"How To Ruin Christmas: The Funeral" Review

[00:00:17] What's up fam? Welcome back again to Recap Kickback. It's me your host Chappelle and I am here to continue our series on How To Ruin Christmas. The show that we started last year, right? It's from Netflix and it was like highly recommended by somebody I really trust, okay? And so we started it, you all listened to it, but we gotta finish the entire series. If you haven't checked out How To Ruin Christmas Part 1, that's crazy.

[00:00:46] Go watch it and then come back here to talk about How To Ruin Christmas so that you can hear me and my guest, one of my favorite guests, my co-host from the Abbott Elementary Podcast, Gia Worthy. Gia, we gotta talk about it. I am, first of all, I'm so happy that we finally were able to do this. Not just the first season, because the first season is by far my, it's my favorite. I feel like it's just a great introduction to all of the characters that we know and love.

[00:01:15] But season two, this season two is like the sweet spot between season one and season three because we get a lot of expansion on several characters. And I'm excited to talk about some of the character progressions that we may or may not be expecting here. But this, even though it's about a funeral, it is so funny. There's just, these people are crazy and I love them for it.

[00:01:45] Tualas and Zellos, like no matter which side you identify with more, it's just the perfect mix of chaos in here. So I am so excited to talk to you about this. Oh yeah, no, I've been dying to do this. We ran into the Christmas holiday and all that kind of stuff. And a lot of stuff going on, so we couldn't get to it, but we are finishing this series, damn it. And so make sure you tune in and check out our last podcast. But if you haven't, if you just somehow got here, like how to ruin Christmas, the funeral, what does that even mean?

[00:02:11] Gia, how about you give everybody a rundown about what we're talking about today and how we ended up here at season two? Yes. So, so, so, so, so, so, so. I think we actually got a like previous season recap. Did we have? I think we did for this season. Yeah. But, so, how to ruin Christmas is a South African TV series. It is three seasons. So far we have not gotten a four season, but I checked.

[00:02:41] It is not officially canceled. So there could be a chance for us to get more and we will talk about that in season three. But, so I'm not going to go there yet. But, how to ruin Christmas is about two families. One from a poor part of town and one that is incredibly wealthy. And that is the Tualas who are the richer family. And then our poor family, which is the Cello's.

[00:03:10] The reason that they interact with each other is because the daughter, Beauty Cello, married Sebu Twala. So we get a rags to riches story in there a little bit. But for the first two seasons, the center of the characters is Tumi. Tumi is a, I guess we can call her the black sheep of the family, even though I think there are many candidates for that prize in this category.

[00:03:38] All right, well, we'll talk about several characters throughout here that have quite a few moments here. And with the, with Tumi, it is, the focal point of it is that she is very clearly not like the rest of her family. She doesn't fit in with the Cello's as much. She definitely doesn't fit in with the Tualas.

[00:03:58] She doesn't fit in with the Cello's.

[00:04:28] Tumi sleeps with Sebu's married brother and gets caught. And lots of shenanigans ensue from there. We get to a very happy ending with a little bit of a, if a, what's the word called? What was that? A cliffhanger. Cliffhanger, yes. I don't know why I couldn't think of cliffhanger right now.

[00:04:51] With, we get a little bit of a cliffhanger because her bestie, Kaya, who has been dragged around this entire series, tells Tumi that he has a little bit of a surprise here. Which brings us to season two, where everybody is back for Christmas once again to celebrate Beauty and Sebu coming back to South Africa and celebrating their anniversary.

[00:05:16] But also, we go tie into the main vocal point of this season, which is the death of the Tuala's matriarch, Busi's mother, Busi and Saia's father, or mother, sorry, which is Gogo.

[00:05:37] So Gogo dies in this first season, or in this first episode at the very end, after convincing Tumi to let her go out on the town with her. Great job. Okay. So that catches you up. It is a lot. It is a lot. And I am dying to talk about it. I know you said that season three might be your, I mean, season one is your favorite season, but I've watched season two three times. Okay.

[00:06:03] I think this, I think this is my, I think, I think this is my favorite season. I think that the show is wacky, chaotic and messy in the first season. And it's wacky, chaotic and messy in the second season as well. But there's so much heart in it. And, you know, we're going to talk about Tumi a lot, but I really do think that she was like the heart and the soul of this second season. Cause she is the black sheep of the family. She has, she kind of marches to the beat of her own drum. There's things that she wants to do that nobody else really cares about.

[00:06:33] And she has a lot of responsibility on her plate because like you said, her best friend, Kaya, who she's now romantically involved with, drops this bombshell on her at the end of last season and says, Hey, guess what? I have a child. He has a 13 year old child. And yeah, I was just like, you know what? If I was Tumi, I think I would run for the heels at that point, but she stuck it out. If, listen, this, his daughter, um, hold on. I have her name written down here. It is Lulu. Lulu.

[00:07:02] Um, she lovely in all aspects of it. Like, uh, very, very sweet girl. I think she loves Tumi as like a, um, you know, Tumi would not say stepmother figure, but that's kind of the role she is playing here. Um, but Lulu, by all accounts, there is no, like, uh, her trying to break up Tumi and Kaya or anything like that.

[00:07:28] Like she's a lovely character and I adore Lulu, but Kaya has a child, right? Like this is a big change. This is a big change from the relationship Tumi initially thought she was agreeing to, um, especially with the whirlwind of shenanigans that happened in season one. Yeah. She didn't sign up for this. She didn't. Uh, Lulu, like you said, Lulu seems cool.

[00:07:56] She actually kind of reminds me of Tumi in a lot of ways. You know, they bond, you know, very easily, but throughout we'll see Tumi being called stepmother. Stepmom, uh, you know, people calling her, you know, Oh, like, Oh yeah. Like now her mom's going to be a grandmother. Like there, there are definitely moments throughout this where Tumi is like, I didn't ask for all of this. I just wanted to go to my riches on my vacation and that's it. And now here I am going to go kick it with the, the Twalas again.

[00:08:23] But as a stepmom, you know, having a 13 year old child that I now have to deal with. And Kaya is so happy about this, like this dating situation, this co-parenting kind of situation that they're doing. Like, it's very, it's not, I won't say weird, but Kaya's all in and Tumi is not at all. And I guess if you're looking with like, you know, obviously we're the, we're the audience. So we see Tumi's inner thoughts.

[00:08:48] We can tell she's not happy, but it's crazy to me that Kaya doesn't realize that this is not something that Tumi wants at all. Yeah. And so something I didn't really notice in my first watch of this way back when, when this season first came out, was that Kaya in the first season, all we really know about him is that he lost his mom. He slept together with Tumi very shortly after he lost his mom and they have some sort of lagering feelings.

[00:09:17] But other than that, Kaya has been very much a player in the past. We don't see a lot of it, but multiple people mention it, that Kaya is a bit of a player, that he's never been like really in a committed relationship in a very long time. So we know a lot of this stuff, but nothing about the Kaya that we meet in season one indicates that he even wants to be a dad

[00:09:46] or that he would be a responsible parent. And by all means, we, the Kaya we see in season two is a very good parent. Like he seems, um, so my assumption from this is that they're like Kaya found out about this daughter very recently. So this is a very new development in his life and he's trying to make up for lost time with reconnecting with his daughter. And by all means, like he is a good dad.

[00:10:14] Lulu seems like a very good, uh, daughter. And they seem to have a solid relationship that they are building up. But this is not the Kaya that we met in season one that seemed to be such a good match for Tumi. And this is not the life that Tumi was really planning for herself. And it shows up in little ways throughout season two. Absolutely. Um, it's like he's got this daughter now.

[00:10:43] And so he's like, I gotta go all in, you know, um, or maybe this is the thing that's going to make him want to settle down. Right. Like I have no choice, but to be in my kid's life and to be full force in his life. Like I don't, we don't really hear about the mom of this child too much. Like they're communicate, like they know everyone has met the mom or knows who, or Kaya and the mom are at least communicating with each other. So it's not like Lulu was just dropped on his doorstep one day or anything like that.

