How was the festival?
It was...
it was amazing.
She's a little nervous.
She's waiting to hear back from her manager about her script.
Drew's a great guy, but his client list
could use more women of color.
What she's saying is,
he is only interested in signing me
because folks are hiring Black writers now.
I like you. I'd be willing to take you on board.
Don't we need to have a conversation?
I think Valentina has run her course on the show.
Did I do something wrong?
So, how are you two?
Uh...we're great.
Maybe if I close my eyes
In the morning
This won't be reality
Mm, 'cause it's like the moon last night
Oh, my gosh.
Is this it?
I think so.
Well, now it can't be. It's bad luck.
I don't believe in superstitions.
It's real.
It's not.
So...
did you explore while I was away at Moondance?
Did you?
What do you want me to do?
Go and sleep with a guy
just so I can tell you how much I hated it?
I just want you to be honest with yourself.
I just wanna be happy.
Does the idea of marrying me make you happy?
I don't know.
Does it make you happy?
It makes me nervous.
Me too.
Then what are we doing?
I don't know.
I just know that I love you.
I love you too.
Instead of doing what we think we're supposed to do,
for once,
let's do what we want to do.
And what is that?
Not get married.
-Deal.
Our song.
I was gonna surprise you with our song at the wedding,
but...
since that's not happening,
I figured we could have our first and last dance right now.
Constantly
I think about you all the time
Constantly you're on my mind
How do you think people are gonna take it?
-Take what? -Us breaking up.
Mm-mm-mm.
They'll be fine.
First I lose my job, and now this?
When is Mercury gonna stop retrograding?
upbeat music
-Thanks. -Mm-hmm.
I still can't believe you told Nia first.
I'm feeling some kind of way.
We were on her vision board.
You knew?
Girl, everybody knew. Yeah.
Marie, how are you so relaxed?
I'm devastated.
Probably 'cause she got other options.
I love Chuck. I really do.
-I will always love Chuck. -Come on, Whitney.
But after we had that conversation,
I just felt happy.
Mm. Come on. For real.
I felt like I had a new attitude.
Yes, Patti!
I'm sad to see Chuck go,
but I'm also really excited to get back out there again.
There's nothing out there.
Don't you have two dudes knocking down your door
-right now? -Right.
Yeah. One of them is Ben.
-Sorry. -Yeah.
And the other one is Tristan,
who is still all over the place.
I can't welcome new energy into my house
until I settle this shit with Ida
and get my sister off my damn couch.
I still can't believe that she fired you.
Neither can I.
You know what, I hear that she gets jealous of women
that she thinks are prettier than her.
I don't think that's it.
Do you, Hattie?
I think that you should look at
being away from her toxic energy as a blessing.
Getting cast in something else would be a blessing.
-It would. -Yeah.
Aren't you gonna talk to your new boo about that?
Ben is not my new boo.
And all he has is an idea. It's not even a real thing yet.
You shouldn't get your hopes up,
'cause I doubt it'll ever be a real thing.
Negative Nancy has entered the group chat.
-Don't call me that. -Stop being so negative.
A'ight. I'm late for a meeting.
Gotta go. Bye.
-Okay, bye. -Love you too.
upbeat percussive music
Do you think this is a good photo for me
to tell the world I'll no longer be on Cocoa's Butter ?
Yeah, you look real pitiful in this one.
My emo posts always get the most likes.
Mm, I gotta go. I got a meeting too.
Okay, bye.
Hey, look at us, with meetings and shit.
-Right? -Right?
Ooh.
It's basically a movie about a happy family
on a mission to find eternal happiness.
-Do you have a writer? -Making a list.
Send it over by end of day.
Marie?
Quintrell and I sat down
with a writer we really liked the other day.
She's already read the book, and she loves it.
Does she have time to adapt it?
We're still trying to find that out.
And he's totally over this whole idea
-of financing it himself? -Yes.
Now, he does still want to put in some of his own money,
but he's down to let us pay for everything else.
He wants us to provide the infrastructure
and make sure nothing slips through the cracks.
-Great. Thank you for that. -Of course.
Oh, and I already have talent attached to Happy People.
Oh, that's the actual title?
Working title.
I should hope so.
Who do you have attached?
Nia Baptiste.
-Nia is not a name. -But she should be.
You're right, but she's not right now,
so she can't help you get your movie made.
Yeah, it would take a lot to get Ben's movie made.
What? I thought you said it was a sure thing.
You don't even have a script.
Ben, I'm all for uplifting movies,
but right now, your idea is a little thin.
