Star – Infamous

By: Gladys Luna

“Lord I know you got this, that you oversee all of this, but please keep extra lookout for this girl. She´s naive and ain’t got a clue about this thing called fame.”

Star (Jude Demorest) smiles contently of seeing her face all plastered on a gossip website with a headline referring to her as “Hunter Morgan´s new wag.” As she swipes the pictures of herself posing outside of Hunter´s (Chad James Buchanan) house, Alexandra (Ryan Destiny) seems annoyed to watch her just sitting right there without putting any effort into the rehearsal. When she confronts her about it, Star excuses herself saying the article is a form of publicity for them, something Alex considers only as “bad publicity” since the article only focus on Star.

Jahil (Benjamin Bratt) is still held at the empty warehouse when two men arrive and take him from the floor and into another space to execute him. One of the men receives a call giving him some instructions and just like that, Jahil is left there on his own and freed. When he walks out of the place, a limo approaches him and one of the windows rolls down inviting him to go in. When he does, he meets with Arlene (Nealla Gordon), Hunter´s mother.

Arlene informs him she has just paid the debt he had and that is why he was freed so now he owes her. As a payment, Arlene requests for two things: to make tonight’s performance the last for star or rather to make her want it to be her last. And, of course, to keep Star away from her son Hunter.

Simone (Brittany O´Grady), Star and Alex are rehearsing when Jahil comes in and apologizes for being late. He doesn’t seem to be in a very good mood and it reflects on the way he treats them. Jahil asks them to perform for him and as they begin to do it, he feigns not being content with it and asks Alex to switch places with Star so she is now the lead, much to Star´s disagreement. Star argues with Jahil about it but he uses Star´s paparazzi situation and recent behavior against her. After arguing futilely, Star takes a break and approaches to the mirror on the side of the room and stares at herself. While she does it, she remembers a young version of herself singing “I Will Always Love You” for her mother. She is unable to reach a high note and is about to give up when her mother leads her to the mirror and reminds her the reason why she called her Star. The little girl tells her she wants to be like her, but Mary (Caroline Vreeland) makes her promise she will be better than her and young Star (Bella Lotz) agrees. Back to the present, Star gathers as much courage as possible and joins the other two girls on the rehearsal.

Hunter follows Star with his car and apologizes to her for not standing up for her in front of his mother. Star gives in and hops in the car with him. In the meantime, Jahil drops Simone at the church where she exchanges a conversation with Pastor Harris (Tyrese Gibson) about Star. He suggests they join forces and work together in order to make Star to go to church more often. Simone happily agrees, knowing beforehand it won’t be an easy task at all. Alex stays in the car with Jahil and requests an explanation for why he suddenly decided she was going to be the lead when just last week he was convinced she was not the right one for that position. He lies to her by saying he just realized that she is better than the blonde. Alex doesn’t believe him and she tells Derek (Quincy Brown) she thinks there is a hidden reason to explain the abrupt change on Jahil´s behavior. Derek tries to support her by telling her she deserves it and she must just take it and enjoy it. He also takes the opportunity to invite Alex to a family barbecue on Sunday afternoon with his family. She hesitates at first, but after a little convincing work from Derek´s side she finally agrees. Alex and Derek sit next to each other while listening to one of the songs they will be performing later at the Charity Event.

At Carlotta´s salon, Danielle (Jasmine Burke), Cotton (Amiyah Scott), Miss Bruce (Miss Lawrence) and Carlotta (Queen Latifah) discuss the news about the death of Rajid, the son of Regina. Cotton informs Carlotta about Pastor Harris has arrived. Carlotta asks Cotton to go find her a curling iron and Cotton believes she just wants to get rid of her so Pastor Harris doesn’t see her. Carlotta comes out of the salon where she meets with Simone and Pastor Harris and he tells her he just invited Simone to the recovery group at the church as well as Simone informs her she invited Pastor Harris for Sunday dinner. Carlotta doesn’t seem to be so comfortable at first, but she agrees. She also asks Pastor Harris to go over Regina´s house as she notifies him on the death of her son. He leaves while Cotton is looking at them from the window.

The girls are back at the rehearsal and Jahil receives a call from who appears to be Arlene asking him if he already did as she instructed him, but he asks her for more time. Star asks Jahil to switch the roles back as they were at the beginning, but he refuses stating this is for the best. He also asks her not to get caught up with Hunter as he is not good for he, but she thinks he is jealous because Hunter is everything Jahil is not and he also has her.

Cotton and Carlotta have another encounter as Cotton asks her mother if she wants her to be there for Sunday dinner since Pastor Harris will be there as well. Carlotta asks her not to put her issues on her and Cotton just leaves the room.

