Original subtitles

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Shekinah, anything else?

Shekinah: Demascus Haynes, Tethur entry.

[Sighs]

Okay, play it. Play it.

Demascus: So there's this thing that keeps happening,

and I -- I can't figure it out.

It's like everyone is trying to force me

into being something different.

Okay, maybe "force" is too strong a word,

but that's how it feels.

They all want me to be something I'm not --

Redd, Dyanne, even Budhi.

Budhi.

Redd: [Sniffs] You smell good.

Hey! Hey!

Personally, I believe it was

the algorithm that brought us together.

And I think it was fate.

Uh-huh.

Settle the argument.

Okay? Got you.

D.C., three years ago.

Demascus is single and unemployed.

And pathetic.

Demascus is single and pathetic and unemployed.

I was working freelance, and I'm not gonna be

too many more of y'all's "pathetics."

We done with that. Mm-hmm.

He was going so hard

with this tortured Black-artist persona.

You should have seen him, girl, in these frumpy-ass sweaters

and fuzzy-ass beanie.

I like to call it my, um, my Gray Period.

Gray Period.

So in his Gray Period, he was spending most of his days

at the portrait gallery, cruising for chicks.

No, I was not.

Don't tell it like that.

That's the pathetic part.

Okay, the portrait gallery

is one of my favorite places in D.C.,

and I used to go there with my moms.

Yeah, I remember that.

Because it was free and on the red line.

Aww, that's sweet.

But? No buts.

D, come on. Dyanne: Come on.

No, I'm done. We'll wait.

Now, if something happened to pop off --

If someone walked up to me and said something --

Okay. Uh-huh, see? It's okay to admit.

Fine, fine.

He was there for the nostalgia hit,

but secretly hoping he might bump into

a short-term sex thing.

What kind of hoes was you picking up

at the portrait gallery? Artsy hoes.

[Laughs]

Anyway, it was this freezing day in January

and the Mega-Light rail got shut down,

so I found myself in the city with nothing to do,

and I decided to let the algorithm

give me my perfect D.C. excursion.

And it led you to the portrait gallery?

Girl, no.

It led me to the café across the street,

where I bumped into Demascus brooding over the exact e-book

the algorithm said would compound my happiness

for the day.

Hmm. I don't know, girl.

That sound like a classic star-crossed meet-cute to me.

No.

I never would have gotten off at the Chinatown stop.

I never would have gone into that dingy-ass café

had the algorithm not suggested it.

But can you say the algorithm is fate?

The algorithm is hard data and computations.

The algorithm is straight-up capitalism.

It wanted you to buy a coffee.

Okay, but it led me to that café.

Okay. But what about Demascus?

He ain't use no algorithm. He was just there.

Fate.

It's fate.

Half and half. Aww.

She the cream in your coffee, big dog.

Dyanne: Aww, they -- ohh.

Redd: I got a leg up here, I got a down here.

It's my signature move. I invented it, right?

Dyanne: Your signature move? Yes, my signature move.

This nigga, I swear. You know what I'm saying.

Anyway, I hit it once,

she goes flying like a Raggedy Ann doll

right when I'm about to get to my shit!

Yeah, and I broke my fuckin' wrist

doing that dumb-ass shit.

Baby, I know. I'm so sorry.

Don't nobody need to be doing all of that!

Baby, it won't happen again, baby. I promise.

You could have just said it was an accident.

Didn't need a full reenactment.

Dyanne: He's so pressed.

His dick literally put me in the hospital.

By the way, it's called a Wheelbarrow, Redd.

What I just did? What'd I tell you?

It's not new. Word?

Told you.

What you know about a Wheelbarrow?

Ask me later.

Damn, Demascus!

You such a fuckin' prude. Do you even have a dick?

Yeah, Dyanne, I have a dick. I don't believe it.

Prove it. Pull it out.

Whoa, whoa. Let's see it.

No, I need to see it.

Give me this. You don't need no more of this.

I'm just saying. This is a safe place.

You are kind of a prude, though.

For real.

No, I'm -- I'm not a prude. I just --

Look, under the right circumstances, okay?

Which are? Not in public, Dyanne.

You know, sometimes I look at you,

and I just want to grab it,

public or not.

You know. Yes, I do. Hey, girl.

You don't ever feel like that?

Yeah, I do, okay?

I just don't do anything.

Grab it, grab it, grab it, grab it.

