After seven seasons, the Bourdellon family’s journey has come to an end. Queen Sugar wrapped up Tuesday night with a series finale centered around the importance of family — in all its forms.
Series creator Ava DuVernay wrote the finale, “For They Exist”, and returned to the director’s chair for the first time since helming the pilot and episode two. (Note: the remaining 85 episodes were directed exclusively by other female filmmakers, 41 of them to be exact.)
in miscellaneous A Power of Women cover story celebrating the series’ legacy The Emmy Award-winning and Academy Award-nominated director said she was “thrilled” about booking the series as director and insisted she was “quite satisfied” with The Farewell Ode.
Sitting alongside executive producer Oprah Winfrey, DuVernay explained, “Queen Sugar is the longest commitment I’ve ever had — and we talk about relationships, too — and I’ve done my best every single day.” “In the end, there was no sadness. I was very happy and very proud. It was a very deep relief, something I had never felt before.”
Winfrey spoke to explain why it was a good time to say goodbye: “People never got to a point where people said, ‘Oh, they should have quit two seasons ago…'”
And after watching the super-sized 90-minute episode, it’s easy to see why the pair are thrilled to let the Bordelon family — led by siblings Nova (Rutina Wesley), Ralph Angel (Kofi Siriboe) and Charley (Dawn-Lyen Gardner) — “take a trip” One last time.
Coming to the finale, however, “Queen Sugar” fans had a few questions about how things would end:
- Will Ralph Angel Blue (Ethan Hutchinson) tell the truth about his biological father against Darla’s (Bianca Lawson) wishes?
- Will Violet (Tina Lifford) and Hollywood (Omar J. Dorsey) start babysitting another child (or children) — and win election to the school board?
- Speaking of elections, did Charlie win her bid for Congress? Will Micah (Nicholas L. Ash) start acting right after jeopardizing her campaign with a reckless NFT that depicts the moment she confronts her husband Davis in the middle of an NBA game? (“What have you done?” she cried.)
Will Nova find new, true love now that Dominic is out of the picture? - And most importantly, will the Bourdillons regain their father’s land? (After all…didn’t that Fighting was the core of the plot for these past seven years?)
DuVernay answers some of these questions quickly—the opening scene reveals that Hollywood has become “St. Joe’s new, prettier, prettier” board member—and others are shocking. In a twist, Charlie loses the election, but reconnects with Micah and they find common ground before he steps down on Xavier to take a job at LEAP (a relationship with DuVernay and Array’s real-life Social Justice Initiative).
Some of the answers are thinly framed — a loyal Hollywood eventually became adoptive parents to a 10-year-old girl named Paulie (whose name DuVernay revealed, a reference to her longtime producing partner Paul Garnes) — while others point to “Queen Sugar”‘s off-screen influence. Kevin Richardson, one of the five exonerateds portrayed in DuVernay’s When They See Us, plays a farmer in the episode’s pivotal auction scene, while the Bordelons and the Black Farms co-op try to reclaim their land from Landry.
But the real magic came thanks to the ace DuVernay had up her sleeve: the poignant return of patriarch Ernest Bourdelon, played by Glenn Turman.
“Thank you to the great Glenn Turman back for helping us finish our story,” DuVernay tweeted, as the episode aired. “Only a great actor like Glenn could have portrayed the character ‘Ernest Bourdlon’, who has loomed large in every character’s life for seven seasons.”
Ernest certainly loomed large throughout the episode, appearing in a series of flashbacks to share the wisdom from beyond the grave, as he worked his children through the trials and tribulations of their relationships and lives. It’s the Bordelons’ surrogate uncle, Prosper Denton (Henry G. Sanders), who conjures him up first, while Ralph encourages Angel to fight for his marriage to Darla after they hit a rough patch over his decision to tell Blue part of the truth about his biological father. As a result, Darla decides to leave him, taking their daughter, True, to her mother’s house in Washington, D.C
“I’ve done my best with you kids. I’ve tried to be there in ways Ernest can’t stop more, but I’ve failed in not sharing enough with you…the things he said to me that might all help you,” Prosper says, as the scene changes to a conversation from the years before “Queen Sugar” began, with Ernest worrying about Ralph Angel’s wayward life.
“He could have done so much more with this land, and taken it further than I do, if he had just given in,” said Ernest. “I hope he does it better. I’m not talking about the crop… If Ralph Angel comes back to Earth, I hope he doesn’t end up alone. Not the same without family. Land without love, means nothing.”
Back in the present, Prosper translates Ernest’s meaning, and Ralph promises Angel that his father will be proud of how far he has come. “He wants you to keep doing what you’re doing with the land — working on it, growing it and fighting for it,” says Prosper. “He also wanted you to have love over her, and to have a family over her. He knew that was the most important thing.”
Later, when Nova wonders why so many people from her past have returned to her life lately, Prosper brings up another memory from his wife’s funeral when Ernest comes to console him. On that day, the two men reflect on their lost love and their fears for their daughters Nova and Billy (Tammy Townsend).
“When Trudy and I finally broke up the last time, she said to me, ‘Ernest, love runs its way, just like a river. You can’t force it or make it get your way. If you’re smart, you’ll flow with it,” Ernest shared. “Our daughters will be wise one day, too, when they understand that no matter how love comes—rich, poor, man, woman, black, white, here or hereafter—it flows its own way. And they have to flow with it.”
