Clean Break Queenie – Episode 2 begins with Queenie Jenkins (Dionne Brown) turning her Grandad Wilfred’s (Joseph Marcell) man cave into storage. Despite Wilfred’s sighing, Grandma Veronica (Llewella Gideon) is quick to remind Queenie that their door is always open.
Later that day, when Frank Ssebendeke II (Samuel Adewumi) and Kyazike Mygend (Bellah) help Queenie move into her new apartment, Kyazike’s recollection of a recent date causes Queenie to remember her first date with Tom Blake (Jon Pointing). It soon becomes clear that Frank and Kyazike don’t approve of Queenie’s new living arrangements. Frank also ends up putting his foot in his mouth when he harshly jokes about an antique dresser that Queenie got from her mother. He appears to redeem himself later when he tells her that he’s always liked how sure she was of who she was.
Once alone, Queenie spends a few minutes looking through photo albums before breaking down and texting Tom. As she boasts about her incredible new apartment and roommates (Owen (Kishore Walker)), the scenes that follow reveal she is embellishing. She gets swept up in the action and goes too far when she encourages him to visit. Despite the invitation, he doesn’t respond at the moment.
Sometime later, Queenie attends a yoga class with Cassandra Stone (Elisha Applebaum) but quickly becomes frustrated with not only the class but how easy everything appears to be for Cassandra. She later attends Fran and James’ engagement party where to only other black attendant, Sam (Christien Bart-Gittens), makes her feel like even more of an outcast. She finds an excuse to send Tom a voice message when some random guy greets her and asks where Tom is. Queenie is soon joined by Darcy Pike (Tilly Keeper), who does a good job of putting her at ease, but that ends the moment Darcy’s beau, Simon (Edward Harrison), shows up. Queenie begins to drink heavily, and it’s not long before she is sloshed and raving like a lunatic to Sammi (Samuel Constanti). Much to her displeasure, Sammi talks her into creating a LoveBelow profile. After the registration is confirmed, Queenie finally receives a response from Tom that says, ‘Clean Break Queenie!’ Insulted by Tom’s brush-off and slightly drunk, Queenie decides to reach out to Adi Malk (Mim Shaikh) but when he shows up, she is drunk and misses him.
The following day at work, Queenie makes another pitch but it is to Gina Hargdon (Sally Phillips) alone. Gina doesn’t appear to share her enthusiasm, and once again encourages her to get back to what she is best at, social media. Queenie takes the news in stride but her mood only dampens when she receives several texts from Adi, asking her about the no-show. When Darcy shows up in a bright mood with some much-needed pain relief, Queenie uses the opportunity to ask her about Tom’s message. Darcy tells her what she already suspected, that Tom wants space.
Later that evening Frank, Queenie, and Kyazike hit the nightclub. Frank proves useful again when he comes to Queenie’s aid by scaring off a stranger who aggressively approaches her on the dance floor. Things only spin further out of control and the Bouncer (Abayomi Oniyide) has to get involved when Kyazike goes off on a drunk girl (Georgie Brooks) who grabs her bootie and asks if it’s real.
The gang soon ends up at Southside Chicken, where Kyazike spends the rest of the evening with Roy (Harrison Daniels), who can’t stop bragging about how his mix tape is blowing up, although he is currently working at Claire’s Accessories. Queenie continues to dwell on Tom’s scathing message despite Frank’s best efforts.
The evening wraps with Frank, Roy, and Kyazike seeing Queenie safely to her Uber. Frank is the only one to notice and comment on how the car and driver do not look like your typical Uber staff. Seconds later, it is revealed why this is the case.
The episode ends with Queenie and Adi making out in the back of his car.
Queenie Review
I can’t say the episode was horrible, although it didn’t hit me like the first did. I’m not saying that I didn’t enjoy it because it was intriguing. I could do without all the cultural stereotypes, but I understand that’s what the series is based on, so I can tolerate them. That said, I do feel that they are approached in somewhat of an elegant style. I do enjoy the internal debating and the satirical overlay is clever at times. I’d give the episode a 5.3 out of 10.
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