Star – It Ain’t Over

By: Gladys Luna

Right where we were left off, Carlotta (Queen Latifah) and Star (Jude Demorest) are about to enter the house when Brody (Stephen Dorff) walks in announcing to Star that he is her father. He tells her that he saw her on TV and assures them that he has changed and will be around as long as it takes. The girl believes that the only reason he showed up is because he believes that she has money so she rejects him and walks away from him. The man tells Carlotta that he won´t go anywhere and Carlotta tells him that neither is she.

Alexandra (Ryan Destiny) is writing some music while Derek (Quincy Brown) is doing some exercise. She tells him that he needs to go out more even though he doesn’t seem too convinced about it. When the girl leaves for work he follows her to the door accidentally throwing a bag that was on the table, revealing the contents of it as a pearl necklace with a tag that shows its very expensive price leaving Derek dumbfounded at the discovery.

At the rehab center, Simone (Brittany O’Grady) is sitting on her room floor watching Karen (Imani Lewis) sleep. When the girl wakes up, she gets annoyed when Simone confesses that she was making sure that she will be ok. The other girl tells her that she doesn’t need her pity making Simone to walk out of there without looking back.

Jahil (Benjamin Bratt) shows up with a trailer at Carlotta’s yard, but he is not so welcomed by Miss Bruce (Miss Lawrence) and Cotton (Amiyah Scott) who refuse to help him to convince Carlotta to let him stay there. In the meantime, Ayanna Floyd (Michael Michele) is getting ready for the label big party and making sure everything is working just fine.

Simone, Star and Alex are doing some vocals when a man walks in telling them that Ayana wants to see what they will be wearing for the party, but the girls tell him that they are more concerned about the competition rather than their looks. The man confesses that if they don’t shine with their looks then it won’t matter whether if they are in the competition or not. Star gets mad at him and asks him to leave. A few minutes later, he returns with some dresses and tells the girls that Ayana still wants to see them at her office later that day wearing the dresses he is carrying.

Later that day at Ayana´s office the girls, Carlotta and Rachel Wells (Paris Jackson) are gathered there. Ayana announces them that she has hired Rachel as the new social media strategist and she will be in charge of helping her to find the best artists to promote at the label’s party. This is something that makes Star truly annoyed. Rachel makes her opinion known about the girls’ looks and Star can’t hold it anymore so she jumps over the woman and tries to choke her. Ayana asks Carlotta to take the girl away and bans them from the competition. Once outside the office, Carlota finds a moment to be alone with Star and tells her that she knows that she knows she is acting out because of the reappearance of her father and asks her to talk to him and move one but Star makes clear that she won’t do it.

Noah (Luke James) is recording one of his songs, but he just doesn’t seem to like the results; Alex walks in the studio and makes some suggestions to the singer. He doesn’t believe her at first, but then when he hears her sing he apologizes and asks her to sing along with him and she agrees.

Derek asks his grandma Ruby (Juanita Jennings) to go to the store for him and buy some ingredients in order for him to make some dinner for Alex, but the woman refuses to go. He seems to be surprised at the woman’s reaction, but she tells him that his life didn’t end the night of the accident and when he yells at her that it did, she slaps him on the face making him realize that are people out there who can’t do anything to change their situation, mostly his relatives who have died in the fight.  However, he still can and has decided to do nothing instead. So, she says that if he wants to make something for his girl, then he should do it himself. Derek is left there looking thoughtful.

Carlotta meets with Brody and asks him the real reason why he came back. She says that she won’t let him do to Star the same thing he did to Mary (Caroline Vreeland), but Brody knows the woman well and he is aware of the things she did to his wife as well so he tells her that even though she looks different now. She is no saint. Carlotta assures him that she had made her peace with those things, but the man doesn’t believe her.

Jahil is calling to different record labels to show them some demos he has produced, but nobody seems to be interested. Cotton walks in her trailer and sees that her father is about to consume some cocaine and she questions herself why she visited him in the first place. When she turns to leave, Jahil asks her to stay and confesses that nobody wanted to hear his music. Cotton encourages to keep working on it. She also opens up to him and says that she met a guy in jail and he is soon to be released, but she is nervous about it. Jahil tries to comfort her by saying that he is there to support her and she shouldn’t be afraid.

