'Queen Sugar' Remains a Resonating Juggernaut in Season Three

Queen Sugar season 3 poster.

Warning: If you haven't watched Queen Sugar's epic season two or the first few episodes of the recently debuted third season please do not scroll down.

Sisters Charley (Dawn-Lyen Gardner, left) and Nova (Rutina Wesley, right) comfort Ralph Angel (Kofi Siriboe, center) after he receives paternity test results.  

Last season ended on a traumatic shocker. Darla let out a colossal secret that many viewers didn't see coming. Blue was not Ralph Angel's flesh and blood. After years of raising the sweet, lovable tyke as his biological offspring, Ralph Angel was crushed to learn the devastating truth.

Micah (Nicholas Ashe) and Charley (Dawn-Lyen Gardner) have dealt with Davis's scandalous affair/love child in similar ways.

This third season is more somber, its quietness contained. The characters are dealing with personal aftermaths, channeling hurt, anger, frustration, and rage in cages that could have detrimental consequences. For one, Charley is pulling further away from her family, deserted by them. Rightfully so. No one seems available to answer her despair. She is a determined, headstrong woman.. It took time for the others to understand why she sold the mill to the awful Landry family. Thus, when Davis tells her about his daughter from an elicit affair, that shatters Davis and Charley's brittle post-divorce relationship. She handles her pain against grain, against logic, allowing the younger Landry-- Jacob Boudreaux-- to take her to dinner and dancing, going as far as sharing a public displayed kiss with him.

Whereas Charley can't see that Micah is putting forth the same emotional distance. He too is blown away by Davis's shameless discretion. As he becomes fully ingested with public high school life, fresh from strict, upper crust private institutions, he is enamored more and more with the young black activists, a team of black students campaigning for justice anywhere they see fit. While their ways of raising black awareness impresses Micah's vulnerability, especially after running into the white police officer that tormented him, he is slowly lulling away from his girlfriend, Keke.

Now Keke appreciates the young black activists' valiant efforts, but at the same time, she knows that she is a teenager with a lot of life to  She wants to be there for Micah, but he brushes her off for the thrills of egging on conservative white people. It gives him the power that was stolen from him, revives his spirit. Still, Micah is allowing the pursuit of danger to grant him comfort instead of his loved ones. There will come a moment that he will have to choose between activism and his relationship with Keke. From these seven aired episodes alone, he is grappling with countless pent up issues on top of his father's latest betrayal.

Nova (Rutina Wesley) has reservations about becoming involved with Charley's ex Remy (Dondre T. Whitfield). 

Meanwhile, as Nova prepares her novel, seeking out influences from Ida B. Wells to Aunt Violet, her love life is becoming another taboo. First was the tawdry affair with Calvin, a white police officer. Then came a short tryst with Chantal Williams. Lastly, a man who didn't know her at all, the kiss up, Dr. Robert DuBois. Now Remy is wooing her with words, subtle touches, and longing looks, despite his very recent history with Charley. From the first two seasons, Remy appeared to be a humble, sweet man turning on that rustic Southern charm. He is also rather old fashioned. He couldn't work out with Charley because she was an underhanded schemer and dangerous risk taker. With Nova, perhaps he sees quite the opposite. After all, he is fond of her writing. Nova gets to the heart of the matter without playing any manipulation tactics.

In "Delicate and Strangely Made," the sixth episode, at the dead of night, Nova comes to Charley's house having learned of Davis's love child. Previously, a tear stricken Charlie had called Nova (whom had her phone off as she spent time fishing with Remy). Nova had plenty of time to get back to her younger, hurting sister. Instead, she's texting Remy and not returning her sister's call. Thus, when Nova is at Charley's house, apologizing and wanting to provide solace, Charley is ice cold, closing the door on her. Nova was wrong for not being immediately present. Afterwards, she texts Remy that they cannot continue.

However, in "Study War No More," episode seven, a fickle Nova appears to have changed her mind, letting Remy tenderly hold her hand in Vi's kitchen. And Charley, who is constantly the family's black sheep, is many yards away unbeknownst to this newest burgeoning development.

Ralph Angel (Kofi Siriboe) and Darla (Bianca Lawson) have it out over Blue.

Blue (Ethan Hutchison) tugs onto Darla (Bianca Lawson), making a shocking announcement.

Ralph Angel rambunctiously unleashes his pain in a more destructive fashion. At the beginning of the season, he is sleeping with random black women, shoving Darla's Facetime phone calls on Blue, and drinking heavily. However, he is focused on making sure the farm is harvested. Out of good will, he even allows a stranger, a former convict, have a job and stay at his house. When Darla returns-- fresh faced, hair cut, and new lovely home likely supported by her parents-- she is outraged by what Ralph Angel has been withholding. She lashes out about Blue's school behavior and the random stranger gambling with friends in the house Blue is living in.

Darla stays vigilant in her sobriety, seemingly well put together. As she grows accustomed to living back in St. Joe, sustaining without Ralph Angel and realizing that his family that ostracize her forever, she focuses on being a mother to Blue. It is unclear if Darla found a steady local job since Charley fired her.

