Pose Season 1 Ep. 6 Recap: 'Love Is The Message'

Photo: FX

"I'm sure this isn't the first married man you fucked." Damn Patty. In the home stretch of its freshman season, Pose gives us the inevitable confrontation between Angel and Patty over the former's affair with Stan.

However, while Angel and the other ballroom kids live to create moments of captivating drama, the conversation between the two women plays nothing like a meeting in the ladies' room and everything like a mutual therapy sesssion. Not that there are any tears shed; both Angel and Patty are straightforward with their feelings. Patty confesses she knows her husband is weak. She knows he lies. And she accepts those lies because they allow her to cling to her identity as his wife. Angel responds she has no regrets, but admits she was suffocating under she and Stan's arrangement. "I felt like he wanted to keep like a doll," Angel says, and Patty can relate. When Patty expresses disbelief that Angel is a transsexual, it's a small moment of triumph for her, one dampened when Patty asks her to prove it.

"I'm sorry for what I did to you...but I got boundaries," Angel explains. "If you wanna see who I am, that's the place you should look." After their conversation, Patty doesn't dissolve into hysterics; she gets an HIV test and goes to a therapist for a few sessions before bringing Stan along to inform him: 1) She's leaving, 2) He'll be moving back into the apartment he rented for Angel until she's ready for him to see the kids, and 3) He'll be paying the bills until she secures a job. While she is firm in her decision, Patty's attitude is not one of mocking outrage or chilly indifference. She is both genuinely hurt by Stan's actions and confused by who he chose to carry out those actions with. A blind-sided Stan can give her no explanation for why he's attracted to Angel; however he does try to take his rage out on Matt, tackling him as they throw jabs and tussle on the office floor. Matt sneers that Stan, a wannabe from Jersey, never belonged in his world. "The guy you're pretending to be doesn't exist," he says as Stan's eyes scan the room in embarrasment. Stan has spent this season faking it until he makes it, playing the part of upwardly mobile, freewheeling Manhattanite even if his background and bank account said otherwise. Now that the parts that make up that identity--father, husband, rising star at work--are being stripped from him, he will have to look inside and see who's actually in there. Or, as the final shot of him showing up at Angel's booth suggests, he may forgo introspection for romantic and sexual escapism.

The decision not to treat the fallout of Angel, Stan, Patty's love triangle like a lost episode of Dynasty was a wise one, since it gives the episode's other major story free rein to take up all the feels.
Pray Tell is forced to cope with the impending loss of his boyfriend Costas to AIDS, as well as face the fear he will likely die from the disease himself. Billy Porter has been show stopper all season, but all the previous episodes feel like warm ups for what he brings to "Love Is The Message." He takes Pray Tell to a darker place, slurring his usually pitch perfect ballroom commentary before screaming for another drink and screaming at the DJ to play his song--"Love Is The Message"--for the umpteenth time, much to the chagrin of the younger ballroom kids.

But things truly go left when Blanca and the kids decide to attempt an intervention of sorts. Ricky doesn't help things by declaring his recent music choices wack, though Blanca gently pointing out his increased alcohol take goes over just as bad. Pray cruelly reads the kids then lashes out at her. "I've buried more friends in the last year than any of can count!" he seethes through gritted teeth, visibily fighting back the urge to collapse into himself. It's excruciating to see a man usually so full of life appear broken and defeated; the shot of him stumbling down the hall of Blanca's apartment after his tirade, a shell of himself, is devastating. What Blanca and the kids don't know is "Love Is The Message," is he and Costas' song, one they danced to in the carefree days before AIDS made sex a matter of life and death. "They'll never know that feeling," he sweetly tells Costas. "What it's like to love without worrying that you're gonna die. Or worse, that you're gonna kill somebody."

Pray Tell apologizes to Blanca a few days later, and asks if she'd take part in an AIDS cabaret he's hosting at the hospital for Costas and the other patients. The event is far from the flashy glamour of the ball scene, but it ultimately seeks to serve the same need: to make those who have been forgotten feel like they matter. It's another emotional tour de force for Porter, as he channels Pray Tell's grief and fear into song. Blanca shows up and performs "Home," but starts to freeze when she locks eyes with one of the patients, no doubt realizing she could be sitting in that wheelchair soon. Pray Tell senses her discomfort and turns her solo to a duet. During what will be their last time together, Costas makes Pray Tell promise he'll continue living and loving as long he can. Once the inevitable happens, he does just that, whimsically spreading his boyfriend's ashes in front of fancy stores so he can window shop for eternity, and changing his song from "Love Is The Message" to Miss Ross' "I'm Coming Out," at the next ball. The bitch is officially back.

After doing much of the emotional heavy lifting last week, Blanca gets this week's lightest story line in the form of Darius, a playboy in a Kangol who charmingly wears her down with an endless string of corny lines. But even her joy over a potentially hot date is hampered by her HIV status, as she commiserates with Pray Tell over when she should let her status be known. While Blanca's main focus is being a mother, she is still young and a sexual creature, and it'll be interesting to see how Pose handles this subject going forward. This go around though, Blanca doesn't even make it to the bedroom before Candy, Lulu and the other girls let it be known Darius has blown all their backs out. Deflated but not defeated, she attends Pray Tell's cabaret instead, and later, disses and dismisses Darius with the help of her girls.

True to her character, Blanca's looking for love, and won't accept anything less. Because--I might as well say it--love is the message.

Other Thoughts:

• If certain horn hits from "Love Is The Message," sounded familiar to your ears, it's because the same sample also appeared in Madonna's "Vogue," with both tracks pulling from The Salsoul Orchestra's "Ooh, I Love It (Love Break)."

• Further Proof of How Terrible Attitudes Were Towards HIV/AIDS Patients: Patty's doctor doing her test off the book so she wouldn't get flagged on her insurance. If someone in Patty's position could face discrimination, you could only imagine what Blanca and Pray Tell would have to deal with. 

• While Pose hasn't spent as much time focusing on realness as it relates to its male characters, the short scene of the uber muscular dude queening out when he won first runner up was a nice wink at how much acting is involved in masculinity. 

• "Bye bye brick!" Elektra didn't get much screen time, but that read to Blanca followed by a triple snap from she and her children was more than enough. 

The Shade of It All/Those One Liner's 'Tho:

• "Maybe you should stop selling your booty hole for quarters!"

• "Are you a G-string? No! Then stay out of my ass!"

• "We're trapped in a tired old queen's hell."

• "Did you buy those pants on sale? Because at my house they'd be 100 percent off!"

• "Darius is like a vacation. He doesn't last long enough!"

• "I didn't know Run DMC had a new light-skinned fourth member."