Star – House Divided

By: Gladys Luna

Maurice (Lance Gross) and Carlotta (Queen Latifah) are discussing about the girls likely to be success on the Midtown Sound label contest after they spent the night together. The woman asks him to hurry up and leave before everyone else notice he is in there, but he tells her that he is not done with her yet so they go back to their previous activities.

Cotton (Amiyah Scott) sneaks into Carlotta´s house without noticing that Star (Jude Demorest) is right there sitting on the kitchen counter. When the blonde sees the other woman enter the place, she questions her about her whereabouts the prior night and assumes that she had spent the night with Elliott (Jack Yang). Suddenly, Star sees a bruise on Cotton´s arm and gets mad believing that Elliot has been hitting her and attempts to make Cotton to confess the truth, but the girl asks her to calm down in order to tell her what truly happened. She tells her about a man she met in jail and how now he is out they have been involved, but she asks the girl not to be worried about her since she has been careful. Cotton seems to love Elliott, but she can’t turn her back on Omari.

Carlotta, Star and Alex (Ryan Destiny) are on their way to the radio promotion interview, but the tension between the two young girls can be felt from miles away. So, Carlotta asks them to find a time to figure out whatever is happening between the two of them since they have to work together for the competition and be in good spirits for it. Alex confesses that she didn’t know that Ayanna (Michael Michele) chose her and Noah´s (Luke James) song to close the showcase, but she doesn’t care as long as they win because if they do they will be able to get Simone (Brittany O’Grady) out of juvie. Right that moment Brody (Stephen Dorff) shows up and asks Star to give him the chance to talk with him. Carlotta goes in defensive mode when he sees the man standing there, but Star tells her it´s ok. Brody informs her that he found out about what Hunter (Chad James Buchanan) did to her and he couldn’t sleep, but the girl asks him to stay out of it. Brody tells her that he came back for her and Simone and he is not going anywhere.

When Carlotta, Alex and Star arrive at the radio station, they see Ayana´s car coming their way. They seem surprised to see that the label manager has decided to step in, but their surprise grows bigger when they see Simone stepping out of the car looking all fancy. When Carlotta questions her about the reason why she arrived in the other woman´s car, Simone tells her that Ayana took her out of juvie two weeks ago and now she is looking to become her new foster mother. Carlotta tells her that despite their desperation that is not the right way to get things done, but Simone retorts that they don’t know what is to live in there being told when to sleep or eat or seeing girls getting themselves killed in front of her. Alex tells her that they have a plan, which is to win the contest in order to take her out of there; however, Simone wonders if they don’t win then what would happen to her. She confesses that Ayana has done for her everything they haven’t so she is staying with her and just like that she leaves the other three girls standing there.

Inside the radio station, the interviewers Da Brat (herself) and HeadKrack (himself) introduce all of the contestants gathered there and we see Angel (Evan Ross), Andy (Elijah Kelley), Star, Simone, Alex and Noah. They talk about the Midtown Sound project and their expectations of it. They also talk about the relationship between Alex and Noah (which we all happen to know is fake) and, obviously, Star is not happy about it. HeadKrack informs them that the label sent them a “little surprise” and all of a sudden Alex and Noah´s song starts to play and it is announced that this song will be the one they will use to close down the showcase. In the meantime, Ayana discusses with Maurice her decision of having released the song earlier than planned when Carlotta walks in yelling at her for what she did with Simone, but the other woman defends herself. Later that day, Maurice also tries to defend Ayana saying she just tried to help Simone, but Carlotta is still not happy with the manager’s ways. As they don’t seem to agree on anything, Carlotta assures him he doesn’t have a say on this matter and insults him saying that the sex wasn’t that great after all.

Star is mad at Alex for letting Ayana release her song. She tells her that they are a group and that Noah is only using her to keep his career going. After she leaves, Noah shows up and tries to discuss the song with Alex, but she tells him that she is part of a group and also has a boyfriend so she doesn’t want to keep doing the duet anymore and neither wants to keep having a “fake relationship with him.”

Jahil (Benjamin Bratt), Angel and Andy are reunited to discuss about their earlier radio interview. They tell their manager Jahil how they believe they’re “nobodies” in comparison with the other contestants and, in addition to that, there is no budget they can use to improve their show. Then, they come up with a plan which includes to mess with the rests of the artist heads and Jahil suggests them to create something good and he will take care of the budget. Later that day, Stars walks in yelling to Ayana for what she´s doing to Simone but the woman asks her to calm down and do her job. All of the artist are gathered to rehearse the showcase opening number, but when Star and Alex turn to sing they do it in a terrible way making Ayana scold them for their behavior and making them stop the rehearse.