[00:11:11] But it sounds like they're working out co-parenting essentially. Yeah. And it seems like everything would be fine. Right. We know Tumi really is not into this, but it's not like we pick up in this episode, just meeting Lulu. And Tumi's just meeting Lulu. Like they've been doing this for months at this point. Um, Kaya is just getting really comfortable. He's ready to move them into a house with a swimming pool and four bedrooms and a picket fence. Okay. But in Kaya's defense, it was a very nice house. Oh yeah. Right. Like I was like, Tumi, you tripping.

[00:11:39] But, but she ain't want to. I could be a step, I could play step-mom in that house. Like. You're looking around like, this is not, okay. This is not. Hey. Yeah. Um, Tumi is also kind of looking around and she comes across the first bit of drama in this entire, uh, season. She finds an engagement ring because Kaya, he ready to make Tumi a step-mom for real. He's like, all right, I'm ready to do the things.

[00:12:06] And this is where the panic really starts to set in, you know, between Tumi's mom, Deneo, calling, uh, this young girl, her granddaughter, like it's ma'am chill. We just got here, you know what I'm saying? And so. We are tired. Bruh, exhausted. And the room is spinning now because Tumi's trying to figure out what the hell to do with all this information. Also, her fake dad is here too? Yes. Why is dad back? I don't know. I don't, I really don't know.

[00:12:33] This was a, uh, I knew, I remember that this happened, but I forgot how quickly it was introduced. Um, so I think we should talk about, there's a lot of big. Big changes that happened between the year, between season one and season two. So it might help to go back a little bit and talk about Beauty and Cebu for a moment.

[00:12:57] Because Beauty, when we end season one, Beauty and Cebu are recently married and we learn that Beauty is pregnant. She got pregnant a little bit before the ceremony, which is a little scandalous, but now they're married. So it's fine. Cebu about jumped off a bridge when he found out that he was about to have a baby. I mean, that she was pregnant before the ceremony. He acted so dramatic. I know. He was like, be so for real, Cebu. Like that, that was wild. That was a wild time.

[00:13:26] Cebu, Cebu acts a little cray in season two as well. I have, I have a moment for him. I mean, I feel like Cebu pisses me off once a season. Right? Like that is, he does something really dumb and then like immediately realizes he's wrong and makes up for it afterward. But that's one. And it's always like, I can, I can remember where I was the day it happened, what minute of what episode it was. I'm like, Cebu, this was your one moment. Don't piss me off again. Don't do it again.

[00:13:57] But we learn in from the end of season one to the beginning of season two, Beauty had a miscarriage in between. We don't know a ton about it necessarily, but we do know that it has been very hard on them. But Beauty really wants to just pretend that everything is fine. She does not want to talk about this miscarriage. She does not want to talk about it even with Cebu himself. She does not want to talk about it with her family. She does not want to talk about it with her friends.

[00:14:26] She wants to keep playing the part that everything is fine and they are in their first year of marriage. For Cebu, on the other hand, has a ton of feelings that he really wants to get out and has said a couple times that he really thinks that they should see the therapist to talk out the emotions that they're feeling as a result of the loss of their son. Yeah. Beauty's taking this really hard. She's snatching people's kids on the airplane and like rocking them like, oh no, this is normal.

[00:14:56] And then also telling them like, well, make sure you love your child because they can be dead tomorrow. You know, it's like, you can tell. They need therapy. Yeah. They need therapy a lot and they need therapy now. So what she does in this time is very interesting to me because at the end of last season, we saw Toomey and Beauty. They go and they confront their deadbeat dad. He hasn't been around. Toomey's got questions. Edmund is pissing everybody off. They're going to Edmund.

[00:15:25] Edmund, this is your daughter, Beauty. You need to walk her down the aisle because it's all she wants. And Edmund looks at them and says, yeah, that's my daughter. But Toomey, you are not. Your mom's a whore and you're not my child. And I know you're not talking to me crazy. And he cusses her out, tells her to go on back where she came from. And here I am looking at him in season two. Gee, my mouth was on the floor. Why? Yeah. Why does Beauty choose this time to go make amends with her dad?

[00:15:54] In Edmund's defense, whoever this actor is, did a really good job at pissing him. He's killing it. He is so talented. So good. If I ever see this man on the streets, it's on sight. On sight. Easy. It was not a show to me, okay? That's my family right there. Right. But somewhere in between all of this, Beauty, instead of going to therapy, decides to reconnect with her deadbeat dad.

[00:16:21] And the deadbeat dad sees this as, and we learn, you can kind of guess why he's deciding to do this. But we learn as the season goes on that he's seeing this as a money opportunity. This is an opportunity for him to really cash in on the fact that the child that he abandoned, and people let you know, he only abandoned one child, okay? It is not two, one. One. That moment will always live in my head.

[00:16:47] That was his defense for abandoning his children. Anyway, his child. Child. But he sees this as his one child. He only abandoned one. But he sees this as an opportunity to make some money because Beauty's not really thinking a lot of these things through. She is thinking about a way to have some support in her life and to have somebody that she can

[00:17:13] really connect with and somebody that she can provide for, which in this case happens to be her sick dad that is not really sick, but probably a little, little sick, you know, like, yeah. Yeah. And it makes sense why this happened, but I was not expecting him just showing up and acting like everything was fine. And Beauty did not tell to me or her mother that he was going to be here.

[00:17:42] And she just expected everyone to be okay with it. Therapy. Beauty. Therapy. Therapy. She's been talking to this man for six months and ain't telling nobody. Also, she was like offended at the fact that Deneo and Toomey would make a scene in here. Like, she thinks that because it would be at like a public dinner, that they would not make a scene. Beauty, have you met your family? Stop it. All your family does.

[00:18:12] All anybody at this dinner table knows how to do is make a scene. You cannot tell them you did not expect this coming. You are so lucky that there wasn't two funerals this season. Yeah. Because this is crazy. I mean, if I'm Toomey, last time I saw this man, he's dragging me through the mud, calling my mom out of her name, telling me he didn't abandon me. He never wanted me. All this other stuff. I'm just like my mom. And now here I am staring him in the face. And I'm like, oh, this is tough.

[00:18:41] This is tough because you could have said something. I mean, there was even a point where Toomey was like, I will go back to prison for him. Okay. I'm like, I'm about that life. So, you know, we're off to a rough start for the cellos for sure. But there's a bright side, kind of. They get to go spend the money, I mean, spend their time with the wealthy soon. Because, well, in this occasion, Toomey is there. Go-Go is there.

[00:19:07] And Go-Go, in episode one, we didn't really talk about the matriarch of the family too much in season one. She was there. But we didn't really get into it too deep. But this is Vusi's mom. And, you know, Vusi is in charge, right? But, I mean, well, it depends on the day, right? Vusi wishes he was in charge all the time. I would say that his wife probably takes a little bit. Vusi's in charge unless Valencia wants to be in charge. Unless Go-Go wants to be in charge. Unless Go-Go wants to be in charge. Exactly.

[00:19:37] So, now we get Go-Go and she is on lockdown. Because Go-Go's sick. She's not doing well. And the doctors are like, no, you need to stay in bed. You need to rest. And Go-Go is going stir crazy. She's got cancer. And she's like, I gotta get out of here. I gotta go do something. Y'all can't keep me under your thumbs like this. And so, I need to get out. Luckily for her, she's got a patsy. Toomey also wants to get out. Because why is my fake dad here? So, the two of them kind of bond on, wouldn't it be great if we left?

[00:20:07] And although Toomey tries to be like, nah, lady. I've kicked it with your family before in the past. And I almost ruined Christmas. I did ruin Christmas. See season one. I ain't doing it this time. But Go-Go kind of guilt's her and tells her like, no, you need to do this for me. And she does. And they just sneak out of the compound. Flipping the double birds to the camera. And they just have what looks like the best day ever. You know, they're going on the carnival. They had such a good time to you. Yeah.

[00:20:36] So, I want to be with them. Like, I want to party with Go-Go. Mm-hmm. Oh, it was so fun. Yeah. They had a great time. They seem to be having a way better time than whatever was happening at the family dinner. Oh, well, we will get there. We will get there for sure. But, yeah, they have a great time.