♪ Grab it, grab it, ooh, that booty good ♪

♪ You gotta have it, have it

♪ So grab it, grab it

♪ Ooh, that pussy tastin' like some magic ♪

♪ So grab it, grab it, grab it ♪ Yeah.

♪ Grab it, ooh, that booty good ♪

♪ I gotta have it, have it

Oh! ♪ So grab it, grab it!

Aah! ♪ Grab it, grab it

♪ Ooh, that booty good, I gotta have it, have it ♪

♪ So grab it

Mmm. [Laughs]

Can I grab it? Yes.

Do I have your permission to grab it?

Oh, yes.

["Promise Me" by Marg playing in background]

[Sighs]

[R&B music playing in distance]

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Hold on.

You just gotta -- Shh. Don't look.

Don't look.

Oh.

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Thoughts?

Tropical. A little WAP-ish.

Only a little?

Uh, the crotch part's missing.

I was hoping it might give you easier access

to objectify me... a little.

Nah.

"Nah"?

No. Yes.

No, I -- Can we --

Can we just wait till they leave?

They ain't thinking about us.

Just [snaps fingers] come here.

Get up.

Look...

you're always in your head.

Just be in the moment for once.

Now, grab my ass.

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Mmm.

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Call me your little Schmunny bitch.

What?

Call me your little Schmunny bitch.

I can't.

Come on. Whoa, whoa, Budhi.

Stop, stop. Budhi, stop.

Budhi, stop. Stop! Budhi, stop.

Shit.

Goddamn!

Why do I feel rapey now?

Look, I don't know what type of hood fantasy

you're trying to play out here, Budhi,

but we are not Redd and Dyanne.

We're not.

This I know.

Redd and Dyanne are happy.

[Scoffs]

[Indistinct conversations]

Dyanne: I got all the hooks. You ain't got no hooks.

Demascus: You guys are working together?

Budhi, come on. I need a partner.

Redd: Okay.

[Speaks indistinctly]

What you mean? I got two possibles.

I got all the hooks.

I got a game.

Hmm? It's called Hot Seat.

How you play that?

Demascus is in the hot seat.

We ask you questions, you tell the truth.

I like this game.

So it's not a card game?

Do I have a choice?

We ask the questions.

Why couldn't you fuck me?

Mmm! It got salacious up in here.

What'd I miss? What happened?

What happened? Budhi: What was it?

Was it the banana panties

or your girlfriend of three years?

I can't wrap my head around it, okay?

You want me to pretend to be a thing that I'm not,

to see you in a way that I don't,

to treat you like something that you aren't?

It's called role play,

and I thought it might inject a little spice.

We need spice?

I thought our sex life was...[sighs]

perfectly sufficient, you know?

Yes, Demascus.

Our sexual congress falls within acceptable parameters.

Okay, so you're saying I fuck like a robot now?

Sometimes.

Well, how does dressing up like a slutty banana help us?

How does it help anything? That's not cool.

Demascus, have you ever considered

that you might be on the spectrum?

No.

No, no.

Leave my boy alone. Y'all know how Demascus is.

No, man. How am I? How am I?

Look, that heady shit is fine for your government job,

but sometimes you just got to take your bitch by the waist

and fuck the shit out of her!

You do gotta do that. You have to do that.

Okay, so, what, we're condoning misogynoir now?

Yes, when it is an empowered request

from a committed partner, yes.

Bruh, it's Budhi. You know?

What the fuck is that supposed to mean?!

Okay, can we -- can we just talk about this later?

No, no, no.

I don't know what you want me to say, Budhi.

It's just -- It's just not me.

But sometimes we break character

for those we love.

Don't we?

You can't force it on me, Budhi.

You can't force it.

Force it.

Okay, Demascus.

Shekinah, call the car up.

Destination? Home.

[Door opens, closes]

Demascus!

She made herself vulnerable to you,

and you rejected her.

You can't let her leave with her pussy open.

You can't do that. Thank you, Dyanne. Thank you.

[Sighs] Just go to the car, please.

Bye. Bye.

Uh, my bad, man.

I wouldn't have -- you know.

I thought this was gonna work.

Bruh, this -- [Sighs]

Was this your idea, man?

You could have given me a heads up.

No, it wasn't -- it wasn't my idea,

but Budhi loves you very much

and Dyanne can be very persuasive.

I don't get you, Redd.

