Dear White People S04E07 "Chapter VII" Episode Discussion Thread

I am getting terrorist attack vibes from the post-credit scenes

Finally learning what Jo has been working on was so interesting and I like the way the musical number wasn’t really a full song. I just feel this engagement just happened way too fast. I will be very surprised if it last. But I love how Jo’s sister didn’t get mad about them arguing and instead understood what both of them are going through. This really was Jo’s episode. But man the theme for this episode seemed to be just enjoy the moment sometimes don’t worry about the future and what’s going on in your life. Just be happy. Which really speaks to me, sometimes I need to be just happy more and enjoy what is happening during those little moments.

Few more thoughts:

• Two seats left after Gabe joins. One’s Troy. One is either Al or Reggie. I’m assuming not Reggie because of my theory (see below) but that’d be interesting

• Man, Michael was my least favorite character until literally two episodes ago. I feel like he’s no longer the super shallow pretentious token boyfriend for Lionel but is actually acting like a human being. Excited to see what they do with his little story

• I’m wondering why characters aren’t kinda calling Joelle out on her shit…it seems like she’s been neglecting all her relationships to achieve achieve achieve. In my experience, this can kill relationships so I definitely don’t see her and Reg lasting. Reg definitely heading towards cheating on her to escape the engagement

• Last thought and my big theory on the message. So the school shooter guy at the end. I no longer think this is in the future, I’m pretty sure based off the bulletin board, he’s going to collide with our characters at the varsity show. My thinking is this only goes down two ways: he kills Reggie or Reggie kills him. And at the of the day, I dont think it matters. I posted on these (largely vacant atm) threads a few weeks ago saying how it seems the characters despite all the shit they’ve gone thru ALL end up okay. Not just okay, but Uber-successful. Except Reggie (at least that we’ve seen so far). And we also see him in this season ramping back up to radicalism. So the message is either be radical and fight fight fight all the time and struggle, or tell stories to black love and success and adapt and exist in the world (ala the characters we met in the future). If Reggie dies (creepy guy listening to Sam, mapping out the school) seeming , the story is radicalism can’t save you like adapting to society can. And if he’s the killer (he’s buying a gun, black panther talk), the message is radicalism on even the “right” side only brings more violence. Super interesting and nuanced message that I’m not totally sure I stand with 100% (that could be the point too tbh). I’m kinda just thinking/typing out loud but each season has had a very strong message throughout, and this one seems weaker just in terms of cohesion. Excited to finish the series/season

(((2 LAST LESS SERIOUS NOTES)))

• I hardly even notice the singing at this point. The Reggie solo from E5 was cool. And the “Friend is a 4 Letter Word” song was really good as well. Hated the concept at first but they slowed way way down on and I think the one or two short songs an episode made it much more palatable

• having current day Brandon Bell, who is 30ish irl and looks every bit of it, play both 21 year old Troy and 40-50 year old Troy takes me out of it everytime. Everyone else is ehh but Troy looks neither 21 or 40-50.

That’s all folks