Original subtitles

Dorothy Danridge Davenport has faithfully served this campus longer

than y'all been alive.

Put some respect on her name. And then suddenly she resigns? Because some

freshman is out here smearing her? Deborah Wayne is an obnoxious, entitled

bitch. Deborah Wayne deserves a medal for ending dictator Davenport's reign.

Our human legacy is bigger than the sins of one messy boots person.

Hillman lost her grip in federal funding, but that money wasn't even for

scholarship. Mm-mm.

The math ain't math, then. Little Deborah Wayne.

It's a plant. Y'all, who named their child Deborah anyway?

How hard is it to pronounce Deborah?

Once again, I'm being thrown under the bus.

Well, you didn't have to call out Davenport like that in front of

everybody. I mean, I wouldn't have, but some of us were just raised different. I

was trying to help you, Rashida.

Look, I know you were trying to be on the lookout, but your help isn't very

helpful, sis.

Now you got everybody all up in my financials.

I didn't think about it that way.

Sorry.

Okay. All right. So done. Now what?

See how helpful that was.

So I don't need these or.

It's a different world than where you come from.

Five Star finally showed up. Coach, man, let me know something.

Tomorrow, first game.

I'm starting away.

Okay, like I told your pops every time he called this week, if you hadn't

missed camp, there'd be no question.

But it's going to be a game-time decision between you and Andre.

Because just like they used to say in the league, 100%! Let me ask you, how

long are you planning on being there before you jump in the transfer portal?

Coach, we talked about this already. I told you. This is where I want to be.

I'm here at Hillman Estate.

That's good to know.

Because that portal and the men in the aisle checks got you out thinking the

game ain't the game.

Hit me once, son.

No man is above the team.

All right?

Good job out there. Let's go.

In five generations of Gilbert legacies, you are the only one to ever make our

school look bad. Ma.

Since our institutions are held to a higher standard, this damn story won't

die. And you're the face of it.

Sit. We've got big news.

Oh, God. I've

prepped for this scenario with Dr. Pazder, but this is all my fault.

Rip the bandage off. You're getting a divorce.

What? You're getting a divorce. No, listen to me. Listen to me. This thing

between your mother and I, it's not your fault.

Oh, well, it's kind of her fault. Whitney.

Anywho, back to our news.

Yes, please.

Um, welcome to my new office because the board has named me

interim president.

And I'm first lady.

Who would have thought?

Uh, Debo, you good?

Yeah. Half of Hillman and all the black people left on Twitter are already

coming for me, and now, yeah, they're really gonna hate me. Thanks.

DeBoer, this is bigger than your 15 minutes of infamy.

This is about the longevity of this great institution.

This is your final warning.

I need you to put your head down and focus on why you are actually at Hillman

or else you will be back in Connecticut on house arrest.

What y'all got going on, man?

You the first one?

Andre, bro, I ain't with all these goofy-ass pranks. Where my clothes at,

man? Andre.

Can I at least get my drug?

Hey, pretty eye.

Can I borrow your towel?

Let me hold it for a minute.

So,

the

question is, in a world lacking love, who have we

become?

Sociopaths. Oh.

Oh. Well, Mr. Rodale is not wrong.

Love is the heartbeat of liberation.

Love is what keeps us human in the face of domination.

That's why everything from your dating apps to your TikTok algorithms are

designed to keep us empathetically disconnected.

So it's not just oppressive systems that damage our capacity to love?

No, no, no, no, not at all. And hooks takes us even further.

You'll get it back. Chill. No, she didn't. She even says boys are trained

into patriarchy so young it severs them from love completely.

Yeah, well, I'm severed indeed.

Okay, okay.

What stands opposite patriarchy?

Deborah.

Uh, patriarchy...

Beyonce.

Yes.

Feminism. Hooks frames it as a way to free everybody from patriarchy's prison.

A prison? My father led her home just like the Bible teaches, and our house

was full of love. This girl quotes scripture in her sleep, I swear.

I think she touched by an angel.

I'm compelled to agree with my sister in Christ here.

Men are not always to blame, despite what third-wave feminists would have us

believe. Okay.

See? Hooks doesn't blame men, but the system of patriarchy as a whole. It is

our job to write a new script, but this is exactly the tension that Hooks

lives in. So, for your oral presentations, it is your job to answer

the question, if we don't learn to love each other, can we still make a

difference today?

Sayonara, my little earthlings.

Come here, my little moonbeam. Uh-oh.

Talk to me.

Is this convocation stuff throwing you off? Yes.

If I don't get my academia on, Warden Whitley is going to come for me.

I just don't understand how I'm supposed to focus on school while the entire

world is dragging me. Oh, baby. Some extra study time with my student

assistant might help.

