Dear White People – Volume 2: Chapter IX

By: Malasha Parker

The episode begins with the scene of Sam (Logan Browning) asking Joelle (Ashley Blaine Featherson) what she has to say and then Joelle tearfully saying, “You gotta go home. You gotta go home, Sam.” We then see Sam packing her bags as the narrator (Giancarlo Esposito) begins to talk about William Gordon White (Robert Curtis Brown). He passed away due to complications from heart failure. As the narrator tells his life, they show images of when Sam’s mom, Tina (Wendy Raquel Robinson), gave birth. He enjoyed cooking and spending time with his family. We see him and Sam at a younger age,walking through the halls of her school holding hands. He was a high school english teacher who never retired. They recap the incident of Sam and his last conversation through FaceTime. Back in the present Joelle asks Sam if she’s ready and Sam blankly looks at her.

Joelle, Sam and Reggie (Marque Robertson) are walking down the steps in A-P. Reggie tells her not to worry about anything because the Rikki Carter event isn’t going to be bigger than the place they booked for the Carson Rhodes event. He tells them to let them know when they make it and with a hug to both ladies they head to the car. Gabe (John Patrick Amedori) hands over the keys with a comment on Joelle’s driving and shows them the two cases of water he packed in the car. He also lets her know that she can call him if she needs anything. After awkwardly working their way through a cheek kiss, Sam and Gabe part ways. Before Joelle and Sam can make it into the car, Coco (Antoinette Robinson) runs up with her suitcase in tow. They ask her what she’s doing and she tells Sam that her father was like a father to her. She’s already been talking to Sam’s mom so she’s expecting her. Coco hops into the car before they can say anything else, so they just let her go.

They’re on the road headed towards Sam’s house and Joelle is experiencing some road rage. While she yells, Coco suggests they stop at an outlet mall, but Joelle refuses to stop even when Coco says it may help Sam cope. Sam says they’re not stopping so Coco decides to play music instead. When she starts to sing, Joelle cuts it off and after Sam can’t take the silence anymore, they turn the music back on and join in on singing the song.

The girls arrive at Sam’s house and joke about Joelle singing along to the song while Sam gives a brief description on her uncles. Before she can decide to go in herself, her Aunt Gloria (Telma Hopkins) busts through the door to give her the hugs and kisses that she wasn’t sure she would be able to handle to begin with. She proceeds to give Coco and Joelle strong hugs as well. When they walk in the two uncles are arguing politics before they see Sam and run to give her hugs. They ask how she’s holding up and she just says she’s fine. She introduces them to Sam and Coco and then they go off to see Sam’s mom.

When Sam walks in her mom is in the kitchen. She turns around and cheerily hugs Sam and the girls. Sam asks her mom how she is but she says she’s fine and then asks if they want anything. While she’s doing so, Sam is looking at her suspiciously. She compliments the other two girls on their looks and thanks them for traveling with Sam. She compliments Coco’s ability to make fruit and vegetable platters. When Sam asks about a “Congratulations” balloon, her mom says that her aunt sent it either by accident or on purpose. She then asks Sam to finish so that she can go downstairs to get more sodas. When she leaves, Coco mentions that she seems to be taking everything well. Sam says that her mom is usually the one crying and Sam is usually the collected one.

The family and friends are all sat around the dinner table as they discuss some happy memories that they had of Sam’s father. They’re talking about her parents first date. The uncles and her aunt tell the story, which apparently has been told so many times before. Coco comes in with her “hoo-dite”. Sam makes a joke about her corny joke and then starts talking to one of her cousins. She mentions how great it must be to live on a college campus. Her uncle asks her to explain why Elvis isn’t “the King”. Sam says that her dad called him the king of whitewashing and cultural appropriation. Joelle and Coco give a quick toast to Papa White and they all drink a sip of alcohol that has been replaced with tea by Coco and Sam. Sam’s cousin mentions how her dad probably knew about that and let’s it slip that he had a second surgery. Sam is shocked to hear this news, but her cousin continues to talk about it.

Sam follows her mom into the kitchen and when her mom asks her to give her some containers, Sam blows up and yells at her about what she already has frozen. She asks to talk to her mom but her mom ignores it and asks about her speech. Sam talks to her about not letting her know her dad was in the hospital and Tina says that she didn’t want to let her see him that way. Sam tells her it would have given her a chance to say goodbye to her father. Tina says that she lost a husband and he was the only one that really understood her, especially after she married him and her family wouldn’t talk to her. She tells Sam that she doesn’t have a monopoly on grief and walks off.

Coco and Joelle are getting ready for bed when Sam comes in and aggressively starts the pillows and sheets on her bed. Sam asks them why her mom didn’t tell them that he was in the hospital again. They tell her that people have their own way of dealing with grief. Coco makes a comment about herself, but eludes Joelle’s question when she asks for specificity. Sam mentions her last phone call with her father and Coco nonchalantly says, “No one expects to finish a sentence around you.” Sam talks about a memory of her dad and how he deserved better from her. She’s nervous about speaking at his funeral. Joelle says that she will be fine, bu Coc says that she should prepare something regardless. The two start to argue and when Joelle mentions that maybe Sam just wants to cry. Sam finally speaks up that it is what she wants to do. Joelle moves to her side as she lays down to shed some tears. Sam says she doesn’t deserve to speak at his funeral. She talks about how he used to send her so many random things, but she rejected him so much. Coco says that he didn’t think of it that way. Coco and Sam’s father stayed in touch even after the two girls stopped being friends. Coco tells her that Sam’s father once told her, “Sam’s difficult– she’ll fight you at every turn but that’s just because everything she does, she does with passion.”

As Sam lays awake that night she gets up to go to her father’s study. She smells his jacket and then walks over to his desk. As she looks at a pen holder on his desk her father’s voice plays over how he loved how she wrote her full name on everything did. She pulls out a few pictures of him with a few game-changers. She then pulls out his ipod which has all of her podcasts of Dear White People on it. She pulls out some books that her father found at Winchester and we see a flashback that one of them is from when the students found them on her campus years prior. Some of the faces are crossed out in it. She pulls out her and her father’s favorite book, The Godfather. She finds a letter addressed to her from her father. In the letter, he tells that she shouldn’t be mad at her mom for not telling her about his second hospital stay– he told her not to mention it to Sam. He also goes on to say that he forgives her for switching out his alcohol. The scene changes to Sam reading the letter aloud at her father’s funeral. She stands before her family reading how her father wants her to be the person she wants to be, not just who she thinks he wants her to be. He even addressed his wife and mentions that she wants her to find love again. When she finishes Sam says that her dad knew how she would struggle and always pushed her by challenging her intellectually. He didn’t want her to fall prey to certain social definitions of who she should be.

Sam walks into the kitchen with plastic containers for her mom. She apologizes for what she said to her mom. Her mom also apologizes and mentions how she realized how brave and protective her husband was being. Tina starts to tear up about not getting to grow old with her husband but Sam says she’ll always have her. They cry and embrace as they watch the snow fall.

Sam walks into her room as Coco is explaining a facial mask that she is giving Joelle. She mentions how different this turn of events is and Joelle jokes that its Stockholm Syndrome and she’s fallen in love with her captor. She gets a call from Lionel (DeRon Horton) and Troy (Brandon Bell) and he tells her that Carson Rhodes is no longer coming to Winchester. They lost the annual funding for CORE. He makes a comment about Coco not catching the mistake, but she says she’s on it! Sam glances at a box she has of her dad’s sitting on her desk and says that maybe they aren’t out of luck. She tells Lionel that she will explain later and then stares into the camera.