This show is definitely NOT afraid to shake things up create seismic change, is it? I love it!! No pussyfooting around here, TGD actually goes there with the consequences. The rest under the cut for spoilers.

– And here I thought, was hoping in fact, that Boo-Boo’s drug dealing was the one plot point that was going to end without consequence and hoo boy… I thought, didn’t I. They sure showed me.

One interesting thing about Cadillac is that, evil as he is, he’s a genuine believer in disco and its culture. It isn’t a combination I’ve often seen, the overlap of murderous crime lord and fanatic for his art. Both sides are genuine aspects of his character, making for a complex and layered characterization.

– After seeing the Season 1 finale (I refuse to call it the show finale, okay?) I can see that this was actually a conflict within the character, the part that wanted to break free.

– I am naming “You find something melodic about this situation?/The whole thing’s off-key to me” the best villainous exchange of all time.

Who would have thought the character crossing their Rubicon would be Lydia even more than Mylene? If I had any doubts about Ramon being an abusive piece of shit (I didn’t), his violence toward his wife and daughter sealed it. I mean, when people think of abuse they usually think of violence, but that’s not always true. A lot of abusers use violence as a last resort, when they feel their control slipping.

On a related note, I love that this show doesn’t shrink back from the complexities of freedom–criminality, objectification, commercialization, drugs, it’s all presented without sanitization. The Get Down Brothers and the Soul Madonnas each fought in their own ways to be free without selling out, to succeed without compromising who they were as people.

– I squealed when, backstage at the Ruby Con, Zeke gave Mylene pretty much the exact speech she game him in Part 1–that he could not be with her if she did not fight for her ambitions, that he loved her too much to watch her give up on herself. These two support each other and hold each other up so much, my heart melts every time I see them together.

– Some, of course, didn’t make it out. It was gutwrenching when Shaolin, who convinced Cadillac to break free by confronting his own history of abuse at Annie’s hands, himself ultimately went back to Annie to save his friends. This, when we already knew how he was affected by the abuse in the way his rage at Annie found its outlet in violence… just… no words.

– They were missing part of the footage in Mr. Books’s show, all right? They didn’t get to the part where the lights shone on the other side of the stage and there was Shao behind his turntable. I refuse to believe otherwise.

I think Jackie’s learned something about himself and his creative process from writing “Set Me Free.” Creative isolation is out, big, communal, spiritual party is in. It also looks like he’s kicked his addiction, or at least cut down/switched to less hard drugs? It may be amusing to think of the assortment of drag queens and musicians holed up in his hotel room as his church, but I think it serves pretty much the same function as Jackie himself told Ramon.

Papa Fuerte’s fall was an understated epic. He was used, betrayed, and
discarded, a visionary whose ambition came smack up against capitalistic greed and systematic
racism. He has a lot to say, indeed. He is called a criminal but I understand him more as a big man, a leader who takes responsibility for his constituents and allocates resources. Look at the way he provided for the community when the blackout happened. A lot of criminality in underserved areas can be understood as filling the void left by governments, I think.

Hearing the man moan like a wounded wolf at the sight of Lydia’s wounds may have been one of the most emotional moments of the show for me. The good-bye in her kitchen, her telling him she loved him, it was so heartrending and perfect.

– So like was anyone surprised at Mylene’s parentage reveal? …Anyone? No hands, I see. It was obvious from the moment her mother’s relationship with Papa Fuerte was shown and should have been obvious sooner, she really is a mix of them.

– I remember wondering more than once what the attraction to Ramon was and why Lydia couldn’t have been with the guy she loved in the first place. Ramon probably convinced her that she was a sinner who needed him to save her, and he can be very charming when things are going his way, i.e. when she was suitably submissive. The stability he represented, emotionally and socially if not financially, may have been a draw, too. And of course, if she was already committed to Ramon before she met his hot brother that would have presented impossibilities of its own.

– It was probably for the best anyway, she would have been put through unimaginably more shit as Papa Fuerte’s wife rather than his sister-in-law. Maybe that’s why he didn’t press the issue, he knew this would happen sooner or later.

– This is terrible of me but “pillaged my nest” may be the hottest euphemism for cheating I have heard.

Ra-Ra is autistic, right? I mean, I thought so from Part 1 but it became even clearer in Part 2. Watched Star Wars 57 times? (And I thought my watching Crimson Tide 17 times was a lot…) Finds it easier to explain concepts through pop culture? Talking sounds stilted, as though he’s taking the wording from books and movies which he’s all but memorized as references? Like, it’s so obvious. I’m pretty sure Dizzee is on the spectrum too.

I wish we’d seen more of the Zulu Queens because we did not see nearly enough female MCs and b-girls. I wish there was more of everything from this show, basically.