Ellington?

I mean, sounds good.

Ellington, this is my moonbeam and a very promising student.

I'm familiar.

Calling out President Davenport was tough.

Pleasure, DeBoer.

Pleasure.

Oh, excuse me, you two. The work never ends.

So, uh, I need all the help I can get.

Say less.

My office hours are tomorrow afternoon.

Tomorrow afternoon?

During the football game? Best time to study. The library.

is actually quiet. Got it, got it. But it's my friend's first game, and I

really can't miss it, so maybe we can find another time.

Okay. It's your grade, not mine.

Rashida.

Bye.

As much as I believe in a cooperative society... You can't keep snatching your

classmates' text.

I know, but the grant money I lost was partly for books.

But I'll figure it out, though.

It's fine.

Honor that frequency, sister.

And I will look into this grant situation with the provost. Okay?

Okay. Thanks.

Let's go.

What it do, Nelly? How you doing? Well, butter my behind and call me a biscuit

if it isn't Mr. Five Star.

You got something back there for Team Captain Andre? I sure do.

All right, baby.

That'll be $345.86.

They ain't pay? You think I like quote numbers for my health? Now don't play

with my money.

Come on, baby.

Yes, ma'am. You got tap.

Oh, just a girl I wanted to see.

As promised.

Two tickets.

You sure you want me there right now, though? I'm kind of, uh, public enemy

number one.

Nah, you my good luck charm. I need you there.

Come on. I'll be there. Promise.

I'll see you later. Bye.

Bye.

Baby, wait.

Nelly. You want your usual order today?

Yes, please.

Oh, Lord. I'll get your order right to you. I'm gonna pull you down.

So give me a minute. Yeah, all right. For sure.

Sis, you think you could put in a good word for me with Nellie so I could start

slinging hush puppies part-time?

Slinging hush puppies?

I basically ran my parents' corner store, okay? I got this.

Wait, so you'd rather work at the pit than take me up on my offer to float

you?

Honey, if I needed a sugar daddy, it wouldn't be you.

Y'all really did y'all big one in here.

Kind of offensive considering I'm still unhoused, but go off. Look, we've been

ordering so much, I'm pretty sure Amazon's about to make me a brand

ambassador. You?

Yeah. Nah.

Maybe Shaquille considering he spent all his NIL money on this room.

Look, that's all about to change because I'm about to be laughing to the bank

selling these at the game tomorrow.

Introducing Chop Life's limited edition drop, the Five Star Tea.

Okay, does Shaquille know about this?

Yeah, don't tell me. I don't need to know, because it's giving cease and

desist. Okay.

Hillman College, make some noise for your Falcons!

Five Star!

Five Star! Five Star! Five Star!

Five Star! Five Star! Five Star! Five Star! Five Star!

Five Star! Five Star!

Five Star!

That was pretty cool, huh?

Come on, now. You here.

That's awesome.

I made my decision.

I know you did. Mm-hmm.

Shaquille. Yeah.

Sit your heartthrob ass down.

Tills down.

Coach. You're up.

Hey, on me. Let's go.

I mean, Tinsdale is out there struggling. I don't know what Coach is

thinking, not starting our boy Shaquille.

Boy, he's a home man.

He's all we came here for. Hold on, hold on. Andre just locked the one.

Oh, that's a dime.

Ladies and gentlemen, listen, we've got these top-of-the-line, five-star-by-top

-life T-shirts. Get them for their guns.

Limited edition, 20 a pop. Yeah, that's American dollars. No pounds up in here.

Cash app, Zelle, Venmo.

We also take pounds. We do take pounds. No, we don't. No, we don't. Don't listen

to them.

Since when does Nelly have employees that are this fine? I just got hired.

Plus, I need some extra green for my textbooks.

I low-key got caught out of social movements.

On your grind.

That's why I feed materials.

How many kids do you have? Boy, stop it. I smell like fish grease. Oh, fish and

chips are my favorite.

That's nasty.

No, but for real, I am proper proud of you.

Thank you, but I better go.

Can't get fired on my first day.

Yo,

listen, I don't got no money, but I got some money.

All right.

What the hell do you think this is? Am I running a non-profit?

Oh, stop it. Absolutely not.

How much you got on it? I know y'all ain't bootlegging.

Oh. Oh, hell no. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. That's 12. I cannot catch a case. No, I

only see two. I'm out. I only see two. What, we're running? Where are we

running?

3-38.

Put Shaquille in, coward.

What is she saying?

Excuse me.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

These drug alumni.

They're getting real loose with their wallets. I mean, the tips are giving.