Star and Simone are rehearsing when the younger girl questions the blonde about her recent behavior making Star to tell her the truth about Brody. Simone suggests they should go to the label’s party. So, later that day the three girls find a way to get into the place.

Maurice (Lance Gross) invites Carlotta out and he ends up taking her to church, but the woman looks uncomfortable once they are there. The man explains that he heard she was a spiritual girl and that is why he wanted to invite her over. Carlotta confirms that she is, but that she stopped attending a while ago and suddenly remembers (as seen on episode 1.8 “Mama´s Boy”) when Pastor Harris (Tyrese Gibson) cornered Cotton in the kitchen and made him to confess that he was a man repeatedly in order to change his ways making her fall down to the floor in tears. Suddenly, Pastor Boyd (Shayla Love) is currently leading the congregation at the new church. She greets Maurice and recognizes Carlotta from “Mixed Harmony,” confessing she was a fan herself of the duo back in the day.

Alex, Simone and Star changed into their party outfits and attempt to break in, but their glorious moment is interrupted by Gigi´s (Keke Palmer) arrival, the new music star that Ayana attempted to sign to her label. Jahil gets to the party and tries to convince Ayana of giving him a chance with his music making the woman to at least consider it. Back to Carlotta, Pastor Boyd is preaching and encouraging her congregation to share their stories so Carlotta gets up and goes to the stage. In the meantime Alex, Simone and Star hit the other stage and introduce themselves to the audience before Ayana´s surprised and clearly mad look. They start to perform and so does Carlotta. We also see a sequence where Derek finally decides to leave the house and Cotton receives a letter from Omari (Justin Marcel McManus). When the girls end their performance, everyone is clapping and cheering at them and they can´t barely believe it.  Simone spots Karen in the audience and goes straight to her to ask her what is she doing there. Karen tells her that she just wants to have some fun and dedicates a drink to Dee (Angela Marie Rigsby. She also tells her that she wouldn’t understand that since she is not like them.

Derek is at a convenience store buying some groceries when he sees a man named Nick (Brook Todd) offending the clerk, a girl named Soraya (Annie Jacob). He tries to help her, but the man just throws him out of his chair then he is chased away by the woman who came out from the other side of the counter attempting to beat him with a baseball bat.

Star eavesdrop when Ayana is having a phone conversation with her father and asks him if he is attending to the party. She wants to show him what she has done for the company, but it appears the man won’t show up. Star tells Ayana she is sorry for her father not showing up, but the woman only yells at her to leave the party and then walks away.  Later in the party, Ayana stops Star and Alex to tell them that Gigi wanted to meet them. When Gigi asks them if they are about to leave, the girls confess that they feel like they are overstaying their welcome and Gigi feels offended that they may not be welcomed there. Ayana feels compelled to lie and tells them that they are so welcome to stay. Gigi tells them that she is been thinking of joining the label and asks for their opinion on how they’ve been treated so far.

Simone has managed to escape with Karen from the party and they are on a very drunk state right now. They share some personal stories and suddenly, when Karen is about to kiss her, Carlotta interrupts them and asks Simone to get into her car. She drives her back to the rehab center and tells her that Karen is not a good influence , ut Simone stands up for her and confesses that she had never felt as herself as when she did earlier in the company of Karen. She then she gets mad and asks Carlotta to stop watching over her, she breaks her phone and walks away from her.

Star pays a visit to Brody where she confesses that she went to see him in order to tell him what she thinks of him and then she would leave. She tells him that he is not her father as he abandoned them when they needed him the most. He wants to explain himself, but the girl just won’t let him. He shows her a drawing that she gave her when she was a kid and she breaks into tears and then walks away from him.

Alex arrives at Derek’s place and sees the dinner he has made. The man tells her that he had finally gone out all by himself and even though the world hasn’t changed that much, he wants to go back and try again. Derek also shows her the necklace he had found. He suggests that they should come clean to one another and he speaks to her openly about his feelings and when is the girl’s turn to confess, she just starts to kiss him in order to distract him, accomplishing her task.

Later that day, Noah is at the studio recording his song according to the arrangements that Alex suggested when Star breaks in, locking the door after her and kissing him. They start having sex while the girl cries in his arms without him noticing it.

It seems like “Big Trouble” is finally managing their way to the big leagues. Want to find out if they´ll ever make it? Come join us for another round of music and troubles next Wednesday at 9/8c on Fox. ¡Hasta la próxima!