Star – Black Wherever I Go

By: Gladys Luna

Seems like bad things always happenin´ to good people. Romans 8:28 says: ‘And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good. For those who are called according to his purpose.’ Lord, I´m trying to figure it out but I can´t see the purpose in this. – Carlotta

Everyone is gathered at the church at Danielle´s funeral. Sister Gladys (Gladys Knight herself) is giving a speech about Danielle. When she finishes, Pastor Harris (Tyrese Gibson) gives space for Sister Kelly (Kelly Price herself) to perform a song. As she sings, Alexandra (Ryan Destiny) remembers when Danielle was clapping and happy at Derek´s family barbecue. Gladys remembers when they were together at the “Taylor Bros Hair Battle” and Carlotta (Queen Latifah) thinks of her when she was at the salon.

Jahil (Benjamin Bratt) walks into his apartment looking upset. Eva (Sharlene Taulé) is there and questions him about his behavior towards her. He hasn’t spoken to her. He tells her about when he heard her singing, realizing she can speak perfect English and demands to know why she lied to him. Eva comes clean to him about her reasons and also lets him know that she always wanted to be a singer in the states so she asks for his help on making that happen.

Now that Danielle´s service is over, everyone decides to gather in Carlotta´s place. Derek (Quincy Brown) scans the room curiously, seeing everyone wearing a devastated and exhausted look. Suddenly, he stands up and comes up with the idea of going to the police and demand for some justice by making a rally, but Pastor Harris opposes to that. Alex stands by Derek´s proposal and so it does Simone. Carlotta and Miss Bruce (Miss Lawrence) join Pastor Harris and show their disagreement on said suggestion.

Derek is getting everything ready for the rally when Alex stops by to check on him. He suggests she perform at the rally along with the girls, but she doesn’t seem so convinced in doing it. After a while, he finally convinces her to join the rally with a song. Alex and Simone (Brittany O´Grady) are in their room creating some lyrics for the song they´ll be performing at the really when Star (Jude Demorest) arrives and gets the news about Derek´s request. Star gets offended referring to herself as being “too white” for them when Simone and Alex suggest that she doesn’t understand what this rally means.

Jahil is at his apartment when Arlene (Nealla Gordon) comes knocking at his door asking for a resolution on the task she entrusted him. He tells her that taking Star away from the group won´t help to split her and Hunter (Chad James Buchanan) apart; mostly because Star is the type of woman he always seems to be interested in. Arlene explains to him that if Star doesn’t get what she wants with the group she will get mad and show her true colors and that will make her son and the girl split. Jahil asks for more time, but Arlene threatens him again. Eva comes out of the bedroom asking Jahil about his plans on getting the job done, but he asks her not to mess with his business. She suggests that after seeing him burying a body he can trust her completely and also she could help him to get rid of Arlene.

Back at Carlotta´s salon, Simone and Alex are about to leave to the rally, but Carlotta stops them. She threatens Simone not to bother coming back if she dares to go. Alex doesn’t seem to mind and leaves anyway and Simone says she´ll go to sleep in Cotton´s room. Pastor Harris is at his office praying when Simone walks in. She tells him that praying won’t stop Danielle´s kids from going into foster system. She also confesses to him that Carlotta won’t let her go to the rally even though it is a peaceful one. She indirectly asks for his intervention, but the Pastor refuses to go in between Carlotta and Simone. She tells him that because of reasoning like that, they are where they are.

Eva visits Hunter and as a part of her plan she tells him that Star has been having rough days so she advices him to take her out as a distraction. He seems to like the idea and begins to plan a surprise romantic getaway.

Jahil visits Hunter´s father (Juan Gaspard) in jail to ask for his help with Arlene since she´s been out of control recently. He tells him about his plans on gaining a spot again in the music business by managing the girls group, but also tells him that Arlene is not happy with one of the girls. He asks for something he can use against her, something to what the man agrees to collaborate with as a revenge.

Alex is rehearsing the song for the rally in Carlotta´s backyard when Star comes out and is surprised by Alex, asking her to sing the first verse since she thinks it fits better with her voice. Star agrees, but only after seeing Hunter who seems to have a surprise for her. Alex asks her to come back on time so they all can go to the rally.