Oh, and Nellie asked me to cover her breakfast shift tomorrow.

Because naturally, I'm already her star employee. I know that's right. I mean,

it's a good thing that I finished my social movements assignment last night.

Same. As triggering as that assignment was for me, bell hooks made me realize

that I wanted to inspire other girls like me to let their love flags fly.

No, no, no. Hold on. Hold on. You both finished Professor Brooks' assignment

already. The girl does do Monday. You haven't? What are you even doing here?

It's not even second quarter yet. I haven't seen Shaquille play.

What's more important?

Your GPA?

Or your situation shit?

Right.

You don't think boo-boo sauce run over here, do you?

No, man.

Don't think they got security cameras?

They're selling T-shirts.

Look, what if they take facial recognition?

That don't work on black people.

Rav, are you good?

Um... Look, I told y'all I deferred my acceptance a year.

Yeah. That's why my housing fell through with the shortage.

I... I spent a year in juvie.

Sorry, what?

Look, I was at the wrong place at the wrong time, and now if I get in any

serious trouble, it gets reported to my probation officer.

but I had to transfer my supervision to come down here, and this new P.O. is

already on my ass.

Damn.

I'm sorry, that is... That's heavy.

Yeah.

Hey!

Come on, y'all!

What we doing?

Come on, baby, what we doing?

Everybody need to lock in. I can't get no pass without no protection.

Let's go.

He do all that. The team is only as good as his quarterback.

Right now, I was playing like ass.

Trash. You got something to say?

Huh? No, I'm saying if I was the one out there playing, that scoreboard would

look a whole lot different.

You know, you throw one more pick to that Dominion DB, I swear y'all go

together real bad. I'm talking about holding hands, skipping and everything.

So you said if he was playing, no.

Remember, you on the bench, freshman.

You know, that's your problem, bro. You always worried about where I'm at. You

need to be worried about where your receiver's at.

That's why Coach Carlos brought me in, because you ain't handling business.

Here's the thing, superstar.

Well, you know the problem is, you just sad because mommy and daddy can't see

you play, huh?

Huh?

Yo, chill, chill.

What's going on in there?

Huh?

Tension in here thicker than Fantasia.

Who had a thing with back in the day?

What?

Dre.

What's wrong, son?

Dre, you okay? Yeah, I'm good, Coach.

What happened?

Somebody better talk to me. Nobody got nothing to say.

Don't nobody know nothing.

Oh, foosball game over already?

Nope.

Just realizing I need to get my priorities straight. I hear that. So,

what are you struggling with?

What I'm not struggling with might be an easier one to answer.

I haven't taken a single note.

in my aunt's class, and it's not that I don't care. I take my laptop out to take

notes, and my mind just wanders, and I wish I could blame Davenport Gate, but

the truth is, I've been like this since high school. I barely graduated, and if

it wasn't for my creative portfolio, I probably wouldn't have even gotten into

Tisch. I mean, honestly, I'm shocked that I even got into Hillman. I just

feel broken.

Sorry, whoa.

That was a lot.

When I was in high school, my grades were trash.

It was like my brain didn't work the way it was supposed to. Everybody was ready

to give up on me.

But my uncle, he recognized what was really going on, and long story short, I

got diagnosed with dyslexia. Damn.

Are you okay?

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

You know, I had to figure out some tricks to deal with it.

Do you know the parking lot technique?

You mean like, like sex in public?

No. No. No.

Look, when you're studying, okay, write down every distracting thought that

comes into your head and come back to it later.

Oh, the Pomodoro method's also great.

And my favorite, color coding. Color coding. I write all my notes in

different colors.

Thank you. Thank you, Ellington.

Should we get into it? Absolutely.

How you doing?

What are you doing here?

It's way past curfew.

Oh, I took a selfie with the girl at the front desk.

She making me a key card right now as we speak.

Customer service, her is immaculate.

Nah, but I can't even see you.

Did you see that second half?

247 passing yards, 60 rushing, four touchdowns, overtime. I may have bailed

at halftime.

I had to meet up with my tutor. We're trying to pull this assignment together

in time.

I'm sorry.

Nah, it's cool.

All good.

If I'm being honest, I'm kind of glad you missed it.

I mean, it's not exactly how I imagined starting my college career.

Oh, okay.

Today felt like being back at home at the family store.

I mean, weekends were always busy, but we got through it together.

My granddaddy treated all his employees like they were family. You hear me?

And you're a part of that now, too.

Now, could you please grab that mop and wax the floors?

Okay. Thank you.

Guess what?

I sold out my entire drop and got you a little surprise.

Mm-hmm.

My social movements book?

No.

I'm not charity, Kojo.