[00:20:57] And this is the day that, listen, I'm not questioning anybody's decisions with end-of-life care. But Go-Go very clearly does not want to just be resting at home to, in the possibility that her life would be extended in some way. As she is, like, just on bed rest for most of the day.

[00:21:22] And this is very clearly, like, the type of life that Go-Go wants for herself and wants to spend in the very end of her life. But it is during this outing, at the very end of it, where Go-Go tells Toomey, which should have been the first clue, that Go-Go planned this. I am convinced.

[00:21:46] She gave Toomey a letter, says, if I die, as if we are not about to drive back home this moment, if I die, I want you to give this letter to, I want you to deliver this mail to this address, to this person. And we don't know anything about who this person is yet. And it has all my final wishes on here. So that seems pretty important, right? And Toomey's like, well, don't worry.

[00:22:16] We don't have to worry about that. And Go-Go's like, bitchy thought. And she dies on the car ride home. Um, yeah. She planned it. And y'all, if you haven't watched this, that's how we open the season. The first thing we see. That's episode one.

[00:22:37] The first thing we even see is Toomey staring at the face of these angry in-laws as she has, is probably being accused of murdering somebody. And then we find out later on, it's Go-Go. It's Go-Go. And, uh, it takes a lot of craziness to get there. But make no mistake. I felt so bad for Toomey. Because she didn't want to do this. Go-Go was clearly on the way out regardless of what happened. And if anything, she probably is the only person who has done anything to help Go-Go the way Go-Go wants to be helped.

[00:23:07] Because they're trying to lock her down in the bedroom. And at least Toomey let her get outside. Like, get a lady what she wants. This is the other, because, like, she very clearly did not murder Go-Go. Okay? This is not anything that Toomey did. Like, she was already dying. But also, Toomey was the only one that even listened to Go-Go for what she wanted throughout this season, really. Because it does not end with Go-Go's death. Or even just the arguments around what the funeral arrangements are going to be.

[00:23:37] There is so much deeper issues that get resolved in these four episodes here. And this is episode one. Just episode one here. And, yes, we can say that season one, maybe a few of the things that happened were Toomey's fault. Two apart, even though she was not the one married in the situation, okay? Like, I'm just saying. Maybe she's not the one most at fault here. But maybe she is.

[00:24:06] But in season two, this doesn't really feel like any of this is her fault. She's just trying to fulfill a dying woman's wishes here. And everyone around them is so caught up in their own storyline that they are not picking up what Go-Go or Toomey is putting down. Correct. And let's talk about who was at fault in season one. Because I'm not even going to lie to you. My favorite character this season.

[00:24:34] I mean, with the comeback of the century, it's Timba. I didn't care about Timba at all. But in this season, this is the funniest man on the planet. And no one can tell me different. This, it was so, okay, so when we originally watched this, I had to remember the Timba in season one. Because the Timba in seasons two and three, completely different person. The same. I didn't care about Timba that much.

[00:25:04] I was kind of hoping that, like, he would not be in season two. And we kind of focus on, like, Lydia as a single parent. Or as somebody that's kind of, like, on the outs with the Twalas here. But nope. We get a complete 180 on the relationship of Timba and Lydia. Their dynamics. And also just them as individuals as well. But Timba, comeback. Comeback kid right there. Like, this man was so funny.

[00:25:34] In this season. Incredible. From his insistence that him and his son must be matching at all times. Incredible. Incredible. Like, the ultimate hype man here. I love him. I'm sorry. They can never make me hate this man. And season one, like you said, I didn't care about him. I really wanted him to go. Because I felt like people were really hard on Toomey in a way that they could not even begin to be hard on Timba. But it was definitely Timba's fault.

[00:25:59] If anything, Timba was married and he had the most responsibility in cheating on his wife with Toomey and ruining Christmas. But he didn't really get a lot of pushback. So I came in. I wasn't so happy to see him. Comma butt. When I got here and my boy showed up. He's got a new baby. We saw Lydia was pregnant at the end of last season. And this is a complicated dynamic because one sibling just lost a baby. Another sibling has gained one.

[00:26:29] And not only has a child, but they are going to parade this child around. Literally holding him up like he's damn simple from the Lion King at the dinner table. Trying to make this his, what, three-month-old ceremony? That's not a thing. I think he, no, it is. It is to Timba and Lydia. This is his three-month, I don't think we can call this a birthday. But yeah, his three-month arrival. Yeah, it's not a birthday.

[00:26:58] It's just Timba. It is. It's just Timba. He is so happy. He's such a loving, doting father. He's got an amazing mother who's like, granny just treats him, treats the baby like whatever the baby wants, the baby gets. Oh my God. And sadly for Lydia, she is stuck in between these two crazy people. Lydia, you should have got out last season. When this man cheated on you, you should have ran for the heels. He gave you an out, Lydia. He gave you an out, said no fault of your own.

[00:27:28] You are too good. Like, take this ring and get out while you can't. She said, nope, I'm standing by my man. And now I got to live with his mother. And she does. She can't figure out how to breastfeed sometimes. She's got this cheating-ass husband who is a mama's boy who's, you know, who's just like, it's impossible to deal with these people. And she's trying her best.

[00:27:54] But the entire time, Timba's mom, Valencia, is just on her ass. Just, I mean, Valencia, honestly, it's got to be hard to be around her because she can snipe like no one else. I think she was the one who told Beauty, like, oh, I know you're not pregnant, but you kind of still look pregnant. Yeah. Oh, that is quite possibly the most foul thing that Valencia has done in the entire series. Like, it's close. And that's episode one. Again, episode one.

[00:28:21] And we have seen already one full season of Valencia already. So, yeah. Episode, this was the low point for Valencia, I will say. I do love a woman that knows her worth, but maybe Valencia just needs to, like, practice inside thoughts every day. Yeah. She will get her karma in this season as well because Lydia has forgiven Timba. You know, she's taken him back. She hasn't forgiven Tumi, of course. Why would she do that?

[00:28:50] But her entire journey this season is, okay, I got to deal with my mama's boy husband. I got to deal with Valencia. And I got to learn how to stand up for myself because this lady has been running all over me this entire season. So we're watching this the whole time, wondering if she's ever going to do it. And it comes a time where Valencia is going to get put in her place.

[00:29:11] And Lydia is going to be able to capitalize on that later on because it's not all sunshine and rainbows over there at the Twala family. Gia, they broke. They broke, broke. Lucy won't tell you they're broke. Their accounts are frozen after he just doesn't pay taxes.

[00:29:34] That is the root of the issue right there is that he, so I guess because he is a public figure, he does not pay taxes now. But he did not pay taxes when he wasn't a public figure either. And that is the issue at hand. I like his manifesting. He's like, I'm just not going to pay taxes now because I won't have to in later of life. Like, sir, teach me your ways. I felt that. Yeah. Yeah. Like Lucy, do you need an intern?

[00:30:04] Right. He's very rich, but you got to pay your taxes. Yes. And that Lucy does not know how to tell anybody that they don't have money. And it becomes even more. He is. He's doing a lot of calculating, doing a lot of nickel and dining a lot recently.

[00:30:27] He even asked her go-go's nurse if maybe the cancer meds were working too well for how expensive they are because she's still here. He prays to God for like a little relief from the bills. Right. He because he like you said, he tells the doctor, are you sure you're not like colluding with big pharmacy companies to make sure they're like, well, we're paying all this money. If she's about to die, then what's all this money being spent for? Which is crazy to me because he does pray for God to give him a little relief.

[00:30:57] And then when God does deliver that relief by removing go-go from the equation, he wasn't happy. You know, he wasn't happy. I was like, now, which one is it, Lucy? Which one is it? Lucy is low-key one of the funnier characters in this. And there's a lot of, I love Lucy. He, he is so great. Like several times over. I'm such a big fan of Lucy, but I feel like this, this is probably some of the best work from him in this season. Absolutely.

[00:31:25] So we have the Tualas hosting the Celos there. And we saw in season one, they had the four seasons just for the wedding. Okay. They had the four seasons. I mean, it was the largest, most lavish thing. The people were coming, the cameras are coming. It's going to be a public affair. Christmas did get ruined, but this is a, this is a flashy family. Season two, Lucy ain't got no money. That they didn't downgrade it, their home. Okay.