White people make thin movies all the time, so why can't we?
Come on. Don't make this a race thing.
Spoken like a true white guy.
Since when did you become so woke?
Don't use that word.
Look, I need you both to bring me some better ideas.
Here's one: if you don't make my movie, I'm quitting.
Yeah. What are you, five?
No. I'm serious.
-You're being ridiculous. -Try me.
Oh, come on.
-Ben. -Nah.
-Wow.
Do you actually think he'll quit?
I don't know. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it.
What?
Chuck and I broke up.
Why?
What do you mean?
I just--
What, you think that I broke up with him for you?
I mean, I don't know what to think.
He and I both realized that...
we have a lot of growing to do.
I get that.
I'm so sorry.
Is that it?
I mean, do you want there to be more?
I guess I just thought
you'd have more to say than that.
I have a great deal of respect for you, Marie.
Okay? I really do.
I don't want this to get weird.
I just want us to thrive and make good movies.
somber music
Your script has gotten so much better since last time.
I told you I was gon' get it.
And get it, you did.
I think you're ready for generals.
Are you sure we can't just skip the getting-to-know-yous
and go straight to the meetings that are gonna get me a job?
You gotta crawl before you can walk.
Well, I feel like I've been doing plenty of crawling.
You got a lot more crawling to do.
But you are making progress.
Chin up, young Jedi.
Also, you don't have to come into my office
for every little thing.
I mean, this meeting could've been an email;
our last meeting could've been a text.
Well, I mean, I ain't got shit else to do.
Shit, I need to get a job
so I can get out this white girl apartment.
All in due time.
You're getting there.
-Hmm.
It's probably a bill collector right now.
Just answer it. Pretend like you don't know
-who the hell Hattie is. -Well, I tried that once,
but then when they said my name again,
I forgot to pretend like I didn't know who I was,
and I accidentally responded to my own name,
and they was like, "What?" And I was like, "Huh?"
And then I got nervous and hung up.
Look, I'ma take this, all right?
I look forward to those generals.
And I look forward to setting them up.
jazz music
Hello?
Is that my daughter?
Dad?
Why you answering the phone all scary?
What, you thought I was a bill collector or something?
Yeah, I did.
I just landed in LA. What you doing?
Minding my business.
Well, do you got time to see your daddy?
I-I guess so.
Well, let me know where you at, and I'ma pull up on you.
It's been way too long.
All right. I'll text you.
See you later, Gator.
Bye.
That's right, Weezy.
You better get George.
You know he ain't got no sense.
Yeah!
What's wrong?
-Guess who just called me. -Whoopi Goldberg.
No. My dad.
-What that fool want? -I don't know.
He said he wanted to see me.
He ain't seen you in 10 years.
What he want now?
I don't know.
Don't give that fool no money.
I ain't got no money to give.
When you see his ass, you tell him to call me.
Why?
He still owe me for that pack of cigarettes
I bought him in '92.
Bye, Ma. I love you.
All right, I love you too. Don't give him no money!
Whoo! Don't make no sense. Look at it.
So when were you gonna tell me
that you agreed to do his movie?
I didn't agree to do anything.
We just talked about it over drinks.
I still can't believe you had drinks with him.
Come on. I'm not that bad.
It's not nice to sneak up on people when they're talking.
He does this to me all the time.
Well, I'm not gonna be around to do it anymore.
-What? -I just quit.
I'm tired of working for the man.
-Stop saying that. -I'm serious.
I'm starting my own production company.
Do you know how many production companies there are
in this town? A million.
Well, now there's gonna be 1,000,0001.
So, call me when you're settled in your new offices.
My office is gonna be in my garage for the next year.
Oh.
Ben, don't do this.
It's already done.
I think you're making a mistake.
If I don't do this,
I'm always gonna be working for someone else.
I want to know what I'm made of.
Don't you?
Do I have consent to hug you goodbye?
Of course.
I'm gonna miss this place.
No, you're not.
Probably right.
I am gonna miss you, though.
Aw, that's so sweet.
Nia, hope you'll swing by my garage when it's all set up.
And hopefully we can make the movie next year.
I would love that.
It's been cool getting to know you these past few weeks.
-Yeah, it was. -Yeah.
-Don't be a stranger. -I won't.
All right.
smooth percussive music
-Wow. -I'm proud of him.
-You are? -Yeah.
He's taking his life into his own hands.
He's not following the rules.
It's sexy.
jazz music
The sun does shine
It happens when he smiles
Nia. Nia!