One moment, you're telling me to shoot my shot with Naomi,

and now you're engineering a secret freak session

with Budhi, bruh?

What are you doing to me, man?

What are you doing?

I'll holler, man.

That was really weird.

♪♪

Demascus: I'm still not sure what I did wrong, other than --

I don't know, I didn't want to smash, I guess?

So I guess we're broken up.

Yeah, I guess she left me or maybe I left her.

Probably both.

The color palette's drab.

The objective is to improve Black female enrollment.

Yeah.

So why the rainbow coalition of people?

It helps the target demo envision themselves

in Space Corps, 'cause representation matters.

I know all about representation.

What do you think, Arnez?

It's a little drab, yeah.

Okay, I will, uh -- I'll change the color palette.

I, um -- If I were a Black woman,

would this make me want to enlist in Space Corps?

I don't think so. I -- I --

I think Keiko's trying to say something, everyone.

Uh...

Go ahead, Keiko.

[Squeals]

Cool, well, I didn't know

how to topple the patriarchy in a poster.

But it's your job to try, right?

Yes.

[Keyboard keys clacking]

[Knock on door]

Hey, you got a second?

Demascus: Uh, yeah, sure.

Look, my bad.

I didn't mean to throw you under the bus earlier

in front of Ol' Girl.

Oh, no. No, man, it's cool.

And as much as I hate to admit it,

she had a point.

I mean, the designs were uninspired,

and this campaign really means a lot to me.

My mom was in the Space Corps, you know?

Yeah, I -- I wasn't married to that idea.

I did most of it this morning, to be honest.

Classic Demascus.

Alright, then.

Hey, wait, um...

Arnez, can I ask you something?

Sure.

Can you close the...

[Clears throat]

Um, a few weeks ago,

y'all were in the break room talking about me?

Who? Not me.

Yeah, it was you, Ol' Girl, and the rest of marketing,

and then Ol' Girl says, "You know how Demascus is,"

and then everyone laughed.

Who laughed? Not me.

[Laughter]

Woman: Too much.

Okay, fine, but you were there.

So what did Ol' Girl say?

Yeah, I don't know if we should be talking about that.

You know how you are.

Why does everybody keep telling me that?

I don't.

Honestly, I...I don't.

Okay. Look around here.

What do you see about your co-workers?

There are no White people.

And that's by design.

Ol' Girl practices reverse racial discrimination.

She'll tell you herself, but she'll deny it on the stand.

Yeah, that's dope, but what does that have to do with me?

I don't know who it was, it was someone,

but there was an article going around about

how Black men are the white men of the POC communities,

and it made some salient points.

About me? Indirectly, by default.

What about you? I'm gay.

The article said straight Black men.

Arnez, man.

I've never seen you do anything remotely gay.

Your nails are a mess. There it is.

That's that White man shit they're talking about.

You're doing it. What am I doing? Doing what?

Why'd you have to put Keiko on the spot this morning?

She was trying to speak.

I was just uplifting her voice.

Public speaking freaks her out.

How was I supposed to know that?

Her trigger card? What's a trigger card?

We wrote down our triggers

so we could interact with mindfulness.

Okay, I missed that memo.

And then you tried mansplaining to Ol' Girl

representation in advertising,

who wrote the book

on representation in advertising.

Literally, the book's called

"Representation in Advertising."

How was I supposed to know that?

It's on the company read list.

Jesus, man, do you even work here?

Look, I know you like to think of yourself

as this graphic-design robot

that sits in his office able to crank out logos at will,

but this needs more of a human touch.

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Shekinah, pull up my camera roll.

Photos circa [sighs] 2000.

Are you feeling nostalgic?

[Sighs]

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[Clears throat]

Um, good morning, everyone.

Uh, I know I have never called a meeting before.

I didn't think I could call a meeting,

but apparently, I can, so [chuckles] here we are.

Um, I want to start things off by apologizing.

Yesterday, I was unprepared and in my unreadiness,

I may have caused offense to your time or your sensibilities.

A friend reminded me that I am not a robot,

and as you may or may not know,

that fact isn't always so apparent to me.

This friend also suggested that what this campaign needs

is a human touch --

the human touch of a mother.

Shekinah?

Now, what you see here is a Black boy

dreaming of his mother.

He doesn't need superheroes or knights in shining armor

or false idols,

because he has the strength of a Black woman by his side,

and Space Corps needs that strength because it's --

it's the strongest element in the universe.