[00:31:53] And the amenities are noticeably cheaper. Okay. Cause that, they're not solo. Poor like they're not solo. Never. At least not publicly. But, um, when the Celos show up at the Boosies compound, I mean, Deneo is like clutching her pearls. Like, girl, what happened? This is, this used to, I thought y'all had money. This is some normal stuff. What are y'all doing?

[00:32:22] She said this is the most ghetto shit I've ever seen in my life. I died. Boosie's so broke. He won't even, he won't even tip the waitstaff. And it's all function. I know. But he'll still have the function. And that's why we love Boosie. Mm-hmm. He's having the function regardless. And so, we're running into a lot that's going on, right? So we got the poor, uh, the poor Twalas.

[00:32:49] And now, we have, of course, the death of Go-Go. We got Beauty who's going through. Toomey's going through. We haven't talked about Toomey's family too much. Deneo, Aunt Grace, Shadrack. It's the big three. As far as I'm concerned, the big three. The big three. I, I mean, I love all the characters in this show.

[00:33:13] But those three, the three amigos, the three musketeers, the powerpuff girls, and such. Like, they're, I love them so much. This is the comedic force of the season here. Succulent, still alive and well. And still a big part of the family.

[00:33:34] Shadrack insists that, you know, he's, that Succulent is bathed before he goes to the dinner. I don't think Succulent ends up making it to the dinner. Unless I forget seeing him. I didn't see him. I didn't see him. Yeah, but they, their entire dynamic this season is around just making sure to be there for beauty and also agreeing that Deneo needs to get laid. Yeah, yeah.

[00:34:02] Deneo has an empty nester now, so she's got to do something with her time. Yep, and also, speaking of doing something with her time, Grace decides that the funeral would be served much better with biscuits that make you a little happy. Yeah. Some good old biscuits that have been enlaced with some of the things. And it's funny, because in season one, we don't get a lot from Grace. We just know she's an icon and we love her. Yeah.

[00:34:31] But we do learn that Shadrach is an alcoholic. Like, he's always drinking. He's always drinking at any given time. Not an alcoholic like Timber. Like, Timber needs meetings. Like, Shadrach just likes a good drink a lot. But we see that Grace has her own vices, okay? She owned the weed, okay? Yes. And she has now made the weed butter and sprinkled it into the food. She was not about to listen to gospel songs for however many hours they were driving in there without a little bit of weed in her system. Absolutely not.

[00:34:58] So, there's so many moving parts. The end of episode one, of course, is where we lose our matriarch. We lose Gogo. And now, right around Christmas, once again, we have to figure out what we're going to do to save the holiday and to bury Gogo. Because Boosie ain't got no money. Yep. But he's not telling anybody that he hasn't have no money.

[00:35:23] Because, and everybody is just planning around this funeral arrangements like he's got money. And nobody is prepared for any of the things that happen. So, they, we finally, finally, after episode one, we get the star of the occasion, Sia.

[00:35:48] Sia, Boosie's brother, shows up because somebody got to make sure my mama gets the, the, the, the respect she deserves on the way out. And he is the type of dramatic that I want from every character, okay? He's there. He's sage in the area. This is where mom dies. Crying. He's emotional. And he's just like, we will spare no expense. We will spare no expense. We're going to spend all of Boosie's money on this. We don't care. And Boosie's like, we have no, like Boosie won't tell him. No.

[00:36:17] You can see the, like, color leaving Boosie's face as he watches his money slip away. Can I just say, of all, and I laughed out loud many times during this season. The one time I had to actually pause the show because I was laughing so hard is when Boosie is insisting that because he's the firstborn, he's the one making the final decisions. And Sia's like, I'm so sick of this.

[00:36:46] All this firstborn, secondborn. You should have been stillborn. I said, oh my God. They were at each other's throats very quickly, you know? Yeah. So Sia wants to spend Boosie's money and give Gogo a very extravagant reception.

[00:37:18] Mm-hmm. It's Christmas. And nobody will come. And then Boosie's like, great. No one will come. You don't have to pay for people's mouths to be fed. So this is great. But there's still that letter. There's still the letter that Toomey was given right before Gogo died. And that Toomey has to deliver. First, she tries to give it to Boosie and says, this has her last wishes. And then they're saying, you killed my mother.

[00:37:47] I'm not taking this letter from you. And nobody else in the family is willing to listen to her about like, hey, this is your matriarch's final wishes. Maybe someone should read the fucking letter. And no one listens. No one sees that this is something important. I don't know. If someone gave me a letter that claimed to have the final wishes of the person that just died, I would think that that's a little important. But what do I know? Yeah.

[00:38:17] They could have listened to Toomey. They were so mad at her for killing Gogo, even though we all know Gogo was on the way out anyway and it has nothing to do with Toomey, that they wouldn't even listen to her. So now she has to take it upon herself to deliver the letter. And it's nice because Toomey needed to get out of the house. She was really starting to stress herself out as stepmom Toomey with Kaya. She's also avoiding trying to get him proposed to because she's seen the ring. So she goes on a side quest.

[00:38:42] And her side quest is to go find Richard M'Kizzy and to let him know, all right, here's the letter from Gogo. Now, she does not know the significance of this man. But very quickly we realize, oh, he a gangster. And he's a scary, scary individual. People are shuddering at his name like he's Voldemort. Yep. Yep. They are saying, like, they are concerned that she's even looking for this man. Like, even just his name alone.

[00:39:10] They're like, this cannot, you cannot be looking for that man. He is dangerous. Absolutely not. I'm not helping you find this man. And so we know that this is, like, very odd and not there. We're not. Nobody really knows why this very esteemed woman who comes from a family with a lot of money is expecting a notorious gangster in the area to have her final wishes. But we put the pieces together quickly. Yeah.

[00:39:40] I mean, he basically says, like, oh, yeah, Esther. I don't call her Gogo. I call her by her name. Esther. She's the love of my life. And we're like, wait, what? Gogo. That ain't, that ain't Vucey's daddy. Yeah. That ain't Vucey's daddy. What? Where does that come from? Who does? Who's the Orsiya's daddy? Right. At least we don't think it is. No, I'm joking. Yeah. Gogo, what you been doing? But it's a plot twist. Richard M'Kizzi is the person who is holding the last, basically the last will and testament of this woman.

[00:40:10] And she has written down everything that she needs him to know, including she wants to be cremated. And this is a problem because this is not along the lines of tradition. And it also kind of puts them in a tight spot because who are you going to believe, right? If Vucey thinks he's supposed to be in charge, if Sia thinks he's supposed to be in charge, why would they listen to this third party who shows up with Toomey's letter? Well, partially because he's a gangster and they're terrified of him. This man is so scary, but I'll give Vucey some credit.

[00:40:40] He ain't back down. He was scared, but he was going to fight for his mama. I respect it. Even though he was wrong, he was 10 toes down in his wrongness. 10 toes down. Right. Because he can't even afford the funeral. That's the problem that's killing me. It's like, Vucey's trying to cut corners in this funeral anyway. He's like, I will have a small intimate service the way mama would have wanted. But at the same time, cremating is a lot cheaper just in general. Like, Vucey, why don't you listen to reason? Yeah. Yeah.

[00:41:09] He's just a little too proud. You know, he's a little too excited to be like, hey, like, guys, like, here's our way out. Here's our, here's our, you know, like, way to finally, like, the ultimate cutting corners. Cremation. Cremation is also very expensive. So. Right. Right. I don't know if he's actually cutting any corners, but it's probably cheaper than the giant purple coffin that Sia insisted that they buy.

[00:41:38] That coffin was gorgeous. It was amazing. Look. I see no problems with this coffin. As I sit here, as I sit here wearing purple from head to toe, I think, I think we know where I stand. Especially him popping out of it like he was going to be the one buried. He's like, yes, this is the one. This is the one. Again, everybody's getting ready because there's so many events happening at the same time. We have the funeral that's planned for Christmas. Okay. We have the anniversary of Beauty and Seaboo because, of course, they got married on Christmas.