DuVernay’s shots and cinematographer Antonio Calvacci’s eye-catching series of faces of Turman, Siriboe, and Wesley capture the weight of Ernest’s words and their impact on decisions to come.
Nova’s final chapter began responding to the pilot, with DuVernay training the camera on the character’s post-coital state. Yes, Nova is back in between the sheets with Calvin (Greg Vaughan) after trying late at night… again. But while she’s technically in the same situation the audience met her in the opening frames of the series, Nova is in the process of becoming a different woman. She focused on recovering her spirituality and discovering herself.
“I was very detached from the way I used to be,” Nova admits. Calvin replies, “I don’t think he left you.” “It is a deep part of who you are. You will find it.” And by the end of the episode, Nova did.
While vacating her mother’s family home, Nova is surprised to learn that Trudy and her late Aunt Martha bequeathed the house and church to her. Just handing her mother’s keys leaves her shuddering in amazement. It was then that she realized that they were opening a door in the house that she had not previously been able to open.
“My whole life, I wanted to have this feeling,” Nova says, choking back tears, as the sun streams into the unlocked room. “Not outside of me, inside. Inside, I finally feel it. I’m home.”
With that, Nova finally commits herself: to her life, to the home, to her community and her man, admitting that she has always loved Calvin. “I tried to hide it. To ignore it. Second-guess it. I fought it. I cursed it. I did everything for it, but I accepted it unconditionally,” she tells him. “No ideas of what it ought to be or could be or what other people will say or think. I never let it go, just go with the flow of it. To let us flow.”
So, that leaves just Ralph Angel’s quest to restore the Bordelon cane fields.
After raising $750,000, it looked like Ralph Angell and the Black Farmers Co-op were poised to win the auction for Landry’s property. Tensions run high as the bidding war heats up higher and higher, until Remy Newell (Dondrey Whitfield), making his first appearance since Season 4, steps in to save the day with a $1 million bid (on behalf of his management at Texas Valley A&M). But, just then, Jacob Boudreau (Lea Cuoco) shows up and outsmarts him with $1.1 million. The look of devastation on Ralph Angel’s face says it all – it’s over.
Well, not so fast.
In the final minutes of the episode, Boudreaux surprises Sam Landry (David Jensen) – and the audience – by revealing that he’s been working with the Bordelons and collaborating all along. Remy’s offer was a hoax and that look on Ralph Angel’s face was actually a sigh of great relief.
“I lost Sam. That’s right, it’s over now. But by the looks of that big old stately house, you’ll be all right. You see, you and your kind, have been stealing from my people for generations. It’s a great start, don’t you think? But we have something you’ll never have.” – Because we have love. We have each other. We got our land back.”
In an absolute stroke of genius from DuVernay and the “Queen Sugar” creative team, God’s Property and Kirk Franklin’s gospel classic “The Storm is Over Now” play in the background as Siriboe delivers this closing monologue.
Her lyrics — “It’s over now / It’s over now / I feel like I can make it through / The storm is over now” – couldn’t be more appropriate to say goodbye to a family that has survived every storm imaginable, both forces of nature (like season one’s hurricane) and man-made hurricane (The long battle between the Bordelons and Landrys).
The final montage shows Ernest—technically, his spirit—watching over every member of his bloodline. First, he visits a pregnant Nova, sitting on her mother’s renovated porch with Calvin. He then looks at Charlie and Davis sharing a smile over breakfast. He sees Micah thriving in his leadership role at LEAP. Via, Hollywood and their foster daughter Paulie adjust to life as a family of three. And perhaps most tearjerkingly – Ernest cane-walking alongside Ralph Angel and Blue, while sharing another heart-to-heart between father and son, which is what the show is famous for. (The scene is also a nod to the last time these three men shared a frame, on Ernest’s death bed — which Winfrey said diverse is one of her all-time favorite moments from the series).
As Ralph Angel heads toward his beloved childhood home to help Darla care for Blue and their daughter True, he throws one last look over his shoulder and gazes out at the fields his father dedicated his life to, just part of the legacy for him and his sisters to move forward. Unbeknownst to him, Ernest was staring back.
His gaze explores the house, the earth, and everything on it, and with the tip of his hat toward the next generation of Bordelons, Ernest turns and walks deeply into the cane, as the chant ends and the screen fades to black. DuVernay’s dedication fills the frame: “To my father, Murray May.”
It’s the final grace note in the coda that has hit home all the “Sugar Queen” has acted since her 2016 debut. It’s the rare drama that centers around the everyday lives of ordinary blacks and the opulence, complexity, and sometimes mundane of their lives. He spoke to an underserved audience who enthusiastically tweeted week after week, with #QueenSugar trending at #1 for the finale. By hiring 42 women to direct its episodes (39 of their first episodic television jobs), he has the potential to change the television industry.
At the end of a virtual finale viewing party presented by OWN, in association with Black Restaurant Week, and attended by select cast, crew and journalists, Winfrey appeared on Zoom to thank everyone for their participation and dedication to the show.
“It’s been one of the greatest joys of my life being a part of this series,” Winfrey sighed. “What are we going to do on Tuesday nights without ‘sugar?'” “
It’s a great question.
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