Pose Season 3: Episode 3...
"Did somebody without a hammer say something?"
- Candy
Before we unpack, is no one else interested in the fact that this episode aired on Mother's Day and it centered on motherhood? Not a coincidence. I'm certain of it. Outside of Elizabeth and my Aunt Carroll, (💜💜💜) I can honestly say this would be the first year where I would wish to tell my uterus donor a happy Mother's Day. She's not my mom but ya know, through all this therapy, I've come to an understanding that her bad parenting shaped me more than I understood when I was younger. Without her beating it into us (Sometimes literally) the understanding that no matter what you have to do, whether you hafta cry the whole way there, fight the whole way there or a weird lil mix of both, you should always come out on top, I probably wouldn't be who I am today. She instilled in us that "Whatever it takes mindset". She taught us to grind. She taught us to win. Above all else, she made sure we knew how to outthink, outlast and out survive. It wasn't until therapy that my understanding of this caused me to see my uterus donor in a different light. She's still not allowed to have my number, but yeah, Happy Mother's Day to not her…
To her uterus.
And now...
This was Elecktra's origin story week and I'll be damned if it wasn't a good one. I've always loved Elecktra but now I really, really love Elecktra. She is GOALS. I want one in every color.
I'm getting to where Elecktra is but you know what? I've gotta do more. Nothing should stop my ability to stand tall above the fuck shit of the world. Elecktra said so.
First of all, we find out the Elecktra was already working the piers whilst living at home with her mother. Her mother is a piece of work, that one. Honestly her "acceptance" of Elecktra wasn't real. It came with terms and conditions. That's not love but, even with the terms and conditions, I know so many LGBTQRZTUVWXYZ kids would have gladly settled for their rainbow shining on someone else's terms in order to have a home… And family. Elecktra, on the other hand, had been working those piers to amass a small fortune in silver, jewels and other items. So she wasn't trying to hear all that. She wanted MORE. I dunno where that mindset came from cuz it was obvious her mom did not instill that havingness in her.
After Hell Fire closed its pearly gates, Elecktra opened her own phone sex operation. Wait… wait… If I remember correctly, didn't Rocko work in one of those on Rocko's Modern Life? *nod nod* If I remember correctly, yes, yes he did. Anyway, the cops show up to pluck her from her new stomping grounds. At first, she was holding her own against the cops' thinly veiled good cop bad cop routine, talking about Rudy Giuliani's war on all things sex work (Read as: All things LGBTQRZTUVWXYZ) but suddenly, they mentioned a warrant to her humble abode where, just in case you forgot, is a trunk filled with man soup.
About this trunk…
Remember earlier in the episode when I mentioned that Elecktra had already amassed a small fortune? Well, said fortune was being stored in her trunk, which her mother wouldn't allow her to take with her ol' "If it's in my house, it's mine" looking ass. Uh, no ma'am. That's not how this works. By this point, Elecktra was out there collecting kids like they were baseball cards and she was determined to be a good mother. It was good to see Candy again! (Shout out to Angelica Houston in all her melanated glory) After the arrival of Cubby (😭😭😭), Lamar and Angel, (Blanca, Candy and Lulu were Elecktra's first children) the lights got cut off so Elecktra decided it was time to collect her pre-man souped trunk. Stick a pin in this. Imma swing back to this.
The same trunk, now after man soup, needs to be removed from Elecktra's home, like yesterday. Shit, they were already behind. She called Blanca and after some shady ass mother drenched manipulation tactics, she agreed to go retrieve the trunk with Papi and Ricky in tow. You know what cracked me up? Why did Ricki and Papi think laying on the trunk when the cops were driving by was gonna help anything? It basically screamed “WE’RE GUILTY”
They were able to get the trunk to Blanca’s house where they stored it in Damon’s old room. Welp, Christopher shows up and guess what? He’s a doctor! Apparently, Blanca forgot cuz she seemed super, duper uber very surprised when he “discovered” not only the trunk, but it’s smell. Oh yeah, he knew exactly what was in there. Same as she did with both Ricki and Papi, Blanca broke down the history of the trunk. Upon absorbing her tale, Christopher decides that he would love to become an accessory cuz you know, storyline. *shrugs* By now, Elecktra is outta the slammer and looking ever so gorgeous as ever. I’m glad cuz when that piece of shit cop told her to prove she was a woman after putting her in with the men, I was disgusted. What was she supposed to do? Start waving around her lady bits?!
Back to the pre souped truck… Blanca has a secret. She knows where their very first apartment came from. You see, after the lights got turned out, Elecktra decided it was time to retrieve her finery from her mother’s humble abode. Well, that turned out to be quite the caper because they dropped her brand new air conditioner (Which Elecktra said didn’t exist her entire childhood) on the ground in order to climb through the window at the trunk. As they finally get the trunk down the stairs, Elecktra’s mother hears the commotion and rushes to make sure she hasn’t been broken in on. Well, she’s only partially correct. She’s been infiltrated-adjacent. Ya know, for a split second, it seemed as if Elecktra was gonna fix things with her mother, but her mother just had to utter “tone it down” to which Elecktra let her mother know exactly who she was and that is loud and proud. No one would have ever touched her mother. No one ever touches her. Shit, no one touches her kids either. She is Elecktra, hear her roar. When she looked at her mother and said “Goodbye, Tasha.” I felt that in my toes. She was done for reals.
In real time, Christopher knows exactly where they can finally be rid of after soup trunk. When they go to unload it, it flips over and man soup rolls out. Ricki throws up EVERYWHERE. It was epic! They eventually dump it over the edge with Elecktra looking on in her snowy white fur.
Ya know, even with his help, I dunno how I feel about Christopher. I mean, I wanna trust him, I really do. It’s just… I dunno. He seems too good to be true. I appreciate him getting Elecktra off, I really do. It’s just, again, I dunno.
Either way, after calming her soul about what all Christopher has done because he loves Blanca, we find out Blanca’s in nursing school now. Yay, Blanca! We also find out that Blanca kept the pic of Elecktra and her mother from all those years ago. It was the last thing in the truck after Elecktra sold all her finery to house and cloth the House of Abundance and do you know why? Because they gave her an abundance of many things, mostly love. She didn’t need that trunk anymore and because of this, they went on to slay the Fairytale Ball. Man, it woulda been hard to lose because their competition was so awful, but yeah, they slayed. They deserved all those TENS and however many more they had lying around that building.
I’m glad they did this episode.
I mean, Elecktra has always been one of my faves, but this, this is different. It’s like coming to a place where I understand the mother she is and why she raises her kids as hard as she does. She wants them to thrive. She doesn’t want them to just be surviving and you know what?
I not only respect that, I love her for it.
Later