Photo by Michael Parmelee (FX
This week’s episode of Pose opened up with a ball scene, as we deserve. The Back to the Future themed category was a ton of fun. That was until Pray Tell collapsed on stage. The rest of the episode would center around his illness.
Nurse Judy to the rescue. The problem seemed to be with his platelets, a reaction not caused by his HIV but rather to the medication. He would be pulled off the medication and should be able to recover. Pray really struggled with his HIV diagnosis in this episode, something that was so hard to watch. Blanca was also there to lend him moral support. But, my heart broke for him.
We got an update on Blanca’s nail salon, finally. Her terrible landlord was back, this time bashing those with AIDS. She did, however, give a twenty-whole-dollar donation to the AIDS cabaret.
Pray met his roommate in the hospital, a man who was suffering with pneumonia and did not like to be called a queen. Pray witnessed him having a heart attack. He ended up being sedated as his roommate flatlined. When he ‘woke up’, he found several letters from Candy, asking him to join her in hell, because of course she did. Candy herself even made an appearance. Candy raved about how much fun she was having in the afterlife, trying to convince Pray to join her. He was resilient in insisting he was going to keep fighting. In this moment, he learned Candy had AIDS, something she kept private.
Pray was then ‘visited’ by his step father who abused him sexually when he was twelve. Pray had to forgive him for his own sake of moving forward. Then, Costas paid him a visit. This was the first positive ‘visit’ Pray received. The first person who pushed him to keep living. Ugh, we stan Costas. Then, Pray broke out into a musical number and performed in his own hospital AIDS cabaret.
Back at the Evangelista house, Blanca was stressed with all the planning and Pray’s health. She snapped at the family for celebrating Angel booking a new campaign. It was hard for Blanca to do all of the paperwork aspect of the planning, usually Pray’s job, with her dyslexia. Papi responded, “sorry for your dyslexia”. Turns out, this was less about her dyslexia and more about the guilt she felt giving Pray the drug that landed him in the hospital. She opened up about this to Angel, who offered to help her out.
It was time for the AIDS cabaret. Blanca showed up to the hospital to find Pray was mad at her. He was going to be released from the hospital but played it off to her like he wasn’t well enough to leave the room. They both had words, but in the end, they are family and he made an appearance. Nurse Judy, Damon, Lulu, and Ricky sang a heartfelt number accompanied by WERRRK.com favorite, Our Lady J on piano!
Then, Blanca’s landlord went on a rant about wanting to be Elizabeth Taylor, then performed a song that wasn’t horrible like I was expecting. So, good for her, right? Nah, we still hate her. While she was performing, she was having Blanca’s salon completely stripped and the locks changed. I knew we couldn’t trust her.
The group were able to raise over $4,000 dollars for HIV/AIDS charities. It was such a heart wrenching moment seeing those suffering through the virus in the audience with a smile on their face. Blanca even spoke out about her diagnosis, which was powerful, before she sang. In the midst of her performance, Pray joined the audience and then her in the duet we all needed. Blanca and Pray forever.
Things seemed positive until Blanca had a talk with her landlord, who she thought was her new girlfriend. The next day, Blanca found the nail salon completely gutted. The good news is, that evening the family all got together for dinner and Pray was there! He was very happy to be home. The family planned to protest outside the nail salon as they waited to take the legal route. Pray arranged for over 50 people to join them, even Elektra came. This episode ended on a cute, wholesome note after a lot of sadness.
Or so we thought, miss Candy made another appearance. She decided she was going to haunt him forever now. So, that’s cool I guess. Except, she’s still trying to convince him to join her. But Pray made it clear to her that it’s not his time, and we all know it isn’t. Pray will fight on.
What did you think of this week’s episode? Let us know in the comments below!