Listen, this ain't got nothing to do with charity yet.

I'm trying to hit... Boy, shut it up.

If men were socialized to desire love as much as they were taught to desire sex,

we'd see a cultural revolution.

Bell hooks.

So, in other words, if you think that I'm that easy...

Guess again.

I just want to do well here.

It's all the trolls trolling.

Look, but they wrong though.

You gotta show them who you are, alright?

And use your words, not your fists like me.

I can't. No, you can't. I don't know.

Nah, you better when you know.

Can I stay?

Like all the time?

You're so damn big.

What, what?

That's my good wig.

Banging on the door like.

What's up? What's up, Coach?

What's up?

Damn, son.

Dirty as hell in here.

It don't matter. If you keep playing the way you did in the second half on

Saturday, you're going to be the league's next, well, me.

I take it. I appreciate that, Coach. Yeah, yeah.

Listen, Andre, you're going to be out several weeks.

Crack your wrist.

Weeks? Yeah.

Anything I need to know here, Shaquille?

Well, then, congrats.

You're our new starting quarterback.

I'll see you tomorrow, all right?

All right. I'm there.

And, uh, crack a window.

Smell like underachievement and shame in there.

My book, as promised.

And as I promised, I looked into the grant situation.

Unfortunately, the school isn't in a position to restore the balances.

However, I pulled some strings in my department, and we are awarding you with

a stipend scholarship to cover the grant you lost.

Oh!

Professor! Yes!

Thank you!

Oh! You are welcome.

Hey, hey, hey.

Okay, earthlings, we have a lot of presentations to get through. So let's

dive right in.

Devorah, you kick us off.

Okay.

All right.

So, according to bell hooks, lovelessness is a symptom of a culture

of denomination.

And so I guess the question is, as Ashanti once pondered, what's love got

to do with it?

Bruh, isn't that Tina Turner? Right? Hey, hey, hey. I love that song.

Okay, okay.

Hooks did not excavate the truths of our time to hear them mumbled.

Put those cards down.

Take your time and speak from your soul.

Okay.

Like, I'll be real.

When I first got this assignment, it felt... inaccessible.

But then I'm scrolling last night and I see this video of this kid getting

jumped on the Metro and I watched all of it then just

Kept scrolling and I realized um for the first time just how

numb I've been My whole life

So so I guess that's the point right of this assignment when

we can't feel we stop resisting we become complicit

or or on the other end of things completely we

attack and pile on

but hook says love is action

And I know a lot of folks have a lot of opinions about my choice

to call out President Davenport at convocation. Say what you will, at least

I felt something.

And I had to act on it.

So, call me whatever you want.

Plant?

Nepo baby.

Entitled. Just don't call me Deborah.

Dang, dang, dang, dang, dang.

All right, now. I always believed in you. I'm proud of you, girl.

I'm proud of you, homie.

Okay, I'm not saying I was wrong, but I may have spoken too soon about Debra

Wayne. If these rumors are true about President Davenport, it's giving six

-part true crime docuseries.

It's like Debra said, where's the money? Okay, y'all.

LaDebbie was right. My homegirl working financial aid and with Jarquita.

What my homegirl had told me is this is bigger than government cuts.

The streets is saying Davenport was low-key embezzling.

Is this true?

Well, it's not exactly embezzling per se, but it has become clear that

Davenport was mismanaging funds.

Yeah.

And with the federal cuts, Hillman is in the red to the tune of $100 million.

What? Yeah.

If we don't get major donors to fill the gaps, I don't know how Hillman's gonna

survive.

This is crazy.

This is crazy.

player give me some brew and I might just chill but I'm the type to like the

light another joint like cypress hill I still do be spit loogies when I puff on

it I got some bucks on it but it ain't enough on it go get the s-t-i-d-e-s

nevertheless I'm hella fresh rolling joints like a cigarette so pass it

across the table like ping pong I'm gone beating my chest like king kong and some

wrap my lips around the phone and when it comes to getting another stogie fools

all kick in like shinobi

homie to begin with it's too many hands to be probably let my friend hit bit

unless you pull out the fat crispy five dollar bill on the real before was

history

Cause who's be havin' them vacuum lungs? And if you let them in, they'll be free,

you hella dumb. I come to school with a tailor on my earlobe. Before they know

the thick teasers, geezers, and weirdos. Got me throwin' off the land like where

the bomb at. Give me two bucks, you take a puff and pass my bomb back.

Suck up the dank like a Slurpee. The serious bomb will make a nigga go

delirious like Eddie Murphy.

I got more going pains than Maggie.

Cause homie snagged me to take the dank out of the bag.

I got five on it.

I got five on it.