Pastor Harris and Carlotta discuss about their “non-relationship” and how complicated it is. Pastor Harris mentions he wants Carlotta to allow Simone to go to the rally, but she refuses once again.

Simone and Alex are waiting for Star at the rehearsal, but so far there´s no sign of the girl anywhere. Eva walks in asking for Star since Jahil is also looking for her. In the meantime, Star and Hunter stop at a gas station. It seems that Star fell asleep somewhere along the way and now she is two hours away from town when she actually needs to be at the rehearsal and getting ready for the rally. Alex calls her and Star seems really sorry for not being there with them and tells her she is on her way back. When Hunter hears that she wants to go back he takes her phone away from her and tells Alex that Star is taking the day off before throwing the phone away only to be crashed by a passing car. Star gets furious at him and asks to be taken back to the city. After been arguing for a while he finally agrees.

Back at the rehearsal, Simone and Alex are worried since the song for the rally is a three-way harmony and Star is still nowhere to be seen. Simone proposes to change the song and adjust it for two, but Alex says there´s no time for that. Eva, who is still there, tells them she can help them and the girls ask her to sing for them and it turns out they are very pleased with the result allowing her to join them for the rehearse.

Protesters are already gathering for the rally while yelling: “Say her name” referring to Danielle. Derek takes the lead of the rally, stating that they will stay there as long as they can. Carlotta arrives at the rally and scolds Simone for going to the Pastor behind her back. Derek suddenly calls Simone and Alex to perform the song they made so they head up along with Eva. Star arrives in the middle of the song looking surprised when she sees Eva singing. After watching for a while, she leaves. When the presentation is done, Eva meets Jahil amidst the crowd. He looks confused as to what he just witnessed, but Eva confesses to him that he is not the only one who wants to get rid of Star. It seems they both have found a very good ally in each other.

Carlotta asks the girls to leave the protest but they refuse. The Atlanta Police Chief Officer Warner (David Martyn Conley) announces that the officer that was accused of shooting Danielle is free of charges and that he will be suspended on paid leave. Everyone at the rally gets furious about the news. Derek takes the lead again asking: “How many more people have to die before the police are held responsible?” the crowd grows agitated while yelling: “No justice, no peace. No more crooked police.” Suddenly, everything gets out of control and a group of guys take a cop out of his car and begin to beat him with a bat. Derek scares the guys away and when trying to help the police man he is mistaken with one of the guys that hurt him so he gets arrested. Carlotta tries to take Simone and Alex away from there, but Alex refuses to leave Derek there. Alex is calling the police station looking for Derek, but no one seems to know anything about him. Star arrives and they inform her about what happened at the rally. Also, she tells them she knew they replaced her.

Carlotta lights a candle for Danielle and suddenly she imagines her dancing and singing along with Simone, Alex and Star. They all are wearing a t-shirt with Danielle´s face on it. Simone meets Carlotta downstairs and offers to help her around the house, but Carlotta declines the offer. She apologizes to Simone for attempting to stop her from going to the protest because she knew she was trying to do the right thing also agreeing on the fact that she is not her mother. Simone apologizes to her as well, saying she should not have said that to her in the first place. Simone says it doesn’t matter since they lost, but Carlotta corrects her telling her they actually won for speaking the truth. Her music was the truth. Wrapping the moment with a lovely hug. All of a sudden a car engine is started, Simone looks outside the window and realizes that Alex has just left.

Jahil shows up at Arlene´s house and tells her he knows that Hunter has been taking perform enhancing drugs and that she allowed that in order to make him a football star. She denies it all at first, but she has no really a way to cover the truth anymore. Jahil calls the deal off telling her that he will take the girls to the top on his very own way.

At Carlotta´s house, the doorbell rings and Star answers it but there is no one outside except for a phone case holding a phone in it with the name “Star” engraved on the back.

A man is operating a backhoe on an empty ground when something stops him. He comes closer to see what happened and sees a bunch of body parts half buried in the ground.

Alex is driving when she is suddenly pulled by an officer. He asks for her license and registration, but Alex tells him she doesn’t have them. The officer asks her to come out of the vehicle. He pushes her against the car and handcuffs her. He takes her to his car and abruptly pushes her inside. He just arrests her without telling her the reason why. The whole scene is recorded by a street camera without any of them knowing.