Darla's return also ignites a change in Ralph Angel's behavior. Suddenly, he is ready to pursue a new relationship and the boss's daughter, Trinh, holds the key. They go out on a few dates. Trinh shows Ralph Angel the appeasing nature of ordinary life, which is eerily reminiscent of Darla taking Ralph Angel to watch independent films. At first, Ralph Angel is nicer to Darla, letting her chaperone Blue on the school field trip instead of himself and allowing her to have Blue spend the night in her new house. Yet when Ralph Angel goes on an ice run with Trinh and Blue in tow, they look like a family unit. In fact, to the blurry eye, they look like Ralph Angel, Darla, and Blue. Although Trinh and Darla are different nationalities, they have the same complexion, doe eyes, full mouth, long dark hair (yes, Darla cut hers but still...), and slender body type. Darla sees the three of them together and is hurt by the sight. Ralph Angel, king of petty, aware of her presence, drives off without a care.

It will be interesting how Ralph Angel, Darla, and Blue move forward in this pins and needles fragility and if Trinh is going to be a permanent fixture in their lives. Ralph Angel is still hurt that he isn't Blue's father and Darla, who has realized the grave error of mismanaging her recovery steps, yearns to make amends to get back what she has again lost.

Blue celebrates his birthday by sending letters up to Ernest Bordelon: Micah (Nicolas Ashe), Blue (Ethan Hutchison), Vi (Tina Lifford), and Hollywood (Omar Dorsey) stand in front of the firepit.

In Queen Sugar too, it is never late to find love. As the younger Bordelons weigh ups and downs in their relationship choices, Hollywood and Vi are the finest illustration of love having no age limit. They have their battles though. Vi's independence remains an issue that Hollywood must face. Vi's pies business is booming so wonderfully that a couple offered to buy stakes. The stakes are more for them and less for her. She wants to create a storefront, well and within her right. After all, she is so popular that she calls on Nova for help. Vi is stubborn as a mule when it comes to asking for a second hand.  It is a red flag that she insistently rejects Hollywood.

As the family celebrate Vi's big 60th birthday, Hollywood's mother, who had stayed over to take part in the festivities, touches on Hollywood's insecurities. Sadly, Hollywood had originally wanted kids in his future. Even if her intuition was right about Hollywood's first wife, LeeAnne, we all hope that she is wrong about Vi. It would be flabbergasting if like Darla and Ralph Angel, Hollywood and Vi do not make it to the altar.

Relationships aside, the Bordelon farmland brings Charley, Nova, Ralph Angel, and Vi together. With Charley's daring sleuthing, the family has discovered a startling secret project that the Landrys have planned-- a private jail on properties of black farmers including the desired Bordelon property.  With corrupt institutionalization modern day slavery, the Bordelons will be damned if history repeats.

Dawn-Lyen Gardner, Oprah Winfrey, Rutina Wesley, Kofi Siriboe, Tina Lifford, and Ava DuVernay are what make Queen Sugar great.

As the complex, juicy stories unfold onscreen, off Queen Sugar dominates the awards shows honoring our specific demographic. For good reason, it has won the African American Film Critics Association's (AAFCA) Best Drama Series twice in a roll and has NAACP Image Awards honors for Outstanding Drama Series and Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series for Ava DuVernay. Rutina Wesley has won Best Actress in a Drama from the Black Reel Television Awards and is nominated again this year. Although it continues breaking new, pivotal ground each season, with its all women directing team, phenomenal top notch acting, breathtaking cinematography, and gut wrenching narrative, the white institutions running Emmys and Golden Globes cannot remove themselves from historical prejudice, a discriminating hierarchy that will rarely nominate black actresses let alone black and women writers and directors.

Moreover, Queen Sugar deserves all the praise received. Whether its spread via Twitter trends, topping Wednesday night Facebook feeds, and the main topic of countless blog think pieces, Queen Sugar is a buzzing wildfire honey. Its sweet taste stings and soothes simultaneously. Endless television shows including this year's Emmy nominees cannot compare to Queen Sugar's brilliant delivery. On the screen moves mountains. Behind -the-scenes, women are helming and finessing to the magic of Meshell Ndegeocello's pulsing soundtrack. Every little element operates succinctly, like the brain, heart, and lungs of a full working body. Thus, we should continue to revel in this existence, of seeing and hearing what has long since been denied.

Week after week, viewers are fortunately rewarded with a generous helping of gratifying storytelling, of a show that demonstrates what it means to be a black body in the 21st century, to fight against oppressive capitalism, to take what has always belonged to us, and retain heart, strength, and dignity. We are seeing vast diaspora of our flesh range and as multifaceted human beings who demonstrate rights, who make grave mistakes, who fall in love. At the same time, wise and authentic Queen Sugar says in a clever, roundabout way, that family can often be the ticket to accessing those values that matters most, that are not often seen from black and women point of view.