Brody shows up at Jahil´s door and asks him for a moment to talk. He confesses that Arlene (Nealla Gordon) contacted him and made him an offer; he would get Star´s phone for him (in order for her to recover the pictures and videos that shows what her son did to the girl) and in return she will pay $250,000 to him. So, he did but when he found out what Hunter had done to his daughter he just couldn’t keep going so he is asking for Jahil´s help. Jahil turns his back on him and pretends to offer him a beer, but then when Brody least expects it Jahil hits him on the head with a gun, leaving him unconsciously laying on the floor.

Alex shows up at Ayana´s office and tells her she doesn’t want to make the duet anymore as she doesn’t believe it does any good for her or Noah. However, Ayana tells her that they were the ones that came up with the idea of making a song and start a “fake relationship” so the duet stays whether she likes it or not.

Simone is all on her own, smashing a pill and putting it into her drink when Angel arrives and asks her if she wants to rehearse. Simone declines, but then she asks him why he wants to sing and he confesses that it makes the painful thoughts away. So, his comment seems to have touched some fiber within the girl as she is now the one that asks him to rehearse with her.

Everyone are gathered again for a new rehearse, but then Andy starts to say very disgusting things to Noah. This makes Noah angry so they start a fight.

Jahil visits Arlene and tells her that he has the phone that contains the pictures and the videos that proves that Hunter used to beat Star. He tells her that if she wants it, she will have to pay five hundred thousand dollars for it. As an extra, he offers her to take care of Brody if she does. He plays an audio where Hunter is calling Star and apologizes to her. Arlene agrees and asks him to meet her the next day.

Carlotta and Simone meet and the girls confess to her that nobody cares for her. Nobody would ask her how she feels or how was she coping with everything that was happening in juvie. So, the fact that she agreed on Ayana to be her new foster mother i´s something that she didn’t accept out of desperation. She also confesses that she believes she loved Karen (Imani Lewis), but then Carlotta believes that the girl is under the influence of some substance. Simone denies it all. Carlotta takes her to her home and makes her take a drug, which turns out to be negative much to her surprise. Simone asks her to stop reliving her past through them because they are not like her.

At Elliott´s office, he is showing Cotton some plans of a project he is working on when an employee barges in yelling at them. Elliott gets all defensive and kicks the man out of there. Elliott then confesses to her that the project he is working on is of the house he wants to build for them as he wants a family with her.

Alex talks to Derek (Quincy Brown) about what may happen if they win the label contest, but the young man tells her that he is aware of it. He also says that if she happens to feel that she can´t keep up with him anymore he wants her to be honest with him and tell the truth. Right that moment, the song she made with Noah starts to be played on the radio making Derek feel uncomfortable about it and he leaves the room.

A new rehearsal day has come and everyone is gathered again at the label, but as always everything ends up in a fight making Noah quit his performance for the day. Bruce (Miss Lawrence) offers Carlotta some evidence that may make Ayana´s career sink and asks her to use it.

Jahil meets Arlene and the woman gives him the money they agreed on. When she asks for the phone, he doesn’t seem to want to give it to her. She keeps blaming Star for her son´s death and confesses that she also wants Brody killed. That is when Brody comes out from where he was hiding and stabs Arlene until he finally kills her leaving a very dumbfounded Jahil standing there.

Another rehearsal has come and everyone starts to fight again. So, Maurice has to confess that if the showcase doesn’t turn out right the label will be sold, something that makes the artist to make amends with each other. At the full dress rehearsal everyone delivers such an amazing performance that Ayana congratulates them for the result.

Alex talks to Noah again and asks him not to kiss her again and he agrees. Angel asks Simone to be careful with the pills and not get too engaged with it when suddenly Karen shows up and greets her. Star is playing the piano and singing one of her mother´s song when Brody shows up and tells her about the deal he had made with Arlene. He gives her the money and returns her phone.  Star keeps playing and singing while she imagines that Mary (Caroline Vreeland) is there with her singing and playing as well.

Who will the winner of Midtown Sound contest? Let’s find out this Wednesday at 9/8 on Fox. ¡Hasta la próxima!