OPINION: Unique is on a mission to ruin Raquel’s foothold in the Queens drug game while the Thomas family has a new reality to reckon with.
Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
I have to admit here that while I’m enjoying the “ghost in the shadows” act that Unique is trying to do to ruin the lives of the people he feels betrayed him—chiefly his boo Raquel—I’m kind of confused by his scorched earth philosophy. For starters, the only cold hard fact he knows is that his big brother, Ronnie, beat him within an inch of his life AFTER they got into an argument and scuffle at their little headquarters. He also knows Ronnie thought he killed him and dumped him in the woods. This assumption that somehow Raquel and Kanan and whoever else wanted him dead to move in on his turf is kind of nuts to me. There is NOTHING to support that.
In the first episode, Unique’s boy Early (who saved his life essentially) was told Unique wasn’t going to be right in the head while he healed without proper health care so maybe that’s what’s happening? Otherwise, I don’t understand Unique’s methods at all. In the last episode, he killed Raquel’s lawyer, who was maybe his old lawyer, too, or who he perhaps thinks helped Raquel take him out. I cannot remember that lawyer’s place in Unique’s life, but what I do know is this episode opens up with Unique killing two people who were running a drug front for Raquel’s business and they really didn’t need to die. Unique thinks he is sending a message—which he is—but that message is very murky. It is definitely causing problems for Raquel, but to what end?
He also runs up on Kanan’s spot and (presumably) robs him, too. Look, drug dealers are going to do drug dealer things and Unique is also a killer so perhaps this is, as the intro song declares, all “a part of the game.” It just seems like Unique is playing a different game right now. I know we’re going to spend most of the season on this plot point, I just hope everybody finds out Unique is alive sooner rather than later so we can get to the reckoning that’s coming for somebody in Southside Jamaica, Queens.
While Unique is running all roughshod through the streets, the Thomases (Raquel, Marvin, Lou-Lou, Jukebox, and Kanan) are about to learn their family matriarch is about to die. We’ve learned over time that Raquel, Marvin, and Lou-Lou have a very complicated relationship with their mother, Joyce. She was clearly there for them, but not in the way they all needed them. Marvin talks often about having to raise Raquel and Lou-Lou, so perhaps Joyce (who has a soft spot for Kanan) just couldn’t handle the loss of their father (he left) and took it out on her kids.
She also has an issue with Jukebox, who has decided to live in her truth instead of hiding who she is. Anyway, they all sit down for a family dinner where she shares that she has terminal cancer, and while that should be a moment for reflection, Raquel becomes enraged, annoyed that Joyce would manipulate them with a dinner. It seems as if they never gathered as a family ever (something that’s implied).
Their family dynamics are so interesting. “Raising Kanan” is a family show above all else, so watching Raquel do her best to raise Kanan (even in the dope game) while being a concerned mother about his schooling and his relationships, etc., makes me wonder about her upbringing. I’m sure we’ll circle back to this as well.
We do briefly have to discuss the coming rift between Raquel and Marvin because that stands to become a significant part of this plot. And I would like to VERY VERY CLEARLY STATE FOR THE RECORD, if something happens to Marvin I’m going to be UPSET. Marvin has been meeting with Stefano to do side work for him—he’s roughed up a couple of folks, took out a person or two, etc.
Somebody pulled Raquel’s ear to tell her he’s meeting with him and he flat out denies it. I know he is of the mind that he can do what he wants, but Stefano being in business with both Raq and Marvin in differing capacities seems like a disaster in the making. In the last episode, he killed a guy that Stefano told him just to “talk to.” Let me say it again, if something happens to Marvin, I’m not sure I’ll be alright. But then again, I am still waiting for the moment when Jukebox turns a violent and dark corner, and maybe we’re headed that way.
I can’t wait to see what happens next week because really, the “big boss” fight between Unique and Raquel has epic written all over it. They’re former drug rivals turned romantic interests. The fireworks are going to have to fly and I want to see just how bright they shine.
Southside.
Panama Jackson is a columnist at theGrio and host of the award-winning podcast, “Dear Culture” on theGrio Black Podcast Network. He writes very Black things, drinks very brown liquors, and is pretty fly for a light guy. His biggest accomplishment to date coincides with his Blackest accomplishment to date in that he received a phone call from Oprah Winfrey after she read one of his pieces (biggest) but he didn’t answer the phone because the caller ID said “Unknown” (Blackest).
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