Star – Next of Kin

By: Gladys Luna

“Lord, she´s too young to go. She´s just a baby.” Carlotta´s (Queen Latifah) voiceover kicks in again and we pick up right where we were left with Simone (Brittany O´Grady) being taken to the ER while Carlotta numbingly watches her until she is asked to leave the room in order for the doctors to keep on trying to bring Simone out of her unconsciousness. As a result of the overdose, Simone is drawn into a sort of a fantasy where she imagines her mother Mary (Caroline Vreeland), all dressed in white and standing in the middle of the room Simone had when she was a kid, singing for her. Suddenly, Star (Jude Demorest) joins in the picture as she imagines her at the hospital and by the time she realizes the three of them are singing and she finds herself struggling between staying with her mother or coming back to her sister. And then, all it takes is just a pinch in her heart and Simone is brought back abruptly to reality.

Unaware of what happened to Simone, Star and Alexandra (Ryan Destiny) walk into a club in the search of Big Boi, Alexandra´s father old friend and producer, to ask for his help to get their so desired demo done. She explains to him about their project and after a quick chat, the girls manage to convince him into doing it. In the meantime, Carlotta is waiting at the hospital along with the salon girls when the doctor arrives and informs her that Simone had a cardiac arrest, but they were able to resuscitate her. Still, the girl must stay at the hospital for at least 24 more hours under observation to record her progress. When asked if she is the girl´s mother, Carlotta lies to prevent Simone from ending up in the system again since she is still underage, earning this way a not so pleasant glare from her daughter. When the doctor is gone, Carlotta threats Miss Bruce (Miss Lawrence) with ending business with her if she brings her drugs to the salon again.

But the girls are not the only ones searching for help, as Jahil (Benjamin Bratt) meets with a friend of his to whom he exposes his plans of getting the girls to the top. In order to do so, they need to present a demo so they can be signed up into the city contest and they are running out of time. He doesn’t seem entirely convinced of getting into it until Jahil gives him the money he got from Maggie (Helena Kallianiotes) in exchange for doing something he´ll be taking care of the next day.

Back at the hospital, Carlotta is faced with a social worker who hits her with a bunch of questions about Simone and she feels herself forced into lying again by saying she is the girl´s mother. In the middle of the interview, they are interrupted by an incoming call on Simone´s cellphone from Star. Quickly Cotton (Amiyah Scott), Carlotta´s transgender daughter, answers the call and before she can say anything Star begins to tell her the good news about Big Boi and their demo. Star is unexpectedly greeted by Cotton´s voice while she explains what happened to her sister. Star storms into the hospital asking for her Simone when she is met with a nurse that informs her the girl is alright and out of danger as well as with her mother. Star retorts with a hint of anger by telling her they don’t have a mother.

As Simone sleeps, Star begins to sing for her as she recalls how her mother used to do it when they were kids and she tried to make baby Simone sleep while holding her in her arms. The memory was immediately replaced with an image of herself doing the same when her mother was no longer around. After a while, Simone finally wakes up asking Star about the contest deadline, but Star assures her that the only thing that matters know is for her to recover. The sisters share a heart to heart conversation as Star tells Simone she can´t lose her in the same way she lost her mother and stops Simone from bolting out of the bed by the fear of somebody finding out where they are. Later that day, Star has an obnoxious encounter with Carlotta as she finds her speaking to a psychiatrist about Simone´s state. Star still has some resentment on Carlotta not taking care of them after her mother death as she was her best friend back then and makes sure Carlotta has it clear.

While Alexandra is spending some time with Derek (Quincy Brown), she is suddenly interrupted by Star as she explains her the plans she has to break Simone out of the hospital so they can go to the appointment with Big Boi to record the demo. Star throws a rock at Carlotta’s salon window and sets the alarm on, while Derek watches the whole scene displayed from his window. Carlotta is still at the hospital with her daughter who expresses her disagreement about her decision to lie to the social worker by telling them she is Simone´s mother. This leads to a more heart felt conversation between Carlotta and Cotton as the last one assures her that she is now her daughter and the boy she once knew as her son is no longer alive. Cotton also informs her about her decision on going for the bottom surgery by saying “I need my outsides to match my insides,” much to her mother´s dismay. Suddenly, Carlotta receives a call from the police reporting her about the “incident” at her salon forcing her to leave the hospital which works according to the girl´s plan as Star, now wearing a nurse scrubs takes Simone out while Alexandra is waiting for them in a car outside. Before they can make the runaway, they are discovered by the hospital crew, but they still manage to make the breakout.

Jahil meets a “mystery man” at an isolated space as he was requested to do as a part of the “business” he needs to help Maggie with in exchange for the money she already gave him. Jahil is led to a van and when the doors are open he is met with a group of frightened young Hispanic women that begin to beg at him for help and he immediately regrets his decision on going into this deal. Instead of drug trafficking he will be involved in women trafficking.

The girls make it to Big Boi studio and begin to record their demo as Carlotta is notified about Simone´s break out of the hospital with the help of Alexandra and Star. Carlotta manages to get some information from Jahil about the girls’ whereabouts and breaks in the middle of their recording which sets off an argument between Star and Carlotta. They are abruptly silenced by Simone as she yells she can do whatever she wants with herself. Big Boi decides to call it a night and once again, their mission is not accomplished and Simone is taken back to the hospital.

Jahil decides to let the kidnapped women free and pretends he was set up by the man with whom the business deal was supposed to be closed. Earlier that day he requested his friend Hunter (Chad James Buchanan) to punch him on the face with a stapler to make the charade more believable.

Back at the hospital, Simone finally confesses to Carlotta the abuse she suffered from her foster father Otis (Darius McCrary) and how her step mother was aware of the whole situation, but never did anything to stop it. Carlotta swears to Simone right there, that Otis will never hurt her again. While Alexandra eave drops the whole conversation. Jahil and Star meet in order to discuss the future roads for the trio and suddenly an idea hits Star in order to get the demo done as they still have a couple of hours to be enrolled in the contest.

Pastor Harris (Tyrese Gibson) takes Carlotta for a walk giving Star, Alexandra and Jahil the chance to steal Simone for a while taking her to an empty room where they have managed to put up a “small studio” to FINALLY record their demo. The girls begin to sing accompanied by a sequence fantasy of the trio dancing and singing along the hospital hallways and dining area all dressed in hospital gowns. The three girls get carried away by the beats, unaware of Carlotta and Pastor Harris watching them from the other side of the door.

A final sequence is presented as we see Jahil signing the girls into the contest and being successfully enrolled just two seconds before the deadline. Also, we see Simone´s foster mom as she tries to stop Otis from leaving. Back at Jahil´s apartment, he is suddenly interrupted by a knock at his door and when he comes to open it he is met with one of the Hispanic women he had helped escape a few days ago.

Don´t miss Star every Wednesday at 9/8c on Fox. See you next week!