--Nia!
Your phone's dinging. Someone's texting you.
Oh, no. Those are just my notifications.
-Oh, shit. -What?
Quintrell is having a baby!
-That's not possible. -Yeah, he just announced it.
Why wouldn't he tell me this?
Did you think if you and Chuck broke up,
you and Quintrell would have a shot?
I don't know what I thought. I just--
Do you think I should try to get back together with Chuck?
As much as I would love that,
I don't think that's in your destiny.
I think you should spend some time with yourself.
echoing percussive music
-Everything okay? -Yeah. I'm-I'm good.
-You seem a little off. -No, no. I'm-I'm okay.
What'd Drew think of your latest draft?
Oh, he said it was much better than before.
And, um, he also said I was ready for generals.
-Nice! -I know, right?
-That's amazing! -Yeah.
-Hattie. -Huh?
What's wrong?
Nothing. I'm just in my head about something.
Do you want to tell me about it?
Look, I actually gotta go meet up with somebody.
-I'ma come over later, okay? -All right.
sentimental music
So you got a girlfriend?
Actually, I do.
Her name's Idina, and she's... she's pretty amazing.
I used to chase at least two or three of them at a time.
I was a savage.
Yeah, my mom told me.
How is your mom doing?
She's good.
Pretty lonely, but she a'ight.
She need me to come over there and keep her company?
-Please don't, okay?
That's the last thing she needs.
That's the first thing she needs.
So how you been?
I'm good.
I just got a manager.
-A manager? -Yeah.
What, you trying to be a movie star?
Nah, trying to be a writer.
--What?
So you want to follow in your daddy's footsteps.
-You ain't a writer. -I write jokes.
Look, being a comic and being a comedic writer
are two different things.
-I wrote on a sitcom. -You did not.
You were a extra on Thea.
I pitched a joke,
-and they used it. -Okay.
So maybe your manager might want to talk to me.
Wow. So that's why you wanted to talk?
I was joking. I was just joking.
That's what I do. I tell jokes.
Hmm.
Well, it was good seeing you.
You've seen me, so I guess I can go now.
Look, listen. Look, I got a show in a few days,
and I would love for you to come and check me out.
Man. How much do tickets cost?
It's my show. I'll put you on the list.
It's not a problem. I'm the headliner.
-Can my girls come? -Are they cute?
Okay, your girls can come. Yeah, they can come.
Sure. Why not?
I'll try to come through.
Wait a minute. What do you mean "try"?
I'ma try to come through, like I said.
Either you're gonna come, or you're not gonna come.
Fine, man. I'll come.
-Thank you. -Dang.
Why are you really here?
Because I love you and you need my help.
Okay. Pause.
Now tell me the truth.
Winston and I are having some issues.
Are you having trouble getting pregnant?
Yes.
Oh, God.
Apparently his sperm count is low.
-It is? -You can't tell anyone.
No, please, I've been keeping everybody's secrets these days.
Like...
I'm willing to adopt, but he won't even entertain that idea.
Oh, no.
I'm so sorry.
It's been so hard.
Why didn't you tell me?
'Cause, it's not the kind of thing
that I want to talk about.
It's much easier to focus on your problems
than talk about mine.
Well, you can stay here as long as you need to.
Thank you, but at some point,
I have to go home and face my own life.
I'm always here for you.
I know. And I love you.
You know that we're gonna make it
It could be getting crazy
Knowing I could stay the night
-Hey. -Hey.
Are you mad at me?
No, I'm not mad.
I just wanted to know what was going on with you.
You ready to tell me?
I saw my dad today.
-Your dad? -Mm-hmm.
When was the last time you saw him?
I was, like, 15.
How was it?
It was weird, but...
What'd he want?
He got a show he want me to come to.
You going?
I mean, he didn't give me much of a choice, but...
You always have a choice.
Yeah, but he's my dad, and, you know, I don't know,
I just feel like I should support his ass, I guess.
You want to be my plus-one?
You ready for me to meet your dad?
I already told him about you.
-You did? -Mm-hmm. Yeah.
I told him how amazing you are.
-Hey. -Hmm?
The next time you dealing with some shit, tell me.
I will.
I can't read your mind.
-Oh, you can't? -No.
Nor would I want to.
I ain't trying to get lost up in there.
Yeah.
I ain't trying to get lost up in there either.
The sun is shinin' brighter, and it's all good
'Cause even that smile on my face
You've become my favorite getaway
I'm only used to
The kind of love that hurt you
jazz music