Best TV Couple #15: Darla & Ralph Angel Bordelon

What happens when an ex-convict and recovering drug addict decide to take the lover's plunge?

Queen Sugar's Ralph Angel and Darla have come a long way.

In the beginning, these two works-in-progress were at different life stages post first break up. Six months out of prison, parolee Ralph Angel is raising Blue with the help of his father Ernest and Aunt Vi, instilling positive wisdom. Unfortunately, Ralph Angel isn't taking that gung ho advice, robbing a corner store (without a mask) and later on stealing from his honest job. Darla is trying to stay clean, having found a good city job, living in a trailer. She wants another shot at motherhood, a place in Blue's life.

In season one, episode three, "Thy Will Be Done," with come hither glances, a stroke of background guitar cords, and little dialogue, Ralph Angel and Darla fog up the screen, leaving nothing to imagine.

They eventually make for a relationship, both grasping at individual redemption, co-parenting Blue. Darla, having lost so much time, doesn't realize Blue's Kendra doll isn't about her absence. Importantly, Darla has a sponsor (who is skeptical about Darla being in an intense relationship) and Ralph Angel has a parole officer (who wants him to think about Blue's future). With the exception of Blue, the sponsor and the parole officer are Darla and Ralph Angel's ties to a healthier future, to living a rich, fulfilling life without the influence of inebriating drugs or hotheaded decisions.

Their forehead kisses were the best.

Darla's raw poignant moments in season one, episode eight's "Where With All" set a tremulous stage. During the hurricane safety nest of Vi's house, facing two storms at once, Darla knows she's not welcomed, heavily burdened with unforgiving Vi's wrath. Still, Darla uses this to her advantage, softly telling a bedtime story to Blue-- an allegorical narrative hinting at how new friends, peer pressure, and drugs damaged her relationship with Ralph Angel. Later, she thanks Vi and Hollywood for saving Blue from that terrible night in a hotel room. In that moment, she bears her soul, unloading a weighted depression utterly heartbreaking to listen. Through it all, Ralph Angel is there, awed by the beauty of her words, the strength resonating in a body that has overcome more than any of them realized.

Ralph Angel and Darla passionately reunite in one of the steamiest shower scenes ever in the opening of Queen Sugar's thirteenth episode of season one, "Give Us This Day." As the water dripped and Kan Wakan's sugary sweet track "Molasses" played, the couple finally unleashed the pent up tension whilst being clean-- a great way for two people on the path to salvation.

In season two, Ralph Angel and Darla spend plenty of time together at Ralph Angel's. This sets up a cozy, loving atmosphere for Blue-- whose delight is absolutely contagious. Ralph Angel and Darla are doting black parents, building a new foundation even as the troubling past rears its ugly head. On Ralph Angel's roughest, Darla soothes him, cajoles him like a medicinal balm against a pesky rash. She  heals the fire raging inside her man, but while she is nurturing and comforting him, it is a lot of responsibility for one woman who still isn't completely whole.

Their differences are major.

Ralph Angel has tendencies of being brutally stubborn, relying fully on Darla, putting her fragile recovery at risk. His overbearing selfishness and rising temper (enough to erupt a whole volcano) is a weight too carry for sensitive Darla. She has to balance a job, staying clean, and resuming motherhood. It wasn't fair to have additional demands placed on her shoulders. After all, she was quite hesitant at their fast paced intimacy. He often forces her to choose him, including over her recovery steps. In fact, instead of defying him to keep her job, she comes to his side and is fired the next day. In her need to find another job, she turns to Charley for help and an unsupportive Ralph Angel (who is having a blistering feud with his older sister) throws a huge tantrum.

Ralph Angel (Kofi Siriboe), Blue (Ethan Hutchison), and Darla (Bianca Lawson) having a family outing.

Ralph Angel and Darla's finest moments include her unwavering support of him at the dinner table once everyone learns of Ernest's handwritten will. Ralph Angel shows up at Darla's sobriety anniversary in a huge showing of support. Then came that gorgeous marriage proposal:

"I promise I'll do my best and help you do your best. Always...…. I want you in this house, by my side, next to me, for the rest of my life. Darla, will you marry me?"

She is silent at first. Says, "yes." Kneels down to wipe his tears and kisses him. They exchange heartfelt "I love you's" and revel in the candlelit bathtub.

Darla's big secret, a huge and colossal shame, destroyed it all and they will probably never get back to romance. Co-parenting yes. Lovers? Probably not.

Still, Ralph Angel having learned that Charley fired Darla and that Darla hadn't shown up for her sponsor meeting, having known that she was lowly and vulnerable, he frantically searched everywhere-- drug houses included. In the plight showed a empathetic, compassionate soulmate driven by despair and great betrayal. Alas, he had found her, swimming skillfully in an abandoned pool, using rippled water to give clarity and not the prick of a needle.

After announcing their emotional confrontation, Ralph Angel's gravely spoken, "God Bless You, Darla," the same words Hollywood echoed to her after the lowest point of her life, was probably the saddest ending to a relationship yet. Or maybe it isn't truly over.....

Lastly, Ralph Angel and Darla's incredible, multidimensional story contains profound courage and exceptional quality. These characters --these survivors of a system that often neglects them-- couldn't have happened without Kofi Siriboe's astoundingly layered reluctant black male patriarch and Bianca Lawson's articulate defiance and quiet poise. Their remarkable chemistry, an eloquent touch on a series that illustrates the highs and lows of black love, is just beautiful picture to witness.