I admire Star's (Jude Demorest) confidence as a singer — the lady has chops. One thing she apparently doesn't have any skills in is murder. Despite Star insisting otherwise, Otis (Darius McCrary) Simone's (Brittany O'Grady) foster father, is very much alive, and stalking Simone. When Simone thinks she hears his voice downstairs in Carlotta's (Queen Latifah) salon (she does, because he went to apply for a job, like a sociopath) Star tells her to hush. There's fame to be chased.
Jahil (Benjamin Bratt) informs the trio that they moved on to the next round of the radio contest, and now the judges need to see a video of a live performance. Carlotta's hair show is the perfect place — Gladys Knight will be in attendance, and Star is already looking like a "blonde mushroom" in preparation for their homage.
Just when we thought that Star had a singular focus, we realize that she actually is taking Hunter (Chad James Buchanan) up on his boyfriend offer. Though she tells him "No sex before a performance," it doesn't stop the football player from borrowing Star's hair tie, putting his hair in a man bun, and going down on her. Props to Star for letting a woman get hers, but I'm too icked-out by the apparent (though never fully explained) age difference to be into this couple. Plus, Hunter seems like he's all hair, little brain.
Jahil is also slightly off his game, but that's because he's letting the woman he rescued from a human trafficking ring crash on his couch. When Hunter asks about her presence, Jahil tells him he's his brother's daughter. Hunter is Jahil's godson and would probably have met his niece, or at least known of her existence, but... okay.
Gladys — who, as it turns out, is friends with Alex's (Ryan Destiny) dad Roland (Lenny Kravitz) — introduces the group at the hair show, where, as per usual, they slay. Unfortunately, Otis has followed the girls to their performance. Star instructs Simone and Alex to leave, but Otis — in his most disgusting performance to date — grabs Star, gropes her, and demands she take him to Simone. Star gets away, and finally tells Carlotta the truth about why she and Simone came to Atlanta.
Carlotta meets up with Jahil and tells him the whole tragic tale. Jahil thinks on it — hey, that tracks. "Let's go take care of business," Jahil tells Carlotta.
Simone, however, gets to Otis first, Carlotta's gun in hand. Otis — as though reading from the "creepy rapist handbook" — informs Simone that she'll "always belong to [him]." However, before we can see if Simone pulls the trigger, we jump to a new scene. Carlotta informs Alex and Star that Otis is dead. Jahil loads Otis' bloody body (because this time, he's really, truly dead) into the trunk of his car. He then buries the body, as the woman he rescued sits in the passenger's seat. So, this is the definition of "out of the frying pan, into the fire."
We know that Jahil buried Otis' body, but we still need to know just who the heck killed Otis. Was it Cotton (Amiyah Scott)? Alex? Carlotta? In one episode, Star has turned into a game of musical Clue.
Next week: live auditions for the radio contest, and the aftermath of murder. My money is on Cotton as the one who ultimately pulled the trigger.
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