Star – Let the Good Times Roll

By starrymag | May 9, 2018

By: Gladys Luna

 

 

Noah Brooks (Luke James) and Alex (Ryan Destiny) are working on some demos on the studio when Carlotta (Queen Latifah) walks in and announces that Principal Sportswear is looking for someone for their new ad campaign and said “someone” happens to be Noah. So, they will be sending some people to watch him perform at New Orleans Pride where Natalie (Meagan Good) has got them a chance to perform at, but the young man doesn’t seem to be very convinced about attending to the event. After a while, Alex and Carlotta manage to convince him into finally doing it as he could be using it for publicity.

Carlotta also informs Star (Jude Demorest) about the gig they will be doing in New Orleans when they are interrupted by Maurice (Lance Gross) who wants to apologize to Carlotta for not taking her side in front of Natalie. That moment Ayanna Floyd (Michael Michele) walks into the place announcing that she is back to Midtown Sound!

Everyone is gathered at the meeting room when Ayanna breaks in letting everyone in there know that she is going to be replacing her father Charles (Richard Roundtree) as he had been accused of sexual misconduct. She informs them that everything she had planned for each one of them hasn’t happened at all while she was gone so she will be taking charge again and soon they all be landing on Sound House. When everyone leaves the room and only Carlotta and Ayanna are left, Carlotta approaches Ayanna and expresses her how displeased she is at the woman´s way of playing in this game and assures her that she is definitely better than that.

Simone (Brittany O’Grady) is looking at herself in the mirror when Angel (Evan Ross) hugs her from behind and suggests she go with him to his hotel room but the girl only tells him that she´s going to her own room and unpack, leaving a very confused Angel behind.

At Carlotta´s house she and Jahil (Benjamin Bratt) arrive only to find a very stressed Cotton (Amiyah Scott) pacing around since Nakisha (Ashani Roberts) was supposed to be there a while ago with their son but she is nowhere to be found. Right that moment the woman shows up with Jayden (Trayce Malachi). Carlotta and Jahil introduce themselves to the kid and then he asks when he is going to meet his father, which reveals that Nakisha didn’t let him know who Cotton truly is.

The gang arrive in the middle of New Orleans Pride and when they are about to get into their hotel, police cars begin to show up announcing that there was a bomb threat, so the parade will be canceled. So, everyone ends up stuck in the hotel until the whole bomb situation is fixed.

Derek (Quincy Brown) meets with Miss Bruce (Miss Lawrence) and asks her for an appointment at the salon for a re-braid, but she confirms him that she is not allowed to do any hair yet. Right that moment she spots a UPS man arriving at the young man´s place and asks him about it. He just confirms that his grandma has been receiving some furniture and stuff lately, but he doesn’t know where that comes from.

Noah is worried about losing his sponsorship since the event was canceled, but Alex comforts him saying that the principal will see him perform and they will love him. The two begin to kiss when they are abruptly interrupted by a knock at their door. When Alex opens it, her mother Rose (Naomi Campbell) walks in complaining about the whole situation they’re currently in due to the bomb threat. Alex is surprised to see her there and the woman explains that she asked her husband´s assistant to call her and tell her she will be joining her, but apparently she didn’t. Noah tries to introduce himself, but the woman doesn’t seem to be so happy seeing him there. When he leaves to give the women some privacy, Rose confesses that a woman made a sex tape with her husband and sent it to her so now she is being blackmailed. Since she is so tired of the bad behavior and has decided to file for divorce. Ayanna finds out that Gigi (Keke Palmer), the woman who she convinced to present her accusations against her father, has now retracted. Jahil tries to apologize to Ayanna for what he did against her, but she tells him that if he really wants forgiveness then he should bleed, sweat and fight just like has done it.

Meanwhile at the hotel, Star is about to leave her room when Jackson (Matthew Noszka) stops her and questions her about where she is going. The girl gets mad at his constant stalking behavior towards her and when he attempts to kiss her, but she slaps him on the face and then gives in to the kiss. The two have a very intimate encounter and then Star decides to leave, but Jackson stops her and questions her if she had already heard to the demo he gave her and asks her to give it to someone at the record house. Something which makes Star believe that the only reason he slept with her was to get something from it.

Carlotta, Alex and Noah are at the hotel’s bar watching the news about the bomb threat. Alex comes clean to Noah and tells him that her mother used to get drunk all the time and always ended up sleeping on her bed. So, she´s been taking care of her since she was eight years old. Noah replies that his father used to be selfish like that as well. Star arrives and says that even though Jackson is pretty good in bed, he is still a pig making the others there to look surprised at her.

In the other side of the room, Andy (Elijah Kelley) is making a phone call when Angel arrives all stressed over Simone’s behavior. Andy tells him that she is a lesbian, so he couldn’t expect her to want to sleep with him.

Simone walks in and is confronted by Andy who also insults her, making Star get mad at him. Noah tries to make them stop but then Andy reveals in front of everybody that Noah´s father is gay too and pushes through him until Noah ends up beating him up.