[00:42:07] And we got little Shaka's baby-versary or whatever this is. It's three or four months at this point. Like, baby Shaka's here too. And, of course, Tim was not going to let you forget it. So. We need clothes. We need to go shopping. And Valencia does just that. This lady is used to the lifestyles of the rich and the famous. She's walking around here. She's popping tags. Okay. She goes to the shop to get some clothes. And she's treating the help like the help. Like, you go get this.

[00:42:37] You go get that. Like, she knows I'm about to swipe this card, baby, and make all your dreams come true. And then, area code 51 happens. Insufficient funds, Gia. Ah, scream. Insufficient funds. You gain no money. She broke. She's broke. She didn't even know she was broke. She can't even excuse herself.

[00:43:03] And when the person at the counter who was checking her out said, okay, watch out, y'all. Don't catch the poor. I almost got a bit of a fuck out. That is so disrespectful. But also, Valencia, you kind of been asking for it. Just a little bit. This was her humbling. This is the moment she needed, I would say. She gets another one in a later part of the episode.

[00:43:28] But this is where she realizes that there are some issues with the family finances right now. And Lucy does not want to explain this to Valencia. But he would rather her think that he is having an affair than admit that he is broke. And Valencia is not buying it. Because that's not even convincing for her. No. She was like, boy, if you're going to lie, do a good lie. This ain't it. Like, I got... Look at me. Right. You ain't going nowhere.

[00:44:01] Um, so, a lot going on again. We have Valencia, who is poor, who knows about it. And we're hoping that this stuff kind of stays on the low. Because now they're going and extorting money out of their kids. Valencia and Lucy go to Sibu and Timba and basically tell them, like, I mean, the least you could do is put it on your grandma's funeral. I mean, your other brother, your brother's doing it. This is what you could do. They go, like, coax money out of them so fast. They start to wonder why they haven't done it already before. Yeah.

[00:44:30] Their one regret in all of this is that it was so easy that they could have been doing it for so much longer than just this moment. Yeah. That's real parenting right there, honestly. Well, they're not the only ones who are trying to steal money from them. Because, as you know, Edmund is here. And Edmund is sick. He's sick. Oh, my God. I just need some money. I need... Yeah. Yeah. And he's sick. He needs a new kidney.

[00:45:00] You need at least one. But he needs a new one. Because he's like, I got to have this... You know, I got to have something done because I got this kidneys issue. Right? And I think they're going to have to get it removed. But I can't afford it. And so Beauty says, that's fine. You're my dad. Which, Beauty, stand up. But you're my dad. I'll pay for your kidney to be removed. And he's like, but I can't have the money. Why not just give me the money? She's like, no, no, no, no.

[00:45:30] She was ready to just give him the money before Sibu says, let's do a doctor first to give him a second opinion. And that's the smartest thing Sibu says all season right there. Well, because Sibu and everybody else can see what the hell is happening here. That this man did not just pop up out of nowhere. Okay? For like, you know, don't get me wrong. It does seem like Beauty initiated it. But he didn't leave because, I mean, this is a nice gig you got here. Okay? This family's rich, rich. Yeah.

[00:45:58] I mean, I get it. But also, you abandoned your kid, sir. So, one kid. The one kid you abandoned. I know it wasn't two, but it was still one. I think abandoning one kid is still pretty bad. Yeah. Yeah. It's tough. So, he's still lurking around trying to figure things out. Toomey is still on her dummy mission. And she has been exiled from the family at this point.

[00:46:28] Like, they don't want to see Toomey anymore. They're not answering her phone calls. And she's really got some big news about them as they prepare for this funeral. But nobody's picking up the phone, Gia. And I know they wish they had picked up the phone. And so, they are traveling to where the rest of the Tuala clan lives. Right? Is this in... Was this Joburg? No. They were in Joburg. No. I thought they went to Joburg. I thought you were right about that. Okay.

[00:46:57] Well, they travel... Yeah. They go... Oh, yeah. You know what? You're right. Because I remember they're complaining about the car. The siblings are all complaining about the car. I want every sibling dynamic in reality TV to be some... Need to be a similar vibe of Jadrak, Deneo, and Grace. And Grace. Just like perfect, perfect group. That is like Bob's Burger siblings as they get older. Absolutely. Absolutely. If they were Black and middle-aged, that was them. Like, that is the vibes that we are getting here. Yeah.

[00:47:26] And now they have to go to the funeral. You know? Deneo has to go. Grace has to go. Jadrak has to go. And while they're traveling, you know, Grace does lose sight of the cannabis-laced biscuits. They will end up in the mix. They show up with a gift, obviously, for the wedding. I mean, I'm sorry, for the funeral. And it gets mixed up with everything else. So Grace is also on a side mission.

[00:47:51] But when they get there, there's so much drama. Because remember, there's a very expensive casket they need to buy. And we got insufficient funds. Code 51. So what is Boosie going to do to deal with that? Sia knows it's his turn. He's got to step up and help his broke brother. He knew what he had to do. And what did he have to do, Chappelle? Steal from the church. Steal from the church. Steal money from the church.

[00:48:21] He showed up with a big wad of cash and then was offended when Boosie asked where he got this money from. Only to find out that the church will no longer be able to host the wedding or the funeral. Because they had a large sum of money stolen from them. Well, I don't know what that... I'm kind of with Sia on this one. Listen, that's not my problem. I thought the church was here. Like, does the church...

[00:48:49] Does it cost the church a lot of money to deal with our funeral? Like, what exactly is the church losing in our funeral? Like, you could just do the prayer and stuff. I kind of struggled to... First of all, why did the church have so much money on them? That part. And the church is supposed to serve as the poor if they're following the same church that I grew up with there. And Boosie is now the poor. Right. So really, Sia was just fulfilling the church's mission for them. They didn't even have to wake up. They didn't even have to get up and do anything.

[00:49:20] Yeah. And Sia said, the pastor got expensive-ass clothes on, okay? I don't know. Okay, honestly, though, he does have a point there. Because if you are walking around in some Gucci or what's it? Versace suits or anything like that. Like, the jewel-toned suits while you were coming into church. I'm like, I don't feel that bad if your church loses a little bit of money. Right. They end up going to the new matriarch of the family.

[00:49:49] Someone I don't think we saw in season one. Prudence! Prudence is here. Prudence! Yeah. Not Prudence! Prudence is in charge now. You know, she has stepped in and she's going to whip everybody into shape. Because this is my sister that passed away. And I'm going to make sure she was treated correctly. And so she starts with going down the line on them. You can tell. She put Valencia in her place quick. Like, hey, chill out. And I was like, oh, okay. I see what kind of action we got here. Valencia is the...

[00:50:18] She's the Lydia in this situation. You know, Prudence is treating her the same way that Valencia treats Lydia. And again, Valencia is getting humble left and right. Yep. Yep. And this was her second humble. Because everybody else gets a task for what they're supposed to be doing. Valencia is told to just go lay down. Yeah. You get out the way. Yeah. They do not trust her. She is... She will say later, she has been a part of the family for over 30 years at this point.

[00:50:47] And they still treat her like this. And then she quickly realizes that this is the same thing that Lydia is now going through with her. Mm-hmm. Exactly. Prudence has an interesting connection with Shadrach for a second. It felt like there was going to be something there. She was into Shadrach, right? Yeah. But something happened. Well, we know what happened. It got real ghetto for Prudence because she was like, wait, y'all did what to the food? They...

[00:51:16] He... Grace... So Grace notices what we notice with this little connection and tells Shadrach to go seduce her so that they can get the key to the biscuits that have the weed in it.

[00:52:00] Mm-hmm. That he does not share her same distaste of alcohol. Yeah. And now she has a good distaste in her mouth from him. He gets... She gives him the ick. I will... Or he gives her the ick, I guess. And from there, that's kind of the end of what I thought was going to be a beautiful relationship between the two of them. I kind of wish that they explored this a little more, honestly. Yeah, me too.

[00:52:25] But Gia, they had to explore something else because there's still some warm feelings in the air. And this time from people I had no clue. I did not see this coming. Deneo, get away from this man. Why is Edmund... Stop talking to my mama. Get away from Deneo. He... Edmund has weaseled his way into this woman's bed. Make it make sense. I... Listen. It's been a while. And she needed...