So, yeah.

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Still don't like the color...

but good.

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Arnez: So I probably shouldn't be telling you this

because it's Demascus,

but I was the friend who set him straight

on that whole presentation.

I had to sit him down and have a real come to Jesus

about what was expected.

I'll admit, the Mom thing was a nice touch,

and for the most part, I thought his pitch was pretty dope.

Whatever, he's still Demascus.

Yeah. Facts.

[Sighs]

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I don't feel like I'm changing.

I don't think I'm making any progress, you know?

Do you?

Dr. Bonnetville: Why do you say that?

'Cause it -- it seems like I just keep stepping in shit.

I should be, I don't know, figuring this out

or coming to some deeper understanding or whatever.

Well, that's what we're doing right now.

Well, how long is this shit supposed to take?

Focus on the work and not the results.

[Sighs]

"Stepping in shit." Okay.

Say more about that.

I feel like... Demascus: I feel like --

like, um, like there are rules and I know some of them,

and then there are rules that I don't know,

and they're just ever-changing.

You deserve an experience in breaking free.

That might be positive.

Wait, what do you mean, like in D.I.R.T.?

Yeah, that'd be dope,

but didn't you say that I can't steer it?

That it's like shrooms or something?

That's what the company told me, but it is experimental.

Why don't you give it a try?

[Choir singing "Sancta Maria, Mater Dei" by Mozart]

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Oh, alright. My man.

Okay. Good to see you. Hey.

How much I owe you? This isn't for you.

Is -- Is she here?

Yes, she just want upstairs to the Novitiate Room.

She'll be back.

Hey, breathe.

Oh, come on, man.

I have no impure thoughts towards Sister Naomi.

Really?

You should fix that.

Come here.

I, uh, I reserved Study Room 3

for the both of you.

Mm-hmm. For a study session.

Say what? Mm-hmm.

Had to kick those Russian dudes out.

Oh, that's nice.

But, uh, it'll be worth it.

Thank me later.

[Chuckling] You -- You a heathen.

Oh, I know that. I know that.

Hey, Naomi fi-i-i-ne, at least by nun standards.

And bro, look, you ain't even ordained yet.

You can hit it, quit it,

and absolve yourself of your sin.

Think about it.

You looking at a lifetime of chastity.

You could at least get some memories for your spank bank.

You need Jesus, brother.

That's for sure.

And, uh, listen --

I've got plenty in the spank bank, okay?

I've got savings, trust. I got you. I got you.

["Sancta Maria, Mater Dei" continues]

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No impurities? Not a one?

Get thee behind me, Satan. Alright.

Thank you, Mr. Haynes.

Happy Wednesday, Sister Naomi.

Halfway to the weekend.

The Lord made Wednesday as penance for Friday, I swear.

Well, I haven't had a real Friday night in eight years,

so I'll take your word for it, Sister Naomi.

Redd said you wanted to study?

Yes.

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[Chuckling softly]

What's so funny?

I was just thinking about my bank account.

What about it?

Whether I have enough in it

or if I should make another deposit,

and then there's online banking.

I think you should make a deposit...

right now.

Do you need a loan?

I can send you a Schmunny text.

No, it's -- it's fine.

It's fine.

I was just distracted by worldly matters,

and once again, your faith is a beacon unto me, sister.

Ew, Demascus.

Oh, yes.

I know, it's -- it's -- it's bad.

I haven't had a manicure in years.

It's part of my penance.

There are levels to martyrdom.

You remind me of my mother.

She couldn't stand no raggedy-tail cuticles.

Past tense?

She passed, five years ago now.

She's with her Maker now.

I'd like to think so.

Well, your mom and I must be kindred spirits,

'cause I can't stand no raggedy-tail cuticles neither.

["Sancta Maria, Mater Dei" continues]

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[Bells tolling]

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Redd: Hey.

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Where is Naomi?

You didn't get the e-mail?

What e-mail?

Naomi got defrocked.

How?

The Russians.

They snitched.

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Demascus: You should have punished me.

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♪ Try Jesus

♪ Don't try me

♪ 'Cause I throw hands

♪ Oh, He said, "Turn the other cheek" ♪

♪ Oh, but that's one part of the Bible ♪

♪ That just don't sit right with me ♪

♪ So try Jesus

♪ Please don't try me