ronnie has that in spades and since Raquel decided to kill the woman Ronnie was … hanging out(?) with, I wonder what is going to happen next. You cannot convince me that Ronnie and Juliana ever bumped uglies, as they say, but I don’t even think that’s at stake here. The principle of Raquel taking something from him is more likely to rule the day than anything.
Other than that, Ronnie had a pretty quiet week. He didn’t kill anybody, went out to a club to not drink and played a big brother role for Kanan by putting in a good word with the woman from the Department of Social Services who is itching to put Kanan in jail. It looks like it worked, too; it doesn’t seem like she’ll ever be a problem again!
On to more pressing matters: Gerald is helping the police make a case against Marvin, and now Gerald must go. This is only unfortunate because Gerald has two little girls who seemingly have no place else to go. If they did, there’s no WAY they’d be in the custody of Gerald, who sends his kids outside to sit in a car while he shoots up heroin in the living room as he did in the last episode. Gerald, under the guise of doing this piece on Jukebox, started asking Marvin questions that Marvin didn’t like, and well, we see where this is going, which is going to present a moral dilemma for Marvin. You see, this is the price that all of this work is going to cost him in the long run: while Marvin is busy trying to be a better human, his line of work requires a certain detached coldness. When it’s time to kill Gerald, will he be able to do it? I wonder. Because that time is coming, my friend, it is coming.
Panama Jackson
Panama Jackson
Panama Jackson
Panama Jackson
Panama Jackson
Panama Jackson
Panama Jackson
Panama Jackson
Speaking of Marvin, he is (rightly) focused on trying to get Lou-Lou some help, and boy, does Lou-Lou need it. Lou’s drinking has gotten extra terrible, so much so that it had him standing on the front lawn of Raquel’s house in that nice quaint suburb yelling about him and Raquel being killers. I know it’s not right to shoot your family members, but I feel like exceptions can be made. Anywho, Lou-Lou is heading straight off a cliff towards tragedy. I hope he doesn’t make it, but it’s not looking good. On the other side of this issue is Raquel who is clearly unconcerned about Lou-Lou’s mental health, which totally would not go over well in 2024. I’ll bet that even drug dealers want their workers to focus on self-care in today’s day and age. I have no proof of this but it sounds right.
Raquel has also discovered that Kanan is now her competition (hence killing Juliana, Kanan and Ronnie’s plug), and I’m sure that causes her quite a bit of consternation. Her supplier, Quan, wants her to make an example of the comp but the comp is her son. Decisions, decisions. I don’t see this going well, but I must say that Raquel running up on Snaps and Pop, and Snaps making the greatest speech of all time about the blood, sweat and tears that paved the way for Raquel? The spoils of war from the castles they stormed? Pure poetry. I hope she doesn’t kill them because I like my drug dealing with a side of Greek tragedy — it’s downright Euripidean.
Most importantly, two things of note happened in this episode: Jukebox was appointed the lead of Butta. Of course, Crystal was nonplussed about this decision and sicced some of her thug-life homies to whip Jukebox’s tail at the Parsons Boulevard F-train subway stop. Crystal’s plan was to make Jukebox absent for the important rehearsal before their Garden State Mall show. So, what’s the second thing that happened of note? Jukebox whipped their behinds. One girl even pulled out a blade. Jukebox got them hands so she not only won the fight but ALSO showed up to rehearsal and secured her spot as the lead AND proved to Crystal that she isn’t to be trifled with. I believe the parlance for Jukebox when it comes to such matters is this: Jukebox is about that life.
Southside.
Panama Jackson is a columnist at theGrio. He writes very Black things, drinks very brown liquors, and is pretty fly for a light guy. His biggest accomplishment to date coincides with his Blackest accomplishment to date in that he received a phone call from Oprah Winfrey after she read one of his pieces (biggest), but he didn’t answer the phone because the caller ID said: “Unknown” (Blackest).
Make sure you check out the Dear Culture podcast every Thursday on theGrio’s Black Podcast Network, where I’ll be hosting some of the Blackest conversations known to humankind. You might not leave the convo with an afro, but you’ll definitely be looking for your Afro Sheen! Listen to Dear Culture on TheGrio’s app; download it here.
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