[00:52:53] She needed some... Someone to take care of her. If only for... You know, like... There... I do not judge... I listen and I don't judge, Deneo. Oh, I was judging. I was judging hard, Deneo. It didn't really have to be the deadbeat dad. I just feel like they could have picked a new person. Like, why couldn't we get, like, a... Another, like, strapping Twala.

[00:53:22] Like, a distant cousin or something like that. That she could have a little fun. Did it really have to be Edmund? Yeah, because... Okay. They connect. Yeah. What happened? You listen and you don't judge. Okay? We'll see. We'll see. I could kind of see why it happened with the little flirting they were doing. Like, you could see how they got together in there. Like, it was...

[00:53:48] And the scene where she didn't want Grace to find out that she had slept with Edmund. She's, like, hiding him under the bed and everything. I'm like, that was nice too. If you don't know anything else about these people. If you don't have any questions about the context of the scene. Gia, here's my issue. Let's say... Let's say... They have this... They have this Trist. And Danelle likes it. And she tries to get the band back together.

[00:54:17] What is Toomey gonna say? Okay? I will. What is Toomey gonna say? We haven't even gotten to... Toomey has been recruited... Toomey's busy. She is now recruited to help McKenzie stop the funeral. So that he can let them all know, one, that Gogo wants to be cremated. And two, that Gogo was the love of his life. Yeah. Which is a lot for people that...

[00:54:47] For two sons that thought she was in love with their dad. Which is very clearly not the case. Right. So, Danelle does what she does. Toomey and Richard are on the way. But... We run into a problem. Danelle is listening to Beauty talk. Beauty's kind of like, oh yeah. Letting her know, like, hey, things have been going well with my dad. And it looks for a second, like, Danelle's kind of feeling it. Like, she was happy. You know? She was like, all right.

[00:55:17] I'm in bliss. I had a good night. She was a little bit more relaxed. You know, took the edge off a little bit. Until Beauty points out that... Oh yeah. Now that my dad's around, I can help him get his kidney removed. Now, you need at least one. And we find out that Danelle knows that this man had his kidney removed back in what? 92? Yeah. He's already been there. Yeah. He's done it. He's already used this scam. Or at the very least. And so, um... There goes that relationship.

[00:55:46] Up in flames. Because now she's got to go shut it down. Because he can't get any closer to Beauty now. Like, she has to go step in and make this man leave. And she ends up paying him off. And his drunk ass took the money and left. He is the worst. But I... He... Yeah. I kind of like him. Danelle gives him the ultimatum. Yeah. Like, he... So I guess Deneo came into a lot of money from... I think it was her retirement. Retirement. Uh-huh. Exactly.

[00:56:13] So she uses all of that money to essentially tell him, either you will tell Beauty the truth and face the consequences of it. Or you leave now and take the money that I have in front. And he takes the money and runs. Yep. Doesn't look right. He's only concerned with how much money is that exactly. Right. So that is kind of the end of that storyline and the end of the relationship between Edmund and the cellos. Yeah.

[00:56:41] And it needed to end at this time because more drama is about to happen. Yes. They're trying to get Go-Go in the casket and put her into... Like, and bring her in for the funeral. Because they have to start to prepare the body. They got to wash the body, all that kind of stuff. Or they've already washed the body. I'm sorry. But they have to go on and they have to now do the ceremony. But Toomey's calling. Nobody's picking up. Nobody. They drop the casket.

[00:57:07] And the casket opens and there's nobody. There's nobody in the casket. There's nobody in that casket. Nobody in that casket. I was... So, Chappelle, when this season was initially advertised, they showed this scene without showing the end part with the rocks in it. Right?

[00:57:34] You just see the casket fall over and pop open. But you don't see it. You don't see the fact that there are rocks in it. So, I have this moment very clearly in my head when I was watching the show because I remembered it from the trailer, not really knowing, like, the context of it. And still not really getting the context of it. And then I see, like, the casket opens and there are rocks here because, like, McKinsey

[00:58:00] enlisted some of his assistants, we will call them, some of his interns. This is what you and I, Chappelle, would be doing if we were interning with them. And then, like, McKinsey, they kidnapped the body from the morgue and just put a bunch of rocks in the casket so that they could bring the body to the crematorium, which is what Toomey is trying to tell them. McKinsey has basically just adopted Toomey at this point.

[00:58:29] He's like, you go where I go now. Like, this is, you know, this is what's happening now. You are now part of this plot in there. And she is trying to stop it or trying to delay the inevitable, I guess, here. We've got a lot going on because they have to cremate the body. As far as McKinsey is concerned, like, it's happening. So, get over it. But she's also dealing with this engagement that she keeps dodging.

[00:58:56] And there are moments where it looks like she's kind of like, I don't think I can pull us off. Like, I'll be okay. But she's distracted from the proposal by the whole crematorium incident. So, she has to go there and stop Richard from actually completing the cremation here. Okay? So, she goes and she does everything she can to stall this man.

[00:59:19] She's singing long hymns and really dragging this out while, of course, the Toilas are in like sheer disarray, right? They are trying to find Toilas. They are still blaming Toilas, per usual. And she's trying to explain to them, like, for what, y'all? I ain't got nothing to do with this. I wasn't even there. I didn't even know the body wasn't in there. I'm trying to tell y'all what's going on and y'all ain't listening. So, they pull up. And that's when we get the confrontation between McKinsey and the rest of the family.

[00:59:49] And, you know, it's tough, right? Like, if someone's trying to throw my mom's body into a furnace, I'm probably going to throw act a fool too. But you got to read what's in the letter. You have to. They really, they didn't even want to look at the letter. They didn't listen to it. This family has been so unreasonable these past three episodes now that they won't even listen to reason, which is the reason being, this is what your mama wanted. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I think they end up reading it right then and there.

[01:00:19] Or no, I think Richard just said, blurts it out. He says, well, for one, your mom wanted you to do this because it would save you some money. Yeah. Because you're poor. Yes. But also, so we get to hear the whole letter at the actual funeral that happens in the final episode of this season.

[01:00:40] But we get kind of the gist right now of that, that go-go, she never really got to travel. She wants this to be kind of like her final ask as a way of her traveling. She knows where she wants to have her ashes scattered. She's thought about this well. And she knew that her sons were going to be too proud to make this happen. So she trusted McKenzie to be the one to do it.

[01:01:09] And I loved McKenzie through this whole thing. Like this whole, but this is one of my favorite characters here. I'm so sad he is only in season two because he was incredible. And he tells them all what I have been thinking this whole season. You should be thinking to me because she's the only one that's acting like she got any sense here. Right. You should be thinking to me. Your mom has already taken an account, like an account for that. You're going to be too poor to have a big lavish funeral.

[01:01:37] So the crematorium is going to be the cheapest option that we have. And the small intimate ceremony is going to be a cheap option. It's going to keep you, Vusi, who is lying to your whole family from having to deal with that. Also, Sia, Vusi, I know y'all going to fight. That's why I took this and wrote it down and left it in McKenzie's heads. Like she did all the work. So they're just kind of stunned to find this out because the damage is done.

[01:02:03] You know, now the kids know that Vusi ain't got no money and they're distraught about it. You know, everybody's kind of like, wow, that's crazy that Gogo wanted these things, but she did it for the better, you know, the betterment of all of us. There's a lot going on again. I just keep saying that there's so much going on. And to make matters worse, Kaya's back. And he's like, hey, by the way, I think this is a moment.

[01:02:31] Yeah, he's like, I'm so tired of waiting for the perfect moment. So I'm going to make the perfect moment. Kaya, that was not the lesson that was supposed to be taught in this scene. This standoff at the crematorium was not, this is not what should have happened at this moment. I'm sorry. I know you were excited, but maybe read the room a little bit. No, he don't want to read the room. He wants to propose.

[01:03:00] And so outside of the crematorium. Outside of the crematorium. In the midst of all of this drama, finding out this family is poor. You're finding out that Gogo might have had a little side life on with a gangster. He decides in front of everybody to get down on one knee and to ask Tumi to marry him. And Deneo just pulls out her cell phone and starts recording because she is so, I was like, oh my God, this is the ghettoish shit I've ever seen in the moment.