Simone is helping Alex find the right clothes to wear for the barbecue at Derek´s family on Sunday when Star breaks in the room. She gives some advice to Alex saying to “behave regular.” After a moment they begin to argue with each other again over Jahil´s decision of giving Alex the lead on the new song. Alex walks away while Simone is left alone in the room with Star and tells her to put her ego aside, as far as Simone remembers Star wasn´t like that when they were kids. Simone storms out of the room as well when seeing Star is so caught up with herself.

Sunday finally comes Alex seems to be having fun at the barbeque. Derek decides to introduce her to his uncle (Shomari Martinez). He suggests Derek be careful on the “Black Lives Matter” project he is involved at. After his uncle realizes Alex is a singer, he challenges to a match as he is a rapper himself. He promises her to find the right song and then they will sing together.

At Carlotta´s house she, Pastor Harris, Cotton and Simone are having dinner. Simone confesses to considering going to the recovery group at the church. As the dinner goes by, it becomes more uncomfortable, mainly when Pastor Harris tells Carlotta she has a lovely daughter. Cotton replies sarcastically at him saying a while ago she had some problems and she had to deal with it all by herself. Cotton says, “You wouldn’t think she had a daughter at all,” referring to Carlotta. The tension grows by the minute and Simone decides to leave in order to get ready for the big event. Cotton follows her adding she will find some place with alcohol to be at.

Derek takes Alex to greet his grandma only to find the old woman in a very drunken state that she can´t even remember who Alex is, despite she had met her before. Suddenly, Star shows up at the barbecue infuriating the woman as she can´t believe a “white girl” is at their reunion. The woman asks Alex to take her to her room and lashes out on Derek for defending Star. Alexandra comes back and suddenly, Derek´s uncle shows up saying he has found the perfect song. Although Alex seems to be a little shy at first, she finally begins to sing along with Derek´s uncle. Everyone claps at them as they congratulate her for her voice while Star seems to be really uncomfortable.

Star comes out of the shower at Hunter´s house and when she is about to change she finds that her dress has been replaced by another one. Hunter asks her to wear that dress for the charity event and when she asks him why, he replies with “you deserve to perform in a $3,000 dress.”

Simone, Derek and Alex arrive at the charity event. Jahil and Eva (Sharlene Taule) get there right after. When Jahil asks about Star she walks in on Hunter´s arm, much to his mother’s displeased who is staring at them. The girls leave to get ready for their performance and when Jahil is left there with Hunter, he asks the quarterback to stay away from Star.

Back at Carlota´s place, she is doing the dishes and suddenly confesses Pastor Harris that Cotton is a man. She goes to the refrigerator and shows him a picture of him when he was a little boy. She tells him she named him Arnold and that´s why she never had the Pastor over her house before. Pastor Harris just stands there, looking incredulous at the confession.

Cotton is drinking at a bar when a man approaches to her and tries to make a small talk. He compliments her, but she dismisses him immediately. Then the man whispers something in her ear and suddenly she seems interested. He asks her to buy her another drink and she agrees.

Alex, Simone and Star hit the stage. As they begin to sing, Star imagines the three of them in a room surrounded by red curtains all dressed in red and gold. During the performance Simone and Alex look at each other annoyed when Star takes the lead again and leaves them behind. Alex lashes out on Jahil as why he lets Star do what she wants, but he defends himself saying he didn’t know she would act like that. Arlene is not happy with Jahil not following her orders and recommends him not to force her hand. Jahil is at his apartment drinking when he suddenly hears someone singing from afar. He opens the bathroom door and sees Eva´s silhouette singing. She then says, in English, that she knows Jahil will like it. This leaves a listening-in Jahil speechless.

Alex, Simone and Derek are sitting at the stairs outside of Carlotta´s home watching the video Star uploaded of their performance. The girls show their concern at Star´s behavior. Derek leaves to check on his grandmother while Cotton arrives and confesses the girls that she has found “the man” and walks happily into the house. Right after her arrives Star, telling them she posted the video at Atlanta´s Next Fest. Alex stands up and leaves. Star seems confused on Alex´s behavior and tells Simone that thousands of people are looking at them right now. Simone breaks her bubble telling her she hurt Alex and if she keeps up that way, soon there won’t be an “us.” Simone also tells her that jealousy and the ego was what broke their mother and Carlotta apart and she is now doing the same thing. She goes inside the house leaving Star alone in the street.

Star walks inside the salon saying they should be thanking her for the publicity she´s given to them when she realizes that Simone, Alex, Carlotta, Pastor Harris and Cotton are watching the news where they are announcing that their friend Danielle has been killed by the police at a traffic stop. Carlotta falls apart while the others remain frozen in their places unable to process what just has been said. Simone looks at Star as she remains speechless right behind them.