Star – Forward (E)motion

By: Gladys Luna

Star (Jude Demorest) is in the kitchen caught up in her own memories while listening to her mother´s song and playing with a knife on her hand. She remembers the night she killed her. Suddenly, Simone (Brittany O’Grady) walks in and yells at her bringing the girl out of her thoughts. Star stabs a chopping block that lays on the kitchen table and her younger sister questions her about her recent behavior, but once again Star lies to her and asks her to get ready for the fitting later that day at the label.

At the label, a whole set of clothes is already waiting for the girls. Noah (Luke James) is sitting at the corner of the place working on a song. He calls for Alex (Ryan Destiny) and asks her to give ia listen to his new track and she agrees. On the other side of the room, Jahil (Benjamin Bratt) scolds Angel (Evan Ross) for not being entirely focused on their new song and says that even though he understands what the boy has been through lately they just can’t let this chance to go to waste.

Carlotta (Queen Latifah) arrives to the studio where she meets with Jahil and asks him to take his RV out of her backyard and he promises he will do it later. Maurice (Lance Gross) walks in and announces that the song “Can´t Stop Loving Her” by Angel and Andy (Elijah Kelley) has been listed on Spotify. So, they are starting the tour with Midtown´s. The three men get really excited about it while the girls are quite impressed about the announcement. Simone grants Angel a smile from afar, a sign of her excitement for him and he smiles back at her. Once the men are out of the room, Star and Alex question Carlotta about it.

Noah joins the conversation and all of a sudden all of them are arguing about their next move, but then Simone confesses to Carlotta what Noah did to Simone and Alex and why she believes she shouldn’t have accepted to manage him. Carlotta makes sure that Alex and Star have already moved on with the “Noah thing” and they assure her it’s all in the past.

In the meantime, Derek´s (Quincy Brown) therapist Mariela (Camila Perez) has invited him for a drink, but he declines the invitation. Instead, he asks her to go with him to the dinner that Carlotta, Miss Bruce (Miss Lawrence) and Cotton (Amiyah Scott) are throwing later that day as a way to celebrate the salon´s re opening and she agrees. Right that moment, Alex arrives to Carlotta´s house and says hello to Derek but he turns his wheelchair around without a single reply.

Carlotta and the girls are gathered at the salon talking about the DJ Khalid demo Carlotta found and how she wants the girls to work on it when Ms. Ruby (Juanita Jennings) walks into the place and gives Carlotta a picture of Martin Luther King to hang on the salon wall as a way to protect her. The woman insults Star saying that there is something evil about her so the girl gets mad and insults the woman back and then walks out of the room in a haste. Simone follows her and asks her what is wrong. She believes that her sister is mad at her for telling Carlotta what happened between her, Alex and Noah or maybe because of Brody (Stephen Dorff), but Star says that she is not mad at her and hasn’t heard anything about Brody. Simone expresses how impressed she is at a person´s sickness to be able to do something as killing someone and Star tells her that she has hurt people too, like he did with Otis (Darius McCrary). But Simone tries to calm her down saying that just did it to protect her and still, she didn’t kill him. Then, Star remembers how she did kill their mother and how that memory has been hunting her.

Simone meets Angel who is working hard on mixing a new song. She convinces him to go see his mother before she leaves town and also offers him to go and stay with her at Carlotta´s house.

Jahil pays a visit to Paola (Alani “La La” Anthony) asking her for a chance to talk about what happened between them and how seeing her again has brought all his old feelings back. But she confesses that she is happily married to a man that would do anything for her. Jahil sits on the couch and says the he is not leaving until they talk.

The girls are excitedly listening to DJ Khalid´s demo when they realize that Noah is also listening to the same track. Carlotta gets into the room and the four of them start to complain immediately about the reason why they are all working on the same track. Carlotta lets them know that the one that makes the best arrangement will keep it and she´ll find something as good for the one who doesn’t.

Later, Simone convinces Carlotta to let Angel to stay in the salon with them and confesses that Alex is not coming back anytime soon to live with them. Carlotta talks to Alex about said situation and the girl lets her know that she can´t live next to Derek without looking at him and not feeling guilty. Carlotta understands and tells her that she is welcome back whenever she is ready. The four of them start to work on their own arrangement in order to win.

Angel goes to her mother´s hotel room and finds Jahil in there with her He gets mad about them, but the woman tells him that she has history with him and he´ll always going to be there for her.

Carlotta´s salon re opening night has arrived and everybody is there having fun. Alex spots Derek from afar having fun with Mariela and decides to go and say hello. While she is walking towards them, she realizes that Derek has started to move his foot again and the surprise stops her right on her tracks. Noah has also arrived to the party and Alex sees him standing there. Suddenly, she feels as though she can´t breathe and walks away followed by Star and Cotton. She lets them know what she saw and how guilty she has felt for what happened to him, but she wasn’t even responsible for his accident. Star is hit with that realization and walks away. On her way out, Ms. Ruby starts to insult her again, pulling some delicate strings on the girl who decides to start a fight with her, but they are stopped by Carlotta and Maurice. She goes straight to a bar where she gets wasted and meets with Jackson (Matthew Noszka) again. She starts to make out with him, but he stops her and asks her to order some drinks. While the girl is distracted, he takes something out of her purse.

Back at the party, Carlotta is looking for Simone until she finds her on her “wig closet” making out with Angel and asks them to step out of there. Alex has found a place to hide inside Jahil´s RV but Noah finds her. He apologizes for messing up her relationship with Derek, but she tells him that is her fault too and then confesses her feelings for him.

At the bar, Star is trying to convince Jackson to sleep with her when Maurice arrives planning to take her with him and back to Carlotta, but she refuses. After sharing an argument, she finally confesses Maurice that she killed her mother.

Back at Carlotta´s the party is over and everyone is cleaning up. The woman tells Simone that Angel can stay at Jahil RV in her backyard, but she needs to be careful. In the meantime, Alex and Noah are making out on RV without anyone noticing it.

Paola makes up her mind and decides to go back to Florida with her husband, leaving a disappointed Jahil behind her. Star is sitting at the steps outside Carlotta´s house dealing with her hangover. Maurice sits next to her and hands her some pills. Apparently, Star doesn’t remember him taking her back home, so he decides to lie about the confession she made to him. He tells her that Take Three had won the contest and they are using DJ Khalid´s track to go on tour. When the girls ask him if their track was better than Noah´s, Maurice hesitates a little so Star asks him to give the chance to Noah and they will find a way to be on the top. Maurice assures her he knows they will since she is a “killer” then he walks way and wishes her to feel better.

Simone informs Angel that he could move in to RV, but he should do it before Carlotta changes her mind. He asks her to listen to one of his tracks and sing with him and she agrees. Simone starts to imagine their wedding day with all of their guests in there. Angel is waiting at the altar for her and while she walks the aisle, she sees everyone including her mom Mary (Caroline Vreeland), Brody and Karen (Imani Lewis). When the wedding is over and the couple are on the way out of the church, she sees Otis standing there, something that brings her abruptly out of her fantasy.

Star enters the salon and meets with Ms. Ruby who is helping them to clean. The woman explains to Star the reason of her feeling towards her and they sort of “make amends.” After a while, a knock is heard at the door and Miss Bruce gets it, revealing a woman (Ashani Roberts) standing there asking for her son´s father. Miss Bruce assures her that Jahil does not longer live there, but she tells her that she is looking for “Arnold.”

Right that moment, Cotton has heard the entire conversation and is walking down the stairs. She approaches the door and tells the woman that “Arnold” is not there anymore.