[01:03:31] I love Deneo. I love everybody on this show. She has a problem with reading the room sometimes, especially considering the fact that I don't think Tumi's ever said anything along the lines of like, this is what she wants for herself. But no one seems particularly concerned about that at the moment. But Deneo don't care about none of these people except Tumi. Like she doesn't care about any of them. So she could care less about all the Tuala drama.

[01:03:58] OK, like they kind of dragged her in for a little bit because they actually have to like humble themselves and ask her to host the ceremony because she's the closest person to God that they know. Brilliant plan, by the way. Great, great idea, y'all. And so Tumi says yes. But what else could she have said? What could she have possibly said? No. OK. To be fair. To be fair. Listen, and I agree. This is not the moment, right? Right.

[01:04:28] But they already were traumatized by this funeral and crematorium mess. So her saying no would have at the very most been the second worst thing that happened. You're right. Yeah. You're right. You could slide that in under all the rest of the stuff and be like, remember that song y'all did, XYZ? Yeah. And be like, are you fucking for real? Like, let's just let's be real for a second. And this would, again, this would not be the worst thing that happened today.

[01:04:55] I would argue this isn't even the third worst thing that happened today. It's not even getting a medal for everything that happens today. OK. She was not expecting it at this time. So, yep. They kind of proposes. And to me says yes. I guessed her will. She did. She said yes. I mean, they got the cameras on her.

[01:05:25] It's in front of the toilet. Like, there's so many reasons why she says yes. But she will quickly regret it. She's like, I don't know. I think this was a mistake. I think this was a mistake. Because as Kaya is so happily telling everybody, like, no, this is exactly what we wanted. Like, he's calling Lulu. And Lulu's like, oh, my God. Am I going to be the flower girl? What am I doing in the wedding? What's over? Like, she's already planning her life. To me finally has to be like, all right. Maybe we should talk about this. Yes. Yeah. Yeah.

[01:05:54] She does end up having to go to Kaya later on and have a conversation with him about what is it that Toomey wants, right? Like, what is it that she needs? And Kaya's like, no. You know, like, I do everything for you. She's like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I have been following you around, playing stepmom for a while, trying to live this life. And I don't even know what I want, but I don't think it's this. And I ain't ready for this.

[01:06:22] And so it's a very sad moment for Kaya. But how did you feel? Like, we've seen Kaya for two seasons. Toomey doesn't want this. But what, should we feel bad for Kaya? No. Okay. So I love, listen, I loved Kaya. This is a great, I think this is a great example of why that trope of friends to lovers does not always work out.

[01:06:48] Because just because you work well as friends, and I think at one point they really did work as friends, but does not mean that that relationship is going to work out in a romantic sense, particularly when the two people involved want very different things. And maybe at one point Kaya did not see himself as a dad. Very fair. I think him building a relationship with his daughter is incredible.

[01:07:17] And I'm glad they went this direction with Kaya. Like, you know what? He may have been a player in the past, but he's also a pretty damn good dad that really picked up a lot of the unexpected trials that he'd be facing as a parent pretty quickly. So I like Kaya as a character in that we're seeing a great example of a Black man, like, taking this role on and excelling at it.

[01:07:45] But I also just don't think that when some, I do think that when something like this happens and your priorities change, for Kaya, he should be looking for somebody that also wants to be a parent and wants that life that Kaya is building for himself and Lulu. And there are plenty of people that will want that. It is just not to me. Yeah. Elsewhere, we get another fight.

[01:08:14] Because Beauty been acting weird too. And Sebu is over it. He's like, hey, you need to get it together. We need to go to therapy. He's mad because nobody really wants to acknowledge that they've lost a baby. And him and Beauty are going at it. And she hits him with the, you need to leave. And he stops her and says, no, no, this is my parents' house. You need to leave. And I was like, what the hell? That was the second thing. This was the point in the season that Sebu pissed me off.

[01:08:45] You are, no, no, no. You are kicking out your wife of your family home in your room when you know damn well she is only there because of you. And you have way more money than her. Like, you are the financial powerhouse in this situation. The power dynamics were off. I do not like this from you, Sebu. This is not the man that Beauty married. This is not the man that I agreed to let Beauty marry in season one.

[01:09:12] This is the man that freaked out when Beauty was pregnant. With his child. With his child, again. With his child. A lot of baby drama this season. That was not Tempa and Lydia. We love that for them. We love Tempa and Lydia's growth. Yeah. This was a wild argument. I mean, to be fair, she did try to put him out of his own mama house. Like, you need to leave. It's crazy. You can just leave the room.

[01:09:41] That's house is huge. You're not going to keep your wife. Yeah. So disrespectful. Sebu knows where all the rooms are. I'm sorry. He could have picked a guest room for the night. I'm sorry. And if we really wanted to be fair, is this even his house? Because y'all ain't got no money. Y'all been rich in this. This is a six-month lease. I don't think this is his house any longer.

[01:10:06] And also, Sebu, maybe you shouldn't start talking about what belongs to who when your parents probably don't own this house anymore. Like, are you even allowed at this house now? Like, is this not government property? Is this one of the assets that were seized? Like, yeah. He caught off guard because she should have really been, if she was faster, she'd have been like, baby, who owned this house? And it happened to, like, this is a twilight hole.

[01:10:35] That's why I can't be married. That's why I can't be married. I'd be hurting people's feelings. Look, he got away with that one. I was like, okay, I'll let you cook, gentlemen. But everybody knows that he's upset now. And so they got to make it up to him. But first, we have a funeral. As you already pointed out, the letter that Go-Go left was read to everyone. Toomey was asked to read the letter by M'Kizzy because, you know, he trusts her. You know, like, I know that Toomey can do it.

[01:11:04] And, you know, somebody was, like, chopping some onions somewhere because I was like. I cried. Yeah, I was like, I didn't cry, but I'm sure someone did somewhere, you know? I cried. It was me. I cried. And I cried as soon as M'Kizzy brought Toomey up to read that letter. Like, it was, and M'Kizzy and Toomey's dynamic in this season is so good to me.

[01:11:33] I could watch a series just on them breaking the law together as, like, this, like, father-daughter dude. Because this is really, like, kind of, like, the father-figure relationship that Toomey deserves. Somebody that doesn't assume the worst of her here. And M'Kizzy is just, like, an incredible character throughout. So I'm just a big fan of it. That's why I picked M'Kizzy Defender today for my little headline. But, yeah, he was incredible.

[01:12:00] Just so, just because he breaks the law every once in a while does not mean he is a bad person. He was there for his ride-or-die-go-go and made sure that Toomey was also taken care of. But the letter itself was very beautiful and talks a lot about the lessons she learned and how much she values each of the characters that we have come to know, particularly, like, within the Twala family. So it was, it was really beautiful. It was. It was.

[01:12:28] And I think this kind of shifts a lot of the conversations that are had, right? Like, this is what leads kind of Toomey to going and letting Kaya know that, all right, this ain't happening. And then, and a lot of people will go try to cheer up Cebu, of course, because, you know, he's, he's kind of down bad, right? Like, nobody's acknowledging. He's very, he's got a little bratty mold right now because nobody wants to talk about what he wants to talk about, which is, you know, the fact that they have to confront this miscarriage. They have to. And everybody's been dancing around it. And so, you know, when people start to talk to him a little bit more,

[01:12:58] I think everybody starts to get on the same page. You know, also, Sia, he got to go on the, he got to do the eulogy as well. Yes. So he got to do the eulogy. That was cool. So, you know, we had our moments where we started to tidy things up. Cebu finds out what's going on with the money as far as his family home goes. And I mean, it's very cut and dry. Pay your taxes. The end. It's not, you know, like, I don't know. They thought they were in some criminal behavior.

[01:13:27] They thought like they were going to jail. It was really, it was really like blown out of proportion. Pay your taxes. And so once he looks at the books, he could tell, we can get out of this. It'll be okay. Yeah. But they still have to, and nobody in this family likes this word, go on a budget. Yeah. Yeah. But it's better than being as broke as they thought they were. You know? Yeah. I can tell you right now from season three, they forget that budget real quick. This is not, this is not an issue in season three anymore.