Back at Carlotta´s, Cotton and Miss Bruce are taking care of Jayden. The boy is singing out loud until Cotton asks him to turn the music off since he has been doing it for a while now and the kid unwillingly does. Then, he starts to misbehave and claim he is the man. Cotton talks to him, but the kid is getting worse on his comments so in an attempt to teach the kid about respect, Cotton ends up confessing that she is his father, something that makes the kid run away from the table.

As a way to help, Star decides to take Noah to a gay bar nearby the hotel and tells him that the best therapy for them is music. So, even though Noah questions her ways at first he ends up playing and singing “Dance With my Father” to the audience. Star and Noah share some talk where she tells him about Jackson and how she believed he tried to use her. Noah says that the man is just an artist trying to find his way in just like she did, and she should give him a chance and help him. He says that she should do what makes her happy.

Back at the studio, Gigi is listening to one of her songs when Jahil walks in and tries to show some sympathy to her for what she went through with Charles, but the girl gets all defensive against him and thinks he just wants to get to her and use it on his favor. Jahil decides to leave her alone, but then she starts to tell him her story about how everything started. Ayanna walks in and tells her that it is time to stop being afraid.

Simone is smoking outside the hotel and Angel meets her there and apologizes to her. He tries to address the situation going on between them lately, but she keeps avoiding it. She intends to walk away but he stops her by the arm, something that evokes some old painful memories of Otis (Darius McCrary) making her slap Angel on the face. Right that moment, a police car is passing by and stops to check on them. A police officer (Chris Gann) walks out and asks them about the reason they were arguing and asks Angel for an ID. When he sees his last name, he decides to run a background check on him and handcuffs him while it is done. Fortunately, everything goes well, and he lets him go with just a warning. When the officer leaves, Angel asks Simone to tell him once and for all if she doesn’t want to be with him, but she just remains there in silent while he walks away from her.

Maurice expresses his disagreement to Natalie about some of the decisions she´s been taking recently about the artists but she tries to convince him is for their own good. The woman takes a step forward and kisses him while Carlotta sees them from afar.

Alex is at the hotel with Rose watching a video of Noah playing at the bar the night before while her mother is watching the video of her husband having sex with another woman. Alex’s gets annoyed by the woman´s behavior and decides to take her to Miss Bruce´s ball.

At the ball, Miss Bruce approaches to a thoughtful Carlotta and by the sign the woman makes when she is asked about Maurice she understands that something has gone wrong between them. Star meets Simone who confesses what happened with Angel and how she doesn’t want to be seen as a victim. Next thing we see is Miss Bruce hitting the stage and rocking it out while everybody dances and has fun. Rose watches Alex having fun from afar and she decides to take the bottle of vodka that the waiter has placed next to her and leave.

Back at the hotel, Noah takes a shower and when he leaves the bathroom, sees a girl laying on his bed and he believes that Alex has been waiting for him. He goes to her and puts some kisses on her shoulder when the woman turns around and reveals to be no other but Rose. Noah steps back immediately and suddenly Alex walks in making the guy jump out of bed trying to excuse himself. Lucky for him, this is not the first time Rose has acted that way, so Alex knows is just a trick of her mother who is slurring her words trying to make a coherent sentence when her daughter asks her to leave.

Gigi is still at the studio when Simone gets in. The first one shares her worries and the reasons she decided not to tell her story making Simone to share a little about hers which encourages Gigi to tell about her experience thinking that it might help other girls going through the same situation as her to know that they are not alone.

Noah and Alex are sitting at Carlotta´s backyard when the woman steps out and tells them that Principal Sportswear has decided to be Alex´s sponsor instead of Noah´s. The girl feels conflicted about it, but the young man encourages to take the offer by showing her how happy he is for her so, she agrees. Carlotta walks inside the house to confirm the sponsor about Alex´s decision followed by the girl. When Noah is left alone, he sits back on the stairs looking quite disappointed, he takes a flask that he has been hiding and starts drinking.

Derek enters Ruby´s (Juanita Jennings) house and sees all the things she has bought. He tells her that his lawyer assured him that his settlement check had arrived two weeks ago, and Ruby confesses what she just did with the money, which leads to an argument with Derek making him to walk out of the place even though the woman tried to convince him to stay.

Star tells Jackson she will help him and pass his demo to Maurice. Carlotta finally faces Maurice and makes it clear that she knows what he´s been doing behind her back with Natalie and seals it with a punch on his face.

Back at Carlotta’s, Cotton and Jahil are sitting in the living room while they watch Jayden play a video game. She confesses her fear that the boy may not want to see her again, but Jahil says she just needs to be persistent and patient. She walks towards the boy and sits next to him. The kid tells her that he can´t say she is his father because his friends will laugh at him and that he will ask his mom not to take him back to that place. Right that moment, the kid faints and starts to have a seizure. This makes Cotton to run desperately to her phone and call 911.