‘Run The World’ Season 1 Episode 5 ‘Plus Ones’
‘Run the World’ is STARZ’s love letter to Black women and Harlem. This is the latest in series recaps written by Culture Editor Bianca Gregg. Check in with her each Sunday for updates on the show.
The episode starts with Matt and Sondi speaking with the board at the university about their relationship. Both are honest during the questioning — well… except for when asked if they had sex on campus.
Otherwise very honest.
Needless to say the couple is finally free to go public with their relationship. Sondi moves in with Matt and Amari. They appear to be fairing well. Sondi and Matt have planned a party for colleagues and friends to come and celebrate everything originally Black about Harlem as well as their love.
Renee arrives to the party with a new guy-friend named Reed. He complains about the music and rushes off to go speak to a DJ, even though there is no DJ at this affair chile.
Sondi, Ella and Renee speak with one of the guests — Donda Baptiste; briefly.
Donda talks about women needing to be secure with sleeping with men not just because of love but what sleeping with him could do for us. Clearly the conversation makes Sondi uncomfortable considering she does not want anyone to think she has got to where she is academically because of her relationship with Matt.
Donda also hits Sondi later with knowledge of other women wanting to pursue Matt and that the last girl he was involved with could not cook as well as she can. Sondi cryptically tries to ask Matt if he has had parties like this previously with anyone else but he says no not to the extent of their party, hmm.
Renee sleeps with Reed and although it seems to be going well, the necklace Reed is wearing seems to get in the way. Renee asks him could he take it off and his response is no.
Reed never takes the necklace off because it holds the ashes of his dead wife.
The irony of him saying this as he finishes inside Renee, whew!
Whitney and her mother are on their way to Whitney’s final bridal fitting. Clearly the relationship between mother and daughter is a bit estranged.
At the fitting we meet Hope, the Maid of Honor. Clearly the girls are not the biggest fans of Hope. She is a bit chatty and a tad superficial. When Whitney comes out in her gown, everyone is in awe of how beautiful she looks but the moment does not last.
Renee is asking about getting a split in her gown, Ella and Sondi are going back and forth about Ella’s love for Donda and Sondi’s disdain for her and well Hope is just trying to shift the energy. Whitney asks for the ladies to come into the dressing room with her. She scolds them for their behavior in front of her mother.
The ladies apologize and proceed with the fitting.
Later that night, Whitney and her mother have dinner together. She is still very snippy with her mother. Finally wanting to know what is wrong with Whitney, the two women have a honest conversation. Whitney admits she feels pressure to always do things right for her mother’s approval. Her mother tells her that all she wants for Whitney is genuine happiness and more openness between the two of them. Whitney cries and admits she has been putting a lot of pressure on herself. Whitney decides that now is the time to start to let her mother in and they begin to catch up on things.
Takeaways:
I love seeing the dynamic between Whitney and her mother. Black Mother and Daughter relationships are starting to get more attention and I like seeing this more on television and in movies.
My hope is that Matt is not one of those men that uses his position to attract female students to him. I am hoping Sondi is the only one he has got this serious with.
I am looking forward to seeing how honest Whitney plans to be with her mother. Will she tell her about cheating on Ola?