[01:13:56] Honestly, I felt that because the way I would have the Maserati sent right on back to my house. Okay. Like we're getting back on what we, what we came from. So the Tualas did not learn their lesson because they are up to the, a lot of the same shenanigans in season three. Mm-hmm. And so we get the, the Tualas are now no longer broke. Sibu and, and Beauty finally reconcile as well. They agree that we got it. We got to go see the lady. We got to go get therapy. Yeah. We got to get therapy ASAP.

[01:14:24] And things are starting to look on the up and up. You know, I was really surprised to you because this season did not end with a cliffhanger and I was really expecting it to. Really was too. I kind of am surprised that it didn't really, this, this show could have ended in season two and I'm glad it didn't because I do like season three, but it really could have ended at season two and it would feel like a complete story.

[01:14:49] We even get the scene where Valencia apologizes to Lydia for how she's treated her. immediately being followed by Tenba insisting that he stands up to Valencia for Lydia. It's very cute scene. We get a lot of that great family dynamics. Finally, everybody's, Grace finds her biscuits, I believe. Or no, they don't find the biscuits.

[01:15:15] They eat them at the final dinner before everybody goes home, which is again, perfect touch in there. And we get to see Toomey finally go on her trip to Marucius and that is the end of season two. I'm really happy it doesn't end on a cliffhanger. We talked about this briefly. Is this the time to talk about the actress?

[01:15:40] Yeah, let's get into it because, you know, it does end on a high note for Toomey. You know, she kind of saves the day. She's given her flowers. She gets on the plane. She's on her way to Marisha. She's already found a new dude to smile at. You know, and so I'm like, man, this is incredible. It's funny that, you know, you told me what happened with the actress. And this season is called The Funeral because I really think that's kind of apropos. And I wasn't expecting it. And so I watched this through a whole different lens knowing that it's going to be one of the last time this woman is seen on film. Yes.

[01:16:09] So when the season aired, Boosie LeRae was still alive. And she doesn't pass away until she. So the reason the season ends the way that it does is because the character of Toomey, from what I have done in like researching it, was the character of Toomey was already not planning to return for season three. So everything in the script was already predetermined from season three.

[01:16:37] And the reason for it is because Boosie LeRae goes, is offered a role on another show that is syndicated more often. So she has other work that she is getting involved in. Around the time that season three, I believe either was almost done filming or had already been done filming. By the time that season three ends, we learn that she unexpectedly passed away.

[01:17:03] We never really learn exactly how she passed away or what happened from what I have seen in there. But it's a very sad, very tragic story. I'm very sad that we don't get to see more of this actress in her future works in here. Um, it's, I don't think this was an expected death for anybody. Um, it was, uh, I, there is quite a possibility that foul play was involved, but nothing has

[01:17:33] really been released on it. So we don't know for sure. This is just a lot of speculation just based on like minor news articles that we've had. But the character of Toomey, again, this is my favorite show on Netflix. The character of Toomey will always have a place in my heart. This is one of my favorite characters that we ever got from the show. And it's because of this actress. Um, and she does an incredible job in this role. Um, I might be mispronouncing her last name.

[01:18:03] It's, uh, Busi Luray or Luray. Um, but she was an incredible force in the South African, uh, media or acting community. It's really sad that her life was cut short, but the work that she has had has been absolutely incredible. And I'm so glad that I got to meet this actress through this show. Yeah, I love her. She's great. She's great. It's so sad that she had a tragic end to her life like this.

[01:18:32] So, so young, uh, with obviously many starring roles ahead of her, um, had she, you know, was able to survive. Um, and, uh, you know, it really does put a damper on me coming out of season two because now I'm looking forward to season three. I'm also kind of like, all right, you know, I'll go watch it. But Gia, without spoiling too much, what do we have to come in season three? What should I be looking forward to? So, I mean, it won't be too much of a spoiler because it happens right at the very beginning

[01:19:02] of the season, but the season is called, uh, how to ruin Christmas, the baby shower. If that gives you any indication on what might be happening during then, um, there is still a big, we'll call it accident that happens at the very beginning. So before it was the pool scene and the, uh, ambulances coming to the house in season

[01:19:28] two, we get another big scene like that at the end of the first episode of season one, very similar to it. Um, we focus a lot more on the dynamics between the cellos and the twalas this episode and with each other. We learn a little bit more about some of these dynamics. I won't say which ones. And we get a new character who I don't think she takes the placement, the rep, she doesn't

[01:19:58] take the place of Toomey. She's definitely not as big of a character in the show as Toomey is, but she's very clearly in the similar archetype as Toomey. And it's actually very interesting to get to know her throughout this season. And I'm excited to hear your thoughts on the show and how this character ends up being introduced to us. All right. And we will get to that when we do at the end of this month, uh, we will come back and

[01:20:26] talk about how to ruin Christmas, the baby shower. But Gia, this was so much fun. Thank you for introducing me to this show and thank you for being here to talk to me about it. But Gia, you got to tell everybody what else you're working on and what else do we, you and I have coming up? Cause we've been working on some big stuff. I know. I'm so excited. So of course we will be, so I'm going on a little vacation next week for my 30th birthday. So we will be recording the third part of this series, how to ruin Christmas, the baby shower

[01:20:56] at the end of January. So my bad for making us wait a little bit. And we, I am on my end also working on, uh, the 50 for 50 articles. The last ones that I have for inside survivor, we wrote, uh, there are 50 articles being written by five different writers on there about the 50 players. We want to see return for survivor 50. I drafted 10 players that I personally want to see.

[01:21:24] And I have three more that I still need to write. So I am working on that now. So you will have more of those posted soon. Um, and then I am still in the off season, but I am planning to return for the survivor 49. We're at 49, right? No, 48. Oh my God. Survivor 48, uh, recaps on silent podcast for, I don't know about that.

[01:21:47] And Chappelle and I have a very exciting crossover coming soon to celebrate the crossover of two shows that I really love, uh, Abbott elementary and it's always sunny in Philadelphia. Yes. Uh, that crossover should be in your podcast feed soon. As we talk about Abbott, as we're approaching the, you know, the end game of Abbott elementary this season, we've had our mid season finale.

[01:22:14] And so now we've got to do a little crossover fun and we're having the crying laughing podcast on as our guests, uh, for this special crossover. Dr. Amanda and Ariel will be on. It's going to be so much fun. So make sure you check that out and then, uh, make sure you check out everything else we have on here. Tyrone and I have talked about the premiere of the madness that should be in your podcast feed. And Mario and I talked about, uh, three, triple eight, uh, uh, on, um, we, I'm sorry. What is the name of that? Yeah. God. Oh God.

[01:22:44] My bad. Oh, it's been a long day. Um, three, triple eight on Netflix. Um, okay. Mario and I talked about three, triple eight on Netflix. It was so much fun, but we got so much other content coming your way here on recap kickback. We are approaching the one year anniversary of recap kickback. And so what are we doing to celebrate? I don't know. And I want the listeners to tell us what we should do to celebrate at recap kickback at

[01:23:14] gmail.com. As that approaches, make sure you put that in our comments section as well. If you have some ideas of something we should talk about, something we should do, you know how to reach us on all social media platforms at recap kickback and a black history month is coming up to G. So we, you and I got some work to do. Oh, I have ideas and I have an idea for a hundred, uh, or not a hundred. Sorry. Our year anniversary. We are keeping up on a hundred as well. We, I think we're pretty close to a hundred videos too. I need to go and do the math.

[01:23:41] I have an idea, which we've already talked about, but we will discuss afterwards. Cause you know, keep it, keep a little secret. Yeah, but we're working on it y'all. So let us know what it is you want us to talk about and then make sure you subscribe to recap kickback on all social media platforms, recap kickback.com slash subscribe and keep up with what we got going. Uh, Gia, make sure you send me that, those articles so I can put it in our show notes so everybody can find you and what you're working on. And then of course y'all make sure y'all follow Gia at classically Gia, myself at recap

[01:24:08] kickback and, um, tune in next time cause you ain't gotta go home, but we'll be back at the end of the month to talk about how to ruin Christmas, the baby shower. Peace out. Woo! Woo!

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